HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
An 1882 Fort Collins hotel where trick shooter Frank Miller—who performed with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show—spent his final, destitute days; customers at the current gift shop report seeing his apparition near his framed portrait.
250 Walnut St, Fort Collins, CO 80524
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to enter the gift shop; purchases optional
Access
Wheelchair OK
Ground-floor retail space in historic downtown building
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1882 · 1882 commercial hotel in Fort Collins Old Town · Former residence of Frank Miller, Buffalo Bill Wild West Show trick shooter · Part of Fort Collins Old Town National Historic District
The Linden Hotel dates to 1882 and is among the older surviving commercial structures in Fort Collins' Old Town Historic District, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of that district. The building at 250 Walnut Street stood through the city's transition from frontier railroad town to agricultural and educational center.
Frank Miller was a Fort Collins resident who built a reputation as a trick shooter performing with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show in the late 19th century. Miller's skill with a rifle brought him a degree of local fame, but his later years were marked by financial and personal loss. He lost his business, his family, and his standing, and spent his final days as a long-term resident of the Linden Hotel—a man known for his showmanship reduced to a room in an aging downtown building.
After Miller's death, a framed painting or photograph of him was hung in what is now the Nature's Own gift shop, which currently occupies the ground floor of the Linden Hotel building. The combination of the historical portrait and customer sightings has made the space one of Fort Collins' more specific ghost stories.
Sources
The reported phenomenon at the Linden Hotel building centers on a specific location: the wall where a framed painting or portrait of Frank Miller is displayed inside Nature's Own. Customers have described seeing a man standing near the painting who appears, holds position briefly, and then disappears when someone approaches or looks directly at him.
The CSU Collegian covered the Fort Collins ghost story in 2017, identifying Miller as the probable apparition based on the proximity to the portrait and the match between the described figure and Miller's known appearance. The Foco Now publication also documents the account, providing independent corroboration from two separate Fort Collins-based sources.
Miller's biography—a man who reached national visibility performing with one of the most famous Wild West shows and then died in relative poverty and obscurity in the same building—gives the story an emotional logic that local storytellers lean into. The identification of the apparition as Frank Miller is plausible inference from the portrait proximity rather than documented fact.
Notable Entities
Browse Nature's Own gift shop in the 1882 Linden Hotel building, one of Fort Collins' oldest surviving commercial structures. Frank Miller's framed painting hangs in the shop—the specific spot where his apparition has been reported by customers who saw a figure standing near it before it vanished.
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