Since 2007 I’ve acitively been correlating all of the ghost stories and haunted places in Aspen, Colorado. While I reserve many of the best of these stories for guests on Aspen’s DarkSide Ghost Tour, I will shed some light here of the most haunted places I’ve discovered in Aspen, Colorado.
The Hotel Jerome tops the list for the most haunted building in Aspen. Which shouldn’t be too much of a surprise as it’s been in constant use since it was built in 1889 during the height of Aspen’s Silver Boom and has seen plenty of lively activity as well as death and tragedy associated with it. The current hotel management however prefers employees to keep mum about the nightly spirits as not to dampen their 4 Star Hotel business. I don’t think the dead care either way and will continue on with their actively wether they are promoted and acknowledged by staff or not. Some staff my find it easiest to just try to ignore them but the incidents may only increase. Take for example the spirit of a former maid that is constantly rearranging the bedding and furniture to her former standards. Seen as an apparition on multiple occasions the spirit maid of the Jerome sometimes can’t be ignored. Other well known spirits that haunt the halls of the Jerome are the lost boy whom drowned in the old hotel pool and is searching the hallways for his family ever since. Known as the Water Boy as he’s dripping wet and often the only evidence left in this world of his presence are wet spots that just appear throughout the Hotel.
The Red Onion also tops the list of the most haunted spot in Aspen. Plenty of mayhem has happened in these walls and only some is remembered by those involved. From exaggerated tales are told from plans by the inebriated crew of the 1950’s of digging tunnels to dispense with the deposits of a neighboring bank to the tale of the cowboy riding his horse into the bar ordering a shot and catching his horses deposit with a quickly placed hat and finishing the shot and riding out without missing a beat. Things get a little gritty in the 1970’s with the brutal stabbing of Billy Joe Richards by William Doyle Dean in the kitchen over a heated argument which leaves Billy Joe caught in this world and haunting the Red Onion and those that work there now. The ghost of the little girl is a bit of a mystery for me today but I keep putting the clues together and will soon have her whole story to tell but those that have seen her attest that she is a very old soul.
The Ute Cemetery is one spot I myself get the creeps during nightfall. While during the day most many may assume it’s just a casual hike thought the brush they may be surprised to find a few graves stones popping up among the overgrowth they will be more surprised by the greater number of burials that are no longer marked and are all but lost to memory. This is a bit more of a feeling of connecting to the departed souls to me than anywhere else.
Have you ever experienced something supernatural in Aspen? Let me know.