Investigation conducted January 30th-31st, 2010
Click on the Plaza Hotel Picture to visit
thier website
Click on the pic to navigate to the Plaza Hotel website!
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| Ilfeld Building |
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| Hotel Romaine Signage c.1913 |
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| View Plaza storefront |
Pre-Investigative Research/Historical:
Originally called "Nuestra Senora de los Dolores de Las Vegas Grandes", with roots back to
Spanish settlers in the 1600s, Las Vegas' traditional plaza design provided protection from attacking Apaches.
The settlement was established by Spanish land grant in 1835 and was, until 1846, part of Mexico.
When the United States
declared war on Mexico, it sent the Army of the West under command of General Stephen W.Kearney into the fight. It was
in that year, 1846, that he arrived at Las Vegas and aimed his heavy cannon at the plaza. The citizens of Las Vegas
who were then farmers, ranchers and merchants, surrendered to Gen. Kearney without aggression.
The arrival
of the calvary and the establishment of Ft. Union, a short distance north of town, insured the security of the region and
especially pioneers and merchant travel on the Santa Fe Trail.
Las Vegas became the only notable town of stature on over
600 miles of trail from Kansas. This begins the prosperity of the town.
Settlers and merchants weren't
the only folks headed for Las Vegas, with prosperity came the villians of the Wild West. The stores abounded with supplies
for settlers and continuing pioneers, and the saloons supplied the whiskey and women.
The railroad arrived on July 4th,
1879 and it wasn't long before six trains a day on the Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad stopped in Las Vegas
on their routes between Independence, Missouri and San Francisco, California.
Many famous characters from the history
of the Wild West found a home or passed through Las Vegas. It was the last town Doc Holliday practiced dentistry.
He soon found it was more profitable and more satisfying to own a saloon with ex-Dodge City lawman John Joshua Webb.
Doc didn't last long in Las Vegas. He killed a man in a gunfight and fled with Big-Nose Kate back to Dodge
City only to find his long time friend Wyatt Earp had left for Tombstone. We all know the rest of that story...part
of which was filmed in the Lincoln Park area of current day Las Vegas. Other notables like Wyatt Earp, Dirty Dave Rudebagh,
Jesse James, Billy The Kid, Chavez Y Chavez and Vicente Silva and his White Caps came and went.
The hotel
was built in 1882 next to a thriving "department store" owned by Charles Ilfeld. The Ilfeld building
is now a part of the Plaza Hotel.
Silent movies came to Las Vegas in 1913 when Romaine Fielding leased the Plaza
Hotel for the Lubin Film Company and renamed the building the Hotel Romaine. The original painted sign is
visible on the exterior wall of the hotel. Tom Mix filmed many of his movies in and around Las Vegas in 1915 and lived in
the hotel during his stay.
In the 1940's the hotel was beginning to fall into disrepair. Then owner, Byron
T Mills, made the decision to demolish and sell off the hotels furnishings. Unknown circumstances changed Byron's
mind, and the historical structure escaped the wrecking ball. It is said the guilt ridden ghost of Byron still
wanders the hotel today.
A partnerhip was formed in 1982 and the old Plaza Hotel received a well researched and historically
correct restoration. The Plaza stands today as a wonderful place to stay and relive an era long gone by.
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| The head of Dirty Dave Rudebagh |
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| Las Vegas Plaza and the Hanging Windmill c.1880 |
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| Doc Holliday |
| Army of the West Enters Las Vegas Plaza |
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| Art By: K. M. Chapman |
Employee and Witness Accounts:
There
are many accounts of meddling spirits by the staff and guests. The most common are of "Byron T" pacing the
rooms and sitting down on beds. Most of these accounts occur on the second and third floors and seem to specifically
be related to rooms 310 and 316. There are accounts of cigar smoke after closing in the saloon, and of perfume at the
base of the stairs in the lobby.
An interesting account of "Byron T' was told to us by veteran employee
Sara Mathews, who has worked at the Plaza Hotel for six years. Sara was working in the Landmark Grill Dining Room at
the end of the night. She was placing silverware onto the tables in preparation for the next days business. She
had set her large tray of silverware in the middle of one of the tables and began to get to work. As she turned to retrieve
more tableware from behind her, the tray lifted and the silverware was scattered all over the dining room by what she calls
the ghost of Byron T. Sara also related stories told to her by the housekeepers that Byron also liked to pull the
vacuum cleaner plugs out of the wall as they worked...repeatedly.
Another interesting account was told by
Front Desk Manager, Santiago. His grandfather had recently passed. His uncle had come into town and he and
Santaigo bunked together in Room 215. Santiago awoke in the middle of the night with the feeling he was being watched.
He sat up quickly and came face to face with a shadow or mist. According to Santiago's account, as soon as he realized
what he was looking at or when the shadow realized he had been seen, the mist moved quickly along the wall and disappeared.
There was no chance of the light playing tricks here since room 215's windows are completely enclosed by a courtyard over
the Plaza's Conservatory Meeting room.
The last account I have to tell is my own. After a week in Colorado
in August of 2009 visiting the infamous Stanley Hotel, my wife and I extended our trip by one night and stopped in at the
Plaza. After a good steak at the Landmark Grill, we wandered the hotel and ended up back in our room. Our room number
was 304...a room without any reported activity. Much to our surpise, we were not alone.
We broke out a digital
voice recorder and our trusty K-II EMF Meter. The K-II has diode lights that indicate strength of Electro-Magnetic Field.
This device has been adopted by many ghost hunting groups as a means of communication with spirits. Although skeptical
of its use, we have had surprising results in the past. The theory is simple - spirits are energy and the device
measures energy. By asking yes/no questions and prompting your paranormal guest to light up the device once for yes
and twice for no, you can conduct a paranormal interview. Cell phones, two-way radios and texting can also activate the
meter. So, only perfectly choreographed hits on the K-II lend to the creditability of the encounter. Typically
during an investigation, we would back the K-II up with video and audio. We did have a digital voice recorder with us
and although we had it running, no EVP's showed up after.
We proceeded to ask questions and after a short time, the
perfectly timed answers began to appear. After about a 14 minute encounter and many questions, we were able to determine
that our subject was:
1. A man
2. A Cattleman
3. A repeat guest
4. A guest prior to 1900
He also
responded to questions about women and specifically the Harvey Girls. He liked them. The interview ended as quickly
as had begun when after responding to the Harvey Girl questions, I informed him there was a wedding reception downstairs with
lots of pretty bridesmaids...boom, he was gone.
| Night on the Plaza |
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| A gazebo replaces the "Hanging Windmill" |
| Night on the Plaza |
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| Full Moon Over The Plaza Hotel |
| Purple Sage Paranormal Society |
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| Brian At Base |
| Purple Sage Paranormal Society |
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| Investigators |
| Purple Sage Paranormal Society |
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| Brian and Brenda-Ilfeld Basement |
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| Peggy & Mel-Ilfeld Basement |
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| Roger-Vault-Ilfeld Basement |
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| Marlane & Scott-Landmark Grill |
The Investigation:
In the course
of our investigation, Purple Sage Paranormal Society took over 400 photographs, recorded over 44 hours of Static Infrared
Video, filmed over 4 hours of Nightshot Video, logged over 6 hours of Digital Audio and had several personal experiences.
We spent several hundred man hours over the next three weeks viewing, reviewing and viewing again all the evidence taken.
After eliminating the "nothing there" and dubunking many of the remaining possible anomolies, we narrowed down the
data to what we cannot explain.
Presented in The Plaza Hotel Part 2 are the investigators
personal experiences, pictures, EVP's and video we felt compelling or informative.
Click Here for "THE PLAZA HOTEL PART 2: THE EVIDENCE">
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Copyright Purple Sage Paranormal
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