The Stanley Hotel

Origin Story

F.O. Stanley, inventor of the Stanley Steamer automobile, built the hotel in 1909 as a mountain resort. Stephen King and his wife stayed in room 217 in 1974, an experience that directly inspired his novel "The Shining," cementing the hotel's connection to the haunted-hotel genre ever since.

Evidence & Claims

Staff and guests have reported a long list of phenomena over the decades: piano music with no pianist, lights turning on and off, and reports concentrated in room 217 and the fourth floor. The hotel now leans into the reputation with dedicated ghost tours.

Skeptical Explanations

Skeptics point to the hotel's high-altitude setting, its age and old wiring/plumbing (a common source of unexplained sounds in century-old buildings), and the powerful suggestive effect of King's novel and its 1980 film adaptation, which arrived decades after the hotel opened and likely shaped many later guest experiences.

Open as a working hotel; nightly ghost tours and a small history museum are open to both overnight guests and day visitors.