Seven Nevada places with a haunted reputation and a public door

Mizpah Hotel, Tonopah

The Mizpah will sell you a Lady in Red suite and a ghost tour, and it will not, on the pages I opened, tell you how she died. The about page says the hotel opened in 1907, five stories, the tallest building in the state, "the finest stone hotel in the desert." It says boxing legend Jack Dempsey is said to have worked there, and that Wyatt Earp reportedly frequented the bar. It says the hotel later closed, and that it became more known for ghost stories than guest service, until Fred and Nancy Cline bought it in 2011 and restored it. The things-to-do page says to join a ghost tour and "encounter the legendary Lady in Red." It does not print a date, a price, or a room number. The homepage sells the Lady in Red Suite as the room that "honors one of the hotel's most famous legends." Legend is the hotel's word. The death is not on that page.

Travel Nevada tells the death. In "Meet the Lady in Red: Nevada's Most Famous Ghost," the state tourism site says a year-round resident worked out of a fifth-floor suite "in the oldest trade in the world" until an ex-lover, possibly a former patron, stabbed and strangled her. It says her origins and true identity are lost to history, and that many accounts suggest she went by Rose. It says many men have reported a voice in the elevator, and that hundreds of guests have awakened to a pearl under the pillow, supposedly from a necklace that broke. It says the suite was split into rooms 502, 503, and 504, that 504 is the themed room, and that more activity has been reported in 502. It also says the staff have a mannequin dressed as the Lady in Red. On the third floor, the same piece says guests have complained about children in the hall and then been told no children were in the building. It puts two more spirits in the basement, which it says is closed to the public, and it says the hotel was on Ghost Adventures, Season 5, Episode 2. It also says the Mizpah earned a USA Today Readers' Choice award for "#1 Most Haunted Hotel." I did not open that USA Today page. The ranking is here as Travel Nevada's attribution.

Jane Ann Morrison, in the Las Vegas Review-Journal on April 20, 2016, quoted a sharper version that was on the hotel's site then and is not on the pages checked now. She wrote that the site said the woman's call name was Rose, her real name was Evelyn Mae Johnston, she was born in Baltimore in 1879, and she died on January 2, 1914, stabbed or strangled in the fifth-floor hallway by a gambler. Morrison also wrote that the story changes depending on the teller, from strangling to strangling and stabbing, and that she did not see the woman, smell her, or find a pearl. She wrote that an unnamed psychic, according to that older site, had identified the Lady in Red, several miners, and three children. She also repeated the legend that Senator Key Pittman, who died in 1940, was kept on ice in a bathtub at the hotel until the votes were counted, and she wrote that historian Guy Rocha debunked it. I did not open Rocha's piece. Morrison's column is the place that names him.

Visit: 100 N. Main St., Tonopah, NV 89049. The same lines add P.O. Box 33. (775) 482-3030. themizpahhotel.com. The Pittman Cafe breakfast menu posts daily, 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. The contact page posts a different cafe clock: Monday through Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 6:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The drink menu for the Jack Dempsey Room and the Long Shot Bar posts daily, 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., with dinner service from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. The where-to-eat page names those rooms and does not print a clock. Belvada Coffee, which the contact page puts across the street in the Belvada Hotel lobby, posts daily, 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. The ghost-tour blurb does not say which of those doors the tour uses. Call if you need the tour and not the oatmeal.

Goldfield Historic High School, Goldfield

The famous haunted building in Goldfield is the hotel, and Travel Nevada says that hotel is closed. The public door the same office will still sell you is the 1907 high school, by appointment, and the ghost language on that listing is thinner than the hotel's reputation.

The Goldfield Historical Society's school page is a restoration history, not a haunting. It says plans for a twelve-room school on the corner of Euclid and Ramsey ran in the Goldfield Daily Tribune on December 8, 1906. The cornerstone was laid August 4, 1907. An unofficial dedication was November 18, 1907. The official dedication was January 31, 1908. It says the building cost $100,000, was designed by J.B. Randall, has 19,656 square feet, and seated 450. First-year enrollment, it says, was 125 students and about 25 faculty. By 1918 the other schools had closed and all grades were in this building. By 1947 the high-school grades were bused to Tonopah. In 1953 the building was abandoned because of a weakening foundation. No spirit is named. No tour price is printed. No phone is printed.

Travel Nevada's high-school page says historical and paranormal tours are offered all year, by appointment only, 90 minutes, $20. It says to call Jeri Foutz, proprietor of Goldfield Stop Inn, at (541) 218-8236. That is an Oregon area code on a Goldfield listing. The society page I opened does not use it. The ghost paragraph is one hedge and then a shrug. "Ghost hunters often find the building to be ripe for paranormal sightings. Potentially haunted classrooms may very well contain the ghosts of Goldfield, after all." Potentially is the tourism site's word. It does not name a student, a teacher, or a room. On the hotel page, the same office says tours of the Goldfield Hotel "are not currently offered," the building is closed, and you can peek in the windows. It points you at the high school across the street instead, and it calls that school "plenty haunted" in the same breath. Travel Nevada's hotel page names a woman called Elizabeth and tells a story about her. This article will not retell it. That page says the hotel is closed, and it offers the school instead.

Visit: Travel Nevada posts 321 N. Euclid Avenue, Goldfield, NV 89013. The society page says the corner of Euclid and Ramsey and does not print the number. (541) 218-8236, as printed on the Travel Nevada listing, not on the society history page. goldfieldhistoricalsociety.com/goldfield-school. There is no walk-up hour on either page. The tour is the appointment. If nobody answers that Oregon number, you are looking at a fence, which is what the photo below actually shows.

Pioneer Saloon, Goodsprings

The Pioneer prints its own ghost paragraph, under a shooting it also prints as history. The folklore page says Joseph Good settled the area in the late 1800s, and that Clark County Commissioner George Fayle opened the saloon in 1913 and the Fayle Hotel in 1916. It calls the Pioneer the oldest bar in the Las Vegas area and in Southern Nevada, and it says the property was designated a Nevada historical landmark in 2007. It says the cherry-wood bar was built by Brunswick in Maine in the late 1800s. I am not going to audit the Brunswick ledger. The bar is what the saloon says is in the room.

The shooting is on the same page. In 1915, it says, an out-of-work miner named Paul Coski was shot dead by Joe Armstrong, the poker dealer, after Armstrong caught him cheating. It says the local newspaper headline and the coroner's report are displayed on the original tin wall, with three fully penetrating holes "which many believe are the original bullet holes." Many believe is the saloon's hedge on the holes. The death is told as the saloon's fact. I did not open the 1915 paper or the coroner's report.

Then the hauntings paragraph, still the saloon's. "Paul Coski is thought to be one of several ghosts that haunt Pioneer Saloon." Customers and employees, "many who have worked at the Pioneer for years," recount a female voice crying in the women's bathroom at night when no one is there, the old telephone ringing when it is not plugged in, objects moved, and "the occasional startling apparition." Thought to be, and recount. The page also sells a Ghost Burger and a Haunt Dog. The menu names are not a finding. The page says the owner calls himself Old Man Liver. The town, it says, is now called a ghost town and still has around 200 residents.

Visit: 310 West Spring Street, Goodsprings, Nevada 89019. (702) 674-6809. That number is on the privacy-policy page, under "How to reach us." The homepage I opened prints the address and the hours and does not print the phone. pioneersaloonnv.com. Hours on the homepage: Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. A line above the list says the bar generally stays open an hour later. Parties of 15 or more need a reservation. All ages. The patio is dog-friendly. "Generally" is doing a lot of work on the last hour. Call if you are timing the drive from Las Vegas to the unplugged phone.

Flamingo Las Vegas

The Flamingo is a casino a person can walk into without a room key, and the ghost claim I could trace is a 1999 newspaper brief, not a page on the resort's site. The Las Vegas Sun, on Friday, Oct. 29, 1999, ran "Bugsy Siegel's ghost recalled for Halloween." The time on the article is 11:46 a.m. The page's data marks that instant as Pacific, which is 1:46 p.m. CT. No reporter's name appears in the story text. The piece says a Wall Street Journal search for America's most haunted places included the Flamingo Hilton, and that a Journal story that day listed the Presidential Suite as one of the nation's scariest hotel rooms. "Ghost researchers say dozens of guests have seen the ghost of gangster and hotel founder Bugsy Siegel in the suite." It says the actual presidential suite was torn down years ago, and that the Journal said guests report the ghost has moved into the new penthouse presidential suite. I did not open the Journal story. The Sun is the piece in front of me, and it is a summary of someone else's list. Dozens, on that page, is what the Sun says the researchers say. It is not a count I checked.

The resort pages did not help. Caesars' Flamingo URL did not open when this was checked. An Incapsula block came back instead. The page that did open is the Wyndham Trademark Collection overview. It posts the address and the phone below, and it describes a casino and a wildlife habitat on the Strip. It does not post a casino hour, a restaurant hour, or a Siegel story. A 1999 brief about a suite that the same brief says was torn down is not a 2026 floor plan. If a desk clerk laughs this off, that is consistent with what the resort's own page fails to say.

Visit: 3555 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Las Vegas, NV 89109, as posted on the Wyndham overview. (702) 733-3111. wyndhamhotels.com/trademark/las-vegas-nevada/flamingo-las-vegas-trademark/overview. No clock was on that page. The door is the casino floor, if the floor is in fact open when you arrive. I am not going to invent a 24-hour line the page did not print.

Mackay Mansion, Virginia City

The Mackay Mansion is a house museum that puts the ghosts on the about page in plain language, and then sells you a half-hour tour that mixes them with the silver kings. The page says George Hearst built it in 1859 and sold it in 1871 to John Mackay. It says Mackay, James Fair, James Flood, and William O'Brien, "The Big Four" or "The Silver Kings," did their mining business in the office while Mackay's family lived in the rest of the house. It says the building is one of the few original structures that survived both of the major fires, and that original furniture, carpet, wallpaper, and chandeliers are still in it. Then: "This historic mansion is also a well known haunted location." It says the mansion has been on Ghost Adventures and The Dead Files. It says actor Johnny Depp had his first paranormal experience at the mansion. It does not say what he saw, or when, or which room. The activity list is the page's, not a case file. "Some paranormal activity you might experience during your visit includes our two little girls running on the staircase, our maid Harriet in the parlor, our Shadow Man upstairs, and more." Our. Might. The page invites you in for more. It does not attach a death date to the girls, to Harriet, or to the shadow.

The tours page repeats the television credits and splits the visit. Day tours "discuss the interesting history of the building and the Mackay family with some paranormal stories & evidence." After-hours tours put more weight on "the paranormal and the deaths that have occurred in the house." Evidence, on that page, means what the tour says it has. Deaths, on that page, are not named. I am not going to supply names the mansion skipped.

Visit: 291 S. D Street, Virginia City, NV 89440. The contact page also prints P.O. Box 971. (775) 847-0156. therealmackaymansion.com. The tours page says hours are updated on Google, and then it prints them anyway. Summer: Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Winter: every day, noon to 5 p.m., weather permitting. "Hours subject to change." Day tours are first come, first served, about 30 minutes. Adults $14. Kids 6 to 12, $7. Age 5 and under, free. If a tour is underway, the page says the time of the next one is posted on the door. After-hours tours are $25, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., reserved ahead, minimum of four, cash is not specified on this page the way the October candlelight listing specifies it. The weekday summer close is 5 p.m., and the after-hours tour is posted as 5 to 6. Those two lines do not share a clock. Call before you count on the 5 p.m. tour on a Tuesday.

Washoe Club, Virginia City

The Washoe Club will sell you a drink, a 40-minute ghost tour, or a night locked inside, and the spirit with a name is on Travel Nevada, not on the club pages I opened. The club's homepage says it was on Ghost Adventures and tells you to stop in for a specialty drink in "Virginia City's Oldest Saloon." The ghost-tours page says each guided tour is about 40 minutes, seven days a week, all three floors, tickets sold on site. Adults $10. Children 16 and under, $5. "Most tours start on the hour." It also says restoration is continuous, and it asks guests to take photos and record audio, "you never know what you will catch." Catch, on that page, is an invitation. It is not a result. The Ghost Adventures page on the site names Season 16, Episode 7, "The Washoe Club: Final Chapter." It does not transcribe what the episode claimed. The overnight page says a group can be locked down on all three floors, including the crypt and the spiral staircase, for $400, and that each person must also buy a basic membership in the restoration project at $20. It says to contact the owner, Scott Burrell.

Travel Nevada is where Lena shows up. The tourism writeup calls the club one of the most haunted locations in the West, says it has been on Ghost Adventures and on Ghost Hunters, and says the spiral staircase, "the longest freestanding spiral staircase ever built," is "said to be haunted by a resident spirit named Lena." Said to be. The same page gives the club's history as a millionaires' room above the Crystal Bar, opened, it says, four months before the Great Fire, rebuilt and opened again later in 1876, and closed in 1897. It quotes the Territorial Enterprise: "The Closing of the Washoe Club marks an era in the history of Nevada, as did its opening." I did not open that 1897 paper. The membership names it lists include John Mackay, Ulysses S. Grant, actor Edwin Booth, and Darius Ogden Mills. Those names are the tourism page's. The club pages I opened do not repeat them, and they do not print the name Lena.

The clocks and the prices do not match across the two sites either. The club's directions page posts Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Travel Nevada says guided tours run every day from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and that museum admission is $8 for adults and $5 for visitors under 16. The club's own tour page says $10 and $5, and it does not print an 11-to-5 window. The overnight price, $400 plus $20 a person, does match. Use the club's door price unless the person at the bar tells you the tourism page won.

Visit: 112 South C Street, Virginia City, NV 89440. (775) 847-4467. thewashoeclubmuseum.com. Hours, as the directions page posts them: Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. The saloon page does not print a separate bar clock. If you want Lena's name, you will be carrying it in from Travel Nevada. The club will sell you the stairs either way.

Nevada State Prison, Carson City

The prison closed in 2012, and the preservation society will sell you the history in the daytime and the paranormal after dark, and it is careful on its own pages about what the night visit is. The visit page says historic day tours run about 90 minutes, $20, and include the museum and gift shop. Part of the tour is the execution chamber. The subject matter, the page says, may not suit children under 12. The paranormal page says ghost walks are $50, groups limited to 20, "not a haunted house but a walk in the dark and stories of deaths and paranormal activity." Stories. The page does not name a spirit. It does set rules: no blue jeans, because inmates wore blue and photos are encouraged; closed-toe shoes; no weapons, alcohol, tobacco, or drugs; no minors under 15, turned away with no refund. A flashlight is required. The visit page says to be in the free lot by 6:30 p.m. The same site also sells the Dark Prison haunted house, which it describes as live actors and special effects, "the largest haunted house in Northern Nevada." That is a maze. The society has already said the ghost walk is the other thing. I am not going to treat the actors as the haunting.

The specific reports are in a Carson Now item dated Tuesday, May 19, 2026, 3 p.m., bylined Lucia Maloney of the Nevada State Prison Preservation Society and marked as submitted by a reader. It says the prison is "home to over 150 years of reported spiritual presence, including activity dating back to the land's earliest inhabitants." It says guests frequently report shadow figures, unexplained footsteps, distant conversations, and doors moving on their own, and that the most intense experiences happen after dark. It prices "2-hour Historic Paranormal Tours" and mini-investigations at $50, says they are held twice monthly, and says private investigations start at $500. The society's own visit page says ghost walks are $50 and does not say they last two hours or run twice a month. The May piece and the visit page are the same organization, published in two places, on two clocks. Reported, and frequently, are the words in the Carson Now text. They are not a lab result.

Visit: The visit page opens with 3301 E. 5th Street, Carson City, Nevada. Later on that same page the address is 3301 Warm Springs Court, Carson City, NV 89701, "accessed off of E. 5th Street." The paranormal page prints the Warm Springs Court line. (530) 412-3521. That is a 530 number on a Carson City prison. nevadastateprison.org/pages/visit. Open every Saturday from May through October, excluding holidays, and for special events. Hours of operation are subject to change. Day tours $20. Ghost walks $50. No refunds, and no changes once the ticket is bought. Expect about half a mile and about 60 steps. There is no elevator. The page says an ADA option exists for day tours, and that an ADA option for the paranormal walks is still being developed. If you need the East Fifth line and the Warm Springs line to be the same driveway, ask when you call. Both are printed.

How to use this

Start with the door that matches the trip you are actually taking. Tonopah will rent you a Lady in Red suite and point you at a ghost tour whose price and calendar were not on the page that sells it. Travel Nevada will tell you the stabbing, the pearls, and room 502. The Review-Journal, in 2016, quoted a full name and a death date the current hotel pages do not print. The Pittman Cafe clock disagrees with itself. Goldfield will not let you into the hotel. Travel Nevada says that building is closed. The high school is the appointment, $20, and the only spirit language on that listing is "potentially." The historical society page tells the cornerstone and skips the ghosts. Goodsprings will pour you a drink seven days a week and will tell you Paul Coski is thought to haunt the bar where the saloon says he was shot in 1915. The phone number is on the privacy policy. The Las Vegas door is the Flamingo, if the floor is open. The only ghost sentence I could trace is a 1999 Sun brief about a suite the brief says was already gone, summarizing a Journal story I did not open. The Wyndham page posts the phone and does not post a clock. The Caesars page did not load. Virginia City will sell you the Mackay Mansion from late morning, with Harriet, two girls, and a shadow man on the about page, and an after-hours tour posted across the weekday closing time. The photo caption and the contact page do not share a street number. The Washoe Club will sell you the saloon into the evening and a $10 tour that does not, on the club's pages, name Lena. Travel Nevada names her, and it also posts a cheaper museum ticket and a shorter tour day than the club does. Carson City will open the old prison on Saturdays from May through October, $20 for the history and $50 for a walk the society says is not a haunted house. The Carson Now note that lists shadows and footsteps was submitted by the society itself. The visit page prints two street addresses.

If a guide adds a ghost this research did not find on the venue's site or in the news pieces cited below, enjoy it as a story and leave it there.

These seven doors are not in one town. Compact binoculars and a Nevada road atlas are the practical extras if you are driving between them.