The Stanley Hotel is a 138-room Georgian hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. Located within sight of the Rocky Mountain National Park, the Stanley offers panoramic views of the Rockies. It was built by Freelan O. Stanley of Stanley Steamer fame and opened on July 4, 1909, catering to the rich and famous, including the Titanic survivor Margaret Brown, John Philip Sousa, Theodore Roosevelt, the Emperor and Empress of Japan, and a variety of Hollywood personalities.  The Stanley Hotel also hosted Stephen King, inspiring him to write The Shining. Contrary to information sometimes published, King was living in Boulder at the time and did not actually write the novel at the hotel. Parts of the mini-series version of The Shining were filmed there, although it was not used for Stanley Kubrick's cinematic version.  The hotel and its surrounding lands are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1903, F. O. Stanley, co-inventor of the Stanley Steamer automobile, came to Estes Park for his health. Stanley suffered from tuberculosis and came West at his doctor's suggestion. The doctor arranged for the couple to stay in a cabin in Estes Park for the summer. Immediately, they fell in love with the area and Stanley's health began to dramatically improve. Impressed by the beauty of the valley and grateful for the improvement in his health, he decided to invest his money and his future there. In 1909, he opened the elegant Stanley Hotel, a classic hostelry exemplifying the golden age of touring.

Hotel Lobby‎

After spending the summer in the cabin, Flora wanted a home like the one she had left in Maine. Their home was built about one-half mile west of where the Stanley Hotel would later be built. Today the house is a private residence.

Stanley built the hotel on land that he had purchased from the Irish Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl. Dunraven came to the area in 1872 while on a hunting trip. He built a hunting lodge, cabin, and hotel for his guests and illegally homesteaded up to 15,000 acres (61 km²) in an unsuccessful attempt to create a private hunting preserve. Dunraven was finally run out of the area after trying to swindle folks out of their land and money.

Vintage Stanley Steamer in hotel lobby

In 1907, construction started on the Stanley Hotel. Wood and rock were obtained from the nearby mountains and the hotel was built in the Georgian architectural style, which experienced a revival in the early Twentieth century. Equipped with running water, electricity, and telephones, the only amenity the hotel lacked was heat, as the hotel was designed as a summer resort.

Live Haunted Spotlight

Shawn and Marianne Donley, the owners of PANICd.com, traveled to Estes Park and visited this location on November 6, 2016. The audio file below is the recording of the "Haunted Spotlight", that they did live from the Stanley Hotel, on Beyond The Edge Radio, while they were at the hotel. The did the show form their hotel room, Room number 410, and what you will hear on the audio recording is sort of "behind the scenes" recording since it was made on their side and not the live broadcast site that went out over the Internet.

Many believe the Stanley Hotel is haunted, having reported a number of cases of ghostly activity, primarily in the ballroom. Kitchen staff have reported to have heard a party going on in the ballroom, only to find it empty. People in the lobby have allegedly heard someone playing the ballroom's piano; employees investigating the music supposedly find nobody sitting at the piano. Employees believe that particular ghost is of Freelan O. Stanley's wife, who used to be a piano player. In one guest room, people claim to have seen a man standing over the bed before running into the closet. This same apparition is allegedly responsible for stealing guests' jewellery, watches, and luggage. Others reported to have seen ghosts in their rooms in the middle of the night, simply standing in their room before disappearing.

Many reports have come from the guests of the hotel that they had seen strange images and had unexplainable things happen to them. Some believe that F. O. Stanley haunts the hotel himself. He has been seen most often in the lobby and the Billiards room, which was his favorite room when he was alive. He has also been seen in the bar but quickly disappears before anyone can get a better look.

It is also believed that F.O.'s wife Flora haunts the hotel as well. When she was in the hotel, she used to entertain the guests by playing piano in the music room. Though there have been no actual sightings of her, the keys of the piano have been seen by several guests to be moving by themselves.

Guests have also reported hearing children playing in the hallway when no children were present, one couple even checking out because of the noise. Various employees have reported hearing voices when no one was around and seeing impressions in beds in rooms where no guests have stayed in for awhile. One guest claimed to have recorded a faded image of a man in a cowboy hat in his room, standing in front of the window. It lasted for a few minutes and then faded away. Another incident occurred where a guest attending her sister's wedding wrote "REDRUM" on a mirror with lipstick in her sister and her groom-to-be's room a joke. Later, as she was walking down the grand staircase to the lobby, she felt someone shove her and she fell down the stairs. After being helped up, she looked to see who shoved her, but no one was around to have done so.

Many strange events seem to take place in the Stanley Hotel for sure. Some are certainly less explainable than others. Why people believe they see the Stanleys has no reasonable explanation. Noises that guests and employees hear could be the creaking of heaters that they think might be ghosts, or the shifting of the pine wood that some of the hotel is made from. Voices that they hear could be echoing through the floors and walls from other rooms. That could account for the children that are heard as well. Or they could actually be children that hide when someone tells them to stop or keep it down. The guest who recorded the ghost wearing the cowboy hat would be more reliable if he showed this recording rather than say he did. And the girl who claimed to be shoved could very well have lied. After all, she was in the process of pulling a prank when it happened.

The ghosts in the Stanley Hotel aren't evil as in the book. Room 418 seems to have the most ghostly activity reported. In fact, the entire fourth floor of the Stanley Hotel (formerly the servants quarters) is quite active. Often, the sound of children playing in the halls of the Stanley can be heard, even when no children are present.

The Stanleys:

The Stanley Hotel's original owners, F.O. and Flora Stanley, are said to haunt the hotel as well. Mr Stanley plays the piano in the music room, and frequents the billards room and the lobby

Greetings, Five years ago I was living in Estes Park and had several paranormal experiences there. The first place I worked was at the historic (and haunted) Elkhorn Lodge, just West of town across the street from the American Wilderness Lodge.

The Elkhorn was built in 1874 ( two years before the Custer massacre at the Little Big Horn). President Teddy Roosevelt used to stay there often and there is a portrait of him (which I did myself) hanging in the dining room. During my time working there, I had one particular experience that I will always remember. It was on a very sunny day and I wanted to take some pictures of the teepees that the manager (Jerry) had put up behind the bunkhouses for the tourists. I was taking a photo of the main, largest teepee with an instamatic camera and when the picture came out, I saw a huge, figure of a man standing in front of the teepee. The strange thing was that this man was beyond normal height and transparent! You could see the teepee through him in the background. I immediately thought "Ghost picture!".

I ran to the nearest person I could see (Dawn, another wrangler) and tried to get her attention, but she was with customers (a family asking about the trail rides). She gave me the "I'm busy with customers" look and I waited impatiently for her to finish. Their conversation dragged on and on and I kept looking at the picture. I noticed that the figure in the photo was beginning to fade, so I gave up and ran to the stables to show somebody there. At the back of the stables, my girlfriend was putting one of the horses away and I yelled to her to "hurry up and come here, NOW!" She yelled back that she had to put the horse away first and I watched as the figure faded completely away. Later, Dawn found me and asked me what I wanted and I told her about the picture and described the man I saw as wearing old Western clothing with a leather vest and holding a whip. I told her he was huge. She looked at me and said "You saw ________, he was the stagecoach driver who used to pick people up in Denver and bring 'em up here in the old days. Everyone was afraid of him because he was so big and so mean." So, I didn't have the picture, but at least somebody believed me and validated my story. She also told me that the Lodge is haunted by the daughter of the man who built it. Other employees, who worked in housekeeping, told me that in her room you couldn't move the rocking chair or else things would begin to fly through the air. Her dresses hang in the hallway upstairs in the lodge. In fact, the lodge is a museum as well as a place to stay. It's a great place to visit if you get the chance.

I worked for a longer time at the Stanley Hotel and had several experiences there.

Thanks for your time.

P.S. I can suggest a coulple of booklets by local (Estes) resident ghost enthusiasts, the series: Ghosts of the Estes Valley and More Ghosts of the Estes Valley. In my opinion, the whole area is a "goldmine" of paranormal activity. Stephen King created one of his greatest novels "The Shining" while staying at the Stanley and I think he had a LOT of inspiration from those surroundings. One Denver female psychic who toured the Stanley for a live Halloween broadcast one year, came out of the building and when asked by reporters if she sensed anything, said: " I won't ever go back in there, not because its haunted, but because there are so many of them."

I stayed at the Stanley Hotel Sunday night (5/31/09). At 2 am I woke to the creaking floor. The sound was inside the room. The hotel is old and the floor is noisy - but only when you walk on it. My room -mate was also awaken by the noise. We both got up and took turns using bathroom and then went back to bed. She said she felt like there was someone in the room. I laughed and told her "nope - just us". After falling back to sleep, I was awaken again; the blankets were being pulled tightly across my legs and feet after a minute I kicked them away and fell back asleep. Again I woke up but this time my bed was gently shaking back and forth gently. IAt first, I was too scared to talk then I was able to say my friends name. I asked her if she experienced anything and she said no - said the reason I was hunted was because I said there was no one else in the room. When he stopped to talk to us, it suddenly started getting really high readings - don't know if I believe in ghost detectors but it was strange.

You may have heard of an author name Stephen King. And you may have heard of a book and film called "The Shining." Here lies the inspiration within...

The Stanley Hotel began construction in 1906 and opened in 1909. F. O. Stanley and his wife Flora built their home nearby and then this hotel. F.O. built a hydroelectric plant up in the mountains so as the hotel could be all electric. He even had phones in every room. Both were quite a luxury at the time.

The Stanley was a summer resort so heat was not added until 1979. Before then, any heat in the building came from fireplaces on the first floor. Other than that, it is mostly the same as in 1909.

Besides a history that includes the last quarter of the film "Dumb and Dumber," many celebrities and tourists have enjoyed the Stanley over the years. Most notably, Stephen King, who wrote half of "the Shining" in room 217. Stephen King came back when the ABC mini-series was filmed here as well. Stanley Kubrick's film version was NOT filmed here. They used sets for most of that film.

There aren't any known evil spirits at the Stanley Hotel. The Shining was fiction after all. The ghosts of the owners are still around. In the music room, Mrs. Stanley's favorite, you may hear the piano playing by itself. Or you may feel the presence of Mr. F.O. Stanley around the lobby or in his favorite space, the Billiard room. 

The fourth floor is the old servant quarters and fairly active with spirits. You will notice the narrow corridors. The sound of children playing in the halls is common. Even when there isn't a child in the building. The center of the activity in the hotel seems to be the very active room 418.