My Strange Experiences At Cripple Creek, Colorado: A Town Full Of Spirits
A strange series of events led to me going for a visit to Cripple Creek, Colorado. Very strange indeed.
By 
Amy Venezia
A strange series of events led to me going for a visit to Cripple Creek, Colorado. Very strange indeed.
It all started with a dream I had. In my dream, I saw a flash of the face of a beautiful woman. She had red hair and it was up with soft tendrils that perfectly fell from the thick nest of curls on top of her head. She was in her 20s with pale, perfect skin. She had large eyes and I felt a very warm and loving feeling from her. In the next flash, I saw the face of a man. He was not so lovely. He was in his 50s and had skin that looked like a leather saddle. He had a broad, square face with a thick, brown mustache. Although, I couldn’t smell him…I just knew he reeked of whiskey and tobacco. He didn’t scare me, but he was enough of a contrast from the sweet young woman I had just seen…enough to make me know he was not someone that you would mess with. At least, not if you were sober or had even a sliver of brain capacity. The last image I saw came right after him and it was of a brown satchel. It was made of what looked like potato sack material on the bottom. Thick canvas and the top was old leather. Leather that had darkened with age. It zipped and had two leather handles. It reminded me of the size and shape of what doctors used to carry in the older days for house calls. With all three images, the time period felt to be the late 1800s to early 1900s.
I woke up perplexed that I had seen these three flashes, so I told my boyfriend about it. I mentioned how random it was to see faces of people from an era long ago and to not know why they were appearing to me. Then I joked that maybe it was his ancestors coming to me…since I felt they were of Irish descent and my boyfriend is of Irish descent as well.
Fast forward to four days later. My boyfriend and I were working on our individual computers when he stopped to say that he received an alert for Frontier Airlines offering crazy low tickets across the country. My family lives in Nashville, TN and it is expensive to fly there from Oregon. We jumped on the website and found that the only way to fly to Tennessee from Oregon was to fly first to Colorado. With the insane fares they were offering, even though it wasn’t anywhere near time for us to take a vacation, we decided to go for it. Three days in Colorado and the rest in Tennessee.
Of course, I Googled haunted locations in Colorado to decide where we were going to stay. Cripple Creek caught my eye, not only for the amazing history of the town, but also because it was along the route we were planning to drive. There are several hotels in Cripple Creek that claim paranormal activity. When I clicked on Colorado Grande Casino, my hair stood up all over my body. The hotel claims there is an Irish woman named “Maggie” that haunts the hotel. She is young and red headed and smells of roses. Often times, visitors smell roses around them when she is nearby. Guests and gamblers have also seen full apparitions of her with a male apparition actually sitting at the slot machines. There is even many in the town who claim the hotel’s security cameras actually captured Maggie and her male companion on camera playing slot machines in the middle of the night. Rumor has it that they kept the tapes in a safe in the building and that the tapes vanished into thin air, never to be seen again.
I stared at the computer screen reading the descriptions of the hauntings at the Colorado Grande Casino and recalling the “visitors” I had experienced four nights before reading this. I knew there was no way I could not stay at this hotel and see if I could connect with Maggie or her male companion. I have no logical explanation how it is possible that beforehand…they made themselves known to me….but they did and I decided to find out why.
We booked our trip and when the time came to drive from where we were staying in Colorado Springs to Cripple Creek, I couldn’t get there fast enough. My boyfriend kept wanting to make stops and I was irritated because I had this overwhelming sense of urgency to get there. I was driving and as soon as we started the winding approach into Cripple Creek, I started feeling dizzy and very out of sorts. I pulled over that the “Welcome to Cripple Creek” sign to take some deep breaths. My boyfriend sat staring at me, wondering what the hell was going on. I looked up at him and said, “This is going to be a gnarly one.” I had never felt the physical force of energy that I felt driving into that town. I have been to over 10 countries and traveled all over the United States and this was a first for me to this extent. Throughout the day, I suffered heart palpitations. Not a fun feeling. I kept breathing through it, meaning used my breath to ground myself and not let it overtake me. It was something I had to do throughout my time in Cripple Creek.
I would like to say the moment I arrived at the Colorado Grande Casino, I felt the spirits of Maggie and the man, but I can’t say that. I can’t say that because the time I arrived, I had already felt a whole town full of spirits. I was overwhelmed as if I was standing in Grand Central Station with all of them talking over one another to grab my attention. It was such an uncomfortable feeling that I don’t really know how to put into words enough for you to feel as well. With heart palpitations and legs feeling like noodles, a dizzy head and the feeling of needing to take a three-day nap; I did the best I could communicating with the spirit of Maggie.
We drove around the city and visited the old prison there. Haunted as well. The flowers are haunted. I don’t even know how to describe it. The whole town feels like one giant haunting. There’s nothing like driving around the quaint little town and having wild donkeys walk up to your window. They just roam the streets. These two were adorable. You could tell they had crushes on each other.
This donkey, on the other hand, I called him Evil Donkey. He just stood on the side of a building. He was alone. On the sidewalk. Pooping. Moving a few feet over. Pooping there, moving a few feet over. He stared with jet black eyes. I love animals and usually have a huge connection with them. This one, I didn’t even want to make eye contact with. Evil Donkey.
I left the Zoom H1 going in our room while we drove around the town. I was able to capture two female EVPs that I feel belong to the voice of Maggie. You can hear the Irish accent in the one and hear the same intonation in both. The first one, it sounds to me like Maggie pleading “Wait!” to someone. The second, is the sound of a woman humming a song. Listen with headphones for best results:
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That night, I went to sleep in pure exhaustion. I remember very little of what I experienced except the flash of a face that very abruptly woke me up. It was an African American woman in her 60s. She had a hair scarf over her head and she was dressed in period clothing around the early 1900s. Her clothing was that of a servant or cook. She was intense and woke me up the moment I saw her face. I contacted the hotel to see if there is any history of a cook from that time period that worked in the building. Or if anyone else has ever seen or felt her over the years. They have not yet responded to my email.
The next morning, I tucked away a bottle of rose oil that I brought for Maggie into a silk plant in the room. It was my gift to her and I feel she was very happy with that.
As much as I wish I had more to offer on why Maggie came to me beforehand and more information on her spirit, I was simply too overwhelmed and drained during my time there to see or hear anything clearly. Maybe I will find out at a later date.
If you are near Colorado or going to visit any time soon, I would definitely make Cripple Creek part of your experience. Stop by and visit Maggie! Try to find Evil Donkey. Say hello to the busloads of tourists that arrive throughout the day to try their luck at the many casinos. You will have an experience no matter what! 
