The Stanley Hotel

The Stanley Hotel is a 142-room hotel located in Estes Park, Colorado, a roughly 10 minute drive from Rocky Mountain National Park. Opened in 1909, the Stanley was, for a while, considered a destination resort for East Coast elites before stumbling into various financial difficulties. In 1911, a gas explosion at the hotel killed a maid, injured a few other staff members, and severely damaged a portion of the building.

Harry Houdini performed at the Stanley Hotel at the height of his fame. To accommodate his performance, the Hotel installed a trap door in the stage of its main ballroom. In 1973, while attending the Carnival of Knowledge, Marshall Redgrave and Mitch Hort learned that Houdini’s performance was part of an elaborate ritual that enabled Houdini to evade death by distributing his consciousness across numerous points around the globe. They managed to “exorcise” him with the aid of several convention attendees, though in doing so they inadvertently trapped his spirit on a concealed tape recorder and triggered an ontoclysmic event.