It's 10 a.m. and HPI paranormal investigator, Hanako Zeidenberg is in my driveway. Hanako has driven all the way from Oakland, CA to do a scouting mission to Georgetown. Georgetown is located deep in the valley on Hwy 49 between Placerville, CA and Auburn, CA. Hanako jumps into my vehicle, known as the Ghost Tracker, and we head up towards Hwy 80 to pick up paranormal investigator / sensitive, Holly DeLaughter. After driving down historic Hwy 49 through a zillion winding roads to get to Georgetown, we stop first at the Georgetown Hotel. We meet up with HPI paranormal investigator / researcher Michele Stump and her boyfriend Scott. I introduce myself to the bartender of the Georgetown Hotel, and tell her I am a paranormal journalist for HPI and I am here to do a story on their haunted hotel. She is full of ghost stories and is eager to share them with me.
Let's run down some of the stories that haunt this place:
There was a child three years old that died in his sleep. People sometimes hear a ball bouncing downstairs and they believe it's that child.
The water in the sink goes off and on - on its own accord.
Her young son was playing ball with a phantom boy child.
People hear a baby's laughter at times and hear footsteps walking down the stairs.
One-time pipe smoke was blown into her face from an unknown source.
Her son witnessed a locked door open by itself.
A transparent nightgown was seen floating upstairs.
There is a mural painting on the dining room wall and there is a picture of an ominous silhouette of a cowboy. That cowboy silhouette was never painted on that mural and one day it appeared and has been there ever since.
Big Dave was a caretaker of the hotel and he was found dead on the toilet from an apparent heart attack. Big Dave is known to haunt the hotel. He is very playful with the clients. Holly used her psychic abilities to determine that there was a man sitting on a toilet that died of a heart attack. She had this vision of Big Dave before she was told the story of Big Dave.
That was pretty amazing to validate this information from the bartender.
Patrons of the hotel have said they were touched while walking to the kitchen of the hotel.
They gave the HPI crew a full tour of various rooms in the hotel, the 2nd floor and even the basement. The basement is connected to a mineshaft. Before we went down a there, Holly felt like there was a mineshaft under the hotel and again, she was right on the money. Her psychic abilities were arrow straight today. There is more information on the Georgetown Hotel at www.georgetownhotelandsaloon.com
***The most famous ghost that haunts this hotel is Merna. She usually hangs out in Room #5. Hotel workers found photo albums and sketch books of Merna's in this hotel room. Merna was a lady of the night. One night Merna and her boyfriend got into a heated argument and her boyfriend threw her off the 2nd floor balcony breaking her neck, killing her. In Room #5 the drapes on the window sometimes move back and forth with the windows closed. As I was using temperature gauge, the normal temperature of the room was anywhere from 63 to 71 degrees, but at one point it went up to 95 degrees, indicating a hot spot. Holly got a feeling that a man died in Room #10 watching TV. It was confirmed that a man named Butch did indeed die in this room watching TV. Holly felt energy presences also in Room #1 and Room #11. The staff provided us with loads of good information and were very helpful.
As we left the Georgetown Hotel and Saloon we witnessed a posted certificate, it read: "This Hotel is certified haunted." Signed by none other than the legendary "Ghost Girl", Nancy Bradley! In addition, the University of California Berkley has certified the Hotel as one of the top ten most haunted buildings in California...do you believe!?!?
