The Copper Queen Hotel

The Copper Queen Hotel opened in February of nineteen oh two, built by the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company, a Phelps Dodge subsidiary, as luxury lodging for investors and engineers visiting from New York. The architects Van Vleck and Goldsmith designed it in an Italianate style with two-foot-thick stone walls, Italian mosaic tile in the lobby, and Tiffany-glass fittings in the public rooms. The building required blasting into the canyon wall and pumping water uphill to the site.

It has been operating continuously ever since, making it among the oldest hotels in Arizona. Famous guests are said to have included John Wayne, Harry Houdini, Lee Marvin, and Lillie Langtry. The hotel's ghosts have attracted nearly as much attention as its history.

The most frequently reported is a woman named Julia Lowell, said to haunt room three fifteen, who appears to male guests at night and was once reported seen waltzing alone at the foot of the main staircase. A drowned child called Billy is said to move objects on the fourth floor. A bearded gentleman in a top hat announces his presence through the smell of cigar smoke.

Whether these are documented history or stories told to fill rooms is a question each visitor must answer. The hotel has appeared on multiple television ghost-hunting programs, and the management books specific rooms on request for guests who come hoping for an encounter. The rooms where no one reports anything unusual are also available, for those who prefer to simply sleep.