Episode Summary: Paranormal Investigations and Ghost Tours in Downtown Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Being a professional paranormal investigator and ghost tour guide sounds like an amazing job. But does it come with risks? Because this is the type of job where you don’t want to take your work home with you, no matter how badly your ghostly coworkers want to follow you back to your house.

Today, we speak with lead paranormal investigator Diane, who works at both the Crescent Hotel and Basin Park Hotel in Eureka Springs. She’s had quite a few encounters both on the clock and off the clock, and she’s sharing them all. Let’s hear about some haunted hotels and ghost tours in Arkansas, today, on Homespun Haints.

About the Guest: Diane Newcomb

Diane has been leading paranormal investigations at the Basin Park Hotel and Crescent Hotel for years. The pair make up the most haunted hotels in the state of Arkasas. She’s such a fixture on these sites that the ghosts follow her home looking for her when she tries to take time off.

Diane has curated a vast collection of photos sent to her mostly by tourists who caught ghosts on camera during her tours at the two historical buildings. She was a fabulous guide for the Basin Park Paranormal Investigation, energetically sharing fascinating history and people’s true ghost stories despite the late hour. We loved her style from the moment the haunted doll greeted us at the beginning of the investigation. We were honored and thrilled when she offered to come on our show and tell some of the real ghost horror stories she’s collected over the years!

How to protect yourself from ghosts while paranormal investigating

This is a topic many a paranormal investigator has felt was very important to bring up in past interviews. We have heard many suggestions for how to protect against spirits. The methods Diane uses include a “spirit dump,” which we’re picturing is like a colonic for dead things that may be clinging on to you or intend to follow you home.

She also taught us an Aramaic prayer for protection, which one of her investigation participants shared with her. We found the following Hebrew version at keysofenoch.org: “KODOISH, KODOISH, KODOISH ADONAI ’TSEBAYOTH.” That website translates this prayer as “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of Hosts.”

Sorry, but your princess is in a different castle

Interestingly, many of the ghosts at the Basin Park Hotel are actually not haunting the Basin Park Hotel, per se. Diane could not confirm if anyone has ever died on the property in its current iteration. Before the hotel was built, a lodging called the Perry House stood at the same spot. Well, where the South Wing now stands, at least.

Diane tells us that newspapers at the time reported that nobody perished in the fire that claimed the Perry House. But that doesn’t mean there were never any deaths on the property. If any cowboy died on the land to become one of the numerous ghosts photographed at the modern day Basin Park, they would’ve likely done so during the Perry House years. Given the time frame during which the Perry House stood, it’s a lot more likely someone would’ve died due to accident, injury, illness, or even murder, while lodging at the Perry House. The many ghosts that tourists spot walking through walls on the current property supports this idea. There’s a theory that, when an earthbound spirit walks through a wall, it is actually passing through an area that would’ve been open and passable during that person’s lifetime.

Healing water and snake oil

Diane tells us that the healing waters that founded the town were actually well-known to the Osage people. Once word spread that the waters could cause miraculous cures for multiple illnesses, the wagon stop became a tent settlement, which then became a town. Given the rampant risks and shenanigans that happened in 19th century medicine, it’s no surprise that sick people were willing to travel by wagon up a windy mountain road just to drink some spring water. Hell, people still do things like that.

At the height of the expansion of Eureka Springs, enter the Crescent Hotel. At a budget several times what a normal luxury hotel would cost, in a remote, mountainous area almost impassable in the icy dead of winter, the Crescent almost instantly became somewhat of a money pit. It repeatedly changed hands, and even purposes, attempting to stay in the black. The most notorious part of its history was the late 1930’s. The so-called Baker Hospital subsumed the entire hotel. This serial fraudster claimed a 100% cure rate for all forms of cancer. It wasn’t until very recently that the details of the ruse finally came to light.

In 2019, excavation on an undeveloped part of the hotel grounds lead to the discovery of both creepy human remains and the actual formulas used in their cancer treatment. Diane tells us that the first people to really get their hands on these new discoveries were the guys from Ghost Adventures. Analyzing the nearly century-old samples, local university labs found ingredients like corn silk, red clover, ground watermelon seeds, and carbolic acid.

Diana has a little more to tell about it in her recent stay at the Basin Park Hotel:

Wait, those supplements sound familiar.

Now, to be fair, as only a couple generations removed from Appalachian granny witches, we do appreciate the value of nutraceuticals. According to clevelandclinic.org, corn silk is a traditional supplement that is traditionally used for fighting inflammation. (Fun aside: corn silks are basically corn fallopian tubes! We like how corn just lets it all hang out like that.) Red clover does actually contain isoflavones that can influence sex hormones, according to nccih.nih.gov, an imbalance of which could be related to several forms of cancer. The lycopene in watermelon seeds also influences sex hormones and is currently undergoing research as a potential anti-cancer agent.

So these “cures” weren’t just a random assortment of cheap local plants that someone blended together haphazardly. The continued modern use and study of these exact nutraceuticals supports the notion that, at some point, someone at the Baker Hospital potentially had good intentions and a justifiable plan to enact those intentions.

You know what we appreciate more, though? That it’s illegal nowadays to claim that a natural supplement has a 100% cure rate for cancer. Bizarrely, some of the nutraceutical components Baker used may have potentially been sincerely beneficial in some ways. The accompanying lies, secrecy, and abuse were pretty obviously not.

It’s not a tumor

And all the strange human tissue samples in bottles labelled as “tumors”? Those were apparently displayed in the lobby of the hospital. They served as “proof” to visitors that the tumors were no longer inside the patients. But all treatments performed at the hospital were non-surgical (thank you, Jesus). So…how’d those tumors get out, then? Perhaps they were remnants from psychic surgery? If so, what do you think they really were?

Would you stay in a hotel room haunted by a cowboy ghost?

If you’re planning a trip to Eureka Springs, and you want to stay in a haunted room at the Basin Park hotel, book in advance! None of the most haunted rooms were available when Diana visited. Diane suggests you stay in one of the following.

• Room 310, which the spirit of famous cowboy John Chisum haunts, and where kids see ghosts of other children.
• Room 308, where guests report getting touched.
• Room 408, where the notorious “ladies’ man ghost” may give you a sexy foot massage.
• Rooms 514 and 515, where more nameless cowboy ghosts apparently share a suite.
• The entire third floor, where the paranormal investigators get constant readings on their EMF meters all over. The rampant beeping and flashing suggests the presence of some sort of fear cage on the floor. A fear cage may cause false positives in ghost hunting. It is also thought to feed spirits energetically.

In fact, Diana stayed in room 506, and two nights of her stay, a loud furniture scooting sound woke her up right around the witching hour. The sounds were coming from the floor above, which was unoccupied and locked. In fact, right above her room was a locked-up, apparently haunted bathroom. So no matter which room of the haunted Basin Park Hotel you stay at, you’ll probably have a spooky day!

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Getting to the Crescent Hotel Ghost Tour

The main thing to remember driving there is that GPS is less helpful when you’re driving in the 3rd dimension. In other words, many travelers’ GPS can’t tell if it’s on a road at the top of the mountain, or a parallel road at the bottom. Because of that, you’ll want to look carefully for street signs guiding you to America’s most haunted hotel.

The main touristy area of Eureka Springs is along Spring Street, which you’ll take out of town to the northeast. Make a right at the post office to stay on Spring. Turn left on steep Howell at the bottom of the hill, then keep heading uphill. Turn right at the stop sign on Prospect, which you’ll stay on until you arrive at the 1886 Crescent hotel parking lot. Free parking is almost always pretty easy, except during major festivals.

There is also public transit available if your car isn’t brave enough to drive up the side of the mountain. For visitors staying the night at one of the Basin Park Hotel‘s guest rooms, there’s an on-demand free shuttle to the Crescent Hotel.

Welcome to the Eureka Springs Crescent Hotel

The hotel front desk where guests checked in was just to the left of the entrance, as was the crystal dining room. But you’ll actually turn right when you enter to get on the hotel elevator to the 4th floor.

Sometimes, I feel like the elevator is the first spooky attraction at the haunted hotel. It has definitely been there much longer than one lifespan. The dim light within after the dark lacquered doors close is reminiscent of The Shining. Perhaps enough to make you wish you’d hiked the many creaking stairs instead. 

Entering the Crescent is a special experience for me personally, since I used to visit so often making lifetime memories in my childhood. I still see each detail with a glint of the fantasy it imbued to my younger self. In front of the enormous fireplace sits the EXACT antique brass fireplace screen I grew up with in my home. Seriously. My mom sold it to the Crescent Hotel at an antique road show many years ago. But most importantly, I always look for Morris’ special exit. 

An adorable mascot for a Haunted Hotel

Morris was an assistant manager that worked at the hotel during the 1990’s. He wasn’t supposed to be there, given that he was a cat, but the hotel staff gave him a job so that he could stay. I’ve been a hard-core cat lady since birth. Many days in my childhood, I’d follow that fluffy orange tail around the hotel’s crystal dining room and lobby, until he slipped out his personal tiny exit door.

Nowadays, there’s a plaque in the lobby of the Crescent hotel dedicated to Morris’ lifetime memories. There’s also a sweet grave located between the back door and the swimming pool. You can read about the famous kitty while you wait to tour one of America’s most haunted hotels. Delightfully, I spotted a new fluffy black and white feline manager snoozing under a table in front of the fireplace. 

The Crescent Hotel Ghost Tour Review

Finding the ghost tour within the Crescent Hotel

Upon entering the fourth floor corridor, turn left and head past the bar. You’re going to a little sitting room on your left, where they’ll take your tickets. In that room, you’ll meet your guide.

Our guide was a serene, slight young woman with a wide-brimmed hat, reminiscent of a cheerier Lydia Deetz in technicolor. She was the perfect combination of animated and excited telling people’s true ghost stories, yet placid and patient with questions from participants. She spoke loud enough to hear perfectly. Plus, she waited until everyone could see her before starting each new story as we made our way through the Crescent hotel. We didn’t run into many hotel guests, but it was a Thursday evening.

Accessibility on the ghost tour of the 1886 Crescent Hotel

Before the pilgrimage started, we gathered in the sitting room to hear the history of the 1886 Crescent Hotel. Maybe I’m getting old, but I love sitting comfortably for the backstory. Some tours seem to think it’s a great idea to stand for 2 hours straight. I think most tourists would disagree. When I’m in tourist mode, I’ve been pounding the pavement constantly for multiple days. I’d like to have a seat as often as possible during the storytelling parts. That being said, the the hotel lobby carpets are padded and pretty comfortable to stand on. The elevator is very close to the stairs, so those who choose to take it won’t miss the ghost stories.

The main bathroom is around the corner from the staircase, but it’s a tight squeeze. You may want to ask ahead about other options if you have a chair. There may be accessible bathrooms downstairs in the New Moon Spa. There is also a ramp up to the front door which isn’t too steep. The place was built a century ago, so you can expect some narrow hallways. The group doesn’t really go through any narrow doorways. Watch your head in the morgue, where the ceilings are low and the lighting is dim. 

Crescent Hotel History: MILD SPOILERS, but you’ll want to take the ghost tour to get the full stories

Aside from just ghost stories, we heard the whole history of this Eureka Springs lodging. We learned that the 1886 Crescent hotel was several times grander than just about every other luxury hotel in America at the time. It was built for the many guests who crowded the Victorian village in its heyday for the local spring water with mystical healing properties. But despite recently becoming a stop on the Frisco Railroad, the mountain passes entering Eureka Springs, Arkansas, were still difficult for travelers to access in the winter. Thus, the Crescent hotel had many vacancies for half of each year.

The perfect solution was to make the Crescent hotel a college during the colder months. From 1908 to 1924, it was rebranded as the Crescent College and Conservatory for Young Women (and later a junior college until 1934). And this is where we get our first ghostly tales. According to our guide, recent guests have seen the apparition of a beautiful woman whom some suspect was a scandalously pregnant student from the conservatory.

Let the true horrors begin

For a couple years in the late 1930’s, Norman Baker purchased and turned the Crescent Hotel into the Baker Cancer Curable Hospital. The new owner boasted a 100% cure rate for all cancers. The extraordinary reputation of Eureka Springs healing water helped buoy Baker’s reputation. Given the limitations of the medical field at the time, a late-stage cancer patient likely had little hope of recovery in a standard hospital. The Baker Hospital might seem like a reasonable last resort.

Unfortunately, Baker was a charlatan. He had no medical training, and purportedly gave the cancer “patients” nothing useful, not even for pain relief. Instead, he locked those nearing death away in a distant room in a separate wing to suffer into madness. 

After these poor swindled people died, a nurse would wheel them right past the new guests, down to the morgue. There on the autopsy table, their tumors would be removed, preserved in alcohol, and displayed in the lobby of the Baker Hospital as “proofs of success.” Unfortunately for many cancer patients, the general public knew so little about medicine and anatomy at the time, that the excised tumors were used as proof that cancer was being cured without surgery. Because Baker didn’t perform surgery…on the living.

Justice served…or was it?

Fortunately, Baker was eventually shut down and convicted. But not for fraudulently practicing medicine, only for mail fraud, so the sentence was a pittance. Apparently, the same charlatan committed the same atrocities in other towns as well. Nobody was able to make the connections until it was far too late. I’m really glad I live in the age of the internet and facial recognition software. 

After Baker went to prison in 1940, the Crescent Hotel actually stood empty for six years. But those tumors stayed on the property until at least the 1970’s. The ghost tour guide speculated that, some time after that, someone must have carelessly buried the tumors on the grounds of the hotel without reviewing the contents.

Rebuilding the 1886 Crescent Hotel

Marty and Elise Roenigk purchased the Crescent Hotel and the Basin Park Hotel in the late 1990’s. Philanthropists and preservationists, the Roenigks repaired significant damage from a 1967 fire, carefully restoring the Crescent Hotel and health resort.

Our guide told us that the previous owners weren’t too thrilled to be known as America’s most haunted hotel, and tried to downplay the spooky ghost stories. The new owner seems much more open, and now the Crescent Hotel hosts ghostly events nightly.

A gory discovery

Now, one exciting new development has occurred since my last time taking the 1886 Crescent Hotel ghost tour. In 2019, an excavation on the hotel grounds uncovered a large cache of preserved tumors.

Because of the alcohol preservation techniques and the haphazard disposal, some of the specimens were pretty useless by their unearthing, seventy years later. A local Arkansas university took the well-preserved samples for study and analysis, but you’ll still see many specimens as part of the ghost tours at the Crescent hotel. The hotel still owns hundreds of bottles of shriveled human tissue, etc. These are displayed in the morgue for your morbid inspection. Because yes, the hotel does indeed still have a morgue below the kitchens and honeymoon suites, a macabre sight which you’ll likely only see on this official tour. 

Diana took a mysterious photograph

The entrance to this death wing is also where we snapped this picture of something that we didn’t see until examining the photographs later. I snapped photos every time the tour guide pointed out another location where previous guests had spotted a spirit. I tried to take several burst shots in a row, a technique that allows for quick comparison and helps with noticing things that are there one moment and gone the next. You can see by comparing the photos below that nothing has significantly changed position between the two moments caught on camera. Well, nothing living, at least.

I was beyond thrilled when I saw this bizarre blur on my camera roll late that night! I’ve been on dozens of ghost tours in historic hotels in AR and around the world, and I’ve NEVER caught anything remotely paranormal on camera on a ghost hunt before. What do you think that is? Does that look like Morris the cat to you?

More Paranormal Things To Do at the 1886 Crescent Hotel

• CRESCENT HOTEL Eureka Springs Paranormal Weekend: An annual 48 hour conference with a professionally-guided ghost hunt. Occurs both on January 26-28 2024 and February 2-4, 2024 this year. ESP Conference guests get discounts on guest rooms at the Crescent Hotel.
• Overnight Paranormal Investigation Lockdown: 65 guests will be guided through a private paranormal investigation at the haunted Crescent Hotel on January 9, 2024. Over night room required.
• Haunted Crescent Hotel Kids Ghost Tour: A mini, 45 minute, not-so-scary intro to ghost tours for children ages 5-12. Accompanying adult admission is free.

Want to see more ghost tour reviews?

Was this review of America’s most haunted hotel ghost tour helpful or interesting? Was there anything that left you wanting more? Have you taken any other good ghost tours around Eureka Springs? If you’ve been on the Crescent Hotel ghost hunt yourself (or stayed the night in a haunted room there), was this review accurate? Did you catch any ghosts (or ghost cats) on camera?

If you’re planning a haunted Ozarks road trip, there are hundreds of back episodes of our paranormal podcast to stream on your ride there. Perhaps you could start with this regional episode about Ozark folk magic. We’ve interviewed everyday people with true ghost stories about the paranormal from all over America and the world. Please drop us a comment on our Facebook page letting us know if there are other spirit tours you’d like us to review. We love an excuse for a road trip, and a spooky day!

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