Merle's Paranormal Adventure In Nevada

Ghostly Activities Club’s good friend, Merle, sauntered throughout the Silver State for some paranormal shenanigans … and all I got was this blog post. Check out his ghost hunting and alien chasing adventures after the jump.

It All Started In Virginia City
Washoe Club
The Silver Queen Hotel
Mackay Mansion
Silver Terrace Cemetery
Clown Motel
Tonopah Cemetery
Area 51
Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum
Sources

It All Started In Virginia City

^{Virginia City, Nevada, USA by Piotrus is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons}

Perched high in the hills above Carson City, Virginia City is one of Nevada’s most haunted—and historic—ghost towns. Born from the silver boom of the Comstock Lode in the late 1850s, the town exploded almost overnight with miners, saloons, brothels, and a rough reputation. It was a wild place where fortunes were made, lives were lost, and ghost stories were born.

The town’s buildings haven’t changed much since the 1800s. Wooden sidewalks creak under heavy boots. Saloons still buzz with energy. And some say the spirits of gamblers, miners, and madams never left.

Washoe Club

The Washoe Club is one of the most infamous haunts. It was once a private club for the wealthy, complete with a crypt in the back. Today, ghost hunters claim to see full-bodied apparitions, shadow figures, and hear phantom footsteps echoing in the hall. It’s so active, it’s been featured on just about every paranormal TV show out there.

Merle captured some ghostly activity here. You can find it on his socials in the near futre.

The Silver Queen Hotel

The Silver Queen’s most infamous spirit is a young bride who allegedly took her own life in Room 11. As the story goes, she was a sex worker who fell in love with a miner, but he either jilted her or died tragically in the mines. Devastated, she went to the hotel’s bathtub and ended her life.

Guests who stay in Room 11 often report intense unease, disembodied sobbing, and cold spots around the bathtub. Some claim the room’s door opens and closes on its own. One ghost hunter swore she saw a wet footprint appear out of nowhere on the hardwood floor.

The ghost is believed to be intelligent—she’s known to react to EVP questions and trigger EMF devices. Some psychics say she’s still waiting for her lover to return.

Mackay Mansion

Mackay Mansion, once home to a silver baron, has its ghosts. A little girl has been spotted on the stairs and in bedrooms, often peeking around corners. The house staff will tell you she’s not threatening—but she definitely makes herself known.

Merle got the chance to investigate Mackay Mansion, and he got a few ghostly shenanigans. Keep watching his socials for more.

^{The Mackay Mansion guide had a story to tell about Johnny Depp}

Silver Terrace Cemetery

Merle also stopped by the magnificent Silver Terrace Cemetery before leaving town for Tonopah.

At first glance, the cemetery is beautiful. Wrought-iron fences twist around weathered headstones. Stone angels lean with age. Crypts sink into the dry earth. But visit after sundown, and that beauty gives way to something much more unsettling.

Locals and visitors alike report ghostly encounters. One of the most common is a woman in a black Victorian dress, wandering near the graves of children. She’s said to vanish when approached. Others claim to hear whispers on the wind, even when they’re alone, or feel watched as they walk among the graves.

Ghost hunters bring equipment here—and they don’t leave empty-handed. EMF spikes. Unexplained voices on EVP. Cold spots on warm summer nights. One frequent claim: a heavy pressure on your chest as if you’re not wanted there. The spirits of the miners, many of whom died in accidents, explosions, or illness, don’t take kindly to trespassers.

Clown Motel

Spooky Claims & Ghost Stories

Room 108 is considered the most haunted. Guests report seeing a shadowy man standing at the foot of the bed and a woman’s voice whispering in the dark. Others claim something invisible sits on the mattress while they sleep.
Guests have seen clown dolls turn their heads, even though they weren’t attached to any motion sensors or electronics. Some hear giggles or muttering coming from empty rooms.
Phantom footsteps in the hallways are common, especially in the dead of night when no one else is booked nearby.
Paranormal investigators have recorded EVPs of children, mining accident victims, and unidentified whispers that respond directly to questions.

And let’s not forget the Tonopah Cemetery next door, where people claim to see misty figures walking between the graves and feel cold spots while standing at certain headstones.

Tonopah Cemetery

This cemetery served Tonopah until 1911, when it was filled to capacity. In just a decade, over 300 people were buried here. Many were miners killed in accidents or disease outbreaks—especially “The Belmont Mine Fire” of 1911, one of the deadliest in Nevada’s mining history. Seventeen men were trapped underground, and most suffocated.

Others died from pneumonia, tuberculosis, or the 1918 flu pandemic. There are also babies and children’s graves, as childhood mortality was high at the time.

The desert may have preserved the graves, but the grief and trauma seem to linger.

Area 51

A trip through the desert in Nevada means aliens, so Merle checked out Area 51. It looked like a dried-up lake bed.

Area 51 was established in 1955 to test the U-2 spy plane, a high-altitude aircraft developed by the CIA. Its location—Groom Lake—was chosen for its isolation and dry lakebed, perfect for landing experimental aircraft.

Since then, Area 51 has hosted the development of other top-secret projects like the SR-71 Blackbird, F-117 Nighthawk, and stealth drone tech. The government denied the base even existed until 2013, when declassified CIA documents finally admitted to its role in aerial testing.

But here’s the thing: all that secrecy—combined with strange lights in the sky and stories from former employees—sparked the birth of a legend.

Anyway, Merle said the feds watched him like a hawk as he drove around the base.

Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum

If you’re gonna go to Vegas, you might as well stop in and say hi to Zak. Merle is such a fan: This was his second trip to the museum!

The museum is housed in a 1938 mansion once owned by Cecil L. Booth, a prominent Vegas businessman. Over the decades, strange events were rumored within—especially in the basement. Locals whispered that rituals and seances took place there in the 1970s, and previous residents fled after claiming they were “watched” or “followed” by something unseen.

When Bagans bought the property in 2014, he claimed the house itself had a malevolent energy. Workers reported shadow figures, sudden nausea, and technical malfunctions. Some refused to come back.

So, stayed tuned to Merle’s socials to see the ghostly evidence. You can find him here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theparanormalroadtrippers/?hl=en

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeInxiLefddWq786NJrielw

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theparanormalroadtrippers/