Travel Blog

Sue:

So we left our tour at the Golden North Hotel.

This hotel was built in 1898, but was only two stories back then. In 1908, after they moved it from its original location down to 3rd Avenue (by horse - it's said that the reason the hotel is set back farther than the other buildings is because the horse up and died, so they left it as it was), they added a third story and the golden dome.

In 1923, President Harding came to Skagway and stayed in the hotel. This is the bed he slept in:

He died a few weeks after his trip to Skagway, and it's rumored that his death was a result of some bad Chinese food he'd eaten here. But, like I said, that's just a rumor. We don't have Chinese food here in Skagway.

Now for the haunted part. Our boss, who owns the hotel, told us of many strange occurences in the hotel; some so disturbing that staff up and quit on them. Family members have also had strange things happen to them when they stayed overnight at the hotel. The most known story is the ghost of room 24, named Mary. The story is that back in 1898, Mary was a young woman waiting for her fiance to return from the gold fields. She stayed at the Golden North Hotel in room 24. While she was waiting, she contracted TB and died, in her wedding dress. Folks have said they have seen a figure dressed in white in the hotel. Here's Mary's room:

Nancy Corrington told us there was another, less friendly, ghost in the hotel that was actually exorcised by a priest. And now we have some fellow interested in coming to the hotel to try to capture the ghosts on film. We asked if they were going to let that guy come and do it, and they think they will, so Phil and I volunteered to stay in the hotel with him to keep an eye on things. How cool would that be?

I'll finish the tour with a view from one of the windows in the hotel. Maybe the same window Mary watched for her love to come back to her.