Nevada's 1908 grand hotel, empty since WWII and the most-investigated paranormal site in the state
N Crook Ave at Columbia Ave, Goldfield, NV 89013
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Exterior viewing is free. Interior access is closed to the public; tours have been offered intermittently by the Goldfield Historical Society — contact them directly for current availability.
Access
Limited Access
Exterior viewing from public sidewalk. The building is a four-story unreinforced masonry structure that has been vacant since 1945. Interior not publicly accessible.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1908 · Nevada Gold Rush Architecture · Last Major Nevada Mining Boom · Classical Revival Commercial Building
The Goldfield Hotel was built during one of the most concentrated gold booms in Nevada history. Between 1903 and 1910, Goldfield produced an estimated $86 million in ore and briefly held the largest population of any Nevada city. The hotel, designed by Reno architects Morrill J. Curtis and George E. Holesworth, was intended to announce that prosperity. Construction cost between $300,000 and $400,000.
The resulting structure featured 150 rooms, most with private baths — a considerable luxury in 1908. The lobby was trimmed in mahogany, lit by crystal chandeliers, and equipped with one of the region's earliest hotel elevators. It was described at opening as the most luxurious hotel between Chicago and San Francisco. Mining magnate George Wingfield and entrepreneur Casey McDannell purchased the hotel early in its operation, forming the Bonanza Hotel Company.
The gold boom ended as quickly as it had begun. By 1920 the mines had largely played out, and the town's population fell from a peak of roughly 20,000 to a few hundred. The hotel continued operating in diminished form through the Depression and into World War II, when it housed Army Air Corps personnel. It closed permanently in 1945.
Subsequent decades produced a series of incomplete restoration attempts. A Carson City rancher purchased the building at auction in 2003 for $360,000. As of 2022, the property was listed for sale at $4.9 million. Vandalism and weather damage have accumulated over the decades, though the building's structural core remains largely intact.
Sources
The Goldfield Hotel's paranormal reputation is largely traceable to its appearance in Zak Bagans and Nick Groff's original 2004 Ghost Adventures documentary, filmed before the franchise became a Travel Channel series. The film's footage of an apparently moving brick inside the building circulated widely and established the hotel's name in the paranormal investigation community. Ghost Adventures returned for three additional episodes in 2011, 2013, and 2021; Ghost Hunters also filmed there.
The most prominent ghost story centers on a woman called Elizabeth, described in most accounts as a young prostitute George Wingfield allegedly kept in Room 109, where she died under violent circumstances, possibly after giving birth to a child Wingfield had her dispose of in an elevator shaft. This narrative is specific and dramatic, and it has driven the hotel's reputation for decades.
Researchers at the Central Nevada Museum have examined the Elizabeth story and concluded that the timeline is problematic: the events described as occurring in the 1930s would have taken place after Wingfield had sold his interest in the hotel, and the most sensational details appear to originate with a former owner's self-published book rather than any contemporaneous documentation. A woman who wrote to the Legends of America website stated flatly that her relative who had lived in the hotel confirmed: "There was no Elizabeth; it was just a rumor created to inspire people."
The building's paranormal history is real in the sense that investigators have documented anomalous experiences there across multiple decades. Whether those experiences are connected to the Elizabeth narrative, to the hotel's genuine history of occupation and decline, or to something else is a question the evidence does not resolve. The hotel itself sits empty, its mahogany lobby intact behind locked doors, in a town that has otherwise mostly moved on.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
The Goldfield Hotel's four-story Classical Revival facade on the corner of Crook Avenue and Columbia Avenue is viewable from the street. The building, vacant since 1945, retains its original mahogany lobby trim and pressed-tin ceiling visible through ground-floor windows. Goldfield itself is a functioning small town with a gas station and the Goldfield Historical Society a short walk from the hotel.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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