COLORADO GHOST HUNTERS
VICTOR HOTEL
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HISTORY
Description courtesy of the Victor Hotel
The original Hotel Victor was located across the street to the west of the current structure.
The Woods family, founders of Victor, struck a rich vein of gold while excavating for the foundation of a hotel at 4th & Victor Avenue in 1894. That gold vein lead them to one of the richest mines in the Cripple Creek District - the Gold Coin Mine. Remnants of the mine, as well as the Gold Coin Club built for the mine's workers, have been preserved and can viewed north and west of the current hotel building. The old hotel burned in the big fire of 1899, when all of Victor's business district was leveled in one August afternoon.
By the time it was platted in 1893, it was already known as the City of Mines because the largest & richest gold mines of the Cripple Creek Mining District were located just above Victor on Battle Mountain.
The Woods family's First National Bank of Victor, the tallest building in the city, was completed on Christmas Eve of 1899 after the great fire destroyed their banking business at this location as well as the original Victor Hotel located on the corner across 4th Street.
Numerous retailing and consulting businesses were located in the building, and of course there were rooms that could be rented for the night.
Victor was the working man's town of the mining district, supplying homes for much of the labor force that brought the wealth of gold to the surface in the 500-plus gold mines that once operated in the mining district. It was also a rail and shipping center and later a milling center.
This bank was forced to close its doors permanently on November 4, 1903 as the Woods' financial empire crumbled and bank examiners declared it insolvent.
Several successor banks, including A.E. Carlton's City Bank, occupied the building and it eventually became the new Victor Hotel.
After remaining vacant for many years, the restored hotel building reopened for business in 1992. The bank vault and original birdcage elevator, still operational, can be seen by stepping into the hotel lobby.
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PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION
EQUIPMENT LIST:
- Sony Handycam DCR-HC90
- Kodak DX6490 digital camera
- Olympus VN-480PC digital voice recorder
- Sony TCM-20DC cassette recorder
- Audio-Technica ATR35s omnidirectional microphone
- CellSensor eletromagnetic field detector
- JVC DVM60ME digital video cassettes
- TDK D90 tape recorder cassettes
AREAS OF CONCERN:
- Room 301, Eddie's room
- Birdcage elevator
- 4th floor
INTERVIEWS:
Lisa:
"In the earlier days, the 4th floor often served as the city morgue, once they filled all the predug holes in winter."...."I will reiterate that my personal experiences with Eddie occurs always on the 4th floor, rather than the room he lived in. His death involved our birdcage elevator too, so that may be of interest to you."
Will:
Will verified that around approximately 1920, Eddie was involved in an accident related to the birdage elevator. He was not able to verify Eddie's last name. Also, Will has not had any personal experiences involving paranormal activity at the hotel.
WALK THROUGH:
We conducted two walk throughs of the hotel later in the evening, time unknown. During each walk through we recorded audio, video, and still photographs. Upon reviewing the media nothing unusual was captured.
CONCLUSION:
Other ghost hunting groups have come back with supposed material indicating that the hotel has some paranormal activity. Unfortunately, this time around for us we did not record anything or experience anything unusual.
The staff of the hotel have been wonderful in understanding our needs. Beyond the fact of ghost hunting, if you have a chance to stay at the hotel and visit the historically rich area, do it. We will come back to the hotel again in the future to continue the investigation in hope that we can record some kind of paranormal activity to further our research.
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