Downtown Flagstaff is small enough to walk in an evening and old enough to have earned every ghost story it carries. This is the short version of what a night on those streets covers: two haunted hotels, a red-light district, a theater with a presence in the balcony, and the darkest case in town history. Consider it your map to the haunted side of Flagstaff.
From railroad boomtown to haunted main street
In the mid-1800s this area was home to a few sheepherders and ranchers. That all changed in 1882, when the railroad arrived and Flagstaff boomed into a proper town, drawing colorful characters known to wander the streets looking for a gunfight or a game of poker to pass the time. The old saloons have been replaced by sports bars and clubs, but by most local accounts, some of the old-timers never checked out.
Which Flagstaff hotel is the most haunted?
Ask ten locals and you get a split vote between the Hotel Monte Vista and the Weatherford Hotel. The Monte Vista was the center of the action in the 1930s and 40s, and it kept some of its guests. A phantom bellboy still makes rounds outside Room 210. A baby is heard crying in the basement. And in the cocktail lounge, staff and regulars talk about the bank robber who bled out there after one last drink.
The Weatherford makes its own case. John Weatherford came to Flagstaff to build his fortune, and the hotel he raised is now best known for the White Lady of the Zane Grey Ballroom, a misty figure seen near the ballroom's fireplace. Locals also tell of phantom footsteps and voices on the third floor. We collected a season's worth of fresh Weatherford reports in A Medley of Hauntings.
The soiled doves of the Southside
In the early 1900s, prostitution was legal in Flagstaff, and a red-light district operated near the train station. Legend has it that some of these women met violent ends, and their stories are still told south of the tracks. The full history of the ordinances, the taxes, and the women who out-negotiated the town council is in our post on Flagstaff's ladies in red.
The Walkup tragedy of 1937
The heaviest story on the walk is not a legend. In the summer of 1937, Marie Walkup took the lives of her four children and then her own, a case that stopped the town cold and that our co-founder Susan Johnson researched for the book The Walkup Family Murders. We cover the full Walkup story from a respectful distance, several blocks from the house.
The Orpheum and the rest of the route
The route also passes the Orpheum Theater, standing since 1917, where staff and guests describe a presence in the balcony. Add Wheeler Park's dark history and the stories our guides have gathered from thirty thousand-plus guests, and downtown starts to feel a little more crowded after sundown. Our guides are local actors and creatives, and every story starts with the documented record before it gets to the freaky part.
Walk this story
The Flagstaff Haunted History Tour is the original ghost tour of downtown, 75 minutes, $29 for adults, nightly at 7 PM with an 8 PM walk added Fridays and Saturdays. Prefer your history darker and your jokes less filtered? The 18+ Mountain Town of Madness runs Fridays and Saturdays at 9 PM. Either way, you leave knowing the town underneath the town.
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