By Richard Senate.
Gold Hill Hotel, Gold Hill, Nevada.
Ghosts are where you find them, so they say. Since I saw one long ago, I have been looking for them for over 20 years. In my search to find these elusive spirits, I visited the Gold Hill Hotel in Gold Hill, Nevada. Knowing Room #2 had a reputation for being haunted by a ghostly woman called “Rosie,” and unable to resist the opportunity, I requested it for my stay.
Built of native stone in the 1850s, the Gold Hill Hotel looks like Mark Twain stayed there- he may have. The room’s bathroom featured a huge claw tub, and that night, as my wife slept, I filled the tub and relaxed in the hot water. That’s when I smelled it. Now, mark my words when I say that it was a powerful, strong smell, almost a stench – overwhelmingly of roses. It was as if someone had dumped a bottle of cheap perfume on the floor.
Intrigued, I got out of the bath and smelled everything in the bathroom up close. I smelled the soaps and shampoos, but nothing was remotely fragranced like roses. I even took a whiff of the windows and doors, thinking that some trickster might be having a bit of fun with me by squirting some perfume in the room. There was nothing. Finally, just when I was convinced I had encountered the ghost — it was GONE. The smell was no longer there. Not one whiff of roses – the aroma leaving almost as quickly as it had come. I knowthat’ss not normal. When you get a smell that powerful, it’s hard to get rid of it. Nonetheless, the overwhelming scent was entirely gone.
By this time, I was cold, so I went back into the warm water of the bath and almost discounted my experience as a dream until it happened again. Getting out of the bath, I wrapped a towel around myself and searched not only the bathroom but also the bedroom. The scent was gone!
The next day, I learned that other people had this happen to them while they were occupying the same room. Now, I believe the hotel is really haunted. It was a night I will not forget, even if I live to be 100.
Updated November 2026.
Gold Hill, Nevada Timothy H. O’Sullivan, 1867.
About the Author:  Richard Senate, from Los Angeles, California, is the author of seven books on the paranormal and regularly contributes to FATE Magazine. He has been involved in ghost hunting since 1978, when he saw a phantom monk at the California Mission San Antonio de Padua. He was the first ghost hunter to have a website on the internet in 1995 and has appeared on many television programs as a consultant. Visit Richard at his website – Ghost Stalker – www.ghost-stalker.com.
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