By Dara Barnwell
In the Ozark mountains of Arkansas, high up on a hill, stands sentinel the Grand Old Lady of the Ozarks: The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa.
My husband, Tillman, and I visited this luxurious gothic location in February 2019 to celebrate our engagement (Yay! Cue champagne corks popping!) And then again when we got married the following year. What drew us there, you ask? Well we’re a bit different. Think of us a little like Gomez and Morticia Addams. If it’s spooky, weird, creepy, or Halloweenish we are THERE and the Crescent is reported to be one of the most haunted hotels in the Ozarks and it has a morgue!
The Crescent opened as a grand hotel that drew in the wealthy who were interested in the reported healing properties of the waters in Eureka Springs. In its time it was not only a hotel but also a women’s college and a cancer treatment hospital for a con man and quack.
During its construction Irish stone masons were hired to hand carve the limestone that it was made from. One of the masons, Michael, fell to his death during the construction. Legend has it that he haunts room 218 and is very fond of the lasses. Female guests have reported having their hair touched. Male guests have reported being poked, pinched, and even pushed in room 218.
Most of the ghosts that allegedly haunt the Crescent came from the time that “Dr.” Norman Baker owned the hotel. He was a con man that advertised that he had the cure for cancer. Desperate people paid him exorbitant amounts of money to heal them but it was all for naught. He developed an “elixir” that he would inject into patients. The elixir consisted of carbolic acid, crushed watermelon seeds, corn silk, water, and glycerin. The injections were excruciating and of course didn’t cure anyone of anything. If a patient’s screams became to loud they were moved to the “pain asylum”. A group of rooms behind heavy steel doors far from other patients and their benefactors. There, they could scream and cry in desperation to their hearts content.
Charlatan he was, but he was no dummy. Baker would never let the patient’s family visit saying that it would disrupt their treatments and cause them to backslide. When the patient would inevitably die, they were discreetly taken to the morgue in the dead of night where Baker would perform autopsies on them, sometimes even saving various parts in a preservative and put on a shelf.
It all caught up to him though and he was finally apprehended and imprisoned. However, his victims still haunt the rooms and hallways of the Crescent.
And guess who accidentally booked a haunted hotel room? You guessed it! We did. I had no idea before hand that the jacuzzi room I booked was previously a part of the pain asylum but we found out on the tour that night and then later we did a little investigation in our room that proved to be rather interesting.
When we got back to our room we sat down and started talking about what we learned. Allegedly, there was a spirit sighted in our room of a woman with only half a face. So, we decided to talk to the room at large and see if anything came up on video of photos. While, we didn’t see anything with our naked eyes we did see something zooming around the room on our phone cameras. Every time I snapped a picture it wasn’t there, however, you could clearly see it moving on Tillman’s phone. (Iphone 7 on live photos. It was 2019! Sue me!) Was it dust? A weird albino fly? A spirit? We have no idea but it made the visit even more interesting!
In 2020 (before the pandemic hit the US hardcore) we eloped to Eureka Springs and stayed in a suite at the Crescent for our honeymoon. Turned out it used to be Norman Baker’s office. It was a gorgeous suite with a beautiful view from on top of the mountain looking over the picturesque village of Eureka Springs. We again took the ghost tour. After our last tour local archeologists found a dump site on the hotel grounds that dated back to the cancer hospital itself. It was extremely creepy to see his specimens.
Despite not seeing any ghosts the rooms were great, the food was awesome, and the service was fantastic! If you ever get a chance to visit Eureka Springs, definitely stop by The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa. You will be glad you did!
©2023 Dara Barnwell
Eerie Rift 