Historic Glen Ferris Inn
Historic Glen Ferris Inn is an inn in Glen Ferris, West Virginia. State tourism recounts the bearded Colonel apparition. The presence its accounts keep returning to is the one they call the colonel. The dossier holds 1 reported claim, 1 legend and 1 named or described presence — all telling, no verified spine yet, and the file says so plainly. Access details are unverified — research before visiting.
· in your passport — stamped · open it
Is Historic Glen Ferris Inn haunted?
The record holds 1 claim, 1 legend, 1 named entity — filed as reported, not verified. The heaviest filing is classed documented legend. The archive documents the claim; it takes no position on the ghost.
The record — long form
The Glen Ferris Inn is the inn at the falls — the Federal brick building Aaron Stockton bought in 1817 at the head of navigation on the Great Kanawha, where the river drops over the falls and the James River & Kanawha Turnpike came down to the water. Stockton — grandson of a Declaration signer — ran it as a tavern from 1839, a stagecoach stop that served the river and the road until the railroad killed the turnpike in 1874.
The inn was a quartermaster depot in 1861, the headquarters of Stockton's coal and timber enterprises, and later a Union Carbide property. Bonaventura Bosia gave it the pedimented gable and Ionic porticoes in 1910. The ghost tradition is the inn's own — stagecoaches, soldiers, and the spirits that the river and two centuries of travelers are said to have left in the rooms over the falls.
The file keeps Glen Ferris: the falls, the turnpike inn, the quartermaster depot, and the building that has been feeding travelers at the Kanawha since before West Virginia was a state.
The Glen Ferris Inn is the archive's falls file — the stagecoach stop, the Civil War depot, and the ghost that came with the building.
Why this file matters
The Glen Ferris Inn is the archive's falls file — the 1815 building, the Stockton enterprises, and the inn that predates the state.
An inn at the head of navigation keeps its falls — the file's suggestion being that Glen Ferris's hold is the threshold: the place where the road met the river, and the guests who arrived by stagecoach and stayed.
Glen Ferris Inn, also known as Stockton's Inn, Stockton's Tavern, and Hawkins's Hotel, is a historic hotel located on the bank of the Kanawha River overlooking Kanawha Falls at Glen Ferris, Fayette County, West Virginia. It may have been built as early as 1815. It is a T-shaped brick building in two sections. One section is a three-story, painted brick dwelling. The second is a two-story, red brick wing measuring 140 by 40 feet. The building features a wraparound porch supported by 13 stuccoed brick columns. In the 19th century, the building was a stagecoach stop and served as a Union quartermaster's depot during the American Civil War. In the first half of the 20th century, it housed manage
Glen Ferris InnThe record of claims
State tourism recounts the bearded Colonel apparition. The Colonel is the name the reports keep returning to. The Glen Ferris hotel's reports are the kind old lodgings accumulate — footsteps after hours, presences in rooms, the house working the night shift. 'West Virginia launches Statewide Paranormal Trail' preserves the telling; the record keeps it filed where it belongs, as lore. The figure remains the site's most-repeated sighting.
State tourism recounts the bearded Colonel apparition. A hotel in Glen Ferris, West Virginia with more than a century of check-ins gives the reports plenty of rooms to work with. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. Sources including 'West Virginia launches Statewide Paranormal Trail' keep the claim in circulation. The story outranks the documentation, which is how you know it's folklore.
Alleged entities
State tourism recounts the bearded Colonel apparition. The presence goes by The Colonel. A hotel in Glen Ferris, West Virginia with more than a century of check-ins gives the reports plenty of rooms to work with. The named presence is what turns a haunting into a household. The claim holds its place in the ledger.
Sources on file
- 01West Virginia launches Statewide Paranormal TrailWest Virginia Department of Tourism · tourism · A3
Field notes & open questions
Discovery record. Coordinates, earliest legend source, independent history and current visitor rules require further verification.