At first sight, a mountain resort is actually not the best place for ghosts. But if you consider that fact that most of the winter ski resorts are built in that places where previously some horrible and frightening stories happened - then a presence of an unholy soul is quite imaginary. In New England, for example, there are lots of stories about ghosts and these stories and the ghost visions have left their traces in forests and villages located near the resort area.
The Mount Washington hotel, located in the ski zone Breton Woods in New Hampshire is well-known for many years for it’s ghosts. They say, that the ghost of Caroline Stickney, the wife of the person that built this hotel still dwells in the tower suite. The ghost leaves inscriptions on the walls and periodically switches on and off the lights. Before this could be noticed only in summer but now, when the hotel is open during the whole year, the winter visitors also tell about the encounters with the “princess”. This title was assigned to Caroline when she was still alive and got married a French prince Aimon Fossine-Lussine again after the death of the husband. The hotel has rich history - here in the year 1944 the world currencies conference has been held, so you can see sometimes a group of diplomats crowded around the huge stone fireplace, discussing their economic problems.
The ghost stories surround most of the Vermont hotels. In the Stove village, the visitors of the Brass Lantern Inn tell about curious actions of the ghosts. In the Gren Mountain Inn they tell about a ghost tap-dancer on the third floor that dances during the snow storms.
In the Equinox hotel in Manchester that is located near the Stratton resort, likes to stay Mary Todd Lincoln with her children. There are rumors that this place has remained beloved even after her death. At the neighboring Wilmington resort Mount Snow in the White House Inn dwells the ghost of Claire Brown, wife of the baron that built this house.
In the West, the ghosts terrify not only the famous hotels but also numerous towns abandoned by the miners and cowboys in the past century.
On the giant slopes of the Hud Mountain, at the Timberline resort, there is a luxury hotel Timberline Lodge. This hotel has been built in the great depression times and is known as one of the most beautiful wooden constructions of his time. It’s unusual village style makes it to a frequent movie scenery. Exactly this hotel appeared in the Jack Nickolson movie “Shining”. After they watched this movie, most of the hotel guests said that they have seen the ghost wandering along the corridors squeezing an axe in his transparent hand or the white shadow hiding in the bushes.
The hotel that inspired Steven King for the creation of this novel has the name of Hoten Standley and is located in Estes Park, near the national Rocky Mountains park. The hotel is very proud about their connection with “Shining”. Near the hotel, there is a small pet cemetery that inspired Steven King for another novel named “Pet Sematary”.
In Breckenridge, Colorado, according to the rumors, there is a ghost named Sylvia. She was a wife of a miner that lived in a pansion located at the place where now the popular restaurant “Gold Dredge”. However, there is another version that tells that Sylvia was one of the women of the best town brothel located directly at the place where the new restaurant has been built.
The town Purgatory, located near the Durango Mountain resort has the glory of an old town full of ghosts. On the railroad connecting Durango and Silvertone gorge appears sometimes a ghost of an old railroad worker that has lost his legs after an accident with the trolleys. In the town itself, people staying in the Rochester hotel in the room of John Wayne, tell that they have seen a ghost of a woman dressed in a Victorian dress.
Crested Butte, Colorado - an old miner town converted to a ski resort. The reconstructed town houses keep lots of stories and evidences of ghosts encounters. The local inhabitants swear that they have seen a ghost hitchhiking at the road leading to the town. Others tell about women ghosts that could be seen in early mourning looking out of the Slogars hotel or dancing in the Eldorado hotel.
Nowadays, according to the stories, the News Mexico mountains are full of ghost Indians. The inhabitants of the Taos Pueblo village think that the Taos mountain is holy but the ski resort has been anyways built there. They say that even the Santa Fe ski resort was founded also on the sacred places of the Indians. Further to the South, there is a town Ruidoso on the Ski Apache resort territory, there the Apache Indians spirits are neighboring the soldiers ghosts that have been staying in a camp in fort Stanton and the ghost of the Billy Kid. And don’t forget - Roswell is the American center of the ghost tales.
In the North, in Canada, a castle-like hotel Fairmont Banff Springs offers apartments for the hundreds of ski-riders and snowboarders that have rest at the three neighboring resorts Norquay, Sunshine and Lake Louise. There are several ghosts in this hotel, whose existence has been proven with lots of evidences. These are the ghost concierge that opens the doors since 1960 welcoming the guests and repairs the lights, the ghost of a bride that got tangled in the train of the wedding dress and rolled down the stairs. They say that she is still wandering along the corridors of the hotel and sometimes they see her dancing in her elegant but unlucky dress.