My Haunted Travel Blog! By Rosella C. Rowe: August 2020

The Crescent Hotel and the Night that Changed My Life Forever!

Dedicated to:

Ashley Floyd-Essman

On our way to Branson, Mo., to visit the Titanic Museum so I could write a blog post, we were in the car driving when my husband mentioned how close we would be to the Arkansas border. We live in Ohio so it’s very rare for us to drive that far west. After hearing how close we would be, my first thought was, “Oh my God. How far will we be from the Crescent Hotel & Spa? The Crescent is known to be the most haunted hotel in America and is on my bucket list?” I’ve seen the hotel on TV many times and I fell in love with the historic site. The history of the hotel alone, not including its beauty, is amazing!

Turning to my husband, I said, “Quick, look up the Crescent Hotel & Spa and see how far away we will be? If we are close, I will be shocked!” Normally, my husband would say, “Are you crazy! I’m not looking that up,” and then I would have to do it myself later, but oddly, he did!

“It’s an hour and fifteen minutes away from where we are staying,” he informed me and then he found something else even better! The hotel offered ghost tours and he sent me the link.

Four hours later, I had checked us into the Branson-area hotel, gotten the kids in their bathing suits for my husband to take them to the pool while I was gone, and bought my ghost tour ticket at the Crescent for their 9 p.m. tour. I was ready to hit the road.

An hour and fifteen minutes later, after winding my way through the creepiest half desert/half forest mountains (most of the time I was freaked that I WOULD discover that bigfoot was REAL because I was going to see one jump out in front of me on the road), I finally arrived in total darkness turning up small winding hills which were extremely hard to see. Suddenly, my Honda Pilot popped out on top of a hill and soon the stunning mega stone hotel, the Crescent Hotel & Spa, was right in front of me. I smiled as my heart lit up with joy and suddenly felt like a kid in a candy store at its massive sight.

Gathering all my ghost gear, deciding that I didn’t care if I embarrassed myself by having it will me and using it in front of strangers, I shot out of my Pilot, locked my door and ran up to the front entrance taking tons of pictures like the tourist I was. As I was taking pictures of the beautiful fountain lit up in the darkness with a crescent moon stationed in its center, high above the glowing fountain, outside the hotel’s main entrance, I was blissfully unaware of how this night was going to change my life forever.

Walking inside the hotel’s historic, immense lobby with an elegant fireplace and Venetian furniture, I could not stop smiling if I tried.

I spotted some books across the room on some bookshelves – my mothership! I began walking across the large lobby past a big desk with a large fluffy cat sitting on top looking like it was checking out passing guests. At first, I thought the cat was a statue, but then I thought I saw it move. Getting closer to it, I said aloud to myself, “Is that real?” Then the cat looked over at me after hearing me speak and took off. “Well, I guess it was real!” I said, again to myself, and began picking up some of the books to look at them.

I found a book about the hotel, House of a Hundred Rooms: Tales the Ghost Tour Guides Do Not Tell. The book guides tourists through the history of the Crescent Hotel using stories of real people who lived and worked there, and its haunted tragedies. Little did I know that later that same night, I would make a call asking the book’s author, Keith Scales, for an interview as my first blog guest! But at the time, I was just excited to hold the tale of the hotel’s history in my hands.

As soon as I bought the autographed copy of Keith Scales’s book, I walked to the historic metal elevator and pressed the button for the 4^th floor. I didn’t know it at the time, but when I stepped into that elevator, so did my guardian angel! Yep, that’s right! My guardian angel.

Making my way toward the end of the 4^th floor hallway, I spotted, across from the restaurant the place to check in for tours. However, I was an hour early. “I should ask if I can switch my tour and do the earlier tour?” I swiftly thought. “Then I can get back to my kids earlier. It’s a long drive back and it’s so dark!”

I walked over to the two ladies taking tickets for the ghost tours and explained to them who I was and that I drove all the way from Ohio to be there, telling them honestly about my situation and how excited I was to be there and I was planning to write about their hotel and ghost tour. They were so kind. They got up and even walked me to the tour entrance door and introduced me to David, who was to be my tour guide.

I sat on an old chair next to a couple in their 40s. I smiled at them and suddenly felt the need to look at the woman next to me again. I didn’t know the reason, but somehow, I felt this strange feeling or pull towards her. “What is it?” I thought to myself. There was something about her. I also felt the need to speak with her, but I couldn’t understand why or what I needed to speak to her about.

Soon David began speaking interrupting my own thoughts as he started telling the crowd about the hotel’s wonderful history.

Our Ghost Tour Guide David

This is basically what he said:

The Crescent Hotel & Spa is known as America’s most haunted hotel! The Crescent was built for the rich and famous in 1886 in Eureka Springs, AR. Guests came from far and wide to stay at the Crescent, although to stay at the luxurious hotel you had to be personally invited. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the best business policy and the hotel went out of business, falling into disrepair.

In 1908 the hotel was bought and turned into an all girl’s college called The Crescent College and Conservatory for Young Women. Unfortunately, the school closed in 1924, but later reopened in 1930 as a junior college only to close again 4 years later in 1934.

The Crescent was leased for a short while and soon sold to Norman Baker, an infamous conman who fashioned himself a doctor however he didn’t have a medical license. Baker claimed he could cure cancer by using water from the Eureka Springs. He advertised it to cancer patients looking for hope and turned the property into a cancer treatment hospital and health facility.

However, in 1940 Baker was arrested and went to prison for mail fraud. The poor Crescent sat abandoned until 1946 when the property was sold to John R. Constantine, Herbert E. Shutter, Herbert Byfield, and Dwight Nichols. After going through several other owners, in 1997, it was sold to current owners Marty and Elise Roenigk for $1.3 million. They restored it to look like it did back in its glory days.

Today the Crescent Hotel & Spa is well known in pop culture due to many paranormal TV shows visiting the hotel and recording their haunted experiences. That’s right; Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, and Paranormal Witness have all come to the hotel capturing lots of ghostly activity, intriguing guests to come who want to have their own haunted experience at the historic hotel.

One of the most well-known ghosts, Theodora, is a past resident and a former assistant of Baker when the facility was a cancer treatment hospital. Theodora is seen standing outside Room 419 looking for her lost room key. She takes up conversations with hotel guests, only to suddenly vanish into thin air leaving the guests perplexed. She also is seen on the 3^rd floor of the hotel pushing a gurney with a dead body covered in a white sheet, usually at exactly 4 a.m.

The hotel has many popular rooms with ghost stories such as a young man named Michael, a 17 year old, Irish immigrant and stonemason; and a poor, little, 6-year-old boy named Breckie, who died of appendicitis after four days in the hospital. The hotel even has a small closet-sized space in the basement known as the morgue that was used when the hotel was a hospital.

Breckie

Did I go to see all these things? YES! However instead of experiencing a ghost or a haunting, I experienced something else.

During the tour, we started on the 4^th floor when David, the tour guide, took us down to the end of the hall. I got out my EMF reader and began scanning the hallway. The group soon followed David down the well-known stairwell toward the 3^rd floor were the nurse, Theodora, is often seen at 4 a.m.

On the way down the stairs, I was walking next to Ashley Floyd Essman, the woman I sat next to who so grabbed my attention prior to the tour. For some reason, I felt drawn to Ashley. I can’t explain why but something in my head said the word, “Angelic” and I was drawn to her. As soon as I heard the word in my head, my EMF reader went off. We both smiled and looked at each other nervously since the EMF reader was going off but soon we were talking all about the paranormal, TV shows, and more. I told Ashley what I write about and we became instant friends, staying together during the entire tour. Ashley’s husband told me she loved paranormal stuff, but it definitely wasn’t his thing, so we both teased him as we all moved along with the tour.

David took us around several places telling us ghost stories turning to me to see if my EMF reader was going off or not, and, if so, telling me why and who he thought it was, based off ghost stories of the hotel. Then he took us downstairs to the basement and morgue. The entire way down the hall my EMF reader was going off like crazy. I even captured a video of it beeping and lighting up. As I did, I looked behind me to Ashley. Both of us exchanged looks in disbelief watching what my EMF was doing.

Walking into Basement

When we reached the morgue, we were taken into a room to view Baker’s collection of his cancer patients’ tumors, which he had cut out after their deaths to hide the fact that he hadn’t cured their cancer. Later, he buried the jars on the property, most likely at night so he wasn’t seen. The buried bottles were recently found by the hotel’s gardener, Susan Benson on February, 5, 2019.

It was pretty disgusting but while in the room viewing the collection, Ashley was taking several pictures and videos behind me when she caught a red orb whisping in a circle high in the air until it disappeared amongst the members of our group. She had also taken a picture of an old patient wheelchair and large metal cabinet claiming she saw mist near them.

We were later led into a small space apparently used to stack the bodies on top of each other and leave them until the funeral home could come transport them. David asked members of our group to go into the small room, once used as a morgue, claiming that others we entered and shut the door have experienced something or gotten pictures of several ghosts.

Ashley, her husband, and I, along with two other women, walked into the small dark room and David shut the door. We all began taking several pictures when suddenly Ashley’s husband (and skeptic) said, “Ashley, stop rubbing the back of my leg.” To which Ashley and I looked at one another via the two women’s cell phone flashes. Ashley and I knew she couldn’t be touching her husband’s leg because she wasn’t near him. She was standing next to me, on my other side.

Ashley told her husband it couldn’t be her because she was not standing next to him and he yelled out for David, “Open the door!” David heard him scream and opened the door. He curiously asked, “Is everything okay?” as we piled out of the room. Ashley and I began telling David what happened and thought it was so funny that the ghost had touched her husband, who had stated to us that he didn’t believe in the paranormal. Pure irony! David said that this wasn’t the first time he had heard of someone having that experience.

On our way out, I asked David, Ashley and her husband to take a picture for my blog article while holding the lit up EMF reader and they did. That was the first and last time I would ever see Ashley Floyd Essman.

Ashley Floyd-Essman and Husband

After the tour David took me around the hotel telling me more as I took pictures. I had so much fun and he called Keith Scales for me and I talked to him about an interview for my blog. I drove back to the Branson hotel arriving at midnight and, by the morning light, I woke up to several text messages from Ashley. She sent me several pictures and videos which are seen here in this blog post. Most of this is from Ashley.

Ashley, her husband, and David (Our Ghost Tour Guide)

Over the next several days, my family continued our trip then came home. On the way home my husband looked at me fearfully saying I didn’t look good, which I could tell really frightened him. I thought he was overreacting and assured him that I felt fine. I got home and talked to Ashley every day and night. We made lot of future plans to go ghost hunting together around the country. I even invited her to my birthday party the following week!! A total stranger but I felt as if we had known each other all our lives! It was such a strong feeling, one that I had never had before.

We had such a connection!! She loved, read, and watched all the paranormal things I did! I just felt such a connection with her. It was the most unbelievably amazing connection I have EVER had with a friend.

Then on day six after meeting Ashley, I picked up my phone and had an urge to text her about our exciting plans, even though it was past 9 p.m. She wrote me back saying something candid with a quick ‘goodnight,’ which was odd. That was the last I ever heard from her. That night I got terribly sick with the flu, or possibly Covid-19, because back in early February 2020 they didn’t really know what the symptoms were yet. I felt like I was going to die and was sick for weeks.

That same night, Ashley died from a massive-heart attack at the age of 47! Her mother was kind enough to message me on Facebook and tell me that she had died. Ashley had told her whole family about me and our fast friendship. I was devastated and still very sick. My husband found me on the floor crying in shock. I had thought about Ashley during those days of not feeling well and thought, “hmmmm…I wonder why I haven’t heard from her. I will have to write her,” but I was too sick. That same night was the night I found out about her death.

At my birthday party, I was still very upset and talked about it to my friends most of the night. I am a person who always believes that everything happens for a reason, only I couldn’t understand how there could EVER be a reason for loosing Ashley. I just didn’t understand why this had to happen. “Why would God introduce me to a great person, only to take her from me as soon as we had met?”

I knew I wasn’t going to truly get over losing her even though I just met her. I felt that she was my best friend. We had talked and talked so much about our plans and future trips. We had so much fun during those talks. “Why would God take her from me?” Still, to this day, I grab my phone to text her and then remember and get upset all over again or become angry again from the loss. Some people don’t find out why, but I did!

Three weeks ago, I was sitting at the Victorian House Museum in Millersburg, Ohio, talking with a spirit with two fellow paranormal investigators and friends, Paul and Harry, when suddenly Ashley came through. I was instantly crying and telling her how much I loved her, missed her, and cared for her.

Ashley told me that she knew and that she would always be there with me. Ashley then told me the most interesting news of all…WHY THIS ALL HAD HAPPENED! Ashley told me she was meant to meet me in life, so she could help me in her death, watching over me as my GUARDIAN ANGEL! She told me God had sent her to me.

That day was very emotional for me and still is…but now I truly have learned that EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON!! So when you have a doubt, please think of this story! And think of this….

Fate:

If I hadn’t heard my husband say that he couldn’t believe how close we were staying to the Arkansas state line, then I never would have asked him to look up how far away the Crescent Hotel was from our hotel. And I never would have gone to the hotel, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, I never would have gone on the earlier ghost tour where I met Ashley!!!

All of these things led me to meet Ashley and if one of them didn’t happen, just one of these things, I wouldn’t have met her! It’s all God’s work! He did it all!! It was truly meant to be.

So why am I telling this story? Because God works in mysteries ways that we as human beings don’t understand and sometimes may never understand. I am one of the lucky ones, because I did get to experience and learn why I met Ashley and why I lost her.

You also may be thinking, “Well, what took her so long to write this article then?” That’s a good question, to which I have a deep answer: if I did write this article, then it would mean that Ashley Floyd-Essman did die and that was something I wanted to deny! But after hearing her come through to me a few weeks ago I knew I had to and she did too!

I really hope this story helps someone else deal with their loss and grief as well. It hurts and it’s still hard for me. My grief isn’t gone. But now I know that God has His reasons, and I need to put my trust in Him. It’s just a reminder of that and to live each day like so.

Ghosts may haunt the Crescent Hotel & Spa, but instead of meeting a ghost like others go to the hotel to experience, I MET A BEST FRIEND AND MY GUARDIAN ANGEL!! Now, who can say that?!