Explore Reno's Most Haunted Spots

Lincoln Hall at the University of Nevada, Reno in 1900

   While Virginia City has often been called the most haunted place in Nevada, Reno also has its fair share of places where some have claimed to have seen or heard things that can’t be explained.

   Not surprisingly, many of those places can be found in the neighborhoods housing the city’s oldest and most historic buildings.

   A good example of this is the University of Nevada Reno (UNR) campus, which is said to be home to several haunted places. For example, in venerable Morrill Hall, built in 1885-86, and the oldest structure at the university, some have claimed to have seen the ghost of a woman dressed in 1920s attire.

   Additionally, in the DeLaMare Library, housed in the historic Mackay Mines Building, folks have reported seeing the ghost of Clarence Mackay (son of Virginia City mining magnate John Mackay), who apparently has been known to stop clocks and turn lights on and off. The younger Mackay, along with his mother, donated the funds for constructing the mines building.

   Another allegedly haunted UNR building is Lincoln Hall, built in 1895-96. According to Kassandra Andicoechea-Schmaling, writing in the 2022-23 issue of Nevada Magazine, an apparition known as “Foxy” has been seen wandering the first floor and basement of Lincoln Hall.

   The ghost is believed to be that of James A. Champagne, nicknamed, “Foxy,” who died in his room of a gunshot wound. The story goes that the 25-year-old was in the reading room going through his mail when he opened a letter that upset him.

   He returned to his dorm room and then everyone in the hall heard a shot. For years, there has been some debate whether he committed suicide or it was an accident. His final words before expiring were, “I was monkeying with the gun when it went off. It was accidental, Prof.”

   Since then, some Lincoln Hall residents have claimed to felt a sudden coldness in the reading room, and to have heard creaking floorboards, as if someone was walking on them. A figure has also been seen wandering the basement.

   Not too far from the UNR campus is another allegedly haunted place, the historic Hillside Cemetery at 900 Nevada Street. With graves dating back to 1875, the cemetery is said to have been the location of significant spectral activity including electronic voice phenomena and the sighting of two young girls and woman dressed in black.

   Another historic neighborhood that is said to be a hotbed of haunted happenings is the Riverwalk District, just south of the Truckee River. A website, https://www.renoriver.org/riverwalk-haunts/, even provides a walking tour map of ten haunted locations.

   Among the places noted are the historic Levy Mansion on California Avenue, which until recently was the home of Sundance Books. The large white house is said to be haunted by the presence of three children, including an adult man and woman as well as a small boy and two girls. The ghostly family has been seen in the attic, with the adults watching over the children as they play.

   Another Riverwalk place of ghostly interest is the Roy Frisch House at 247 Court Street. Frisch was a banker and a former Reno city councilman, who mysteriously disappeared on the night just before he was supposed to testify in court against two local gangsters, William Graham and James McKay.

   It’s said that on some nights you can hear Frisch’s ghostly footsteps as he climbs the wooden stairs to return home after a night at the movies.

   Not surprisingly, one of the most haunted places in this district is believed to be the Washoe County Courthouse, the place where so many couples untied the bonds of matrimony during Reno’s heyday as the Divorce Capital of the World.

   According to the website, people have reported seeing apparitions moping around the courthouse “presumably troubled spirits who have had unhappy dealings with past courtroom rulings.” Others have said they experienced overwhelming feelings of sadness and hopelessness, along with unexplained coldness, as they walked through section in the courthouse.

   A good source of Reno ghost stories is Janice Oberding’s book, “Haunted Reno,” available in local bookstores or online. Additionally, Reno Ghost Tours offers regular guided tours of the city’s most haunted places. For more information, go to: https://usghostadventures.com/reno-ghost-tour/.

What Happens in Las Vegas, Stays There for Eternity

 

At the Westgate Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, some have reported seeing the ghost of Elvis.

When it comes to ghost stories in Las Vegas, there is no shortage of books devoted to telling the tales of specters and spooks in the glittery neon city.

   Among the most prolific is Virginia City-based writer Janice Oberding, author of “Haunted Nevada” and “Haunted Las Vegas” (and about 50 other books).

   Others who have also explored ghostly sightings and other things that go bump in the night in Las Vegas include Heather Leigh, author of “Ghosts and Legends of the Las Vegas Valley” and Paul Papa, who wrote, “Haunted Las Vegas: Famous Phantoms, Creepy Casino, and Gambling Ghosts.”

   Among the places identified as haunted are: 

   • The Redd Foxx house at 5460 South Eastern Avenue. This ranch-style structure, once the home of the star of the 1970s television show, “Sanford and Son,” is reportedly haunted by Foxx’s spirit (he died in 1991). Foxx apparently lost title to the property as a result of unpaid taxes.

   It is claimed Foxx’s ghost roams the house, still angry at the Internal Revenue Service for kicking him out. Later owners have reported seeing lights mysteriously turn on and off, doors opening and closing and the sound of someone running down a hallway. No one, however, has reported hearing any dirty jokes (Foxx was famous for his X-rated humor).

   • The former Carlucci’s Tivoli Gardens Restaurant at 1775 E. Tropicana Avenue. The entertainer, Liberace, a former owner, is said to haunt this once-popular eatery. According to some accounts, Liberace, who died in 1987, often entertained guests in the restaurant and enjoyed himself so much that he continues to return.

   Interestingly, the wandering spirit of Liberace is also said to occasionally visit his former home at 1812 S. 15th Street (a sprawling complex known as the White House) as well as the defunct Liberace Museum on E. Tropicana (adjacent to the restaurant).

   • Fox Ridge Park at 420 Valle Verde Drive in Henderson is considered one of the most haunted places in southern Nevada. According to several sources, visitors can observe a swing in the park begin to move back and forth, despite the absence of any wind or other motivation.

   The story goes that the spirit of a young boy pushes the swing, although no one has been able to find any reason for why he would want to do so. Some ghost hunters have reported that their EMF meters register significant activity in the park and many have reported photographing white orbs around the swing.

   • Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino at 3000 Paradise Road. According to a number of sources, the ghost of singer Elvis Presley has been seen in various locations in the hotel, which opened in 1969 as the International Hotel and later was known as the Las Vegas Hilton.

   In July 1969, Presley began playing the showroom at the hotel and continued to perform there for more than seven years. He died in 1977.

   Allegedly, one of the spots he likes to visit is a backstage elevator that leads to a greenroom. Additionally, a maid reportedly saw him backstage one day and said he spoke to her.

   • Horseshoe Las Vegas at 3645 South Las Vegas Boulevard. According to Oberding, this high-rise hotel-casino, called Bally’s Las Vegas until 2022, was also the site of the MGM Grand Hotel-Las Vegas, which suffered a tragic fire in 1980. Eighty-five people died in the blaze, considered one of the worst high-rise hotel disasters in history.

   Oberding has written that some guests have heard sobbing and screams in the hotel’s upper-floor hallways, while others have seen strange green lights or shapes.

   “Haunted Nevada,” “Haunted Las Vegas,” “Haunted Las Vegas: Famous Phantoms, Creepy Casinos, and Gambling Ghosts” and “Ghosts and Legends of the Vegas Valley” can all be found online and in local bookstores.

Book Explores the Historic Cemeteries of Carson City and Carson Valley

Empire City Cemetery

   It’s pretty clear that Nevada historical writer Cindy Southerland has a thing for cemeteries. For nearly more than three decades, she has studied several of northern Nevada’s historic cemeteries, which, according to her online biography, is because she considers them as outdoor museums.

   That point is obvious in her book, “Cemeteries of Carson City and Carson Valley,” published by Arcadia Publishing. Chapters in the lavishly-illustrated work examine such topics as the dying art of cemetery symbolism and what can we learn from tombstones.

   In examining the cemeteries of the Carson City/Douglas County region, she explores not only the larger and more familiar burial grounds, such as Carson City’s Lone Mountain, but also the often-overlooked or forgotten ones, like Empire City, the Pioneer Cemetery, Stewart Indian School, and the Ormsby County Poor Farm.

   For Douglas County, she takes a look at the cemeteries in Genoa, Gardnerville, Mottsville, Jacks Valley, Glenbrook and Fredericksburg.

   In the first chapter on the meaning of tombstones, Southerland reveals why she is so fascinated with cemeteries by nothing they are “often the only record or artifact remaining to share the story of a community and the individuals who shaped it.”

   With that in mind, she notes that a tombstone is more than a slab of marble or a wooden plank because each provides important details about the life of the buried person, such as biographical information, historical events, ethnicity, religious and fraternal affiliations and, in some cases, cause of death.

   “Tombstones are considered an outdoor archive and may be the last surviving document to record the existence of the person buried there,” she says, adding that they also often reflect the values of the people of past regarding such matters as death, mourning, and a proper burial.

   To make her point, Southerland provides images of a handful of tombstones and interprets the information that was inscribed on each. Thus, we learn that while a tombstone tells us that James Cook, son of David B. Cook was killed in Gold Hill by the Virginia and Truckee Railroad on August 3, 1873, Southerland’s additional research reveals that the 32-year-old man died while attempting to jump onto a moving train car and falling under the wheels.

   In other parts of the book, Southerland enhances the images of tombstones with reproductions of items that appeared in newspapers of that time regarding the deceased. For example, when telling readers about the famed stagecoach driver Hank Monk, who is buried in Lone Mountain Cemetery, she includes his 1883 funeral notice and the cover of sheet music that had been written to honor Monk by Carson City composer, John P. Meder.

   The chapter on the cemeteries of Carson City provides not only a look at Lone Mountain Cemetery, which remains an active burial ground, but others no longer in use. She points out that over the years the boundaries of various cemeteries have sometimes been forgotten so that when new developments crop up they can accidentally intrude on final resting places.

   This occurred in 2000, during excavation work for a new office building in Carson City on a triangular piece of land that had once been part of Lone Mountain, but had been forgotten and abandoned. A construction crew dug up the remains of a forgotten Chinese cemetery.

   She notes that the remains were removed, with authorities announcing their intent to have them reinterred at Lone Mountain.

   The book concludes with a chapter entitled, “Those They Bury With Most Ceremony,” which describes a number of noteworthy burial sites, including John “Snowshoe” Thompson, a legendary 19th century mail carrier who carried letters between Genoa and Placerville, California, Jennie Clemens, niece of writer Mark Twain, who died of spotted fever in 1864, and Nellie Verrill Mighels Davis, owner of the Carson City Morning Appeal and the first woman to cover the Nevada legislature.

   Cemeteries of Carson City and Carson Valley is available online and in many local bookstores.

   Southerland, who resides in Carson City, was interviewed in a recent article about the Lone Mountain Cemetery that appeared in the Nevada Appeal. It can be read at: https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/2025/jan/07/this-is-carson-city-layers-of-history-at-carsons-lone-mountain-cemetery/.

Grass Valley is the Mother Lode of Gold Country History

 

  One of Northern California's most historic and scenic routes is Highway 49. Winding through the heart of the state’s gold country, the road passes through several fascinating 19th century mining towns—including Grass Valley.

  The community, in fact, is an important part of the northern mining region of California’s rich “Mother Lode,” the name given to the area because, according to legend, it was the mother of all gold discoveries.

  To reach Grass Valley, head east of Reno via Interstate 80 to Auburn. Exit onto Highway 49, then continue north for 24 miles to Grass Valley.

  The drive alone is worth the trip. Along the way, the two-lane highway passes through some beautiful countryside filled with stately oak trees, thick bushes of mountain mahogany, lush meadows and tall pines.

  The first significant gold discovery was made in Grass Valley in 1850 by George Knight. Local legend has it that Knight was chasing a cow one night when he stubbed his toe on an outcropping of rock. He decided to test the hard stone and found it to be high quality gold-bearing quartz.

  Within a short time of Knight's discovery, the area was overrun with gold miners. Like Virginia City, the ground beneath Grass Valley and nearby Nevada City eventually became a labyrinth of mining tunnels.

  Ultimately, more than $415 million in gold was pulled from the ground in Grass Valley, making it the richest of the northern area's mining communities. The town also fared much better than most 19th mining towns in that gold continued to be mined there into the 1950s.

  Today, Grass Valley has plenty of reminders of its rich mining past, including:

  • The Holbrooke Hotel (212 W. Main), considered on the community’s most recognized landmarks. An earlier business, the Golden Gate Saloon, opened on the site in 1851, but it was destroyed in an 1855 fire. The current hotel was erected in the early 1860s and is still in operation.

  • Nevada County Bank Building (131 Mill), which is one of the most impressive of all downtown structures. The striking gold-domed building was erected in 1917 by the Rector brothers, who owned a Nevada City bank. In the 1930s, it was purchased by Bank of America, which operated it until 1975. Today, it has been restored and is owned by an insurance company.

  • The Grass Valley Public Library (203 Mill), which was built in 1916 with Carnegie Foundation funding.

  An informative community walking tour brochure can be downloaded at: https://www.southport-land.com/PDFs/Grass_Valley_Walking_Tour_2005.pdf.

  Another good place to pick up a bit of the region's history is the North Star Powerhouse Mining Museum, just south of the town. The impressive stone power station was the built in 1895 and provided energy to operate the North Star Mine operation.

  Within the old station you will find a fine mining museum featuring large displays of mining equipment and other 19th century artifacts. For more information about it, go to: https://nevadacountyhistory.org/north-star-mining-museum/.

  One of the most colorful characters to live in Grass Valley was Lola Montez. The famed dancer/singer settled in Grass Valley in 1853 and purchased a house at 248 Mill Street.

  Montez, however, tired of life in a remote mining town and a few years later departed the city to resume her performing career.

  Her original house was extensively remodeled over the subsequent years and was demolished in 1975. It was replaced by an exact replica of her original abode and now is the home of the Nevada County Chamber of Commerce and a small museum.

  For more information about Grass Valley, go to: www.grassvalleychamber.com/community/explore-grass-valley/.

Reno: The Biggest Little City of Arches

 

  Reno loves its arches. For more than a century, the community has erected various arch structures over its main streets to commemorate special events or to promote an image.

  In fact, the late Nevada historian Phillip I. Earl discovered several photographs showing an arch built in 1899 atop the Virginia Street Bridge. The span commemorated Nevada troops returning from duty during the Spanish-American War.

  In 1914, Reno erected an arch over Virginia Street, this time greeting visitors passing through the city on their way to the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. A third arch was temporarily installed over the city’s main street in June 1920 to promote the Reno Rodeo.

  In October 1926, a more substantial steel arch was constructed on Virginia Street at Commercial Row for an exposition celebrating the completion of the Lincoln and Victory highways, the nation’s first transcontinental roads.

  In lighted block letters, the arch spelled out the name, Reno, as well as: “Nevada’s Transcontinental Highways Exposition, June 25-August 1 1927.” Two lighted torches bookended the city’s name.

  Response to the new arch was overwhelmingly positive, so the Reno Chamber of Commerce and city officials decided to conduct a contest to find a new slogan for the city that would appear on the arch.

  The winner, G.A. Burns of Sacramento, received $100 for his suggestion: “Biggest Little City in the World.” Variations of the slogan had appeared in various Reno-related advertising campaigns over the years but placing the wording on the arch made it forever synonymous with the city’s name.

  In June 1929, the arch was renovated with the new slogan, removal of the torches and illuminated for the first time. Three years later, during the height of the Great Depression, the city announced it cold no longer afford to pay to light the arch at night.

  In response, a group of local residents volunteered to pay the electric bill and once again the sign lit up the downtown sky. In 1934, the city replaced the light bulbs on the sign with neon tubing and also decided to remove the famous slogan because some business folks thought it had reached its expiration date.

  In June 1935, however, following significant public outcry, the slogan was returned to the arch, which remained unchanged for the next 28 years. It appeared on postcards, in movies and books, and in thousands of tourist snapshots.

  In the early 1960s, executives of the former Harolds Club casino spearheaded a drive to raise funds to build a new, more modern arch. The new one, erected in 1964, still contained the city’s slogan and name but was constructed of sleek plastic and steel.

  In the meantime, the outdated, neon, 1930s arch was moved to Idlewild Park and later to Paradise Park on the Reno-Sparks border.

  In 1987, the city decided it was time to update the arch again and replaced the 1960s version with the present arch. In 2009, it was further spruced up with its incandescent light bulbs replaced with LED lights that can change color (for special occasions).

  As for the 60s version of the arch, a few years ago it was given to the city of Willits, California. Today, it has been reconstructed with a new message that welcomes people to “Willits: Gateway to the Redwoods.”

  The historic 1930s arch was removed from Paradise Park in the late 1980s and placed in storage while city leaders discussed what to do with it. Despite discussions about putting it back on Virginia Street—making Reno a “city of arches”—it didn’t resurface until 1994, when the city allowed it to be used by a movie company, which wanted to re-create the Reno of the 1930s for the film, “Cobb.”

  The film company restored the old sign and Renoites began pushing the city to find a permanent home for the classic display. In 1995, it was reconstructed on Lake Street, adjacent to the National Automobile Museum, where it still stands today.

Jokes Fly Regarding Nevada's Great Cloud-Rustling Controversy - Part 2

 

  Last week, we learned about the December 1947 claim by Nevada rancher Dick Haman and his partner Freeman Fairfield to all the water inside any clouds that they seeded with dry ice that might fall on anyone else’s property. The two owned a 12,300-acre ranch north of Topaz Lake

  The claim quickly generated considerable attention, much of it with tongue-in-cheek. For example, just two weeks after it was filed, the United Press filed a report about an indignant group called the Arizona Cloud Ropers, Inc.

  “That hombre makes me sore,” said Nick Gregovich, president of the Ropers. “We're goin' right ahead with our plans to fly over to Nevada and California, drops loops over clouds, wrangle them to Arizona and make them give down.

  “Arizona Cloud Ropers, Inc., was organized for the purpose of getting even with California for trying to steal Arizona's share of the Colorado River's water,” Gregovich said. “Nevada had better devote itself to the feudin' and fussin' of its divorcees and its gamblin' and stay out of the Arizona-California ruckus. As for Haman, we'll take him on any time, any place—in court or on the desert. Let him choose his weapons - lawyers or fire hoses at 20 paces. Or he can make it a dog fight over the clouds with exhaust pipes for guns.”

  It wasn't long before other folks began to see the comic possibilities in the brewing cloud-seeding conflict. The Reno Chamber of Commerce jumped into the fray by sponsoring a series of highly-publicized cloud-seeding expeditions over Mount Rose. The chamber hired a plane and sprayed dry ice in the clouds in the hope of creating some snow to attract skiers and tourists.

  Immediately after the cloud-seeding—which had no apparent affect—the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce sent a telegram threatening to file a lawsuit in federal court to stop Reno from “milking” clouds before they reached Utah. The Reno chamber responded with a call for a new tax to be levied on clouds passing over Nevada on their way to Utah.

  The fracas even attracted international attention. The London Times editorialized that the United State should probably nationalize moisture-bearing clouds and vest control over them with a “board of nebulous planners.”

  As the cloud war escalated, Reno Chamber President William Brussard packed a 12-inch snowball on an airplane headed to Salt Lake City and enclosed a note saying the snowball was sent “with deepest regrets that this is your share of the snow, at least at present.”

  Upon receiving the snowball, Salt Lake City Chamber leader Gus Backman sniffed that it was “infinitesimal,” and boasted that his city's ski resorts were reporting more than six feet of snow.

  Referring to the high-flying snowball, the Nevada State Journal noted that “disposal of the snowball was not announced. But it was generally agreed that it had no more chance of survival than does a snowball in—Nevada.”

  The dry ice dispute finally began to wane after a few months. State Engineer Alfred Merritt Smith wrote in a February 1948 letter to the science editor of the Associated Press that “we have not as yet taken any action and it is quite likely that our attitude will be that this office has no jurisdiction in this matter. As a result of this application, there has been a great deal of comment in the newspapers of the West, some jokingly and some serious. It would seem that the clouds, being interstate in character, would come under the jurisdiction of the (federal) government.”

  The state engineer finally issued a temporary water right of the clouds over the Rocking F after Haman made his claim but the cloud-seeding never produced much water.

  While Haman relished the attention, Fairfield grew tired of the publicity and harassing telephone calls. By 1949, he lost interest in both Haman and the cloud seeding idea, and let his manager go.

  Ironically, it was another of Haman's wild schemes that resulted in finding water for the property, although it came too late for him to benefit from it. Haman hit upon the idea of using oil drilling equipment to find water on the land.

  After Fairfield severed his relationship with Haman, he decided to try the drilling plan. It worked and Fairfield began pumping water from the ground, transforming the previously worthless property into valuable farmland.

  As with many things legal, Haman's cloud claim eventually ended not with a thunderclap but with a whisper. In April 1953, state engineer Hugh Shamberger cancelled the application, saying Haman had failed to show the point where he intended to divert the water, as required by state law.

The Silver State's Great Cloud-Rustling Controversy - Part 1

 

Rocking F Ranch

  About 30 miles south of Gardnerville is a relatively unremarkable swathe of land that was once the center of what might best be described as a thunderstorm of controversy over who can claim the water inside of rain clouds.

  In December 1947, a Nevada rancher named Dick Haman and his partner Freeman Fairfield filed a claim to all the water inside of any clouds passing over their 12,300-acre spread north of Topaz Lake (it’s located adjacent to Holbrook Junction).

  Haman and Fairfield’s claim might not have been the most outrageous water scheme to ever be proposed—that distinction probably would go to the 19th century genius who wanted to drill a tunnel from Lake Tahoe down to Washoe Valley in order to drain the lake—it did show the extraordinary lengths dry-state residents would go in their quest to find water sources.

  In their application with the Nevada state water engineer’s office, the two claimants revealed their plan: “We intend to shoot the clouds by the latest methods known in starting rainfalls and snowstorms. Coaxing clouds to rain has recently been developed, after 300 years of known experiments by individuals, states and countries.”

  While Haman and Fairfield's proposal sounds a bit silly today, it’s important to keep in mind that in the late 1940s, the concept that clouds were some kind of sky bound cows that could be milked wasn’t so farfetched. Also, 1947 was an extremely dry year and most ranchers were willing to do anything to get more water.

  At the time, the 35-year-old Haman was manager of Fairfield's Rocking F Ranch. A handsome, six-foot, seven-inch former University of Nevada football star, Haman had worked as a Hollywood studio artist and a professional boxer before returning to Nevada.

  Haman helped Fairfield purchase the Rocking F Ranch in 1946 and agreed to manage the property. He immediately faced a series of seemingly unsurmountable problems, including the fact the property had virtually no water.

  But Haman wasn't easily discouraged. Not even after he fenced the property and sparked a dispute with local sheepherders who were accustomed to passing through the land during their seasonal migrations.

  In the claim, Haman explained that scientists had been successful in making rain by dropping dry ice pellets into clouds. As he told a Reno Evening Gazette reporter at the time, “We plan to make rain with dry ice over the ranch next spring and we want to make sure we have full legal rights to the water we produce. If the cloud is over our ranch and we drop the dry ice through it to make rain we're certainly entitled to the water.”

  Haman admitted he wasn't sure what to do about rain that might drop on a neighbor's property. "It would still be our water," he said. “But we don't know yet how we could get it back.”

  The story hit the local papers later that week and made the national news. The December 22, 1947 issue of Time magazine noted that, “One Richard Haman, a ranch manager, last week filed a formal claim to the water in all the clouds passing over his 12,000-acre Rocking F Ranch near Reno. He was not cloud-cuckoo-land-crazy. He intends, he explained, to sprinkle dry ice on some of the clouds, and he wants full title to the rain he may bring down, wherever it falls.”

  Next week, we’ll explore what happened next with Haman’s audacious water rights claim.