Mizpah Hotel
Mizpah Hotel is a hotel in Tonopah, Nevada, built in 1907. Historic hotel known for Lady in Red folklore. HauntHunt files it with haunted locations, haunted places and historic hotels. Ask the file who haunts it and it answers: Lady in Red. The dossier holds 4 reported claims, 2 legends, 3 documented facts and 1 named or described presence — documented record and retelling kept side by side. Access details are unverified — research before visiting.
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Is Mizpah Hotel haunted?
The record holds 4 claims, 2 legends, 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
Tonopah exists because a mule picked a good place to nap. In 1900, prospector Jim Butler picked up a conspicuously heavy rock to throw at the animal and found it laced with silver; the strike produced nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in a year and, eventually, some $121 million from the hills behind what is now the mining park. The 'Queen of the Silver Camps' needed a palace, and in 1907–08 it got one: the Mizpah Hotel, five floors of granite and leaded glass, $200,000, financed by George Wingfield, George S. Nixon, Cal Brougher and Bob Govan — the tallest building in Nevada, and equipped with what the promotion called the first electric elevator west of the Mississippi.
The Mizpah was the social hub of a mining camp and ran as such for most of the century. It closed in 1999, sat dark for twelve years, and was restored and reopened in 2011 by Fred and Nancy Cline — Sonoma winemakers who had the good sense to keep the velvet and the file of ghost reports intact.
The documented record
The hotel's guest claims are thinner than its walls, which is the honest way to read them: no death certificate for the famous lady has been produced, only legend — one version places her murder in 1914, another in the 1920s. What is documented is the building: the 1905 Brougher-Govan Block annexed as rooms by 1909, the five-story tower of 1908, the steam heat and all-electric light that made it the desert's 'finest stone hotel,' and the National Register listing that followed.
The town around it declined with the mines, which is the ordinary arithmetic of a boomtown; the Mizpah's survival to restoration is the less ordinary half.
The Lady in Red
The signature ghost is the Lady in Red. As the legend runs, she worked the fifth floor as a prostitute and was murdered outside Room 502 — by a jealous ex-boyfriend, in the standard telling, or by a wealthy patron enraged to learn he was not her only customer; a rival version gives her a husband who missed his train, came home early, and beat her to death. The tellings disagree on nearly everything except the floor.
What witnesses file is more consistent: guests describe a woman's figure, perfume, and — the detail that made her Nevada's most famous ghost — pearls left on pillows and nightstands. A portrait of her hangs in the sitting room; Room 502 is the hotel's most requested booking, decorated in what the house calls early bordello style. A psychic retained by the hotel also identified several miners and three children in the spectral ledger, which keeps the lady in company. The claims are folklore with a lobby: a guest book of ghost stories sits across from the front desk, open for the next entry.
What remains
USA Today's readers voted the Mizpah the country's best haunted hotel in 2018 — an honor the hotel prints on T-shirts — and Ghost Adventures devoted a season-five episode to the fifth floor. The claims are folklore with a lobby: a guest book of ghost stories sits across from the front desk, open for the next entry. Whatever happened outside Room 502, something about the Mizpah keeps guests reporting, and the pearls keep their reputation — one stratum of legend over a mountain of real silver.
The Mizpah Hotel is a historic hotel in Tonopah, Nevada, U.S. It is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Mizpah HotelThe long record
- 1907Built
Hotel constructed
- 1907History
Opened in 1907; for decades the tallest building in Nevada and the social anchor of the Tonopah mining boom. The hotel in Tonopah, Nevada has its past on record — this entry belongs to that verified layer. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. Sources including 'Mizpah Hotel' carry the record. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.
- 1907Opening
Hotel opens in mining boom
The record of claims
Travel Nevada recounts the Mizpah's 'Lady in Red' — said to leave pearls on guests' pillows — the 1907 hotel's signature ghost, a woman reportedly murdered on the fifth floor in the silver-boom years. She's been the Mizpah's resident presence so long the hotel's marketing treats her as staff. The marketing treats her as staff.
The Lady in Red is said to have been killed on the Mizpah's fifth floor and now whispers to male guests or leaves pearls — the legend's two signature behaviors, both oddly benign for a murder ghost. The DISPUTED flag reflects the story's unverifiable origin; the pearls keep arriving either way. The pearls keep arriving.
No documented murder matching the legend has been produced.
The 'Lady in Red' — a woman reportedly murdered on the Mizpah's fifth floor — is the hotel's signature ghost and Nevada's most famous hotel spirit: pearls on pillows, a presence in the elevator, a flash of red dress in the hall mirror. The hotel's restoration kept her room as the centerpiece. Her room is the centerpiece.
Mizpah reports include elevator movement, whispers and a man's figure in the basement — the secondary claims attached to the hotel beyond the Lady in Red herself. The self-moving elevator is the distinctive one: the hotel's oldest machinery is blamed for its most mechanical haunting. The elevator keeps its own schedule.
Travel Nevada recounts the Mizpah's 'Lady in Red' — said to leave pearls on guests' pillows — the 1907 hotel's signature ghost, a woman reportedly murdered on the fifth floor in the silver-boom years. She's been the Mizpah's resident presence so long the hotel's marketing treats her as staff. The fifth floor keeps her legend in circulation.
The 'Lady in Red' — a woman reportedly murdered on the Mizpah's fifth floor in the early decades — is the hotel's signature ghost and Nevada's most famous hotel spirit: pearls on pillows, a presence in the elevator, a flash of red dress in the hall mirror. The hotel's restoration in 2011 kept her room as the centerpiece.
Two accounts on file
Historic hotel known for Lady in Red folklore.
Tonopah’s 1907 grand hotel, home of the disputed "Lady in Red."
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Pass 1 source-grounded discovery; independent historical verification, coordinates and current access still pending. Confidence measures attribution quality, not paranormal reality.
Historical enrichment pass from encyclopedia/official records; paranormal claims remain source-attributed reports, not verified events.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
HOTEL
HISTORIC_SITE
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Pass 1 source-grounded discovery; independent historical verification, coordinates and current access still pending. Confidence measures attribution quality, not paranormal reality.
Media-appearance enrichment; VERIFY task auto-queued.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Alleged entities
The Lady in Red is the Mizpah's signature ghost — the woman reportedly murdered on the fifth floor in the silver-boom years, said to leave pearls on guests' pillows and to ride the elevator in a flash of red. Nevada's most famous hotel ghost, and the Mizpah's oldest employee by local telling. The account stays in the file — reported, retold, unresolved.
Documented history
The hotel building dates to 1907. Mizpah Hotel's history is documented rather than told — this entry is part of that spine. The press recorded it; the detail stands as reported history. Sources including '13 Ways to Creep into Nevada’s Haunted History' carry the record. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest.
Media reportedTravel NevadaOpened in 1907; for decades the tallest building in Nevada and the social anchor of the Tonopah mining boom. The hotel in Tonopah, Nevada has its past on record — this entry belongs to that verified layer. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. Sources including 'Mizpah Hotel' carry the record. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.
Built 1907; the Lady in Red story dates to the hotel’s early decades. The hotel in Tonopah, Nevada has its past on record — this entry belongs to that verified layer. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. The record appears in 'Mizpah Hotel'. The date is part of the site's documented spine.
Investigations & appearances
Sources on file
- 0113 Ways to Creep into Nevada’s Haunted HistoryTravel Nevada · tourism · A3
- 02Mizpah HotelWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
- 03Ghost AdventuresWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
- 04The Mizpah Hotel — official siteThe Mizpah Hotel · official site · A4
Field notes & open questions
Pass 1 source-grounded discovery; independent historical verification, coordinates and current access still pending. Confidence measures attribution quality, not paranormal reality.