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Ellie Mae Patty is the 4-year-old daughter of Chase Patty and Billie Belt of Exeter
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A hallway on the third floor of the haunted Basin Park Hotel in Eureka Springs Arkansas (below) A photo of the original hotel, Perry House, where the Basin Park Hotel now sits.
A real account of a haunted hotel stay
town that was started
Abecause of the power of its healing waters slowly turned into one of the most haunted towns in America, drawing people from all over the world. In Eureka Springs, Ark. are victorian homes, a historic downtown district, and multiple hotels with magnificent yet grim histories.
Eureka Springs was built on natural springs that surround the city, and with a population of nearly 2,000, it draws more than 750,000 visitors annually.
Recently, a pair of sisters, Schyrlet Cameron and Kathy Brown wrote a fic-
Ghosts of Perry House Ghosts of Perry House ‘The most haunted room, tional book based on true events around the city, as well as, a spooky stay at a haunted hotel in the downtown area. Ghosts of Perry House was published on the most on May 24, 2021, under the pen name C.C. Brown. With 272 pages filled with embellished spins of historical events, haunted floor, readers follow two timelines and two stories that keep you guessing until the very end. The first storyline is based on a of the most ghost said to haunt the now Basin Park Hotel, and the second follows the events based on a stay in room 310 by authors haunted hotel’ Schyrlet Cameron and Kathy Brown and their aunt. The sisters grew up in the Ozarks, and
The cover of the recently released Ghosts of Perry House.
**Reviews**
Out of 13 reviews on Amazon, Ghosts of Perry House has a average of 4 star rating.
Reviews include: 5 stars “A town with a dark history, a haunted hotel, and a cowboy”
their grandmother sparked their interest in all things paranormal at a young age.
Schyrlet said she and Kathy would often visit their grandmother on the family farm.
“There was no electricity or running water,” she said. “During the day we could stay busy with feeding the chickens, riding a pony, or working in the garden, but at night, once it got dark, the only thing to do was go to bed — or listen to stories.”
The girls would gather around their grandmother’s rocking chair, she would light her kerosene lantern and she would tell her granddaughters stories about the Ozarks, about Jessie James and other outlaws, and she would also tell maker stories about ghosts and monsters that lived in the woods.
“As we got older, we didn’t think too much about the stories — until five years ago,” Schyrlet said. “Kathy, our Aunt Connie and I decided to go to Eureka Springs for a girls’ weekend. We didn’t know anything about the Basin Park Hotel, but we booked a room and checked into room 310.”
Eventually, the ladies fell asleep, only to be awoken by a bump in the night.
“My sister and I heard a strange noise by the foot of Aunt Connie’s bed,” Schyrlet said. “We didn’t think too much about it and fell back to sleep. But, we heard the noise again, and this time it was followed by something else.”
The events in the book surrounding Nichole and her friend’s stay at a hotel, are an accurate description of the events that took place that night in room 310 at the Basin Park Hotel.
“The next morning we went to the front desk and asked about the noises, the visual aspect, and noises we heard throughout the night on our floor. We were told we were the only ones on the third floor that night.
“The desk clerk said, ‘Well, you stayed in the most haunted room, on the most haunted floor, of the most haunted hotel in Eureka Springs.’”
Over the next three to four years, Schyrlet and Kathy returned to Eureka Springs several times, staying in different rooms, of different hotels trying to figure out the reason behind the paranormal experiences.
“We were just like one of the characters from the book, who tries to find scientific explanations for the paranormal,” Schyrlet said. “Ghosts of Perry House ends with a transfer to the Crescent Hotel. That is the direction for the book we are working on now.”
The sisters are currently working on a book about the ghosts and hauntings of the Crescent Hotel — deemed one of the most haunted hotels in America.
“We are writing it surrounding the life of Doctor Norman Baker who ran a fraudulent cancer treatment center there back in the 1930s,” she said. “We are shooting to have it released by October next year, but that will depend on how long it takes to gather information and write it up.”
According to the Forward of Ghosts of Perry House, in 1880 a four-story hotel called the Perry House was erected on the current site of the Basin Park Hotel.
The “healing waters” of the local springs brought both the rich and those looking to get rich to the area, which also attracted gambling, drinking, and prostitution.
Before builders started using the limestone of the area to build, all the hotels were built from wood. In 1890, multiple fires devastated the area and nearly cleared Eureka Springs from the map.
The Perry House was one of the buildings that suffered from those fires. In 1905, the limestone Basin Park Hotel replaced the Perry House in the historic downtown district.
It is reported that the guests who were on the third floor of Perry House the night it burnt, never left the grounds.
Rooms 307, 308, and 310 are allegedly the most haunted rooms in the hotel. One ghost, a cowboy with a white canvas duster and six-shooter on his hip reportedly ask guests about his horses, while other guest report hearing people shout “FIRE!”.
The cowboy on the third floor is the inspiration the cowboy from the book is based on.
During the late 1800s the Ozarks, a four-state area was known as the ‘Lawless Ozarks’.
This lawless time is when the book, Ghosts of Perry House, takes place.
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From the Kansas Border Wars, the Great Cattle drives from Texas, the Civil War, Bald Knobbier, and Outlaws and Lawmen, the Ozarks have a grim, historic, and hauntingly mysterious history.
People can step back in time to experience this rich lifestyle, as well as, get a bone-chilling scare in the pages of Ghosts of Perry House.
Schyrlet was a teacher for 34 years and she has co-authored over 50 teacher resource books. Kathy has been the owner and operator of Hickory Kids Day Care for 15 years.
Schyrlet and Kathy began writing together in 2011, and have co-authored three fiction books and six cookbooks.
Ghosts of Perry House is available on Amazon in paperback and on ebooks, as well as, at the Basin Park Hotel in Eureka Springs.
“No one believes in ghosts, but everyone is afraid of them,” Schyrlet said. n
Co-authors of the recently released Ghosts of Perry House Schyrlet Cameron and Kathy Brown.
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Restless spirits roam Crescent Hotel
Theodora was a nurse at the Crescent Hotel when it was owned and operated by Norman Baker, a self-proclaimed doctor who touted his cancer cure would work in as little as six weeks. Her spirit is often seen fumbling for keys outside Room 419, the room where she died.
Prankster, child and nurse are among the ghostly guests
he grand hotel is filled with
Telegance and old-world atmosphere, but more than that, it is home to several ghostly guests who have never checked out. Welcome to the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Ark., touted as the most haunted hotel in America.
While guests are not greeted by the sounds of clanking chains or unearthly screams, there is a little “hocus pocus” that occasionally occurs in the hallways and hotel rooms of this “Grand Old Lady of the Ozarks.”
The hotel, built in 1886, is set on the highest point in Carroll County, Arkansas, and originally constructed of drystacked limestone (meaning no mortar was used between the stones). The resort catered to “the carriage set,” or the most affluent families in the nation. Cost of construction was $294,000. Among the genteel activities offered were bridle trails, afternoon teas, dances, musicals, tennis and shuffleboard courts and two bowling lanes. The opulent hotel only hosted “invited guests” at the time.
During its construction, a young Irish stonemason, Michael, fell to his death from the top of the hotel, landing in Room 218. And it is there that Michael stayed. He is classified poltergeist due to the nature of the unexplained activity.
“He was known to have an eye for the ladies, and enjoyed flirting outrageously with ladies passing by the construction area,” said Xavier.
An antique wheelchair is stored in the basement morgue of the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, along with dozens of jarred specimens containing what was purported to be cancerous tumors from the patients who desperately sought a cure for their ailments at the Baker Cancer Curing Hospital, between 1937 and 1940.
“Guests in Room 218, especially the female variety, have reported feeling a hand rubbing up and down the length of their arm or someone touching their hair, the door opening, slamming shut, and unable to be opened again. He likes to hide things. Change, keys, cell phones, and even once, a set of false teeth.”
From 1908 to 1924, the hotel was home to the Crescent College and Conservatory for Young Women, while continuing to serve as a resort during the summers.
It is there that Breckie, a four-yearold son of Richard Ryan Thompson, college president, and his wife, Mary Breckenridge Thompson, died of appendicitis.
“Guests can sometimes see the spirit of the little boy, dressed in early 20th century play clothes, playing happily in various spots of the hotel,” said Xavier. “He can sometimes be seen bouncing a ball against the door on one of the rooms. Can you imagine how coddled that little boy must have been in a school full of girls?”
Then the tour took a dark turn.
During the time that the hotel served as Baker Cancer Curing Hospital, between 1937 and 1940, Norman Baker remodeled the hotel at a cost of $50,000. Among those renovations were those in the area once used as a conservatory for the young ladies of the women’s college, where he covered the windows, soundproofed the walls and installed a 9-inch thick steel door for his asylum.
He then lured hundreds of desperately ill patients seeking a cure for cancer, bilking them out of nearly $4 million while he practiced his “six-week cure.”
“DR.” NORMAN BAKER
“Formula 5” was made from alcohol, glycerol, carbolic acid, ground watermelon seed, liquified corn silk and clover leaves,” said Xavier. “It was administered by injection at the site of the cancer — up to seven times a day. When patient conditions worsened — and they did — Baker removed them to the asylum, a large sound-proofed area protected by 9-inch steel doors, to keep others from hearing their screams.”
To those who did question, Baker told them that his patients had gone mad.
Then there is Theodora, Baker’s assistant. Her spirit can often be seen fumbling through her purse to get the keys to her room — 419. This is where she lived and died after coming to work at Baker Cancer Curing Hospital. She is known to be neatness obsessed and guests often report having items in their rooms straightened while they are gone.
“If you toss a handful of change on the table, Theodora will stack it by denomination,” Xavier said. “She doesn’t like discord. Once, a couple was arguing in her room and then went to meet friends. When they returned, their suitcases were packed and put neatly by the door. They left.”
Following a tour of the morgue, which was cool and smelled of dampness, the evening’s activities concluded.
My goal for this plum assignment was to capture evidence of paranormal activity — or ghosts, if you will. So, as recent guests in Room 419, my companion and I sought to incite the spirit of Theodora to action.
Upon entering at check-in, I spoke to the empty room, introducing ourselves and thanking her for allowing us to stay the night. I dropped a handful of loose change on the table. We turned on the electric fireplace and watched the flames flicker and dance while enjoying a glass of wine. We went to dinner and returned to find loose change still scattered. We went on the ghost tour, which took about 60 minutes, and returned to catch an initial glimpse of our camera
Norman Baker, a charlatan and former showman, opened the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs in 1937 as the Baker Cancer Curing Hospital. While luring many desperately ill patients with promises of a cure for cancer, Baker amassed nearly $4 million between 1937 and 1940, when he was arrested for mail fraud and the hospital was shut down.
MORRIS THE CAT
Morris the Cat was an ambassador for the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Ark., residing there for 21 years. Some guests have reportedly felt the ghost of the hotel’s beloved guest-greeter, as he continues to spend time on a coffee table in the lobby near the stone fireplace.
images before downloading them to a computer. The change was still scattered.
We set the alarm for the “witching hour,” and rested for a couple of hours before creeping out into deserted hallways, snapping photos of nearly every staircase, nook, cranny and resting space offered on the four floors we were allowed access.
We giggled like children breaking curfew as we tiptoed down creaking stairs and dimly lit hallways, keeping an eye out for the “ghosties.” I was certain my boss would be disappointed in the fact I had failed to capture even one ghostly orb or shadowed figure, and that I was, in all likelihood, a ghost failure.
We returned to the room after 3 a.m., enjoying another glass of wine and unwinding with a bit of mystery television before calling it a night. My
The hallways of the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs sport a wide array of historical articles about the structure and its various operations throughout its existence.
companion dropped off to sleep like a rock tossed into a lake.
I tried. I really did. I thought watching the flames wavering in the fireplace would be relaxing. It was not.
Those flames seemed to stretch out and create their own ghostly images. I blamed my tired eyes when I thought I caught a glimpse of movement from the corner of my eye.
“Is that a ghost?”
Snap a photo. No orbs. No ghosts. Repeat that process for the next few hours. Watch flames. Snap photo. No orbs. No ghosts.
Finally, exhausted, I adjusted my blankets to a comfortable cocoon and closed my eyes, drifting into a state of relaxation in which I hoped there were no unearthly spirits.
I felt a firm tug on the blanket from below me, the kind a nurse might give when settling a patient for the night. My companion still snored across from me. There was — supposedly — no one else in the room.
“Figment of my imagination,” I said, adjusting the covers again and trying to regain that state of unconscious bliss.
Another firm tug.
Eyes open, I verified there was no one else in the room, nothing that could explain those tugs on my covers. But I didn’t move them again.
Sunrise in Eureka Springs is lovely this time of year. I know, because I watched it. Maybe Theodora was watching it, too. n
Xavier, one of the tour guides at the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, explains how the hotel’s former feline ambassador, Morris, walked into the lobby in 1973 and decided to stay. Morris greeted guests for 21 years at the hotel. (above) Lens reflection or ghost? The green misty streak that appeared along the hall on the right side was not visible to the naked eye during a recent ghost tour at the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Ark. The mist appears to be moving, leaving a comet-like trail behind.
