KINGFIELD – For people who enjoy a good ghost story, a new book may be the perfect read. “Stanley Ghost Stories,” edited by Susan S. Davis, is the newest compilation of true sightings and events published by the Stanley Museum, with offices here and in Estes Park, Colo.
The stories in the book center around The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, built by F.O. Stanley, one of the Kingfield-born Stanley twins of Stanley Steamer car fame. The hotel opened in 1909, and F.O. and his wife Flora spent many happy years there. It remains operational today.
“The Stanley Museum has been hearing ghost stories from many people since 1997, when we first got to The Stanley Hotel,” Davis says. “There were so many separate stories and things just happened too much not to believe in them.”
The Stanley Hotel was the inspiration for Maine-author Stephen King’s novel “The Shining.” King and his wife spent one night in 1974 at the hotel, and at the time were its only guests. Reportedly, as King wandered the halls and soaked up the atmosphere, his imagination kicked in and the story was formed.
“By then,” King is quoted in the book, “whatever it is that makes you want to make things up was turned on. I was scared, but I loved it.”
Storytellers in the book assert the sightings and happenings at the Stanley are more prankish than sinister, unlike King’s characters in the book, or later, actor Jack Nicholson in the movie version. Items have been moved around and often found in other parts of the hotel, bags have been packed while guests are at breakfast, parties have been seen in full swing by guests, who found out later there was no party in that room.
Bumps in the night, indeed, and orbs of light caught on film, plus much more, is in the book. Many of the sightings are believed to be F.O. and Flora.
“I think it’s a very big deal that two important Maine people had so much to do with this hotel in Colorado,” Davis says.
The book is on sale at the Stanley Museum on School Street or by visiting stanleymuseum.org.
Comments are no longer available on this story