America's Most Haunted Bars: The Alaskan Hotel and Bar in Juneau, Alaska

The Haunted Alaskan Hotel: A Century of Ghostly Encounters in Juneau’s Most Notorious Lodging

Historical Origins and Gold Rush Legacy

The Alaskan Hotel’s haunted reputation stems from its tumultuous origins during one of America’s most chaotic periods. Built by the McCloskey brothers, James and John, along with entrepreneur Jules B. Caro, the hotel opened its doors on September 16, 1913, making it the oldest continuously operating hotel in Alaska. The timing of its construction was significant, just one year after Alaska became a territory, placing it at the crossroads of frontier lawlessness and emerging civilization.

The hotel’s grand opening was a lavish affair, with the owners dramatically tying the front door keys to a helium balloon and releasing it into the sky, declaring that the hotel would “never close”. This symbolic gesture proved prophetic, as the hotel has indeed operated continuously for over 110 years, accumulating layers of tragedy and supernatural activity throughout its existence.

The Gold Rush era brought thousands of desperate prospectors to Juneau, creating a volatile atmosphere of greed, violence, and desperation. The Alaskan Hotel catered to this rough clientele, offering not just lodging but serving as a hub for the region’s more illicit activities. The hotel’s location near the steamship docks made it a natural gathering place for miners, gamblers, and other frontier characters whose stories would become permanently etched into the building’s spiritual fabric.

The Hotel’s Past: Prohibition, Prostitution, and Violence

The Alaskan Hotel’s reputation for paranormal activity is deeply rooted in its colorful and often sordid history. The establishment served multiple purposes throughout its existence, adapting to changing times and legal restrictions while maintaining its role as a gathering place for society’s more questionable elements.

During Prohibition, which began in Alaska in 1918, two years before the national Volstead Act, the hotel’s bar was officially converted into a café serving sodas. However, like many speakeasies of the era, alcoholic beverages remained available to those who knew how to ask. The basement, which now serves as storage space, once housed a thriving illegal bar where patrons could drink and gamble away from the watchful eyes of federal agents.

The hotel operated as a brothel on at least two occasions in its history. The first instance was during the early years when prostitution was legal in Alaska, providing services to the thousands of miners who flocked to the region. The second occurred during the 1960s and 1970s when the hotel operated under the name “The Northlander,” serving as an illegal brothel until it was shut down and condemned by authorities in 1977.

The violence and desperation of the Gold Rush era created an atmosphere of constant tension within the hotel’s walls. Miners, flush with gold one day and broke the next, often turned to drink and violence to cope with their circumstances. The transient nature of the clientele, combined with the availability of alcohol and women, created a volatile environment where conflicts frequently erupted into violence.

Today, the Alaskan Hotel operates as both a functioning lodging establishment and an unofficial museum of paranormal activity. Current owner Bettye Adams, who has owned the hotel for over 40 years, acknowledges the building’s supernatural residents while maintaining its role as a viable business.

The Tragic Tale of Alice: Love, Betrayal, and Eternal Sorrow

Among the most enduring legends haunting the Alaskan Hotel is the story of Alice, a young woman whose tragic fate has bound her spirit to the building for over a century. According to local folklore, Alice arrived at the hotel during the Gold Rush with her husband, a miner seeking his fortune in Alaska’s goldfields. The couple’s story began with hope and dreams of striking it rich, but quickly descended into tragedy and betrayal.

Alice’s husband departed for the mining camps, promising to return within three weeks. However, as weeks turned into months without word, Alice found herself stranded and penniless in the harsh Alaskan wilderness. Desperate for survival in a land where men vastly outnumbered women, Alice made the difficult decision to enter the world’s oldest profession, working as a prostitute within the hotel’s walls.

The tragic irony of Alice’s story reached its climax when her husband unexpectedly returned, discovering what his wife had been forced to do for survival. In a rage fueled by jealousy and wounded pride, he murdered Alice in one of the hotel’s back rooms. Some accounts place her death in Room 219, where her presence is most strongly felt to this day.



Witnesses continue to report encounters with Alice’s spirit throughout the hotel. She appears in a diaphanous gown with arms outstretched, just as she died on the bed in Room 219. Staff members and guests have described seeing her sitting on beds, feeling her touch, and encountering her apparition in mirrors throughout the building. Her presence serves as a haunting reminder of the desperation and tragedy that characterized the Gold Rush era.

Room 315: The Site of Terror and Unexplained Horror

While Alice’s story represents the hotel’s tragic past, Room 315 gained notoriety for a more recent and equally disturbing incident that occurred on May 19, 2007. This small, spartanly furnished room on the third floor became the site of one of the most documented paranormal encounters in the hotel’s history.

The incident began when a sailor from the USS Bunker Hill, which was docked in Juneau, specifically requested to stay in a “haunted room” at the hotel. Hotel owner Bettye Adams accommodated the request, placing the sailor in Room 315, which had already developed a reputation for supernatural activity among staff and guests.

What happened next remains one of the most disturbing paranormal incidents ever recorded at the hotel. According to Juneau police officer Chris Gifford, who responded to the call, officers arrived at the hotel around 11:45 PM to find the door to Room 315 locked from the inside, with screaming coming from within. When police finally gained access to the room, they discovered a horrifying scene: the walls were streaked with blood, and the sailor had jumped from the third-floor window, breaking both his room’s window and the one below.

The sailor had scrawled “Help!” on the wall in his own blood before taking the desperate action of leaping from the window. He survived the fall, but what occurred in that room remains a mystery. The guest in the room below reported hearing glass shatter and witnessing the sailor’s descent past his window. The incident left investigators puzzled about what could have compelled someone to such extreme measures.

Modern Paranormal Investigations and Media Attention

The Alaskan Hotel’s haunted reputation has attracted the attention of paranormal investigators and television producers, bringing its ghostly inhabitants into the modern spotlight. The hotel was featured in the premiere episode of the Travel Channel series Portals to Hell in 2019, starring Jack Osbourne and paranormal investigator Katrina Weidman.

The investigation team spent several days at the hotel, using sophisticated equipment to document paranormal activity. Hotel owner Bettye Adams, who had been skeptical of the supernatural claims, became a believer after seeing the footage captured by the investigators. The video evidence included floating orbs of light in the hotel’s basement, which Adams recognized as similar to phenomena she had witnessed near the bar’s stage area.

The basement, where at least one death has occurred over the years, proved to be particularly active during the investigation. The team documented various forms of paranormal activity, including electronic voice phenomena, temperature fluctuations, and visual anomalies that defied conventional explanation.

So I didn't know that when I booked three nights there in May of 2025. Of course, I love this stuff but I picked it since it was the best deal in downtown Juneau and I was working on hiring guides for our Juneau Ghost Walk. I hadn't read the script yet since my sister Allison is the one that wrote it and she was supposed to make the trip but got injured the week beforehand. So once I booked the room, I found the hotel in our script and I watched the Portals To Hell episode on flight there and of course that freaked me out. Especially because the first night, I thought I was the only person staying on my floor, two doors down from 219.

But to get my courage up, of course, I had to hang out at the bar and have a few local beers.

“Help Me” on 12 Cameras

So, the next day I wanted to get some new stories for the tour and the friendly staff was happy to oblige!

Christina, a housekeeper at the Alaskan, and Sarah, who works the front desk, invited me to take a look around and filled me in on some chilling stories that have happened, some in the last few months before I arrived.

Let’s start with something that happened April 7, 2025, the first day of the Alaska Folk Festival. Sarah was working the front desk when Guillermo, the hotel maintenance man (and part-time drummer at open mic), was walking through with his dog. Out of nowhere, Sarah heard a voice say, “Help me.” That would’ve been eerie enough. But then she checked the cameras.

That same phrase was captured on twelve different security feeds throughout the hotel. Here's the video:

Techno from Beyond

Later that week, something cranked up the volume in the bar long before opening. The stereo system turned itself on, blaring techno music. Not one of the bartenders listens to techno. None of them had touched the system that morning. The entire staff was at a loss.

The Housekeeper and Room 315

Christina took me to Room 219, where a housekeeper had been living and was actually moving out that day. He never had a supernatural experience there. But interestingly, the staff never told him about the stories associated with it. Why? Because he flat-out refused to clean Room 315, saying it freaked him out too much.

According to Sarah, the hotel only rents 315 out when it’s specifically requested. Bettye, the owner, says specifically to always rent that room out last.

In my opinion, the creepiest part about the story of the sailor who jumped out the window is that the room’s window doesn’t look out onto the street. It stares straight into a narrow wall gap less than a foot wide. That’s the same window someone reportedly jumped from years ago. He wouldn’t have gone far. The gap’s barely wide enough for a person to fall through.

Spooked Staff and Unseen Faces

That same week in April, one of the bartenders asked Sarah to stick around because she didn’t want to close alone. She couldn’t explain why, she just felt uneasy. She wasn’t the only one. A former employee who worked in the basement once saw a man walking around down there alone. She turned to look at the monitor and his face was suddenly right in front of the security camera.

Unfortunately, the footage was lost before Sarah could retrieve it. But she’s keeping a close eye on the system now to capture anything else that shows up.

A Living Monument to Alaska’s Supernatural Heritage

The Alaskan Hotel and Bar stands as more than just a historic building; it serves as a living repository of Alaska’s supernatural heritage. The tragic stories of Alice and the countless other souls who have passed through its doors continue to resonate within its Victorian walls, creating an atmosphere where the past refuses to remain buried.

The hotel has been restored to its original Victorian elegance, but the spirits of its past remain firmly entrenched within its walls.

The hotel’s enduring reputation for paranormal activity reflects the violent and desperate nature of Alaska’s Gold Rush era, when survival often came at a terrible cost. The building has absorbed the emotions, tragedies, and violent deaths of over a century, creating a spiritual imprint that continues to manifest in unexplained phenomena.

For visitors brave enough to stay overnight, the Alaskan Hotel offers more than just a place to sleep, it provides a direct connection to Alaska’s most tumultuous period. Whether one believes in ghosts or not, the hotel’s atmosphere of unease and the persistent reports of supernatural encounters create an unforgettable experience that lingers long after checkout.

The Alaskan Hotel remains a testament to the idea that some places hold memories too powerful to fade, ensuring that the spirits of Alaska’s past continue to walk among the living, forever bound to the place where their earthly stories came to their tragic ends.