1890 to 1893 was the time of Big Timber's major economic boom and it was at the beginning of this era that the Grand Hotel was built, helping to change Big Timber from a rough and ready frontier town to the commercial centre of the area. At the time Big Timber was the centre of a major sheep raising area, shipping 4,500,000 pounds of wool by 1900. Since its construction the Grand Hotel has remained the premiere hotel in the town.
As happened in essentially all frontier towns built predominantly of wood, Big Timber experienced a major fire, theirs coming in 1908. Fittingly, we suppose, the fire occurred on Friday the 13th in May, taking out most of the commercial district but, due to its brick construction, the Grand was spared.
One thing The Grand
wasn't spared from was haunting, according to
Haunted Places. Both the second floor and the basement have apparently been the scenes of ghostly apparitions and disembodied voices and footsteps. There have even been reports of mysteriously appearing and disappearing water puddles - very strange!
A 2015
newspaper article on the hotel's newest owners mentions that staff still hear strange noises and rustlings in the basement, which remains unfinished.
Grand Hotel - Big Timber
The 1890 Grand Hotel has a colourful history and retains many of its original features, including a billiards table that served as an operating theatre after a man was shot in a gunfight on the premises. The upstairs floor is currently awaiting renovation, but visitors claim to have heard disembodied footsteps and have seen the apparition of a cattle rancher. The other main haunting occurs in the basement, where immigrants would wash their clothes in a designated laundry. Staff claim to have heard foreign voices emanating from the room, but no one is there. Others claim to have seen puddles of water that materialise and vanish in short periods of time with no apparent source.
This hotel, built in the late 19th century, is known to have more than a few haunts as a result of some grisly historic facts. It is said that when the hotel’s foundation was laid, many human skeletons were unearthed. And the small horse corral is said to be on the site of the first post cemetery. Rumor has it that not all the bodies were recovered when the cemetery was moved to its new location.
Another interesting fact: The Grand Hotel provided one of the settings for the 1980 film “Somewhere in Time,” starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. The hotel holds a convention every October for fans of the cult-classic film.
From Haunted Places