1886 Crescent Hotel

Arkansas · USA · Hotel

The quack Norman Baker's fake cancer clinic, with a morgue, a corpse cooler and ghostly nurses.

The Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, built in 1886, is often called the most haunted hotel in America. It was raised as a luxury resort for wealthy travellers, but its dark reputation rests on a later era.

In 1937 the hotel was bought by Norman Baker, a charismatic but fraudulent figure with no medical training, who had already been driven out of his home state of Iowa. He turned the hotel into the Baker Cancer Clinic and claimed to have the cure for cancer. One of his treatments consisted of drilling holes in patients' skulls and injecting a mixture of spring water, corn silk, carbolic acid and ground watermelon seeds. In 1940 Baker was arrested and imprisoned for mail fraud.

An archaeological excavation has since uncovered hundreds of bottles of Baker's secret formula and jars of surgical specimens taken from patients. Part of the macabre atmosphere is a morgue from Baker's time, with an autopsy table and a cold chamber for bodies.

Over the past 25 years the Crescent has gained a reputation as the most haunted hotel in America, featured in seventeen national and international paranormal television programmes. Guests describe ghostly nurses pushing gurneys, apparitions of former patients, strange lights drifting through the corridors and footsteps echoing in empty rooms. Today the hotel welcomes both ordinary guests and ghost hunters.

Source: crescent-hotel.com + Smithsonian Magazine + usghostadventures.com + Atlas Obscura

FAQ

Hvor ligger 1886 Crescent Hotel?

1886 Crescent Hotel ligger i Arkansas, USA.