Haunted Tombstone

On September 9, 1880, the Arizona Daily Star announced that Sylvester B. Comstock opened the “most elegant hostelry in Arizona,” the Grand Hotel. Located on Allen Street between Fourth and Fifth Streets, the hotel was luxuriously furnished. Its rooms provided thick carpeting, and the walls were decorated with costly oil paintings. The hotel contained sixteen bedrooms fitted with solid walnut furnishings, toilet stands, fine fixtures and elaborate wallpaper. The lobby was adorned with three elegant crystal chandeliers, and the kitchen boasted hot and cold running water. An excellent description of what the hotel looked like was printed in the Tombstone Epitaph on September 9, 1880:

Through the courtesy of Mr. H.V. Sturm an Epitaph reporter yesterday paid a visit to and made a brief inspection of the new hotel christened the grand which will be formally open for dinner this evening at five o’clock. The general size and character of the structure have been mentioned so often during the course of construction that further mention would be superfluous and we will confine ourselves to a description of the interior appointments of it. Passing into the building by the front entrance the first thing that strikes the eye is a wide and handsome staircase covered by an elegant carpet and supporting a heavy black walnut banister. Thence upstairs to the main hall, and turning to the right, we are ushered into a perfect little bijou of costly furniture and elegant carpeting known as the bridal chamber. This room occupies half of the main front and is connected with the parlor by folding doors through which the reporter passed, and entering the parlor was more than astonished by the luxurious appointments. A heavy Brussels carpet of the most elegant style and finish graces the floor, the walls are adorned with rare and costly oil paintings; the furniture is of walnut cushioned with the most expensive silk and rep, and nothing lacks, save the piano which will be placed in the position shortly. On down through the main corridor peeping now and then into the bedrooms, sixteen in number, each of them fitted with walnut furniture and carpeted to match: spring mattresses that would tempt even a sybarite, toilet stands and fixtures of the most approved pattern, the walls papered, and to crown all, each room having windows. All are outside rooms thus obviating the many comforts in close and ill-ventilated apartments. Returning we pass down the broad staircase and turning to the left are in the office and reading room. Here we met Mr. R.J. Pryke, the polite and affable clerk, so well known to Yosemite tourists in California. The office fixtures are as is common in first class hotels and fully in keeping with the general character of the house. The dining room adjoining next invites inspection. Here we find the same evidence of good taste in selection and arrangement that is so marked a feature of the whole interior. Three elegant chandeliers are pendant from the handsome centerpieces, walnut tables, extension, and plain, covered with cut glass, china, silver castors and the latest style of cutlery are among the many attractions of this branch of the cuisine.

Thence into the kitchen where we find the same evidence before mentioned; an elegant Montagin range 12 feet in length, with patent heater, hot and cold faucets, in fact, all the appliances necessary to feed five hundred persons at a few hours notice are present. The bar occupies the east half of the main front and is in keeping with the general furnishings. Want of space prevents more than this cursory glance at the Grand and its appliances for the comfort and convenience of guests. A Grand (no pun intended) invitation ball will take place this evening.

During its short life, the hotel housed some of Tombstone’s most famous residents, including Wyatt and Virgil Earp, Doc Holliday and even members of the Clanton Gang. The hotel had a small role in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The night before the gunfight, Ike Clanton and the two McLaury brothers were registered guests. After the duel, the Earp brothers took refuge at the Grand by barricading themselves in one of its upper rooms—defying arrest by Sheriff Behan.

The name of the saloon under the Grand Hotel was identified in the Tombstone Weekly Epitaph on April 10, 1882:

Messrs, Alderson & Gratton will open the saloon under the Grand Hotel, formerly known as the Grotto, tomorrow evening. It is hereafter to be known as the Fountain. An elegant lunch has been prepared, and an orchestra of three pieces will be in attendance to discourse sweet music to while away the hours. A cordial invitation is extended to the public to come out and drink.

The end of the Grand Hotel came on May 25, 1882, when a fire swept from the Occidental Saloon. Once the blaze reached the wooden staircase on the outside of the Grand Hotel, the building went up in flames. Above ground, the only things that remained standing were seven great arches and floor joists. The rest of the building collapsed into the basement, where the hotel’s bar was located.

Instead of rebuilding the hotel, Comstock chose to erect another structure, to be called the Grand Hotel Building. It was large enough to contain several businesses. Jakey’s restaurant, card rooms and a bar occupied the ground floor. The basement was leased out to become the next incarnation of the Fountain Saloon.

In May 1942, another fire destroyed most of the building. When it was rebuilt, the adobe façade became a functional part of the structure. It then became the Allen Street Bar. In the 1970s, it was sold and became Big Nose Kate’s Saloon. Some changes have been made to the original structure over the years. The bar area—originally in the basement—is now located on the main level. The basement itself is now a popular gift shop in town. Not only does the saloon continue to be popular among the locals and tourists, it is said to be the home of a couple of spectral ones as well.

The first report of paranormal activity at Big Nose Kate’s Saloon occurred when the basement of the building was being renovated to create a gift shop. The original staircase to the basement was located on the outside of the structure facing Allen Street. (This area is where the dressing rooms are located today.) One evening, the owners and a few employees were sitting on the stairs in the dark enjoying a few drinks after a long day of work when they heard the sound of footsteps coming from the darkness on the other side of the room. They immediately turned on their flashlights and scanned the area, but no one was there. Thinking that it was odd but not frightened by the noises, they turned off the flashlights and continued their conversation. A few minutes later, a loud moan came from the same area, and again the flashlights were turned on, only to reveal that they were alone. This time, they decided to leave for a safer environment upstairs.

As the renovations continued, they started working in the area where the footsteps and moans seemed to have originated. There was a small separate room here, like a janitor’s closet, which they had been told was once the living quarters of the janitor of the Grand Hotel, a position that was called a “swamper” in those days. As the old flooring was being removed, a tunnel was discovered beneath a wooden panel toward the center of the room. It appeared that someone had been digging down to attempt to gain access to the mine tunnels that ran underneath a large portion of Tombstone. The staff soon began calling the mysterious hole the “swamper’s diggings.”

It was the middle of the off-season, and business was exceptionally slow, so several nights later, the manager asked the two employees on duty if they would be interested in helping him explore the newly discovered tunnel. Both readily agreed.

Outfitted with flashlights, the trio headed down to the basement and descended into the tunnel. The tunnel itself was not very large, but they managed to explore far enough to discover that it connected to one of the Toughnut mine shafts. Out of fear of becoming lost, they turned back around and made their way back to the basement. As the last of the group started up into the swamper’s room, a loud moan of distress echoed down the basement stairs. The group paused as the sound of hurried footsteps came thundering down the stairs.

The group quickly searched the basement, but no one was there. They then ran upstairs and began a systematic search of the bar and the adjoining rooms. They were all empty, and the doors were still locked. The legend of the swamper was born.

The legend itself is mostly based on speculation. It was evident that someone had tunneled into the mine at some point in the past. If this person was indeed stealing silver from the mine, he would have had trouble selling it locally, so it must still be hidden in the basement somewhere.

One variant of the legend is that some of the miners discovered that the janitor was stealing silver from the mine. They pushed him down the stairs, and he died from the injuries sustained during the fall. It is surmised that the swamper is afraid of someone finding his hoard of silver and he is determined to protect it. Thus the reason for all of the paranormal activity.

Despite this, the renovations continued. The next major step was to dig out a portion of the wall to create an opening to the bar above. This new entrance would be fitted with a spiral staircase that would allow easy access to the gift shop below.

Bartender Michael House was one of the employees who assisted with the digging project. In many ways, it almost resembled an archaeological dig, as they discovered a variety of artifacts, mostly old bottles, as they dug out the new stairwell. For the visitor today, all of the artifacts they recovered were placed in the Swamper’s Lair exhibit in the basement. One day, Michael was climbing up the stairwell on a rope when the rope mysteriously gave way. He fell to the concrete below, and after he was able to move, he discovered that the knot that he tied to the post above was still secure. How did the rope unfasten itself if the knot was still tied? Michael also said that he has been alone in the building at 3:00 a.m. and heard people run across the floor. He would check the saloon, but nobody was there.

The construction of the stairwell appeared to have some effect on the odd phenomenon that was occurring, and strange things were beginning to happen upstairs as well.

Michael also spoke of an incident where a waitress at the saloon was walking across the floor and suddenly jolted as if an unseen hand had pinched her. She was in the center of the room. There was no one near her when this happened. Another unusual phenomenon that staff have reported is that drinks will levitate off the serving tray, hitting them in the chest or in the face.

Other witnesses have claimed to have heard disembodied voices singing and talking in empty rooms. Objects fall to the floor of their own accord, doors open and close mysteriously, lights turn on and off by themselves and silverware has been known to go flying off tables.

I was working in here one night, and I was alone. I had already closed up and was counting the money at the cash register. The door was locked, and I was the only one in the building. Suddenly, I heard footsteps on the dance floor behind me. I turned around, and there wasn’t anyone there. So I said, “Alright Mr. Ghost if you will wait until I finish counting this money, I’ll get out of here and let you have this place.” Now I’m not saying that I believe in ghosts now, but I heard the footsteps and I was the only one in the building. Just as plain as day, I heard footsteps.

Another incident I heard of involved another bartender that worked here. He was the only person in the saloon and was walking to the doors to lock them up. One his way to the doors, he noticed a cowboy wearing a duster that was leaning against the bar. He said, “You are going to have to leave, I’m closing up.” However, when he got to the door, he realized that he was the only one in there. He turned back to look, and no one was there. He ran across the street and called the manager, telling him, “You can go lock up Big Nose Kate’s. I’m not going back over there.” He hasn’t been back since.

During an investigation in 1998, I talked to manager Tim Ferrick, who went by the nickname “Whiskers.” His brother had worked at the saloon, and after his death, Tim and his wife moved to Tombstone. He applied for the manager position at Big Nose Kate’s and was called for an interview later that evening. This was when he had his first experience with the ghost of the saloon.

The job interview was after closing time, so the manager closed and locked the doors. Tim was accompanied by his wife, Marcy. They sat with the owner in a corner table of the saloon and quickly got down to talking about the job and the saloon itself. After the interview was over, the conversation turned to the unusual paranormal occurrences that have plagued the saloon over time. Tim was aware of the ghost and a few of the stories, as his brother had mentioned them in the past.

The owner was talking about the mine shaft when suddenly he was interrupted by a loud scraping noise. One of the prominent decorative features of Big Nose Kate’s saloon at that time was a balcony at the back of the main room. On top of the balcony are two mannequins, a man and a woman that are dressed in authentic 1800s period clothing. The noise appeared to be coming from that balcony. The group looked up to see the female mannequin slowly moving forward. Then, as they all watched in disbelief, the mannequin hit the railing of the balcony and flipped over it, crashing to the floor with a loud bang. They sat in stunned silence for a moment until Tim looked back up and saw the male mannequin starting to move. He yelled to the others at the table, “Hey, look at the other mannequin!” They watched as the mannequin’s head turned toward the left, where the female figure had been. The trio decided to call it a night and swiftly exited the building. This incident was enough to convince both Tim and Marcy that the building was indeed haunted.

Debbie Valdez reported another ghostly experience that occurred on the balcony. One afternoon, while tending the bar, she looked up at the balcony and saw a woman dressed in a dark dress that appeared to be from the 1880s. The unidentified woman was holding a parasol and seemed to be observing the people down below. Debbie claimed that the woman was breathtaking, so much so that she had a hard time taking her eyes off of her. The mysterious woman was visible for a few minutes, and then she just vanished into thin air.

So why are there so many reports of different apparitions, and why are they wearing dark clothing? Perhaps an answer can be found in Tombstone’s history. The location where the saloon sits today was once occupied by an undertaker’s business. The Tombstone Weekly Epitaph ran a short story about it on August 20, 1887:

Undertaking rooms, as a general thing, are not cheerful places, but when elegantly fitted up as are those of A.J. Ritter in the Grand Hotel Building, on Allen Street, they go far towards removing the gloomy surroundings. The office, which occupies the entire front of the large room has been carpeted with rich body Brussels, while the furniture is correspondingly elegant. A portiere hung with heavy drapery separates this parlor-like apartment from the stockroom where a large and varied assortment of burial caskets is to be found. Still further to the rear are two other large rooms, one of which is used as a storeroom and the other as a morgue. Everything about the place is as neat as wax, and taken altogether it is undoubtedly the most complete establishment of the kind in the southwest.

There are two types of ghostly phenomena that appear to occur the most. The first is the sound of someone wearing heavy boots walking up and down the stairs. The mysterious footsteps have been heard walking across the dance floor. This particular phenomenon is often very annoying to the managers and employees at the saloon. Tim recalled that this would frequently happen after closing. Sometimes after hearing the footsteps, he would rush to the stairs in the hope of catching the person making the sounds. However, as soon as he reached the stairs, the noises would abruptly stop and the adjoining rooms would be empty. After the saloon installed a security system, he caught the sounds of the disembodied footsteps on the audio of the video. Again, the rooms were empty, and the motion detection of the surveillance system did not activate.

The second common type of ghostly activity involves the staff, particularly the waitresses. Unseen hands pinch or slap them on the behind, poke them, pull their hair and grab their shoulders. In 2009, during a joint investigation with Tombstone Paranormal, manager Misty said that it happened to her fairly frequently since she started working there.

The freakiest thing that Misty has seen at the saloon occurred one evening when she and a co-worker were putting the chairs up on the tables after closing. The bullhorns that hung on the wall behind the stage suddenly flew off the wall and traveled twenty feet across the dance floor before hitting a table. While no one was injured, the experience was quite startling.

The legend of the swamper seems to be built more on speculation than fact. If you begin to ponder the elements of the legend, you end up with more questions than you do answers.

The first would be is the shaft in the basement actually connected to any of the mines below? Even during my first visit to the saloon in 1986, the shaft was filled in. Articles that I have read in the local newspapers have stated that if one stood upon the roof of the Grand Hotel, you could practically see down the shafts of several mines. The effort in such a task would have been quite excessive, but it could be plausible.

Another justifiable question would be how it was known that the tunnel in the saloon’s basement was dug during the 1800s. During my research, I was unable to locate anything that indicated the existence of the tunnel before the legend of the swamper existed. It could have been created just as easily in the 1940s or any other date for that matter. If someone was getting into the mine, they would be bringing up silver ore, which would still have to be processed to extract the silver. Was that done? If so, where was that done?

I also researched the brief period of time in which the Grand Hotel existed to identify any deaths or acts of violence that might shed some light on the swamper’s story. I was able to find only two deaths that actually occurred inside the hotel. The first was Archie McBride, the hotel’s manager, who passed away on May 19, 1882. His funeral was held inside the hotel. The second death was that of Charles Carter, who died from an unidentified sickness in the hotel on January 22, 1882.

As for acts of violence, I located only one. It happened in February 1882, when a pistol shot was heard in front of the hotel. When the crowd went for the spot where the shot was heard, they discovered that a carelessly handled gun went off, shooting its owner in the knee. So the element that the swamper was murdered by miners does not hold much credibility.

However, before you start thinking that I am trying to debunk all of the paranormal activity that has been reported at the saloon for the past forty years, there is one more story I have to tell.

During my first formal investigation at Big Nose Kate’s Saloon, I witnessed something firsthand. I was talking to one of the bartenders while he was cleaning up after the bar had closed. We were just chit-chatting, not about ghosts or anything. I was interested in what it was like to live in the town of Tombstone, and he was more than happy to oblige me. My fellow investigator Ash Thompson had just packed up the little bit of equipment that we had brought and was taking it back to the car.

While we were talking, we heard a strange sound coming from the opposite end of the bar. It had a slight ring to it as if something made out of glass was moving. We both looked in the direction of the noise to see a beer mug levitate off the bar. It hung, suspended in the air about a foot above the bar, for a fraction of a second. Suddenly, it was launched away from the bar, traveling across the saloon, where it eventually landed with a crash. I was stunned and, for once, at a lack of words. The bartender, however, acted casual as he pulled a slip of paper out from underneath the bar. I asked him what he was doing, and he replied, “We have to keep track of the ones that get broken by the ghosts.” Apparently, this was something that happened fairly regularly.

I was able to search the area of the bar where the beer mug had been. There were no springs, secret hatches, magnets or any other such device that could have made that mug do what it did.

Before this event, I was extremely skeptical of the existence of ghosts and the paranormal. My interest was more in solving mysteries than it was trying to prove that paranormal things actually happen. However, after witnessing something firsthand, I began to accept that unusual things do happen and that they are worth investigating and researching.

My co-investigator Ash never lets me live down what happened at the saloon on that hot summer night. Even when I successfully debunked another haunting by finding an alternative explanation, he quickly reminded me of the incident that happened at Big Nose Kate’s. Swamper or not, there really is something quite unusual going on there.