When the October air sends a chill down your spine, pause and wonder if it was really just the wind you felt. Chances are you’re somewhere with a ghost, or at least a good ghost story.
CRESCENT HOTEL – EUREKA SPRINGS
With a notorious history and haunted tours offered for decades, the Crescent Hotel may be one of Arkansas’s best-known haunted destinations.
Opened in 1886 as a luxury resort, the Crescent later became a college for girls before taking a darker turn in 1937 under Dr. Norman Baker, who claimed to cure cancer with experimental treatments — including one involving a solution of ground watermelon seeds. Baker’s operation ended after his 1940 arrest for mail fraud. Today, the Crescent once again welcomes travelers — along with, reportedly, a few permanent guests.
“Michael is associated with Room 218 and is believed to have been an Irish stonemason who helped build the hotel in the 1880s,” said Gina Rambo, the hotel’s director of marketing and communications. “According to the story, he fell to his death near where Room 218 is now located.” Guests and staff have since reported pounding on walls, flickering lights, doors opening on their own and even handprints appearing in the bathroom mirror.
Then there’s Theodora. “Theodora is associated with Room 419 and is connected to the Crescent’s time as Norman Baker’s cancer hospital in the late 1930s,” Rambo said. “Accounts vary as to whether she was a patient or an employee there. Guests and staff have reported seeing a woman in period clothing fumbling for keys in the hallway, hearing her voice, and returning to Room 419 to find personal belongings that had been left out neatly organized or tidied.”
THE CLAYTON HOUSE – FORT SMITH
Built in 1882, the stately Clayton House in Fort Smith’s Belle Grove Historic District has plenty of history within its walls and, some say, a few spirits as well. Once home to William Henry Harrison Clayton, a federal prosecutor in Judge Isaac C. Parker’s court, the Victorian-era house is now a museum open for guided tours.
Over the years, visitors and staff have reported unexplained footsteps, unusual sounds and apparitions, including a mysterious woman in period dress and a male presence sometimes referred to as the “Tall Angry Man.”
KING OPERA HOUSE – VAN BUREN
Walking historic Main Street in Van Buren, with its Victorian charm, can feel like stepping through a time warp. For those with a sixth sense, entering King Opera House feels a little like stepping into another dimension entirely.
Built in 1891 and transformed into an opera house by Henry P. King a decade later, the historic venue has had more than a century to collect spooky stories.
“Is the opera house haunted? We certainly think so based on experience,” said Bill Ratcliff, theater manager of King Opera House. “We even have a picture of an apparition hanging on the wall that a ghost-hunting group out of Oklahoma took and sent to us.”
The opera house’s best-known ghost story centers on actor Charles C. Tolson. According to Ratcliff, Tolson caught the attention of a local doctor’s daughter while performing in Van Buren. Believing the pair planned to run away together, Dr. William Parchman confronted Tolson at the train station and shot him. Tolson later died in Fort Smith.
Another reported specter haunts an unconventional location. “Of all things, the place where she’s seen is the men’s restroom,” Ratcliff said, laughing. Described as wearing a high-collared, floor-length white dress, she has allegedly asked guests if they have seen someone named Henry. Ratcliff said she was spotted as recently as a year and a half ago by a ghost-hunting cameraman caught off guard during a bathroom break.
THE GURDON LIGHT – GURDON
For decades, people near Gurdon have reported seeing an eerie glow moving along the railroad tracks after dark. Known as the Gurdon Light, the mysterious phenomenon even made an appearance on Unsolved Mysteries in 1994.
Theories abound about the light: reflected headlights off Interstate 30, swamp gas and even the restless spirit of a murdered man. In 1931, Missouri-Pacific Railroad foreman William McClain was beaten to death by employee Louis McBride following an argument. McBride was later convicted and executed for the murder. Local legend holds that the mysterious light is McClain’s lantern, still moving along the tracks.
CURRAN HALL – LITTLE ROCK
Built in 1842 as a gift from Colonel Ebenezer Walters to his young wife, Mary, Curran Hall has a tragic beginning. Mary died in childbirth before the home was completed the following year.
Linda L. Howell, author of Haunted Little Rock and a member of Arkansas Ghost Catchers, became interested in Curran Hall’s paranormal activity while volunteering there, after a visitor reported seeing a woman in period attire. Using dowsing rods, Howell said she came to believe the presence was Mary Walters. “Sometimes it has a tingle to it because spirits have electric energy,” Howell said, describing her dowsing rods. “Sometimes you can feel it in your hands.”
THE ARLINGTON RESORT HOTEL & SPA – HOT SPRINGS
The Arlington Hotel has welcomed guests to Hot Springs since 1875 — some of whom, according to local lore, may never have left. Al Capone is said to have favored Room 443, where guests have reported the lingering scent of cigar smoke. A former bellman is also said to haunt the fourth floor. Other reported activity includes flickering lights, jiggling doorknobs, faucets turning on unexpectedly, moving objects and apparitions throughout the historic resort.
FOUR QUARTER BAR – NORTH LITTLE ROCK
Conan Robinson, owner of Four Quarter Bar in North Little Rock’s historic Argenta neighborhood, waits for customers to bring up the possibility that his bar is haunted. That way, he said, he knows he hasn’t influenced whatever chilling experience they’re about to share. Sometimes it’s a spinning trash can lid or a chair moving on its own. Other times, it’s voices coming from the empty restroom. Once, it was the apparition of a woman in Prohibition-era dress fading into a wall.
Robinson said ghost-hunting teams have asked to scope out the place. “They weren’t disappointed,” he reported, chuckling. The ghost stories originated in the neighborhood’s Victorian roots as a railroad town with a Wild West reputation and the saloons and gambling halls to back it up. It’s local lore that the building once housed a brothel, and that it had its fair share of murders involving clientele and the women who worked there.
Did we miss your favorite haunt? Tell us at editors@dosouthmagazine.com.
WHILE YOU’RE THERE…
More spirited stops worth seeking out.
FORT SMITH + FORT CHAFFEE
Fort Chaffee Historic District: Military history and decades of eerie lore.
Fort Smith Museum of History: Murder and Mayhem returns in October with darker tales from Fort Smith’s past.
EUREKA SPRINGS
Basin Park Hotel: Paranormal investigations explore the historic hotel, including some rarely seen spaces.
Downtown Eureka Springs: Haunted-history tours wind through historic streets and underground spaces.
LITTLE ROCK
MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History: The historic former Little Rock Arsenal has its own share of paranormal lore.
HOT SPRINGS
Historic Downtown: Evening ghost tours mix Spa City history with tales of hauntings, mysteries and murder.
NORTH LITTLE ROCK
Argenta Historic District: Seasonal tours explore ghost stories and darker tales from the neighborhood’s colorful past.
