Haunted

Hallway on the first floor of Hotel Jefferey

Just so you know, I am not a 100% believer in ghosts, maybe 50% would be more accurate. A few months ago my husband and I were visiting a little town near Yosemite named Coulterville, It's one of those old California gold rush towns with a colorful history of old west injustices and a claimed-to-be haunted hotel, which is pretty much the only hotel in those parts, I didn't know much about it when I booked it online (the fact that you could purchase a "Ghost Detection Kit" should have been a clue) but we needed to pick up our new puppy from the breeder who lived in the area...Thus we experienced a night in the Hotel Jeffery. Cue the spooky music please......

Hotel Jeffery is famous for more than ghosts, back in the day some very notable people slept there like John Muir, Mark Twain and Teddy Roosevelt. The hotel has definitely seen some rich history. One story has it that a young woman was left pregnant and alone by her neer-do-well lover and she hung herself in one of the rooms. She is believed by some to be wandering the hallways still.


We were pretty exhausted when we arrived, it had been a long drive and a long day. We were the proud owners of a feisty new pup who was extremely car sick; in the 10 minute drive from the breeders house to the hotel, she had evacuated (from both ends) what seemed like twice her body weight  all over her puppy- crate bedding.

We had a great dinner in the Magnolia Saloon ("the oldest working Saloon in California") next door, complete with karaoke, then retired to our room. It had an old fashioned four poster bed right out of an episode of Bonanza. Feeling sorry for the miserable pup, we put her in bed with us. We had just settled in when BAM!! There was a sound so loud we thought the bed broke. We turned on the lights, and checked it out but nothing looked wrong. 


I was very surprised it wasn't broken, the noise had been so loud I thought for sure that we would have to tell the owner and change rooms, but there was nothing. We turned out the lights and settled in again when BAM!!! it happened again and it felt like the bed had fallen a couple of inches. This time we just ignored it, we rationalized that maybe it was a gimmick that the owners do, put the mattress on a kitty corner or something so that when people get on it it scares them into thinking there are ghosts....or maybe.... 


 I was having trouble sleeping, as was the puppy, even though we were both exhausted. I had thrown an old sleeping bag that we had in the car over the blankets for Jet to sleep on just in case she  had another accident. When I pried my eyelids open to see why she was so restless, I found that she was surrounded by little sparkly lights. It reminded me of the phosphorescence that sometimes happens when a certain diatom is present in the ocean. Again my tired brain tried to rationalize the phenomena as static electricity, maybe it was but, outside of the ocean, I have never seen anything like that. I rubbed my hand over the sleeping bag and the little lights followed my hand. My husband was sound asleep and so I didn't have the heart to wake him, but now I wish I did.


Finally we all drifted off to sleep, nothing else out of the ordinary happened, but I have been thinking about it all this time wondering if the events we experienced were actual ghosts messing with us or can it all be logically explained as our brains tried to do.......what do you think? Anyway, if you are the adventurous type, and you're ever in the area, you should check it out

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Room 22 is said to be the most haunted of all the rooms. (We didn't stay in this room.)

This is the room where the woman was supposed to have hung herself

The oldest working saloon in California.

An old wisteria is wrapped around the columns out front of the hotel.

Not only a hot spot for spirits!

Jet!!!!