1911 Historic Landmark Hotel on Wyoming's Open Range
404 Lincoln Hwy, Medicine Bow, WY 82329
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Hotel rooms vary; check jethospitality.com for current rates. Dining at the Owen Wister dining room priced separately.
Access
Limited Access
Historic building with stairs; motel-style rooms also available
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1911 · National Register of Historic Places · Owen Wister · Theodore Roosevelt · Wyoming Heritage
Medicine Bow sits at 6,563 feet elevation on Wyoming's high plains, a cattle and railroad town that acquired literary celebrity through Owen Wister's 1902 novel. Wister had visited the area repeatedly since 1885, and his landmark Western novel used Medicine Bow as a principal setting, making it one of the earliest American towns to achieve fame through fiction.
Construction of the Virginian Hotel began in 1901 and was completed in 1911 by August Grimm — Medicine Bow's first mayor — and George Plummer. At opening it was the largest hotel between Denver and Salt Lake City, a remarkable claim for a remote Wyoming settlement. President Theodore Roosevelt, who passed through the region on hunting trips, made the hotel a regular stop and reportedly favored it during his visits to southern Wyoming.
The hotel occupied the center of Medicine Bow's commercial life for decades. Its ground floor housed the dining room, bar, and cafe; upper floors held sleeping rooms and suites. The Owen Wister Suite, named for the novelist who immortalized the town, remains one of the property's distinctive accommodations.
The hotel passed through multiple ownership phases over the century. It is now operated by Jet Hospitality and listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing property to the regional architectural heritage of Carbon County.
Sources
Two figures dominate the accounts from the Virginian Hotel.
The first is Hank, a night manager who died in the hotel after suffering a heart attack at one of the dining room booths. Staff accounts describe him as one of the more active presences in the building. He is associated specifically with Room 34, where the antique bed reportedly shows indentation consistent with a seated figure, and with the television in the hallway room across from it, which staff report activating without prompting. A small boy who died of pneumonia in one of the upper rooms is also mentioned in staff accounts.
The second figure is described as a woman in period clothing, appearing on the third floor and walking toward one of the windows in a repeated, directional pattern. The associated legend holds that her fiance did not arrive on their wedding day — delayed on the tracks, arriving two days late — and that she died by suicide before he reached Medicine Bow. Whether this specific history is documented or is a later-appended narrative is not clear from available sources.
Paranormal investigators who visited the basement reported hearing the word 'leave' spoken audibly and left without completing their investigation, according to published accounts. Staff members who have worked there for extended periods have described the hotel as a place where unexplained experiences are so routine that new employees receive informal orientation on what to expect.
Notable Entities
Overnight stay in the Virginian Hotel, a 1911 National Historic Landmark with 16 antique sleeping rooms and suites. Room 34 is cited in staff accounts as the most active — the night manager Hank reportedly died there and is said to favor the antique bed and the television in the room across the hall. The Owen Wister Suite occupies the space where President Roosevelt once stayed.
Dinner at the Virginian Hotel's historic dining room, named for the novelist whose 1902 novel 'The Virginian' — set largely in Medicine Bow — made the town nationally known. The bar, dining room, and cafe occupy the original 1911 ground floor.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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