Of all the scary places you can stay overnight in the United States, the haunted Clown Motel in Tonopah, Nevada, is one of the creepiest. The clown-themed decor is as spine-chilling as the ghost stories behind the motel’s reputation. But is the Clown Motel in Tonopah really as haunted as people say? We’ll give you the evidence so you can be the judge.
Something eerie waits around every corner at this motel. Between the allegedly haunted graveyard next door and the motel’s proximity to one of the worst mining disasters in history, the building is practically begging to be haunted. This is exactly why paranormal investigators flock to the Clown Motel.
The owners of the spooky inn have embraced its reputation. Guests can even rent or purchase equipment for paranormal investigations directly from the front desk. This factors into the near-daily release of new paranormal evidence of the motel’s haunted nature.
YouTubers and enthusiasts share updated sightings of the motel’s terrifying clown poltergeist — a spirit who supposedly appears next to your bed to watch you sleep. Investigators also claim to see clown dolls move of their own accord, hear footsteps through the halls, and more. At the end of the day, the haunted Clown Motel is unlikely to leave your paranormal cravings unfulfilled.
How the Clown Motel in Tonopah Supposedly Became Haunted
The town of Tonopah wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the old Belmont Mine. The discovery of silver in the Tonopah drew in prospectors and merchants at the turn of the 20th century. A mine operation as large as Belmont promised jobs and prosperity.
The mine produced literal tons of silver and gold ore from the depths of the barren Nevada desert. Unfortunately, undertrained personnel filled the working ranks of this prosperous endeavor at a time when safety regulations were all but absent.
On February 23, 1911, a fire erupted deep in the Tonopah-Belmont Mine. When workers first noticed the flames, the blaze was small enough that modern firefighters could’ve easily extinguished it. The mine employees of 1911 made their best attempts, but these were untrained men.
Shifting air currents quickly turned the manageable smolder into an all-out blaze that rapidly saturated the tunnels with deadly smoke.
Oversight urged employees to evacuate after being warned about the fire. The only men they wanted in the mines were the ones quelling the flames. Due to the lack of communication technology in the early 1900s, however, the word couldn’t spread. And the scattered nature of mining work all but ensured fewer workers than expected would escape with their lives.
William “Big Bill” Murphy ran the shaft elevator during the evacuation, and he ran it until the bitter end. Seventeen people died in the Belmont mine incident. Murphy was one of them. His noble sacrifice made him a local hero.
Leona and Leroy David built the Clown Motel in 1985 next to the final resting place of the Belmont miners: Old Tonopah Cemetery. Many believe it’s these miners who haunt the halls of this circus-like motel.
The Clown Motel is Next to a Haunted Cemetery (Allegedly)
As if a motel filled with clowns wasn’t unsettling enough on its own, it’s attached to what some claim is the most haunted cemetery in Nevada. The dead from two major local incidents rest in Old Tonopah Cemetery.
In 1905, the “Tonopah Plague,” a rampant wave of pneumonia, came through town. It claimed 56 souls who now rest in the cemetery next door to the haunted Clown Motel. The second influx of bodies came from the Belmont mine disaster.
Mining debris degraded the headstones, causing Old Tonopah Cemetery to close in 1911. Before it did, undertakers interred around 300 dead in its sandy soil. Locals claim that several ghosts of the buried dead haunt both the cemetery and surrounding areas.
George “Devil” Davis, a political leader and the first Black American in Tonopah, plays pranks at the local liquor store. An elegant con artist, named Bina Verrault, came to the Tonopah mining camp while on the run in 1906 or 1907. You can allegedly find her spirit hanging around Tonopah Historic Mining Park’s Visitors’ Center. Then there are the victims of the Tonopah Plague and the mine fire, who claim the entirety of Tonopah. This includes the Clown Motel.
The Decor Alone is Haunting Enough
Even skeptics will find the Clown Motel eerie, and it’s all because of the decor. The original owners of the motel were the children of a miner who died in the 1911 Belmont fire. As such, they opened the inn next to the cemetery where they buried their father. They also decided to bring his enormous clown collection along for the ride. With an inventory of around 2,000 creepy pieces, they gave the haunted Clown Motel its theme.
Building-sized images of clowns riding unicycles, balancing on circus balls, and posing eerily line the building’s outer walls. The motley paint job matches the motif. The internal decor is even more nightmarish to the coulrophobic (fear of clowns).
Most of the rooms resemble clown clothing and circuses, though not always the happy kind. You’ll find paintings of normal or killer clowns hanging in different rooms. To make things worse, thousands of clown dolls sit in wait around the motel. And, of course, their eyes follow your every move.
Since the Davids sold the haunted Clown Motel in 1995, new owners have added more dolls. The current and terrifying tally numbers over 5,000 clown collectibles.
A few specialty suites at the Clown Motel include horror movie themes. As you’d expect, there’s a room dedicated to Stephen King’s It, where Pennywise’s malicious grin stares at you from a mural beside the bed. The inn also offers a Friday the 13th room and The Exorcist room for those who want a less colorful fright.
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The Workers Know the Haunted Clown Motel Stories
Bob Perchetti, the second owner of the Clown Motel, spoke with Ghost Adventures before the crew investigated the site. Perchetti believes a ghost from the graveyard haunts the building. He’s also heard every story in the book.
“I’ve had a guy that woke up in the middle of the night and experienced a clown in his room,” Bob Perchetti explains. The life-sized clown spirit hung around for a few seconds while the guest tried to wake up, and then it disappeared.
The current manager, Hame Anand, didn’t even believe in ghosts until he got a job at the haunted Clown Motel. During the December offseason, he became a believer. Apparently, he heard the sound of miners’ work boots pounding across the floor above him. Except the motel was nearly empty. He knew this wasn’t a guest.
Anand also says the room where he resides is “very haunted” and will make a formidable attraction to paranormal enthusiasts someday. Whenever he decides to move out of it, that is. Three people died in this room before the manager moved in. Oddly enough, that’s exactly why Anand picked this room. He allegedly felt the inhabiting spirits calling him there.
According to Anand’s interview with Travel Nevada, guests often complain about the footsteps of spectral working men. To make the alleged hauntings more real for them, Anand will send guests with extra keys to check the rooms above them. That way, they can see for themselves that it’s no hoax.
The Seven-Foot Clown Spirit of Tonopah
Several guests of the haunted Clown Motel have allegedly seen a seven-foot-tall clown poltergeist during their stays. Management states that this spirit is a trickster, but not evil. According to these motel officials, not a single guest has encountered an evil spirit at the inn.
Some paranormal enthusiasts believe the spectral clown isn’t a single entity. Rather, they hypothesize that this ghost is an amalgamation of spirits who died in the Belmont fire. Others, of course, think this is nothing more than a clever and thematic selling point for the motel.
Let’s break that down…
The Davids built the motel as a tribute to one of the miners. This miner’s remains reside in the graveyard next door. His clown collection set the haunted Clown Motel’s theme from the beginning. If one were to claim the clown spirit was anything, it would be logical to believe the poltergeist is this one miner — Clarence David.
The blended souls theory doesn’t really make sense. Then again, hauntings don’t make sense to many people either.
Regardless of which miners might supposedly haunt the Clown Motel, paranormal buffs generally agree that at least a few spectral miners inhabit the location.
Now, the Clown Motel isn’t the only Tonopah motel that makes this claim. The Mizpah Hotel down the street says these spirits visit them as well.
Ghost Adventures Captured a Moving Clown Doll
Paranormal investigators have yet to capture the famous clown apparition on camera, but that doesn’t mean they’ve all walked away empty-handed. Some investigations have turned up chilling evidence of paranormal activity. The most famous of these was documented by the Ghost Adventures crew in 2015.
Zak, the show’s host, has a serious fear of clowns, which made this investigation all the more fun to watch. For us. As for Zak — well — he didn’t have a great time.
The most intriguing evidence collected took place in the main lobby. This is a place absolutely filled with clown dolls. As the investigator asked the spirits questions, a life-sized doll seemingly moved on its own. And, that was a little much for Zak to handle. Even so, we’re not entirely convinced that this was paranormal activity.
The doll sat in a chair at the corner of the room, and it had its hand on its leg. As Zak egged on the alleged spirits, the hand slid down from the leg into a hanging position. This, of course, sent the coulrophobic host into a panic.
The problem is that the doll’s clothes appear to be made of a silky material, and the doll’s hand is smooth. Thus, it was only a matter of time before gravity caused it to slide off. And Ghost Adventures is a television show, so they likely played into it for entertainment value. But to believers, this was the real deal.
Other investigators who’ve spent time at the haunted Clown Motel haven’t caught evidence quite as telling. However, many of them have captured snippets of what they believe are signs of spirit activity. This includes things like fluctuations in electromagnetic frequencies, cold spots, orbs of light on night vision cameras, and other such phenomena.
The Most Haunted Rooms in the Clown Motel
There are four rooms at the haunted Clown Motel that locals believe are more haunted than the rest. And each one has a unique, yet creepy backstory. Paranormal investigators gravitate to these rooms for one reason: They produce evidence.
The Haunted Clown Motel Room 108
The Clown Motel’s room 108 once belonged to a former front desk manager. He was an older man, and as is prone to happen with the elderly, he died. Even though he didn’t pass away in the room itself, the story of that night is spine-tingling.
Supposedly, the manager had gone to bed while not feeling well. He became increasingly sick throughout the night and eventually realized he was having a medical emergency. So, he picked up the motel phone to call the front desk for help. The phone rang on the manager’s end but didn’t make a sound at the front desk.
After repeated failed attempts to contact motel staff, he phoned an ambulance. He later died en route to the hospital. Video footage even proved the front desk phone never rang, but the room’s line was live.
The room where the man stayed until that night is still available for rent. In fact, room 108 is more terrifying than ever since it now serves as the haunted Clown Motel’s famous It suite.
The motel claims this is one of their most haunted rooms, as they do with each of the rooms listed in this section. Guests who’ve stayed in room 108 have allegedly seen their personal belongings moved around while they slept. They’ve also heard voices and the notorious miners’ footsteps. Some have even claimed to see dark apparitions staring at them from the shadows.
The Haunted Clown Motel Room 111
Room 111, The Exorcist suite, is the room where a patient on hospice decided to live out the rest of his life. He didn’t expect to live long, as hospice is usually short-term. His disease, however, didn’t take his life as quickly as he’d expected.
Urban myth says the patient lived in room 111 long enough to see apparitions. After a while of living next to the spirits, he grew tired of his condition, and he asked the specters to take him to the other side. Eventually, the man took his own life in the room instead. The terminal illness had beaten him, and he wanted to expedite his death to end his dread.
Investigators have captured conversations with spirits talking over FM radio spirit boxes in the haunted Clown Motel’s room 111. However, not all of the “statements” are clear and rational. Many even require coaxed interpretation, so they aren’t the most reliable evidence.
Other investigators have experienced raised EMF levels and electronic voice phenomena in room 111 as well.
If you or a loved one are experiencing thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. They’re here to help.
The Haunted Clown Motel Room 210
Room 210 at the Clown Motel is an interesting case. It’s not exactly what you’d think of when picturing a haunting, but it certainly seems paranormal enough. In this room, the guest wasn’t scared or tormented by spirits. Instead, he was cured.
Legend states that an Arizona man stopped at the hotel in Tonopah when his back pain had grown too uncomfortable for him to continue driving. The man had suffered from this ailment for years, and medical professionals couldn’t find the cause of his pain. As far as he knew, he was doomed to suffer forever. That is, of course, until he stayed in the haunted Clown Motel’s room 210.
The man was pain-free by his first morning in room 210, and nobody was sure how it happened. Maybe the bed fit stretched his spine at just the right angle, or maybe the relaxing sight of 2,000 thousand clowns soothed his spasms. However, neither of those explanations is very likely.
The man was convinced that the haunted Clown Motel’s spirits took away his affliction in room 210. While miners from the early 1900s may not have been doctors, they certainly understood the pain of back injuries better than anyone. So, maybe it was a gift after all, from one hardworking soul to another.
Regardless of the cause, the guest decided room 210 was the best medicine for his condition. So, he moved into the room permanently, and he lived there for over six years until he passed away in room 210.
Room 214: The Most Haunted Room in Tonopah
The haunted Clown Motel room 214 is allegedly the favorite hangout of an irritated spirit. Guests claim the ghost who frequents this room enjoys playing tricks on them. According to legend, the spirit flickers the lights and steals people’s personal items. Why this spirit behaves in this manner is — well — interesting.
Supposedly, the same man occupied room 214 for three years in the ‘70s. The now-irritated spirit enjoyed the guest’s company and began to see him as a roommate of sorts. Eventually, the guest checked out and left the spirit behind. Allegedly, the specter continued to visit the room, hoping his friend would return, but he never did.
This spirit is frisky these days because he doesn’t want anyone else to take over his buddy’s room. And, investigators claim this is one of the most paranormally active rooms in Tonopah’s Clown Motel. So, if you’re looking for a place for overnight investigations, the Clown Motel room 214 might be the place for you. However, it’s probably not the best place for a weary traveler to catch some shuteye, but that’s not what paranormal buffs are really looking for anyway.
So, is the Clown Motel in Tonopah haunted? Why don’t you stay for yourself and find out…
