The Story Behind This Haunted Hotel In South Dakota Is Truly Spooky
As local travel experts, we know what travelers are looking for when it comes to finding the perfect accommodations for their next trip. To compile our lists, we scour the internet to find properties with excellent ratings and reviews, desirable amenities, nearby attractions, and that something special that makes a destination worthy of traveling for.
Not many hotels out there offer the chance for guests to stay in a notoriously haunted room for a night with all the items a professional paranormal investigator would use while searching for ghosts, but there is one in South Dakota that does.
Would you dare to stay there? You might not after reading the spooky story behind it…
Hotel Alex Johnson in Rapid City has been open since 1928.
This historic hotel has been serving thousands of guests for decades, including a lot of notable figures including former presidents. But what makes this hotel famous today isn't just its rich history, but the fact that it is notoriously haunted.
The lavish lobby is the first thing you see when you come in, but there is one thing there that draws the attention of people the most...
The hotel has a few ghosts - not just one - and countless people have experienced just what these ghosts can do. The accounts written in this book include things like heavy footsteps in their room, faucets turning on and off with no one there, windows and doors opening, and many other creepy encounters.
On the eighth floor is the most haunted room, down this hallway.
One of the ghosts happens to also live in this hallway, and is described as a little girl. She has been heard laughing in the hallway at night, then knocking on room doors and disappearing. But she isn't the creepiest spirit here.
The most haunted room, Room 812, is one that only the bravest choose to stay in.
The most well-known ghost at Hotel Alex Johnson is called The Lady In White. She has haunted this room for 40-odd years. Her story is grim.
According to the history of the hotel, in the 1970s there was a bride-to-be who committed suicide in this room by flinging herself out the window. Her friends and family insisted that foul play must have been involved, but no one was ever convicted and the suicide ruling stayed in place.
Today, she is wandering the halls on this floor in a white dress and messing with the objects inside room 812.
The ghost of Alex Johnson – the man who founded the hotel – himself is also reported to be still lingering inside this place. Needless to say, it is full of paranormal activity. It has even been featured on SyFy channel’s show Ghost Hunters and resulted in strong evidence of haunting spirits.
If you are feeling daring and want to experience Room 812 yourself, follow this link with more information on how. I think I’ll pass…
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Leah moved to North Dakota when she was 12 years old and has traveled from the Red River Valley to the badlands and many places in between. She loves small-town life and currently enjoys living on a small farm in the ND prairie. She's always had a passion for writing and has participated in novel writing challenges such as NaNoWriMo multiple times. Her favorite part about this job is recognizing small businesses that deserve a boost and seeing the positive affect her articles can have on their traffic, especially in rural areas that might have otherwise gone overlooked.
