12 places in Nevada where you might find a haunting experience

You don’t have to travel far for a good scare. Nevada is home to plenty of allegedly haunted places, including a few right here in the Las Vegas area.

Some of Nevada’s haunted places can be found at HauntedHouses.com, (and the travel web site TravelTriangle (traveltriangle.com/blog/haunted-places-in-las-vegas), as well as from author Janice Oberding, who has written several guides to creepy Silver State locales including “Haunted Nevada: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Silver State” and “The Haunting of Las Vegas.”

Here are a bubbling cauldron’s worth of reportedly haunted places in Nevada, any of which would make for a frightfully fine road trip.

Zak Bagans’ The Haunted Museum

Zak Bagans’ museum of creepy collectibles is home to plenty of allegedly haunted things, but Bagans says the building that houses it has an eerie history of its own.

The historic Wengert Home, 600 E. Charleston Boulevard, was built in 1938 for Las Vegas businessman Cyril Wengert and his wife, Lottie. It left the control of the Wengert family in the early ’70s and spent time as a law office and home of the Nevada State Bar before becoming Bagans’ museum.

Bagans, host of Travel Channel’s “Ghost Adventures,” says many longtime Southern Nevadans have told him that the building’s basement was used for occult rituals during the ’70s. Since his involvement with the home, he has heard from several people who have reported sensing dark energy in it, particularly in the basement, and even seeing apparitions there.

One even “felt a shroud around her” while climbing up the stairs from the basement, and then discovered scratch marks on her forearm, he says.

The museum is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Monday (closed Tuesday and Wednesday). General admission $48 or $42 for local residents, seniors and military. No under age 16 admitted. (thehauntedmuseum.com)

Westgate, 3000 Paradise Road, Las Vegas

More than 50 years ago, on July 31, 1969, Elvis Presley played the first show of what turned out to be a seven-year, 600-plus-show run at the International Hotel that ended only with his death in 1977.

The hotel later became the Las Vegas Hilton and now is called the Westgate. But, name changes notwithstanding, some claim that Elvis’ spirit has been seen, heard or sensed at several locations at the hotel, including the showroom, since Elvis left the building — or didn’t — all those years ago.

Bally’s, 3645 South Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas

Bally’s occupies the site on which the MGM Grand used to be. In Nov. 21, 1980, a fire at the MGM Grand killed 87 people and injured more than 600. To this day, it’s considered one of the worst hotel fires in U.S. history.

But, according to TravelTriangle, Bally’s employees say they’ve seen ghosts walking the hotel’s halls

Circus Circus, 2880 South Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas

The surfeit of clown imagery around Circus Circus is scary enough, but guests and employees have said that they’ve heard loud crying noises from inside the casino’s poker rooms and in certain rooms of the hotel, TravelTriangle says.

Others have seen the words “Help me” written on bathroom mirrors, all part of a back story involving a woman who killed her child and then committed suicide.

Dell H. Robison Middle School, 825 Marion Drive, Las Vegas

According to TravelTriangle, new students have reported seeing a man with blood on his hands in the school’s hallways.

The ghost, the story goes, follows new students before disappearing, and some say the ghost follows them home, haunting them in their dreams until they go to church.

Elbert Edwards Elementary School, 4551 Diamond Head Drive, Las Vegas

TravelTriangle says fourth-grade teachers and students here have seen a girl with deformed facial features and dressed in white following students.

The back story says the girl is a former student at the school who died in fourth grade.

Boulder Dam Hotel, 1305 Arizona St., Boulder City

The story goes that famed monster movie star Boris Karloff once stayed at the Boulder Dam Hotel, and that alone makes the place worthy of a visit.

But followers of the paranormal say the hotel, which opened in 1933, also is the home of apparitions who make their presence known via touches of cold hands and creepy noises.

Pioneer Saloon, Goodsprings

The Pioneer Saloon, built in 1913, was the scene of a tragic real-life bit of history: In 1942, Clark Gable waited for three days in the hotel’s bar for news from searchers looking for the missing plane that was carrying actress Carole Lombard.

Lombard, the love of the Hollywood leading man’s life and his wife of less two years, perished in the crash. Wreckage of the plane was found on Mount Potosi. And Lombard’s spirit is said to still haunt the saloon.

Mizpah Hotel, Tonopah

The hotel was the social epicenter of Tonopah for years after its opening in 1905. Several famous people, including Wyatt Earp, Jack Dempsey and Howard Hughes, have been linked with the hotel over the years.

So has an unearthly guest called “The Lady in Red.” Guests over the years reportedly have sensed the ghostly apparition who, the stories go, may be the ghost of a prostitute who was beaten and killed there by an ex-suitor or a wife who was killed by her husband after he had caught her cheating on him.

Brave guests today can stay in the hotel’s Lady in Red Suite or just take one of the Haunted Hotel Tours the hotel offers.

Silver Queen Hotel, Virginia City

The Silver Queen, built in 1876, is Virginia City’s oldest hotel, and long has been home to another supernatural twist on a tragic-woman theme.

The story goes that a woman named Rosie, who supposedly was a prostitute who killed herself in the bathroom of Room 11 during the late 1800s, still haunts the room, making herself known by nighttime noises, rattling doorknobs, footsteps and the sound of voices heard when nobody is around.

Gold Hill Hotel, near Virginia City

The Gold Hill Hotel opened in 1859 and bills itself as the oldest hotel in Nevada. It’s home, the stories go, to a ghostly woman who lives in an upstairs room, as well as a male — perhaps a miner — who lives next door.

Guests and staff reportedly have heard the sounds of children in the hallways, sometimes in conjunction with — talk about ghostly fakeouts — the scent of baking cookies.

Washoe Club, Virginia City

The Washoe Club embraces both its history — it’s Nevada’s oldest saloon — and its haunting. Guided daily ghost tours are offered to visitors, while even more adventurous guests can schedule a group overnight investigation package. (For information, visit thewashoeclub.com.)

Among the several supernatural beings that are said to haunt the Washoe Club are a blonde prostitute who was murdered on the third floor during the 1870s and her own killer, who later killed himself.

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280 or follow @JJPrzybys on Twitter.