Is the Alaskan Hotel More Haunted than the Historic Anchorage Hotel?

Personally, I don’t think Juneau’s Alaskan Hotel is more haunted than the Historic Anchorage Hotel. However, I see why it’s showing up on Travel Channel shows like Portals to Hell and The Alaska Triangle. Some of the paranormal activity reported there is pretty dark and frightening. (Especially the report about the Alaskan Hotel’s room 315, which I’ll get to.)

Although, I’m not sure it’s going to be the haunted hotel featured in The Alaska Triangle episode premiering on Sunday February 23, 2020. But the episode title, “Supernatural Hotel and Mystery of a Sunken Ship,” did catch my eye among the shows in “Travel Channel Paranormal Programming Highlights February 19-March 1, 2020.”

Here’s all I know about the episode from its description: “A vicious spirit attacks female guests at a historic hotel in Juneau, Alaska, and a paranormal investigator searches for answers to a mysterious shipwreck off the Alaskan coast.”

Juneau isn’t that big and there aren’t many haunted historic hotels that could be featured. That’s why I’m thinking it’s likely the Alaskan Hotel. (Although, I’m not familiar with any spirits attacking females there. The spirits seem to be pretty equal opportunity in spooking both sexes from what I know.)

But let’s take a look at both hotels and you can tell me which one you think sounds more haunted.

The Alaskan Hotel  & Bar

The hotel’s bar area boasts spirits of both the supernatural and alcoholic variety. Reports include apparitions as well as things like glasses moving on their own –sometimes with libations in them, causing them to spill. Messy ghosts!

But that’s tame compared to the rooms. Things being moved around are also reported in the rooms, particularly in 218, 219, 315 and 321.

You know how many haunted places have a “woman in white” ghost story? The Alaskan Hotel has one also.

It is thought a woman who was the wife of a miner who murdered her haunts the hotel. Many have reported seeing a blond in old-fashioned clothing “floating around.”

Online sources like Mysterious Universe and Haunted Journeys report the ghost haunts rooms 218 and 219, but I have a book I bought while I was in Juneau on one of our jaunts to Alaska: Haunted Alaska: Ghost Stories from the Far North. It includes a chapter about “The Spectre in Room 321.”

It also shares the story of the blond ghost thought to be the murdered wife of the gold miner, but it identifies room 321 as the one she haunts. One of the sources quoted who used to work in the hotel said it’s impossible to keep the room clean. You can dust and tidy it, then leave and come back and it’ll be a mess again.

The book was written in 2002. The online reports are from 2018 and 2019. Has time and retelling exaggerated this story?

But there’s another room in the hotel with a more current –and disturbing– story: room 315. As Mysterious Universe put it, it’s “ground zero for all manner of paranormal phenomena.”

In a 2018 Alaska Public Media article, Bettye Adams, who owns the hotel, was interviewed about the incident that happened when a sailor jumped out of 315’s window.

He was in port with the USS Bunker Hill and had requested to be put in the haunted hotel room. They put him in 315.

At some point the cops were called in to deal with a disturbance at the hotel and were directed up to the room. When he didn’t respond, they had to break down the door and found the room covered in blood.

The sailor survived his fall, the Navy came to investigate the next day but wanted to “sweep the incident under the rug.”

Suicide attempt? Spooked so bad by ghosts he felt the window was the only way out? Not sure, but when you have something like that happen in a haunted hotel, it certainly adds to the creepy factor.

The Historic Anchorage Hotel

The Historic Anchorage Hotel was the last stop on our Anchorage ghost tour. Like the Alaskan Hotel, it’s very spirited too. Many of its rooms are said to be haunted.

In fact, of its 26 rooms, only one hasn’t had reports of activity. One. And guess which one usually has a waiting list to reserve it?

Yep. The non-haunted one.

Our guide admitted he wasn’t sure why there are so many ghosts reported there –except for one. Anchorage’s first Chief of Police was murdered in the alley behind the hotel in 1921. He’s often reported to be active each year around the time of his deathiversary. (February 20.)

Overall, the hotel is very open about its ghosts –and proud of them too.

They keep a ghost log in their lobby. Anyone who’s interested in reading reports can check it out.

And in addition to addressing ghost sightings on their site, they have a sign in one of their windows listing their historic –and haunted– accolades.

This is why I think the Historic Anchorage Hotel is more haunted than the Alaskan Hotel.

The ghost stories out of the Alaskan Hotel may be scarier, though.

However, the possessive potty poltergeist at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage is still the one that freaks me out the most!

Check-In

Which hotel do you think sounds more haunted: the Alaskan Hotel or the Historic Anchorage Hotel?

Check-in and let me know!

Note: This post contains Amazon.com links. Whenever you click through and buy from Amazon, we earn a small commission at no cost to you. For which we are grateful. Thank you! For more info, see our affiliate disclaimer here.