Haunted Hotel Monte Vista

There are many rumors about this old hotel located in downtown Flagstaff, Arizona. The Monte Vista has more than one ghost.

I heard many stories about this hotel during my four-year undergraduate work at NAU in the mid-1970s.

The Monte Vista became well known for its paranormal activity, especially after it was highlighted on one episode of Unsolved Mysteries.

This show talked about the hotel’s most haunted room--#305.

Rocking chair in Room 305.

There are numerous witness accounts of seeing a woman sitting in a rocking chair near the window. Many others have seen this chair rocking all by itself.

Some witnesses have reported hearing unexplained knocking sounds inside this room’s closet.

It is known that an elderly lady was once a long-term renter—who would sit by the window for hours in this room. But why she did this is lost to history.

Another active haunting is connected to the hotel’s cocktail lounge. In the 1970s, three men robbed a nearby bank. A bank guard shot one of the three during the robbery.

After their escape, making a bad choice, the three men decided to stop in the Monte Vista lounge for a cold one. The wounded robber bled to death in this bar.

The activity in this room began after this. Patrons and employees are often greeted by an enthusiastic, “Good Morning.” Also, barstools and filled glasses are seen moving about without assistance.

In this same lounge, a couple dressed in formal attire is seen dancing, laughing, and smiling. They never seem to stop. There is another unusual item about them—they are transparent.

Years ago, Flagstaff’s red light district was located a couple of blocks from the Monte Vista. Two prostitutes entered the hotel in the early 1940s with their Johns.

Soon after, they were killed, and their bodies were thrown out of Room 306s 3rd-floor window.

Guests that stay in this room report they were woken up in the middle of the night abruptly. They all state they felt an eerie feeling--as if they were being watched.

The men that stay in this room report feeling hands being placed over their mouths or throats. All state this restricted their ability to breathe.

John Wayne, while staying at the Monte Vista, in Room 210, saw one of the hotels more active ghosts. He encountered this entity more than once. 

The spirit he saw is known as the “Phantom Bellboy.”

This bellboy knocks on the door and softly announces, “room service.” Wayne and other guests that have seen this young man describe him as wearing an old-fashioned red jacket with brass buttons.

Wayne returned later to stay in this same room. He told the staff this ghost appeared to be friendly, and he did not feel threatened.

More creepy ghosts are connected to the hotel’s basement.

Laundry and maintenance workers report a baby crying in distress, endlessly. This sound is so disturbing they often leave the basement, stating they couldn’t take it anymore.

An even more frightening presence in this basement is a six-foot dark shadow figure that has scared staff and deliverymen. He is seen lurking behind people.

These witnesses often leave the basement immediately, stating that this figure exudes a strong sense of menace.

A young ghost—a boy, is seen in the hallways. He appears to be looking up and talking to someone much taller than him. Some speculate this must be his mother—although she is never seen.

Guests have reported this boy touched their hand. Children tend to see this ghost more often.

Monte Vista’s old elevator is self-serve, but more than one guest has reported being greeted as they entered this elevator. A polite attendant asked them, “Which floor?”

Guests also report seeing a phantom hand close the elevator gate.

In Room 220, there is a ghost dubbed the “meat man.” This ghost is believed to be another former long-term resident at the hotel. He had an odd habit of hanging raw meat from the room’s chandelier.

In the 1980s, this man was found, three days after his death, in this room.

Shortly afterward, a maintenance man doing repairs in the room turned off the lights and locked up. He returned to the room shortly afterward to look for something he lost.

To his amazement, the lights were on, and the television audio was on full blast. The linens on the bed had been ripped and scattered across the floor.

Since this initial incident, many guests that have stayed in this room report the television seems to have a mind of its own, and more alarming, large, cold hands touched them as they slept.

I write about a haunting and my personal encounter in one of NAU’s dorms in another post here.