Inside The Stanley Hotel That Inspired The Shining
Wikimedia CommonsThe quiet and snowed-in Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, inspired The Shining.
The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado is less than six miles from Rocky Mountain National Park. Perhaps more notable, of course, is its literary, cinematic, and paranormal appeal made infamous by Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 classic The Shining.
According to Colorado.com, the establishment’s true history began over seven decades earlier when the hotel’s founder, Freeman Oscar Stanley, was suffering from tuberculosis. Convinced the Rocky Mountain air would cure him of the illness, in 1907 he simply decided to build a luxury hotel there.
With no shortage of lumber supply from the region’s National Park, the resourceful visionary got to work. Ever since its completion, however, people have reported dread-inducing disturbances by entities they can’t fully explain.
Most famously, horror author Stephen King was inspired to write the foundation for Kubrick’s eventual film after a terrifying night in Room 217 in the mid-1970s.
According to King, his time there made him so paranoid and afraid that he couldn’t help but write The Shining when he was allegedly ripped out of a nightmare during his stay.
That particular room changed to Room 237 for reasons still hotly debated by Kubrick fans and is said to be haunted by the housekeeper. Neither identical twins nor a decomposing old woman has been reported by guests, but what has been observed isn’t much easier to stomach.
Guests have reported the giggling of children, running on the fourth-floor corridors, doors inexplicably slamming shut, flickering lights, and dramatic drops in temperature.
The Historic Stanley HomeSome guests have claimed to have heard the piano being played when not a single person was in the vicinity of the instrument. Flora Stanley was an avid player — but she’s been dead for decades.
Guests have even claimed to have seen a cowboy appear at the foot of their bed in Room 428. The fact that guests can hear founder Flora Stanley play the piano at night wouldn’t be so chilling were it not for the fact that she’s been dead for 80 years.
Most recently, the location has been used for the annual “Shining Ball,” horror events, film festivals, and more. For those brave enough to spend a night, the fourth floor, as well as Room 217, are waiting.
