HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Jackson's 1941 landmark hotel and Silver Dollar Bar, where staff credit a ghost named Bob with fixing things.
50 North Glenwood Street, Jackson, WY 83001
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Overnight rooms run $300+ seasonally; the Silver Dollar Bar and dining room are open to the public with no cover.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Downtown two-story hotel with elevator access
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1941 · Jackson's first true luxury hotel, opened 1941 · Silver Dollar Bar (1950), inlaid with 2,032 Morgan silver dollars · Rebuilt after a major 1980 fire · National Register of Historic Places, 1999
Charles J. Wort homesteaded in Jackson Hole starting in 1893 and bought downtown property in 1917, but it was his sons John and Jess who built the hotel that bears the family name. Construction cost roughly $90,000, financed in part through the sale of the family's Signal Mountain Lodge inside what is now Grand Teton National Park, and the hotel opened in late summer 1941. Architect Lorenzo "Ren" Grimmett designed the two-story Tudor Revival building, with brick facing, half-timbering, and street-facing gables, as Jackson's first true luxury hotel.
In 1950 the Worts added the Silver Dollar Bar, its surface set with 2,032 uncirculated Morgan silver dollars from the Denver mint by a German cabinet maker. The bar became, and remains, the hotel's signature room.
On August 5, 1980, a bird's nest that had touched off a transformer fire spread through the building, collapsing the roof in one of the worst blazes in Jackson's history. The hotel rebuilt and reopened in June 1981, timed to Jackson's first annual Old West Days celebration. The Wort family sold the property in 1984. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 9, 1999, and joined Historic Hotels of America in 2002, later earning Forbes Four-Star recognition.
The hotel operates today much as it has for decades: overnight rooms, a restaurant, and the Silver Dollar Bar, a fixture of downtown Jackson.
Sources
The gentler of the Wort's two ghost stories comes from the hotel's own account. Robert "Bob" Tomingas joined the Wort as maintenance engineer in 1950, the same year the Silver Dollar Bar was installed, and over his career rebuilt the hotel's heating, water, and electrical systems. Current engineers say Bob never appears to guests but still turns up for staff: a wrench left leaning against a wall has pointed a crew toward a hidden broken pipe, and tools in the maintenance shop are found rearranged. The hotel's own blog describes him as a valued, if unseen, member of the team.
The second story is grounded in a documented crime. On the night of August 5, 1964, 19-year-old Andrew Pixley broke into a guest room occupied by an Illinois family vacationing in Jackson Hole and killed two young sisters, ages 12 and 8, while a younger sibling in the room was left unharmed. Pixley was convicted and executed at the Wyoming State Penitentiary in December 1965. In the decades since, hotel staff and guests have reported children's voices and figures glimpsed playing in the hotel's upper-floor hallways and at windows, with no children registered to account for them. The Wort does not promote this history as entertainment; it circulates locally as one of Jackson's most repeated ghost stories, tied to a real and sober event.
Notable Entities
Book a room in Jackson's 1941 landmark hotel, rebuilt after an August 1980 fire gutted much of the building. Ask the front desk about Bob, the hotel's longtime maintenance engineer, whose tools still turn up rearranged in the shop.
Visit the hotel's Silver Dollar Bar, its surface inlaid in 1950 with 2,032 uncirculated Morgan silver dollars. The bar and adjoining dining room are open to the public without a room booking.
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