For Max's birthday, he opted NOT to have a party but to take a "Haunted Tour" instead--Chris and I will chose a trip over a party or a home remodel ANY day:) Peter Pan pretty much dominated every weekend in January so this tour was about a month late but we did it!
Max has an obsession with everything Halloween and scary. When he learned that his great grandmother, Helen, owned a "haunted" ranch in Douglas, AZ, he just HAD to see it! He couldn't believe that our family was actually COOL enough to have owned something haunted!!!
My grandparents lived on the "Texas John Slaughter Ranch/San Bernadino Ranch" for 12 years. I was too young to remember but apparently we went and stayed at the ranch for a couple weeks every summer. My older sister remembers this ranch well and always HATED going there. I've actually seen this ranch on a TV show that takes children with psychic abilities to this ranch to help them to confirm and develop their abilities because it is a well-known and documented haunted establishment.
Our first stop was in Bisbee, AZ. This is a really cool little told mining own that is all about tourism now. The only hotel in town that had any open rooms was the "Copper Queen Hotel." So we booked the rooms. AFTER booking the rooms, I happened upon an article that states that the Copper Queen Hotel is the 4th MOST HAUNTED HOTEL IN THE UNITED STATES!!! WHAT?! And upon further reading, I discovered that there are 16 entities that haunt this hotel and that he 3rd floor of the hotel is the most active with spirits! Okay..all good. We'll stay there as long as we're NOT on the 3rd floor or anywhere close to room 315!
So we get there and meet my parents who drove up from NM. We get our room keys...ROOM 308 & 310. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Max and his best friend Evan were so dang excited that I had to play it cool.
It was a really cool hotel. Definitely very old (the oldest in AZ) with very narrow staircases with rickety old steps and doors that don't seem to lock very well. I really do love historical places so I read everything I could get my hands on in the hotel. One pamphlet invited us to go and see the life-sized painting of a famous actress, Lillie Langtry, down in the saloon. So I take the boys downstairs to see...a NUDE painting of this woman!!! Seriously?! Some kind of warning/explanation would have been REALLY nice!!!
Here are some of the more famous rooms:
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| The naked lady's room! |
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| Room 315--the MOST haunted room. Haunted by a prostitute that committed suicide in the room--you can look this room up on YouTube! |
Funny story: We had an autistic man in our group. He was probably in his twenties and he was there with his drunk dad or grandpa. This autistic man was VERY excited about this tour and always wanted to be right up at the front with the guide. I made this mistake of being in front of him as we climbed a very steep staircase. Apparently, I was not climbing fast enough so he proceeded to "help" me by pushing me up by my butt...scariest thing that happened to me ALL weekend! I made sure to NOT get in his way again:)
The boys did NOT sleep well that night--Of course my dad was having a little fun with them as he and Tatum snuck out of our hotel room to go and scratch on their door:) Every little sound woke them up--Chris just put in ear plugs after awhile. One of the ghost that haunts the Copper Queen is a 10 year old boy named Billy. The boys were told to leave candy out for him and so they did and they swear that some of the candy was missing in the morning:) So that was our exciting night there:)
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| Our Tour Guide |
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| Haunted Bank--used to be a family mortuary |
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| Haunted Saloon--burned down several times |
The next morning we headed out to see Bisbee in the daytime:
We then headed out to Douglas to see my grandmother's ranch--30 minute drive from Bisbee. My Grandparents were the 3rd and final owners of this ranch. It was bought from them by the state of AZ and is considered a historic landmark now.
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| This is the old high school. It is in the Guiness World Book of Records because it has 4 floors and there is a ground access door to each floor-- it's built into the side of a mountain. |
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| LOTS of artsy (hippy) people live here now. |
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| Beautiful Koi ponds |
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| Old Mining site |
My dad actually lived here for a short time after returning home from Vietnam. The 12 years that my grandparents lived here, they had NO telephone. So when my dad got home from the war, he couldn't call his mom and had to actually hitch a ride home. I am a little envious of the absolute quiet and isolation that exist out here but I imagine I would only enjoy it for a while:)
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| The VERY haunted root cellar |
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| This pond is protected by the state because there are species of fish in this pond that do not exist anywhere else in the world. |
The current caretakers of this ranch have several animals of their own. My kids favorite was the pot-bellied pig named "Copper."
Tatum liked this dog the best:) Lilly was her name:)
On the drive out to the ranch, we saw the FUNNIEST set-up and so we made sure to stop by it on the way back into town. There is this small child's toy set up in the MIDDLE of NO WHERE with a sign that reads, "Pony Rides for 25 cents." So of course we had to stop and take a picture with it--and there was actually some quarters AND a dollar bill in the bucket!!! Funny people:)
Our final stop of the tour was Tombstone. We watched all of the "Young Gun" movies in preparation for visiting this town. Amazing little step back in time--a step back into a CRAZY time! Seriously hard living back then!
Boothill Graveyard was my favorite stop. The tombstones are extremely blunt and yet some were pretty funny.
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| These were the 4 men killed in the famous OK Corral shoot-out with Wyatt Earp. |
I really enjoyed this trip and I am VERY glad to have not personally experienced any paranormal activity. Max had a great time and hopefully he will always remember this trip and all the cool things he learned:)
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