Check in to be scared

Oh,oh! a non-ghostly woman exclaimed in surprise when she rounded a corner on the fourth floor one recent evening. When she realised she had encountered another non-ghost,she seemed disappointed.

The front desk clerks voice grew low as he told how he heard a female voice one evening while riding the elevator between the third and fourth floors,even though he was the only physical being inside. And he swore up and down that he once saw a room key floating in the air.

At his side were the ghost journals,accounts left by guests over the years of their encounters with the hotels resident spirits. Adding credence to the hotels claim of three resident ghosts,at least for those who believe in the paranormal,was the hotels appearance in an episode of the TV show,Ghost Hunters.

One guest,Tina LaVon,wrote about how she had tried to take a photo in the hotel but the camera said it had no memory card. The scary part is,she insists it did have a memory card.

Others wrote of hearing whispers,of the remote control for the television not working or of a cellphone battery mysteriously losing power. Nine-year-old Devan heard breathing over his shoulder when he was reading the ghost book. Other guests said coins disappeared from the desk in their room,which legend has it is the handiwork of Billy,a young ghost,who died long ago in the nearby San Pedro River and supposedly now has the run of the Copper Queen.

Southern Arizonas Most Haunted,a book on Bisbee recounts how Billy has been seen jumping on the leather couch in the lobby. The Copper Queen Hotel is haunted by over 16 spiritual entities, said the books author,Renée Gardner. She conducts walking tours of ghostly spots around this old copper mining town,as well as a special driving tour in a secondhand hearse.

All the spirits supposedly roaming around the Copper Queen,and some guests perhaps pretending to be spirits themselves,mean a lot of potential for mischief. A guest named Roxana wrote of a ghostly incident that occurred when she showered. My husband and daughter left our room and I got in the shower, she said. When I was in the shower I heard the bathroom door shake. When my husband and daughter returned I said,Very funny. They swore they hadnt returned to scare me.

Another guest,Natasha,wrote that as she and her stepfather were dining one night,he had locked the door to their room,No. 401. She had seen him. But when they got back,their door was wide open. There have been rooms that got phone calls with no one at the other end of the line,a photograph on the wall that moved,a shaving kit that fell to the bathroom floor and mysterious taps on guests shoulders by invisible beings.

My husband and I are believers but sceptics at the same time, wrote a woman who heard strange sounds in Room 316 at 2 am.

On Thursday nights,ghost experts lead guests through the creaky old building in search of mischievous Billy,a former prostitute named Julia Lowell who is said to have taken her life in the hotel and now pays particular attention to male guests and a mysterious bearded man in a top hat and black cape.

For some guests,the Copper Queen is not the least bit scary,offering little more than a good meal,a lively bar scene and an uninterrupted night of slumber.

Absolutely nothing happened to us of a ghostly sort, a guest named Crystal wrote in the journal. The only sounds we heard were from the noisy people upstairs.