Where the Dead Walk: Corpse Roads and Haunted Hotels

Where the Dead Walk: Corpse Roads and Haunted Hotels

Released Wednesday, 30th April 2025
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Where the Dead Walk: Corpse Roads and Haunted Hotels

Where the Dead Walk: Corpse Roads and Haunted Hotels

Where the Dead Walk: Corpse Roads and Haunted Hotels

Where the Dead Walk: Corpse Roads and Haunted Hotels

Wednesday, 30th April 2025
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follows may not be suitable for all

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audiences, listener discretion is advised. Hey,

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Freaks, just a quick reminder before

1:29

we get into the show. Tickets

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we'll keep you posted on any updates with

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that, but we would love to see you.

1:46

So excited. You were having

1:48

a weird conversation with one of

1:51

your, one of the groups that you belong

1:53

to on Facebook. You had like a group chat.

1:56

What was it that you were

1:58

talking about? It sounded interesting. I

2:00

didn't want to pry, but... Well,

2:03

I learned something and I guess

2:05

I'd never thought about it before,

2:07

but I was in a Zoom

2:09

with some friends and they were

2:11

horrified to discover that you and

2:14

I share socks. To be clear,

2:16

we share socks that are clean.

2:18

We don't like... wear them one

2:20

day and you wear them the

2:22

next. No, of course. Who would

2:24

think that? I don't know. I

2:27

can't think of any other reason

2:29

why that would be weird. And

2:31

you have you specific socks, and

2:33

I have me specific socks, but

2:35

then we have shareable socks. Yeah,

2:38

they're like little footies, just to

2:40

keep your feet warm. little sport

2:42

socks. But like, I don't wear

2:44

your dress socks. No. And

2:47

you don't wear my pantyhose. I

2:49

don't it anymore. I'm

2:51

just really curious. Like, is this

2:53

a common thing? Like, because it

2:56

was pretty unanimous that I was

2:58

the outlier. So I'm really curious

3:00

to know, like, do

3:02

you share socks? Is it, is

3:05

it us that's Strange I've never

3:07

occurred to me the great odd

3:09

sock debate right now We're all

3:12

of these people in your group

3:14

chat of female persuasion. No Really?

3:16

Because I could understand you know

3:19

like you're married to a bunch

3:21

of gross guys You know don't

3:23

wash a lot or something, but

3:26

that's interesting to me. You were

3:28

the only one Yeah, it was

3:30

pretty across the board and the

3:33

looks The looks, the faces

3:35

they made. The sheer horror of

3:37

it all. That's funny.

3:39

I'm curious now. I got into

3:41

an argument with a friend one

3:44

time who insisted that using liquid

3:46

soap that comes out of like

3:48

one of those little pump dispensers,

3:50

it's inappropriate to use that in

3:52

the shower. Like body wash?

3:55

Just like regular hand soap. I wouldn't

3:57

say it's inappropriate. I would say it's

3:59

crime. Like, why are you using hand

4:01

soap on your body? Well, in a

4:03

pinch. If I ran it a bar

4:05

soap, I would bring it in and

4:07

use it. And yeah, okay, there's an

4:09

extra layer of having to dispense and

4:11

it could be a potential slipping hazard.

4:14

I don't know. But

4:16

we argued about that for off and on

4:19

for days. Anyway,

4:22

enough of this. Hooliganery. I

4:24

love that word. It's a good one. Do

4:26

you ever hear about the corpse roads in

4:28

England? The pathways for

4:30

the dead? No. Is that

4:33

a place where you only use pump

4:35

hand soap? I'm

4:37

not sure about their hand

4:39

washing methods. My guess is

4:42

at the time when these

4:44

roads were being used. Personal

4:46

hygiene wasn't top of mind.

4:49

If you ever find yourself wandering

4:51

through the quiet corners of the

4:53

English countryside, which I want to

4:55

do as soon as possible. You

4:58

might notice a strange old trail.

5:02

It passes through patches of heather. It

5:05

squeezes between crumbling stone

5:07

walls. It's perfectly straight.

5:11

It slips into the woods. It's

5:14

so quiet you can feel the

5:16

silence. If you happen

5:18

to stumble upon one of these paths,

5:20

because there are a few, don't

5:23

be surprised. If you

5:25

get a little bit of a

5:27

creepy feeling, because chances are, even

5:29

if you're walking alone, you're not

5:32

walking alone. Oh. These

5:34

are the corpse roads. These

5:36

are ancient roads laid down not

5:39

for the living, but

5:41

for the dead. I'm sorry,

5:43

they were constructed for

5:45

deceased people? In

5:47

a way, in a manner of speaking. Long

5:50

before GPS, in

5:52

hearses, Before local graveyards were

5:55

pretty much inked on every

5:57

village map, the

6:00

rural dead had to

6:02

travel. In life, they

6:05

may never have left their little hamlets. In

6:08

death, they were

6:10

carried over miles of lonely

6:13

terrain to reach the nearest

6:15

consecrated church. Oh, it's

6:18

kind of like a death tunnel. Often

6:22

these churches weren't even in the

6:24

same towns. And

6:26

this was no symbolic journey.

6:28

It was physical. It was

6:30

literal. Bodies were carried on

6:33

foot by kin and neighbors,

6:35

sometimes at night,

6:37

often in silence,

6:39

over these paths.

6:42

And these paths are old, older

6:45

than maps, older in some places

6:47

than the churches themselves. And

6:50

with their age, comes

6:52

a haunting legacy, a

6:56

belief that they remain open not

6:58

just to human memory but to

7:00

something else. Now, bring

7:02

you up to speed here. Yes, please.

7:05

The dead must travel in

7:07

those days anyway. Corpse

7:09

roads were mainly used from the

7:12

medieval period up until about the

7:14

18th or early century.

7:17

They were started Well, they

7:19

started showing up around the

7:21

12th century when Christian churches

7:24

insisted that the dead be

7:26

buried in consecrated ground. But

7:28

the church didn't build its

7:30

graveyards everywhere, so

7:32

when somebody passed away,

7:35

especially in a remote village, the

7:37

community would gather and begin the

7:40

procession. The beer, which is a

7:42

wooden frame for carrying the body,

7:44

not a delicious hoppy beverage. How

7:46

is that spelled? B

7:48

-I -E -R. Thank you.

7:51

The beer was lifted with

7:53

the body on board and

7:55

the road was taken and

7:57

this was no ordinary walk.

8:00

Corpse roads were laid in

8:02

straight lines. They had to

8:04

be perfectly straight. This

8:07

was not a matter of efficiency, quite

8:10

the opposite in fact, but it was a

8:12

matter of fear. There was

8:14

a belief, a quiet

8:16

ancient unspoken belief that

8:19

spirits could only travel

8:21

straight for some reason.

8:24

Oh, okay. If the root

8:26

wavered, the soul might lose

8:28

its way, or worse yet,

8:31

linger and haunt those who

8:33

remain. I just think it's

8:35

really interesting that spirits kind

8:37

of like light, you know,

8:40

really only travel straight. unless

8:42

it's refracted. That's

8:45

a very interesting connection.

8:49

So these roads were known by several

8:51

different names. There was Beer Way, there

8:54

was Lick Way, that's spelled

8:56

L -Y -C -H. All

8:58

right, less gross. The Coffin

9:00

Path, the Spirit Track.

9:03

That sounds like a Disney

9:05

ride. Some of these roads...

9:08

We're up to 15 miles

9:10

long one way wow 24

9:12

kilometers and I you know

9:14

I'm picturing in my head

9:16

you're grieving over the death

9:18

of a loved one and

9:20

now you've got to carry

9:22

the body in a straight

9:24

line over rocky terrain Up

9:27

steep hills through forests through marshes

9:29

for up to 15 miles one

9:31

way. I think that sounds cathartic.

9:33

You think so maybe because they

9:35

were so exhausted they didn't have

9:37

time to feel the grief. Maybe.

9:40

Now there were so many rules

9:42

and rituals. All of

9:44

these dark corpse roads shared

9:47

a dark reputation. Villagers

9:49

avoided them after dusk. You know

9:51

they still do. Travelers

9:54

would hurry past them at twilight.

9:57

Dogs don't follow them.

10:00

And many have claimed that if you walk

10:02

them alone, especially in the darkness of night,

10:05

you would not be walking alone

10:08

for long. Now

10:10

along these trails, these corpse

10:12

roads, stand

10:14

slabs of stone, and

10:16

they've been worn by wind and

10:19

time. They're known as coffin rests.

10:22

Here, Throughout the journey,

10:24

pallbearers would lower the weight of

10:26

the dead to pause, catch a

10:28

breath, maybe say a prayer. But

10:31

legends say that these were

10:34

more than stones. Now

10:36

they are believed to be liminal spaces.

10:39

Points where the veil has thinned. Oh,

10:41

like that lake in fringe. That's

10:44

exactly what I was thinking. I knew you were going

10:46

to say that. Some say

10:48

the air at the coffin rests

10:50

is always cold, even in July.

10:53

Others say that if you

10:55

place your ear to the

10:57

stone, you'll hear footsteps approaching,

10:59

but not on the path

11:01

behind, but from

11:03

the path beneath the earth.

11:07

I mentioned traditions. Here

11:10

are some of them. Tradition

11:12

demanded some pretty peculiar rituals,

11:15

especially at crossroads. If

11:17

the corpse road crossed another

11:20

path, The procession would have

11:22

to stop. The

11:25

coffin had to be

11:27

spun three times counterclockwise.

11:30

That was to confuse the spirits

11:32

or the entities that sought to

11:34

follow. It was

11:36

believed that spirits haunted not just

11:39

places, but people. And

11:42

if a ghost felt wronged for some

11:44

reason, it might return home. So

11:47

the idea was to deceive the

11:49

dead, lie into the dying, the

11:53

spin at the crossroads would mislead the

11:55

dead, or the worse

11:58

than dead who stalked the

12:00

living. In some places, crossroads

12:03

were chosen to bury criminals

12:05

and suicides, anchoring restless souls

12:07

beneath intersecting lines where they

12:10

could no longer find their

12:12

way back. So I

12:14

would be interested to take some ground

12:17

penetrating radar and go to some of

12:19

these crossroads that are still just like

12:21

in the middle of fields and stuff

12:23

and see what's under there. In

12:26

Cumbria there's a path that winds

12:28

from the valley of Wasdale to

12:30

the church of Eskdale. The

12:33

terrain is steep, it's treacherous,

12:35

it's prone to fog and

12:37

yet villagers once carried bodies

12:39

along this trail, refusing to

12:41

veer even an inch. from

12:43

the course. It was

12:45

like the sound of thunder. Don't

12:47

step off the path. You might

12:50

squash your butterfly. They believed if

12:52

they varied even by an inch

12:54

or two from that corpse road

12:56

that things could go wrong in

12:58

a hurry. Now, these

13:01

roads are still out there.

13:03

Sometimes not that easy to

13:05

find, but they're there. Travelers

13:07

have reported hearing voices while

13:10

hiking. Low murmurs, sobs, prayers.

13:13

And not just prayers, but

13:15

prayers in long dead dialect.

13:26

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oddities. Hikers have felt hands

16:36

on their back when the

16:39

path grew narrow, almost urging

16:41

them forward. Some report walking

16:43

behind a figure in black

16:45

for hours only to discover

16:48

that there was no one

16:50

there and there were no

16:52

footprints ahead. In

16:54

Devon, the Lickway crosses

16:57

Dartmoor. That's one of those

16:59

crossroads. This was

17:01

once the funeral path from

17:03

the isolated farms to the

17:05

church at Lidford. Now today

17:08

hikers speak of shadowy figures

17:10

glimpsed just beyond their vision

17:12

and sudden cold sweeping like

17:14

breath on the back of

17:16

their neck some have turned

17:19

around unable to explain the

17:21

mounting pressure in the air

17:23

or the sense that they

17:25

were trespassing on ground not

17:27

meant for the living This

17:30

sounds like something right up our alley. I

17:33

would go for the ghosts. You'd go for

17:35

the nature hike. It's

17:37

true. Now, as

17:39

the years went on, buildings

17:42

began to arise along these

17:44

paths. Many were built

17:46

with an unusual feature, a second

17:49

door, not for owners, not

17:51

for servants, but for spirits. It

17:55

was believed that the road must

17:57

remain open, block it, and you

17:59

risk trapping the dead. Interesting. In

18:02

some homes, these ghost

18:05

doors still remain. Small,

18:08

crooked portals that open to nothing.

18:11

Reminds me of the Winchester House. Locals

18:14

will not seal them. They're

18:17

open on certain nights. They're left

18:19

wide for unseen traffic. Better

18:21

to let the dead pass through than to

18:24

have them linger, is the thought behind that.

18:26

So they believe that the dead are out

18:28

there still walking. Why? Well,

18:32

imagine a steady wave

18:34

of funerals moving across

18:36

the landscape for 600

18:39

plus years. It's

18:41

estimated that not just hundreds

18:44

of bodies were carried over

18:46

England's corpse roads in over

18:49

the centuries, but hundreds of

18:51

thousands of bodies. Every

18:54

tiny village without a graveyard

18:56

had to use these paths.

18:59

And again, this was a time when

19:01

death was common. You had plagues, you

19:04

had famines, and just

19:07

shorter life expectancies. Some

19:10

scholars suggest that areas

19:12

like Cumbria and Devon

19:14

alone, there were tens

19:16

of thousands of funeral possessions that would

19:19

have taken place over time. Wow. So,

19:22

Why are they walking? Why do

19:24

people believe that they're still walking?

19:27

Why do they feel these things?

19:29

Maybe it's a memory imprinted. Maybe

19:32

the land where so many

19:34

dead once passed has become

19:36

saturated with grief and struggle

19:38

not just of the living

19:40

but of the dead. Stone

19:42

tape. Stone tape. Something born

19:44

from centuries of footsteps worn

19:46

into the earth until the

19:48

boundary between this world and

19:50

the next became thin. Whatever

19:54

the reason, the roads

19:56

remain, and so,

19:58

say those who still

20:00

walk them, do

20:03

the travelers. In 1997, a

20:05

hiker named Daniel W. sat out

20:07

alone to walk the old lick

20:09

way, which sounds like

20:11

a euphemism, across to Dartmoor.

20:14

By mid -afternoon, a thick fog

20:16

rolled in, and he said

20:18

it was An unusual fog, not

20:20

that fog on the moor is

20:22

unusual, but this one was heavy

20:24

enough to swallow the path ahead.

20:28

As Daniel picked his way

20:30

carefully across the trail, he

20:32

started hearing footsteps behind him.

20:35

Soft, steady, and

20:37

just out of sight. Thinking

20:39

there was another hiker on the trail, was trying

20:41

to catch up, he called out a greeting. There

20:44

was no answer. but the

20:47

footsteps stopped. He

20:49

said he shrugged it off and he

20:51

continued, but a few minutes later he

20:53

felt a hand press gently against the

20:55

center of his back. Not a shove,

20:58

just firm enough to make him

21:00

stumble forward a step. He spun

21:02

around, he said his heart was

21:05

pounding. He found

21:07

nothing, but fog.

21:11

So he told the locals this story. I'm

21:13

picturing at a pub somewhere. There's a fire

21:15

in the fireplace, and you

21:17

know, he's got a pint, and

21:19

he's having a good old -fashioned

21:21

knees up. And he's telling the

21:23

locals about this experience. And

21:26

they said, this isn't the first time

21:29

somebody has felt that type of push

21:31

on Lick Way. Some believe

21:33

it's the spirits of the

21:35

pallbearers still helping one another

21:38

along the way. Along that

21:40

mournful road making sure nobody

21:42

steps off the path Of

21:44

course in our modern world

21:47

death is sanitized It's hidden

21:49

behind hospital curtains and funeral

21:51

parlors, but the corpse roads

21:53

They give us a glimpse

21:56

into an older truth that

21:58

death was once a journey

22:00

that to die was not

22:03

the end but the beginning

22:05

of a passage and that

22:07

sometimes that passage didn't close.

22:11

These paths are not marked on

22:13

most maps, but they do exist,

22:15

and you can find them by

22:17

talking with locals. You may

22:19

find one by accident. It'll be narrow,

22:22

it'll be a sunken trail, it'll

22:24

be beneath branches and weeds,

22:27

with stones beneath your feet,

22:29

too smooth, too worn

22:31

to have been just caused by nature.

22:33

You might feel watched, you may hear

22:35

your name, if you do, It's

22:38

recommended that you walk with respect

22:40

and do not stray. And

22:43

if you see a figure ahead

22:45

dressed and garbed from another time

22:47

moving with solemn purpose along the

22:49

trail, don't call out. Don't

22:52

follow. Do not let

22:54

them turn. Some roads are

22:56

just not meant for the living. I

22:59

still want to go though. My

23:02

information came from

23:04

death from 1700

23:06

to the present

23:08

day Deborah Harrison

23:11

a guide to

23:13

legendary Britain by

23:15

Jennifer Westwood and

23:17

Corpse Rhodes ancient

23:19

trackways of the

23:21

dead from historic

23:24

UK calm Crazy

23:26

old Maurice What's

23:28

your favorite dinosaur

23:31

You know, I feel like people

23:33

don't ask questions like that enough

23:35

anymore. Well, I ask it because

23:37

last night I was watching one

23:40

of those old 1950s movies about

23:42

people who found a prehistoric world

23:44

like on Venus. And they had

23:47

the big phony pterodactyls that didn't

23:49

look very real. And I said,

23:51

you're doing an injustice to my

23:53

favorite dinosaur. Mine's a pterodactyl. That's

23:56

really technically not a dinosaur, right?

23:58

Let me look it Technically,

24:02

you're correct. But I lump

24:04

that into dinosaurism. Pterodactyl

24:07

is a type of flying

24:09

reptile. It's known as a

24:12

pterosaur. So you're right. Technically,

24:14

it's not a dinosaur. I

24:16

don't think I could choose

24:18

just one. I have so

24:20

many favorites. And for different

24:22

reasons, like, I really love

24:24

a giant oversized herbivore.

24:27

Well, you're married to

24:29

one. Like...

24:36

Titanosaurus is amazing.

24:39

But I also recently have

24:42

discovered Protoceratops and Druzee. And

24:44

they kind of look like

24:47

bird -faced, but with

24:49

these big, horny... Ear things that

24:51

kind of make my ears make

24:53

you honey. I don't know I

24:55

don't even know but if you

24:57

can I'll post a picture He's

24:59

the cutest thing I've ever seen

25:02

I think and he's got like

25:04

a stumpy little tail. He's so

25:06

cute Anyway, what were we talking

25:08

about? We were talking about dinosaurs

25:10

and I started wondering do states

25:12

have like a state dinosaur like

25:14

a state bird or a state

25:16

tree and the answer is yes

25:18

some Well, Maine wouldn't, because Maine

25:21

really doesn't have a lot of

25:23

dinosaur fossils. Right. But here's a

25:25

list of states with official dinosaurs.

25:28

Number five, Colorado. There's

25:31

is the Stegosaurus. Good

25:33

choice, Colorado. Wyoming's

25:36

state dinosaur, triceratops. That's another one

25:38

of my favorites. Good one. In

25:41

Maryland, the Astridone Johnstonie. Googling

25:43

it. Oh, look. Isn't

25:45

he cute? He's a sauropod. Oh,

25:48

he's my favorite. A little face

25:50

and a little neck. Texas

25:52

has a state dinosaur.

25:55

Palixasaurus Johnisi. New

25:58

Jersey, Hydrosaurus falchilis. Oh

26:00

my gosh, he's so

26:02

cute too. He's got

26:04

those little fronties. Little

26:07

sticky legs. I'm

26:11

Washington, DC has A dinosaur? No,

26:13

it's not a state, though. It's

26:15

not a state, but still. Capital

26:17

-saurus. Well, that makes sense. That's

26:20

so cute. Want

26:22

to learn about Pick 4 from the Ohio Lottery? Okay,

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Pick 4 is a daily draw game where

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you pick four individual numbers between zero and

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nine that can be played straight, where each

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number must be drawn in an exact order

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or box with it can be drawn in

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any order. You can win

26:37

up to $2 ,500 on a 50

26:40

-cent bet. Learn more at OhioLottery.com or

26:42

the Ohio Lottery app. Lottery players are

26:44

subject to Ohio laws and commission regulations.

26:47

Play responsibly. Want to go

26:49

back to the radio? Spring

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Savings are in the air and at

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Ross, where they have savings on all

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Ross and save 20 to 60% off other

27:06

retailers' prices on your favorite spring fines. If you're at the

27:08

gym right now, scream at the

27:10

top of your lungs, I'm listening

27:12

to the box of oddities. We'll

27:15

pay you a dollar. Maybe

27:18

someday. This

27:21

is the box of oddities. Hey, I

27:23

don't know about you, but I feel

27:25

like maybe we should take more dinosaur

27:27

breaks. I'm just saying. Didn't

27:31

you just learn a lot?

27:33

I did. It was fun.

27:35

Okay, anyway, hi! Hi, what

27:37

you got for me? Originally

27:39

opened in 1907. The

27:42

Mizpa Hotel was one of the

27:44

first true luxury hotels in Nevada.

27:46

It served as the beating heart

27:48

of Tinopa, which was a booming

27:50

mining town known as the Jewel

27:52

of the Desert. How do you

27:54

spell the hotel's name? M

27:57

-I -Z -P -A -H. Mizpa,

27:59

okay. Mizpa. Between 1901,

28:03

why do we say 01? 1901,

28:06

that just sounds funky, doesn't it?

28:09

Between the first year after the

28:11

turn of the, that sounds dumb

28:13

too. How about

28:16

19OT1? Yes.

28:19

Between 1901 and

28:21

1921, Tanopa's mining

28:23

heyday, thousands of people

28:26

streamed in to extract

28:28

nearly $121 million worth

28:31

of mostly silver from

28:33

the surrounding mines. The

28:36

MISPA quickly became the social

28:38

hub of the town, offering

28:40

unprecedented luxuries for the time.

28:42

all electric lighting, steam

28:45

heat, ceiling mounted

28:47

fans, a finely

28:49

stocked bar, opulent rooms, and

28:52

the West's first electric elevator.

28:54

That's amazingly early for those

28:57

types of technologies, especially that

28:59

far West. Though the Mizpa's

29:02

hotel was among the area's

29:04

oldest structures, it was technically

29:07

predated by the Mizpa Saloon,

29:09

which also opened in nineteen,

29:12

ought seven. Now

29:14

the MISPA and its neighbor, the

29:16

Belvada building, shared the

29:18

title of the tallest

29:20

structures in Nevada until

29:23

1927, standing a towering

29:25

five stories tall. The

29:28

hotel itself took its name

29:30

from the prosperous MISPA mine

29:32

and quickly earned a reputation

29:34

for grandeur. According to local

29:36

legend, Wyatt Earp kept the

29:38

MISPA saloon. Jack Dempsey worked

29:40

as a bouncer and Howard

29:42

Hughes married actress Jean Peters

29:44

within the hotel. How would

29:46

you like to have to

29:48

confront Jack Dempsey in a

29:50

drunken state as he's throwing

29:52

you out of the MISPA?

29:54

I know I wouldn't. If

29:56

I ever travel back in

29:58

time and find myself in

30:00

that particular circumstance, I will

30:03

go quietly. I'm sure

30:05

he would appreciate that. It

30:07

wasn't long after the MISPA

30:10

opened that guests and staff

30:12

began speaking in hushed tones

30:15

about its strange atmosphere. Early

30:18

accounts weren't outright ghost stories,

30:20

but quite murmurings of an

30:23

uneasy or heavy feeling in

30:25

certain parts of the hotel.

30:28

Now given the town's rough -and -tumble reputation,

30:31

deaths were unfortunately common.

30:33

fights, accidents, and people

30:35

taking their own lives,

30:37

which unfortunately was a

30:39

big part of the

30:41

mining boom, dotted the

30:43

history of the building. Still,

30:46

newspapers of the time were

30:48

careful not to report anything

30:50

that might damage the hotel's

30:52

glamorous image. One of the

30:54

MISPA's most enduring legends centers

30:56

around a mysterious woman who

30:58

lived and worked in a

31:00

palatial fifth floor suite. She

31:03

was, in her way, a work

31:05

from home, girly, before it was

31:08

cool, entertaining visitors in privacy and

31:10

luxury. Oh, okay. As

31:12

the story goes, an ex

31:15

-lover, possibly a former patron,

31:17

grew jealous. He got emotional,

31:20

as you might call it.

31:22

Ha -ha. Hymsterical? Hymsterical.

31:24

In a fit of passion, he

31:27

ended her life inside her lavish

31:29

suite. Now, of course, there are

31:31

no records of this event. But

31:34

again, local papers were

31:36

quiet about these types of things,

31:38

wanting to keep the reputation of

31:40

the hotel because it was a

31:43

big moneymaker. Now, by the 1930s,

31:45

the legend of the Mizpah's ghostly

31:47

woman had begun to spread. While

31:50

she wasn't yet named,

31:53

descriptions painted a picture of

31:55

a tragic figure, often tied

31:57

either to a jealous lover

31:59

or, in some stories, gambling

32:02

debts gone wrong. Uh -oh.

32:04

Location alone lends. to these

32:06

ghostly tales. Nevada is often

32:08

cited by paranormal investigators as

32:11

one of the most spectrally

32:13

active states in the US,

32:15

given its violent boomtown history

32:17

and abandoned settlements. And also,

32:20

it's rocky terrain. Stone tape.

32:22

Stone tape again. Now,

32:25

by the 1940s, locals

32:27

were openly calling the

32:29

fifth floor bad luck

32:32

or haunted, though

32:34

it remained an unofficial rumor

32:36

passed along by bartenders, bell

32:38

hops, and adventurous guests. In

32:40

spite of her brutal end, many

32:43

male visitors did report hearing a

32:45

disembodied but flirtatious whisper in their

32:48

ears. I thought you were going

32:50

to say a disembodied butt. That'd

32:54

be cool. Now, these

32:56

whispers happened especially in the

32:58

ornate elevator that the mysterious

33:00

specter had once used to

33:02

escort her guests from the

33:05

lobby to her fifth floor

33:07

quarters. Now,

33:09

as Tinopa, is that how

33:11

I pronounced it? Tinopa? Yeah,

33:14

I think so. As Tinopa's

33:16

fortunes declined, the Mizpa Hotel

33:18

closed for long stretches, sitting

33:21

largely abandoned through the 1970s.

33:23

And it was during these

33:25

quiet, crumbling years that ghost

33:28

stories truly flourished. Intruders

33:30

reported hearing whispers and

33:32

footsteps in empty hallways.

33:34

Fifth floor windows would

33:37

glow mysteriously without explanation

33:39

and apparitions of Women

33:41

in old -fashioned dress

33:43

were spotted wandering the

33:45

corridors. By the

33:47

1980s, with the rise of

33:50

ghost tourism and paranormal enthusiasm,

33:53

the MISPA's reputation as a truly

33:55

haunted hotel took off. And the

33:57

lady in red, as she was

33:59

now called, became the centerpiece of

34:02

the lore. The MISPA was revamped,

34:04

brought back to life, and eventually

34:06

her once grand suite was divided

34:08

into three separate rooms. 502,

34:12

503, and 504, with

34:15

the most paranormal activity

34:17

reported in room 502,

34:19

including guests feeling an

34:21

unseen presence sitting on

34:23

their beds, jewelry

34:25

going missing only to reappear

34:27

later, and disembodied whispers once

34:29

again in the dead of

34:32

night. But the lady in

34:34

red is not the MISPA's

34:36

only lingering spirit. Staff

34:38

and paranormal investigators have also

34:40

reported two male spirits

34:42

haunting the basement, which is

34:44

actually off limits to guests.

34:46

That's an interesting pattern that

34:48

I have seen with ghost

34:51

investigations, paranormal investigations of these

34:53

old Western hotels and brothels,

34:55

is that a lot of

34:57

dirty deeds were done in

34:59

the basements. Well, this hotel

35:01

sits above a network of

35:03

old mining tunnels. Well, there

35:05

you go. And it's believed

35:07

that the spirits might have

35:10

belonged to victims of a

35:12

cave -in or an explosion,

35:14

or, as you brought up, perhaps,

35:17

foul play. Workers report cold

35:20

spots, flickering lights,

35:22

and a pressuring sense of

35:24

dread when they venture below

35:26

ground. I get that anyway.

35:29

Guests a little higher up on the

35:32

third floor often complain about the sound

35:34

of children laughing and running through the

35:36

halls late at night. But

35:39

when they check the hallway, it's empty. And

35:42

it has happened that they've called the

35:45

front desk to report the disturbance and

35:47

there are actually no children staying in

35:49

the hotel at all. That's unnerving. It's

35:51

bad enough when children that are alive

35:53

are making a lot of noise. Oh,

35:56

I know. You can ask him to,

35:58

hey, pipe down, as my dad would

36:00

say. But when they're dead, what

36:02

are you going to do? Right? They're

36:04

not going to listen. They're going

36:06

to give you the spectral middle finger.

36:08

Ghost jeezers. That's

36:10

a northern main expression. And

36:13

I think our next T -shirt.

36:15

Yeah. Ghost jeezers. You

36:19

little jeezers, get out of my yard. Now

36:22

the lady in red has become

36:25

the MISFA hotel's most famous ghost,

36:27

but was she ever a real

36:29

person? Historical records

36:31

don't mention a murder matching

36:33

her story, and newspapers of

36:35

the early 1900s were notoriously

36:37

careful to avoid scandal, especially

36:39

when it came to prestigious

36:42

businesses. They were also notorious

36:44

for printing bullshit. That's true.

36:47

Now, it's entirely possible that if a

36:49

high -profile crime did occur, it was

36:52

hushed up to protect the hotel's reputation,

36:54

but it's also entirely possible that this

36:56

did not happen. Some

36:59

historians suggest that the Lady in

37:02

Red might actually be an amalgamation

37:04

of many women who lived and

37:06

worked during Tanopa's rougher years, saloon

37:09

girls, entertainers, and even high society

37:11

women who fell in hard times.

37:14

Regardless of whether or not she was real,

37:17

the Lady in Red's presence is

37:19

very real to the countless guests

37:21

who have reported encounters with her,

37:24

making her less of a, was

37:27

she and more of a

37:29

matter of, is she still?

37:31

Following extensive renovations and a

37:33

grand reopening in 2011, the

37:36

Mizpa Hotel embraced its haunted

37:38

reputation. Today, visitors come as

37:40

much for the luxury and history as they

37:43

do, a chance to encounter

37:45

the paranormal. The Lady in Red

37:47

remains the hotel's most famous ghost,

37:49

but for those willing to look

37:51

or listen, there are others who

37:53

call the Mizpa their eternal home.

37:55

And as I mentioned, the hotel

37:57

welcomes their reputation with open arms.

38:00

Even some staff shirts reference the

38:02

Lady in Red, and

38:04

the fact that they are known

38:06

to be Nevada's most haunted hotel.

38:09

But beyond the haunted suites, the

38:12

Mizpa offers the Jack Dempsey room,

38:14

a historic bar and restaurant with

38:16

menus inspired by early 20th century

38:19

fare. Wow. A small

38:21

gaming area with vintage charm

38:23

and tours and history talks.

38:25

The MISFA also hosts special

38:28

ghost tours and paranormal investigation

38:30

events throughout the year, especially

38:32

in the fall. Guests

38:34

can join local historians and ghost

38:37

hunters for guided explorations of

38:39

the hotel's most haunted hotspots, including

38:41

the famously off -limits basement. So

38:43

it's off limits, except for this

38:46

time of year. when they do

38:48

tours and such. Not

38:50

for you to just go down in their

38:52

basement, obviously. Gotta wander around and bang on

38:55

their water heater, make sure it works. Either

38:58

way, check out their website, the

39:00

list of events and all the

39:02

details will be there. I think

39:04

that this sounds amazing just because

39:06

of the history of it. I

39:08

would love to go. Yeah, I

39:10

think I would actually rather go

39:12

there first before the Corpse Roads.

39:15

That's how interesting that is to

39:17

me. You can

39:19

get more information at

39:22

themispahotel.com. I got my

39:25

information there and

39:27

from TravelNevada.com and USGhostAdventures.com.

39:30

And you can get more

39:32

information about our live shows.

39:34

Ooh, spooky. Spooky,

39:37

segue. Vboxofodities.com.

39:42

There's a link there to

39:44

buy tickets to the shows

39:47

in Seattle. Portland, Oregon,

39:49

two in Atlanta, Georgia, one

39:51

in Philadelphia. And we

39:53

would just love to see you guys.

39:56

And I think there's still some RIP

39:58

passes left in some of the

40:00

venues. But by the time this drops,

40:02

I'm not sure. But we will put

40:05

the link also in the show description.

40:07

And hopefully we'll see you at one

40:09

of those shows. That'd be so much

40:12

fun, you guys. Until then.

40:14

keep flying that freak flag

40:16

and fly it proudly a

40:18

beautiful freak and so let

40:21

it be known that the

40:23

box of oddities belongs to

40:25

you and its fate is

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in your hands we wish

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