By Linda Jones
Did you know ghosts are protective of their residences? Ghosts often do strange or funny things, but usually it’s to protect their “home” and remind us mortals they’re watching us. Nearly every commercial “block,” as business buildings were once called, in Central City and Black Hawk has a protective presence, and the old-timers in the 20th century told many a weird tale.
Central City Creepiness
There was the ghost in the Raynolds Court building, built in 1863. When a family bought the building in the 1970s, they began remodeling the upper level to be their residence. After all the years of tenants on that floor, the rooms were small and uncomfortable for a family of four. The wife/mother ran shops on the lower level and supervised the remodeling on the upper level, which wasn’t going well. One after another, the workmen quit, citing their annoyance with her for moving their tools whenever they were gone. She knew it wasn’t her hiding their tools and when yet another workman came back from lunch and declared he was leaving for good because he couldn’t find his tools, she decided to act. She gave him money and suggested he go get a beer while she “settled” this. She stormed upstairs and confronted the ghost she knew was there.
In strong terms she reminded him that her family loved the building as much as he did; in fact, they were turning it into their home and planned to stay. She ended with a command to return the tools to where he found them and not tease the workman again and went back downstairs. Sure enough, when the workman returned, all was in order. He finished the job, and the ghost, now convinced his beloved building was in good hands, returned to shadows. This building is now the Johnny Z’s Casino.
Across Lawrence is the Century Casino. Several buildings were combined to create this casino and each one had a resident ghost. The corner of Main and Lawrence was the one-time home of Goldman’s saloon, and one of the most famous murders in Central City’s history occurred above that saloon. At the other end of the block stood the Toll Gate Saloon, and a mischievous ghost lived on the second floor of that building. He delighted in turning water faucets and light switches on and off. An old-timer who locked up the Toll Gate in the old days said he would make sure all the lights were off, lock the door and drive away – but only around the block. By the time he drove back in front of the Toll Gate, all the lights were blazing. Sometimes he said he and the ghost played that game 2 – 3 times before the man could drive home.
The old Glory Hole saloon, now part of Doc Holliday Casino, once had cribs on the second floor and a couple of the “girls” have stayed on. All pictures, on whatever camera, taken on that floor show orbs, energy fields of ghosts. A paranormal recently explained to me that ghosts are energy and consequently they love the casinos because of all the energy they generate.
Black Hawk Hauntings
Black Hawk has its share of ghosts too. An extremely odd event occurred in Bronco Billy’s Casino, in a building now occupied by Sasquatch casino. In the 1990s, before tickets, slots took coins and paid out coins. During the mandated closed hours for casinos – 2 – 8 a.m., counters were hired by casinos to count the machine take and record it and stash the coins in the vault. About 4 a.m. one morning the counters were working in one part of the casino when a machine in another section, not yet counted, signaled a jackpot; lights flashed and bells rang. The startled employees followed the noise to a slot with three 7s across it. They were dumbfounded; no one was in that part of the floor. The tapes were still running so they watched the tape of that area to try to unravel the mystery. The tape clearly showed the arm being pulled down and the 7s coming up and the money spilling out – but no human. Apparently the resident ghost decided to try his luck.
The building housing the Wild Card (actually only a wall or two now) became known as the place where the Nabisco Cracker Company was started. The Cracker Factory, as it was called, was home to the Heppbergers, who raised six children there and owned the building for many years, into the 1960s. When the building was remodeled for a casino, the crews were often spooked by the ghost of Uncle John Heppberger. He was murdered there in the 1880s, and Uncle John was irritated because his killer only served 18 months. Several witnesses, including the first bartender at the Cracker Factory casino, saw John’s ghost walk across the room in front of the elevator, which could be seen through him.
Sometimes the ghost called the security guards on their radios.
The best-known ghost in Black Hawk is Lucy. The Gilpin Hotel casino named its restaurant after Lucy. Lucy Malone was a schoolteacher living in the Gilpin Hotel when her fiancé was killed in a freighting accident in Black Hawk. The distraught woman threw herself from a second-floor window of the hotel and died, but she never left the Gilpin. For several years in the late 20th century Jeri and Herb Bowles ran the Gilpin Hotel and Lucy’s room was normally not rented out because of her pranks. She moved suitcases and sometimes dropped them on guests’ chests – you can see why guests would demand another room. Once the Bowles were asked by a couple to give them Lucy’s room, and they did because the couple were insistent. At the end of the week, the guests revealed they were both paranormal researchers and had taped Lucy’s voice in the room. When the present casino was built, Lucy scared away more than her share of workers.
