Unearthly Realms

In May 1986, two nighttime guards came upon the nebulous form of a young woman hovering near a piano in the third floor Lounge. Only the upper body of the white ghost appeared, the rest tailed down to nothing. The face of the peaceful apparition stared right at them for several minutes, enough time for one of the guards to grab a camera from a nearby table and snap a photograph. Only a tiny white spot on the film showed up where the ghost had stood.

The same apparition had been seen by guests several times in the past, but this was the first time the Lady in White was photographed. In 1990, two other security guards followed the Lady in White from Lobby to the hallway leading to Room 349, where the presence has been reported by many employees and guests. An antique rocker in the room always ends up facing a window, no matter in which room it is placed.

The hot springs, long appreciated by native peoples, got their commercial start during the territorial period when miners stopped by to bathe and "wash their duds". In 1876, an inventive settler tapped into the hot water, piping it under his greenhouse to grow vegetables for local residents.

Percie and Bill Knowles inherited the property in 1894. They ran a boarding house for miners and in 1900 built the long-awaited hot springs hotel. Under the Knowles' active promotion, uniformed drivers ferried such guests as Teddy Roosevelt and artist Charlie Russell from the Emigrant train depot to the springs.

When Bill Knowles died in 1910, Percie and her son Radbourne transformed the luxurious hotel into a respected medical facility. Dr. George A. Townsend joined the staff in 1912 and under his direction, the hospital and healing waters gained renown throughout the northwest.

Other unexplainable things happening include an old family Bible that stays open on a wooden bench in the Attic and never collects any dust. The most likely cause for all the activity would be Percie Knowles, the stubborn wife of the man who built the hotel in 1900. After her husband's 1910 demise, she changed it into a first-class healthcare center. She died in 1941, but she remains to watch over the hotel she had her husband built.