MYSTERY WIRE — Ghost hunters have become a staple of cable TV networks, and a favorite target for their investigations is the real-life ghost town of Goldfield, Nevada.
The few residents who still live in Goldfield, population of around 250, are trying to turn their other-worldly neighbors into a tourist attraction.
One of the attractions and allegedly haunted places is the windswept cemetery outside of town, Goldfield’s own Boot Hill, is testament to the death and tragedy that marred the city’s short tumultuous heyday.
A 100 years ago, Goldfield was the biggest city in Nevada with more than 20,000 people living there, many times larger than the tiny burg of Las Vegas which was just a few years old.
Some of the world’s richest ore sparked a boomtown built to last. There was even talk of making it the state capital. But a pair of deadly fires, followed by killer floods wiped out nearly everything. Most of those who weren’t killed left when the gold ran out.
The massive Goldfield Hotel has survived all of this and is now considered one of the most haunted places in America.
There’s another equally spooky structure, the old school house, which looks like it would be at home on a hill behind Bates Motel.
Throughout the years, people have tried various efforts to raise money to restore the school building, in part by capitalizing on its haunted reputation. They even staged a fundraising event, Dinner With a Ghost, a four course gourmet meal followed by specter-hunting exercises that sometimes produce eerie results.
John Cushman, the man who runs the dinner series told us, “It’s nothing hostile. It’s more like, ‘hello, I’m here. We’ve had a lot of Hello I’m here.’”
John Cushman’s Dinner With a Ghost events have traveled the country helping to restore historic buildings while seeking out spirits. Cushman still runs his haunted dinner series, but with the COVID-19 pandemic, he said he had to cancel 40 dinners, a west coast tour, and has since made a historic Wytheville, Virginia mansion home to the dinners.
Cushman did say once the pandemic passes, he hoped to continue his haunted dinners, possibly returning to Goldfield and other towns across the country with storied paranormal pasts.
