{"id":1711,"slug":"delta-king-sacramento-california","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The Delta King is the riverboat that sank and came back — the 1927 sternwheeler that ran the Sacramento-San Francisco overnight with the jazz and the gambling and the Prohibition drinking, sank in the bay in 1981, and was refloated and restored into the Old Sacramento hotel. The captain still watches the theater from the balcony.","The boat was the twin — the Delta King's identical sister the Delta Queen, the 10.5-hour overnight run that was the Delta's commute, the Navy service and the hospital ship duty. The Coyne family bought the sunken wreck in 1984 and spent five years bringing her back.","The boat is still there — the 44-room hotel on the riverfront, the paddlewheel that doesn't turn, the captain's ghost who still checks the theater. The file keeps the boat: the 1927 riverboat, the sinking and the resurrection, and the hotel that's the Delta's last sternwheeler.","The Delta King is the archive's riverboat file — the 1927 sternwheeler, the sinking and the restoration, and the hotel that's the captain's post."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The Delta King is the archive's riverboat file — the twin to the Delta Queen, the sinking and the comeback, and the captain who never left.","A boat that sank keeps its captain — the file's suggestion being that the Delta King's hold is the wheelhouse: the ghost in the balcony, the restored paddlewheeler, and the hotel that's the Delta's last monarch."]}],"name":"Delta King","aliases":["Delta King Riverboat Hotel"],"type":"SHIP","type_label":"Ship","cats":["HAUNTED_LOCATION"],"groups":["hauntings","maritime"],"desc":"Riverboat hotel with former-captain folklore.","full_desc":"A ship in Sacramento, California, built in 1927, Delta King is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Riverboat hotel with former-captain folklore. It sits in the archive under haunted locations. The dossier holds 1 reported claim, 1 legend and 1 documented fact, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. Visitor status is unverified; confirm before making the trip.","address":null,"city":"Sacramento","county":null,"state":"California","postal":null,"region":"West","lat":38.567694,"lon":-121.468161,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"UNKNOWN","access":"UNKNOWN","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":"https://www.deltaking.com/","phone":null,"year_built":1927,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"Pass 1 source-grounded discovery; independent historical verification, coordinates and current access still pending. Confidence measures attribution quality, not paranormal reality.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":53.1,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.6,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":895,"type":"APPARITION","description":"Visit California recounts a captain’s apparition on decks and a theater balcony. Crews leave marks on vessels long after they muster out, and Delta King in Sacramento, California had crews enough. The account has a collector's pedigree — written down as legend, which is the most honest status it can hold. 'California’s Most Haunted Hotels' carries the account. The apparition is the file's anchor — every other report orbits it.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.6,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"California’s Most Haunted Hotels","url":"https://www.visitcalifornia.com/experience/californias-most-haunted-hotels/","publisher":"Visit California","type":"TOURISM","authority":3},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The 1927 riverboat served as a wartime transport. A vessel with a documented working life gives the file real substance underneath the maritime lore. The press recorded it; the detail stands as reported history. Sources including 'California’s Most Haunted Hotels' carry the record. The detail belongs to the verified spine of the entry.","evidence":"MEDIA_REPORTED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"California’s Most Haunted Hotels","url":"https://www.visitcalifornia.com/experience/californias-most-haunted-hotels/","publisher":"Visit California","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"Visit California recounts a captain’s apparition on decks and a theater balcony. Maritime lore is the oldest ghost file there is; Delta King in Sacramento, California is a fully credentialed entry. It's a documented legend: the telling is real, the contents remain folklore. The account appears in 'California’s Most Haunted Hotels'. The tale is the site's other archive — oral, embroidered, and outlasting the documents.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"California’s Most Haunted Hotels","url":"https://www.visitcalifornia.com/experience/californias-most-haunted-hotels/","publisher":"Visit California","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Access details are unverified; research before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"California’s Most Haunted Hotels","url":"https://www.visitcalifornia.com/experience/californias-most-haunted-hotels/","publisher":"Visit California","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":{"title":"Delta King","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_King","desc":"American paddlewheel steamboat","extract":"Delta King is a 285-foot-long sternwheel steamboat (87 m) and the sister ship of Delta Queen, built in Glasgow, Scotland and Stockton, California for the California Transportation Company's service between Sacramento and San Francisco, California. She entered service in 1927 and continued until 1940. After wartime service with the United States Navy, Delta King served as an accommodation ship at Kitimat, British Columbia in the 1950s and then returned to California for static use at Old Sacramento where she remains as a hotel, restaurant and venue.","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/Delta_King.JPG/330px-Delta_King.JPG?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":108,"lat":38.58277778,"lon":-121.50694444},"counts":{"claims":1,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":0,"sources":1}}