BOO BOYS Investigate: The Alaskan Hotel and Bar

Welcome all to the next installment of BOO BOYS Investigate! In this post, we are going to be looking into the case of the Alaskan Hotel and Bar. Many have been telling us to investigate the hotel, and we just couldn't allow ourselves to miss out on the opportunity to do so. So, kick back, relax, grab an otter pop, and enjoy!

Old Bones

Originally opened on September 16th of 1913, the hotel has been operating for nearly 110 years and is the oldest running hotel in the state of Alaska. Construction of the hotel began in April of 1913 and was completed in only five months. At the time, Juneau was merely a frontier mining camp, and hotel accommodations were in short supply. Taking advantage of this opportunity to capitalize on the growing demand and increasing population, veteran-miners James and John McCloskey teamed up with promoter-entrepreneur Jules Caro and purchased a prime plot of land that was central to the business district and nearby Juneau's steam ship docks. In celebration, a gala event was held on opening night with free transportation even being provided from Douglas Island. The hotel keys were attached to a helium-filled balloon and carried far out of sight to signify that "from the moment the doors swing open, never to close, the hotel will be for the accommodation of guests." During its lifetime, the hotel's bar served as a cafe during the prohibition era, as well as a brothel later on. Although the hotel did briefly shut down in 1977, she was reopened shortly after and underwent restoration by the new owners and was officially added to the national register of historic places on October 25, 1978. Today, much of the interior design and style has remained unchanged, showcasing its original diverse architecture as a result of its construction taking place during a transitional period between the 19th and 20th centuries. Upon entering, it truly feels like a step into the past.

A Haunting History

The hotel has seen many guests check in during its operation, with some never checking out. One such tale of misfortune revolves around the story of Alice, a miner's wife who is said to have met her demise in room 219 of the hotel during the Alaskan gold rush. The story goes that while the two were living at the hotel, her husband left her for work, promising to return within a month's time. After some weeks had passed, Alice began running low on money and was in need of a means to support herself in her husband's absence. In order to make ends meet, she turned to prostitution, which ultimately led to her death by the hand of her own husband. Upon catching her in the act, the miner was infuriated and enacted his rage by firing several shots from a revolver into the man that he caught with his wife, before turning his gun on her.

Although the case of Alice may be the most traumatic incident to take place within the walls of the hotel, it would not be the last. In May of 2007, a sailor from the USS BUNKER HILL checked into the hotel and requested their most haunted room. Happy to oblige, they handed him the key and he made his way up to room 315, eager to see what would await. All seemed to be going well until just before midnight, when the local police received a call from the hotel. Upon entering, they were led upstairs by several guests to room 315, the very same room that the sailor had rented out for the night. They knocked on the door, but received no answer and were forced to break into the room, revealing a harrowing sight. One of the officers who responded to the call, Chris Gifford, said that it was an absolute bloodbath. He is quoted as saying that, "the walls were covered in blood" and it "looked like something very bad had happened." The police made their way over to the shattered window and looked down to see the sailor below, who had miraculously survived the three-story fall to the ground below. One witness, Jill Weitz, stated that they could hear yelling and shattering glass from above, before having their own window suddenly shatter. Since the hotel was so close to the building next to it, the sailor bounced back and forth between both walls, shattering more than one window on his way down. Strangely enough, the incident was kept quiet, and there was no big media coverage surrounding the events that transpired.

In November of 2017, an individual sharing a room with friends would be found deceased in bed. Upon investigation, it was determined that no signs of trauma were found, and foul play was not suspected.

Paranormal Reports

There have been many strange reports of paranormal activity at the hotel over the years. Some have even claimed to have had an encounter with the spirit of Alice during their stay. One former employee is quoted as saying "I used to get people saying, 'She's in my room.' I've had people tell me that she was touching them, or they could see her sitting on the bed. A friend of mine told me if you walk up the top of the stairs, you could see her in the mirror by [room] 308. I've also had people tell me she was in the bar coming down the stairs. The bar has a lot of mirrors in it, and it's easy to see things out of the corner of your eye, especially if you're tired."

Guests have also claimed to have seen objects move on their own or have felt unexplained cold spots. We had the opportunity to speak with one prior guest who told us that while staying in room 219, the faucet in the room would suddenly turn itself on to full blast, with no explanation. On December 1st of 2022, we reached out to the hotel to reserve the two most allegedly haunted rooms, 219 and 315, and on the 17th, we would officially begin our investigation of the Alaskan Hotel.

Enter the BOO BOYS

We began planning our investigation, and decided that along with rooms 315 and 219, we would also monitor the basement, as well. We would have a stationary camera in each location and would rotate between rooms in groups of 1-2. This would also be the first opportunity that we would have to test our SLS camera in the field, so we were excited to see what we might find while using it. On the day of the investigation, I arrived early to set up our surveillance cameras and equipment and to speak with management. One thing I had failed to account for, however, was that there would be events taking place on the same night of our investigation, which unfortunately led to heavy noise pollution and likely affected the activity, as well. Regardless, it was now the day of and there was no going back now. This of course meant that our original plan had also fallen apart and we would not be able to begin our investigation until the event's end at 2 am.

We took this time to roam the halls, set up equipment, and get a feel for the overall vibe of the hotel, which may have been somewhat affected by the sounds of various Disney songs echoing from the bar below.

Most of the team was unable to be present for a majority of the investigation due to the lateness, so this was primarily a two-person job. The new plan was to stay in each location for one hour, working our way from bottom to top. We would begin at 2 am in the basement, then work our way up to room 219 at 3 am and concluding in room 315 at 4am. We made our way up to room 219 to prepare some gear that we would be bringing down with us to the basement, but upon booting up the SLS camera and giving it a quick test run, we may have had an impromptu dance-battle with the undead...

Hour One: Basement

Once the noise died down at the bar and the crowd cleared out, Adela and I made our way down to the basement and kicked the investigation into gear. We began by asking questions while using our digital voice recorder and roaming the open area with an EMF meter in hand. Additionally, we placed down a REM pod, a second EMF meter, and the tried-and-true motion ball for spirits to possibly interact with, as well.

While roaming with our EMF meter, we had something interesting and unexpected happen with our motion ball...

Alternate POV:

Upon seeing this happen, my brain went immediately into "debunk mode." I tried to rationalize what may have caused the ball to light up, and attempted to set it off intentionally by indirect means:

This led me to believe that the motion ball was not activated by me, and that it was highly unlikely that the two staff members working above had been the cause. With our expectations high, we decided to follow-up by using our SLS camera and scanning the area:

We captured many instances of umm.. human-ish figures in varying locations while using the camera. This being said, the SLS camera is not entirely reliable as a tool on its own. The camera can sometimes give a skeletal structure to environmental objects that resemble a humanoid shape. Because of this, it is always best to use it in an area or location without anything within view that might give a false reading. Requesting an intelligent response, such as a wave, is also a viable option that can help to determine whether or not what is captured actually is paranormal. We continued to roam the basement with an EMF meter and asked questions while using our handheld audio recorder. While doing so, we received no unusual responses and when 2:50 am rolled around, it was time for me to have 10 minutes of solo time...

As I sat alone in the basement, I continued asking questions and requesting for a spirit to make itself known by making a noise or touching me. As I listened intently, hoping for a response, I began to wonder what I would actually do if something did decide to touch or push me. Would I run? Would I scream? I never really think about these things beforehand and maybe I should. :| After a couple of minutes of hearing nothing but the floorboards above creaking, I aimed the infrared thermometer directly in front of me and asked for whoever might be present to stand where I was pointing. Any changes in temperature exceeding 8 degrees would be noteworthy, and while doing so, I never saw anymore than a 2 degree drop. After noticing no drastic changes in temperature, I began pointing it in the directions of the various figures that we had picked up on our SLS cameras, as well.

This unfortunately yielded no results, and before I could probe any further, my time was up. We had officially wrapped up our time in the basement and would be leaving the rest to our stationary camera. Before disembarking, we invited the basement dwellers to come to our room and left an EMF meter, REM pod, and motion ball in place while we continued to the next stop on our investigation: Room 219.

Hour Two: Room 219

Prior to beginning our investigation of room 219, I decided to use the SLS camera and EMF meter while roaming the halls.

When using the SLS camera, I came upon one figure, who happened to be standing just outside of one of the rooms:

Poor bastard must have locked themselves out. :(

Room 219 is definitely one of the smallest hotel rooms that I've ever been in. Due to its size, we decided that it would be best if we took turns inside the room as opposed to being in a pair like in the basement. Before parting ways, we set up some equipment, gave a brief introduction, and performed a few quick tests.

I must look absolutely ridiculous lol. While using the spirit box, we did not receive any cohesive or intelligent responses, and the activity was much more tame than we were expecting. We had heard so many stories about poltergeist activity and people's experiences in the room and had hoped that it would live up to the hype. Despite this, we still had high hopes that perhaps something might occur while we separated.

During Adela's time alone, nothing out of the ordinary occurred, fortunately for her. After her 10 minutes alone, contemplating and possibly regretting her life decisions that led her to this point, she made it out without incident. Well, almost. I may or not have jump scared her a bit while talking through the surveillance camera (she requested that I not include that video lol). My time spent alone in the room was mostly uneventful, as well, except for one small incident with the motion ball.

Our time in room 219 was, for the most part, nothing too exciting. We saw no specters and the evidence gathered was not substantial enough for us to definitively label it as haunted. There was just one more stop to make before we could bring this investigation home.

Hour 3: Room 315

Hearing about the Navy sailor who leapt from the window had me full of anticipation. What could have happened in that room to cause him to behave like that? Just what exactly did he see in there? I didn't know what might be waiting for me in there, but I figured if they were still willing to rent the room out to folks, there probably wouldn't be any demons or death traps behind that door.

At first glance, room 315 was more or less exactly what one would expect. It was slightly larger than 219, and much of the decor was the same. Rather than a wardrobe, this room had a built-in closet, and also included a small stove. Hung on the wall, above the dresser, was an old rotary phone, which honestly didn't feel at all out of place. With no nightmarish monstrosities in sight, I arranged our equipment throughout the room and started taking readings and running through the usual tests.

I began by using the spirit box and asking any spirits in the room to make themselves known. I then followed up by asking how many were present, their names, and why they have not yet moved on. After receiving no intelligible answers, I laid an EMF meter on one of the beds and aimed the infrared thermometer beside it. The ghost(s) were then asked to lie down on the bed in the spot where I was aiming the thermometer so that they might have an effect on either the temperature or EMF readings. Things were quiet, and there was no sign of any presence in the room with me. All of our equipment remained unaffected and I was not picking up anything on the SLS. I was beginning to wonder if maybe the stories were exaggerated or the ghosts just got fed up with all of the noise and checked out. I'm not kidding, the walls are really thin so it wouldn't surprise me. With nothing happening in the moment, it was time to turn out the lights and get the show on the road.

Once the lights went out, I began another sweep of the room with the SLS. I stood in the corner and slowly turned the camera, moving from one side of the room to the other to give the grid adequate time to register any humanoid shapes in the darkness. After doing this several times, I had the idea to move away from my position and point the camera in the direction of the door where I had initially been standing. Much to my surprise, the camera picked up a figure that seemed almost as though it was trying to hide...

When attempting to replicate this result, I was unable to get the figure to reappear. I continued scanning the room, but after being unsuccessful for several minutes, I switched back to using the thermometer and asked once more for someone to lie in bed so that I could detect a drop in temperature. Using this method again yielded no results, but when switching to my EMF meter, the camera picked up what I believe could possibly be a spirit orb.

What really seems to differentiate this from dust, is the fact that it can be seen consistently flashing as it moves. This is the only time that we see this happen throughout the entirety of our footage captured from the hotel. Not only this, but it moves almost as though it is avoiding me, drifting away from me every time I begin to get closer until it finally shoots up and disappears. This once again lends to the theory that if there is a spirit residing in this room, perhaps it really is trying to stay hidden. Could it be afraid? Unfortunately these were the only two pieces of evidence gathered during my time in 315, and once 5 am finally rolled around, I was ready to hit the hay and finally bring this case to a close.

Review

Let's review all of the evidence that we gathered during this outing of the BOO BOYS:

Basement

Motion Ball - There were two instances of the motion ball being triggered in the basement. The first was seemingly random and the second was timely in response to my request for it to be reactivated.

SLS - There were five instances of figures registering on the SLS camera. While this was promising of activity, it is also a very good idea to maintain a level of healthy skepticism when including these instances as evidence. The software is designed to map out human shapes and can easily confuse objects in the environment for actual people. The basement was very cluttered, so the camera could have possibly been registering many of the surrounding items. For this reason, I am less inclined rely on this as a sole piece of evidence

Room 219

Motion ball - I once again received a timely response when asking for the motion ball to be activated.

SLS - There was only one instance of the SLS picking up a figure in room 219. This piece of SLS evidence is somewhat more reliable in my opinion, due to the fact that there were no environmental objects that would likely be mapped as human figures and because it appeared as though I received an intelligent response when waving.

Room 315

SLS - The camera picked up a figure standing in the corner of the room near the door. This shape only appeared once, and I was unable to make it show up once more after pointing the camera in a different direction.

Orb - The orb captured in room 315 is a pretty solid piece of evidence, since it looks and behaves completely different from the dust particles that are frequently seen on camera. It is at first seen moving slowly on camera and is consistently flashing. As I get closer to the orb, it moves away almost as though it is avoiding me, before flying upwards and disappearing.

There were no unusual readings with any of our other pieces of equipment and the SB-7 gave no intelligible responses during its use. Additionally, there were no EVPs captured upon review.

Conclusion

The Alaskan Hotel is a place that resonates with history. Haunted or not, there is no denying that stepping through its doors is a walk through time. It still maintains the same aesthetic and design from 100 years ago, and it feels as though it could be a literal portal to the past. The spirits that people have claimed to encounter in the hotel may have stepped though that portal, looking to check-in and rest their weary heads for a while. Perhaps they're still on the hunt for gold, or maybe they're trapped, unable to move past the traumatic events of a past life. We may never know the answers, and although we didn't see any spirits or poltergeist activity during our stay, it was an experience that I'll not soon forget. Who knows? Maybe we'll need to go back for round two at some point. At this time, with the evidence that we have, we cannot come to a verdict as to whether or not the hotel really is haunted. What do you think?

IS THE ALASKAN HOTEL HAUNTED?

• YES
• NO
• MORE EVIDENCE IS NEEDED

Let us know what you think! If you have stories about any strange encounters, let us know in the comments! I hope you enjoyed this post and that you all have a fantastic night. Stay spooky, friends!

-Ron :)