Haunted Houses & Ghost Tours in Eureka Springs, AR

The history

Eureka Springs' haunted ground is, unusually, a town that was built for people who were already unwell and hoping to get better — and its two haunted hotels were built a generation apart for two different versions of that hope.

The Basin Park Hotel's own history page supplies the first version. On its site stood the Perry House, which the hotel's history — quoting an 1884 visitor guide — describes as Eureka Springs' first hotel: built by Capt. Joe Perry, four stories with one hundred rooms, supplying guests with water from the famous Basin Spring, at transient rates of $3 per day. The Perry House dates, on the hotel's own history page, are 1881 to 1890. Its replacement, the present Basin Park Hotel, opened in 1905: the same history page reprints the Eureka Springs Times Echo of July 1, 1905, reporting the doors opened that morning, a one-dollar opening dinner served continuously from 6 until 9, and a grand march at the opening ball at 9:30, in a fire-proof structure built at a cost of $150,000.

Above downtown, older and larger in the town's imagination, stands the 1886 Crescent Hotel. Its ghost-tour operator's own pages trace its sequence plainly: built in 1886 as a luxury resort, later an exclusive women's college (Crescent College), and starting in 1937 a "cancer hospital" run by con man Norman Baker. The operator's 2014 haunted-Arkansas page narrows the Baker chapter to 1937–39, says Baker bought the hotel and converted it into his third cancer facility, naming it the Baker Hospital of Eureka Springs, and notes that the basement room that was once the morgue still contains an old autopsy table.

Downtown holds a third, stranger piece of documented engineering. A street-raising project, not a burial ground, made the town's famous "catacombs."

The legend

This section is folklore — reported by the hotels and tour companies, and never asserted as fact here.

The Crescent's repertoire is named by its own operator. Room 218 is said to be haunted by Michael, a stonemason who died during the hotel's construction. Room 419 is home to Theodora, described by the operator as one of the hotel's best-known spirits. The morgue, a remnant of the Baker hospital era, is listed by the operator as one of the most active areas in the hotel, and guests and staff are said to have reported activity throughout the building for decades. "Said to be" and "reported" are the operator's own framing, and this page keeps it: no source documents Michael's or Theodora's existence or any sighting as an event — they are the hotel's resident-spirit tradition, told on its nightly tours.

The Basin Park Hotel's lore is, in its own current writing, deliberately vaguer. Its paranormal-investigation page speaks of "reported paranormal activity," "eerie encounters" and stories shaped over more than a century, and of learning how the hotel's history and architecture shape the stories told about its reported hauntings — without naming a specific ghost in the material collected. The hotel's own history page confirms the Parkhill era in documented terms — Joe Parkhill aimed, it says, to make the hotel a playground where wealthy Chicago visitors could gamble and drink — but the haunting attached to that era is the visitor guide's and the investigators' telling, not a documented event, and it is presented here at that strength.

Haunted today

Hountix lists 4 places in Eureka Springs, AR. Seasonal attractions keep their own open dates, so check each business's own site before you go.

• Basin Park Hotel Paranormal Investigation — ghost tour, 12 Spring St, Eureka Springs, AR 72632
• Crescent Hotel Ghost Tours — ghost tour, 75 Prospect Ave, Eureka Springs, AR 72632
• Eureka Springs Ghosts: Ghost Tours and Haunted Pub Crawls — ghost tour, 6 S Main St, Eureka Springs, AR 72632
• Haunted Eureka Springs — ghost tour, 45 1/2B Spring / Tours Start at Courthouse Steps at:, 44 S Main St, Eureka Springs, AR 72632

Attraction stories

Crescent Hotel Ghost Tours

The Crescent Hotel's ghost operation is the fullest menu, and its own tour page publishes it in full. The regular Ghost Tour is 60 minutes, family-friendly, listed at $29.50 per person plus tax when fetched. The Expert & Expanded Tour is 90 minutes, ages 12+, $35 plus tax, led by the hotel's most experienced guides with behind-the-scenes access. The Midnight Paranormal Investigation is ages 18+, $39.50 plus tax, a late-night investigation with equipment in spaces not accessible on daytime tours. The Kids Ghost Tour is 45 minutes for ages 5–12, $15 with an accompanying adult free. Tours run nightly around the 8 PM hour, the page says, and regularly sell out; you do not need to be a hotel guest to join. The hotel is at 75 Prospect Ave, per its own page footer.

The history the tours walk through is the operator's own summary, and it needs no embellishment: 1886 beginnings as a luxury resort, years as an exclusive women's college, then the dark chapter as a "hospital" run by notorious con man Norman Baker, starting in 1937. Its older haunted-Arkansas page adds that Baker's facility was his third cancer facility, that the morgue room survives in the basement, and that it still contains an old autopsy table.

The resident spirits are presented by the operator as its tour tradition, and are attributed here in full. Room 218: said to be haunted by Michael, a stonemason who died during construction. Room 419: home to Theodora, one of the hotel's best-known spirits. The morgue: a Baker-era remnant and one of the hotel's most active areas, in the operator's words. Guests and staff, the operator says, report activity throughout the building. That is the complete record in our material — a documented building, a documented fraudster's hospital, and a set of named-ghost traditions the hotel has told, on the record, for years.

*Website: https://www.americasmosthauntedhotel.com/ghost-tours/tickets-tours/*

Basin Park Hotel Paranormal Investigation

The Basin Park Hotel's paranormal product is an investigation, not a walk-through. Its own page describes a 1.5-hour ghost hunt led by the Eureka Springs Paranormal Investigators, taking guests inside select historic hotel spaces to explore haunted history, reported paranormal activity, and the stories that have shaped the hotel for more than a century. Guests use ghost meters and paranormal investigation tools, the page says, and descend into the historic Speakeasy Cave through "Down the Rabbett Hole," a private underground passage. The hotel is the 1905 Basin Park Hotel at 12 Spring St, per its own page footer, in the heart of downtown.

Uniquely in this program, this hotel publishes its own full history, and it is the strongest documented material in this city file. Its history page traces the Perry House (1881–1890), Eureka Springs' first hotel on the same site, supplier of Basin Spring water to its guests; the present hotel's opening on July 1, 1905, reported the same day in the local paper; and the Joe Parkhill era from 1944, when Roy Parkhill bought the hotel for his nephew Joe, who — the history page says directly — aimed to transform the area into an entertainment hub and a playground for wealthy Chicago visitors where they could gamble, drink and avoid law enforcement. Parkhill's lasting event, the same page records, was the Barefoot Ball, first held June 26, 1948, and an annual tradition for over 30 years.

Against that documented colour, the haunting itself must be stated plainly: the hotel's paranormal page publishes no named ghost and no specific dated haunting in the material collected — it publishes reported activity, eerie encounters and a method (learn how history and architecture shape the stories), not a resident spirit. Visitors should therefore expect a hands-on investigation in a genuinely documented building, marketed — to its credit — without an invented ghost to meet.

Practical facts: duration and leadership are on the hotel's page above; ticket prices and nightly times should be confirmed on that page at booking, as the page does not list a price.

*Website: https://basinpark.com/things-to-do/paranormal-investigation/*

Sources

• Crescent Hotel Ghost Tours — the operator's own tour page, plus its "The Haunted Crescent Hotel" and "Haunted Arkansas: Crescent Hotel" pages — https://www.americasmosthauntedhotel.com/ghost-tours/tickets-tours/ (fetched 2026-10-22, story-material/ar-eureka-springs)
• Basin Park Hotel — "Ghost Tours & Paranormal Investigation," About and History pages — https://basinpark.com/things-to-do/paranormal-investigation/ and https://basinpark.com/about/history/ (fetched 2026-10-22, story-material/ar-eureka-springs)
• Visit Eureka Springs — "5 Haunted Places in Eureka Springs" — https://www.visiteurekasprings.com/top-haunted-places-in-eureka-springs/
• Haunted Eureka Springs — the operator's own site — https://hauntedeurekasprings.com/ (fetched 2026-10-22, story-material/ar-eureka-springs)
• KSMU — "From Healing Springs to Illegal Gambling: the History of Eureka Springs, Arkansas" — https://www.ksmu.org/local-history/2015-06-25/from-healing-springs-to-illegal-gambling-the-history-of-eureka-springs-arkansas