Welcome! We’re looking forward to your stay at Doomtown Manor, California’s Most Haunted Guest House! Your itinerary for six (6) guests is listed at the bottom of this email.
We have received your deposit and the notarized liability waivers, and you have accepted our Terms and Conditions.
Located in Northern California’s fabled Gold Country, the village of Doomtown offers nature hikes, river rafting, llama wrangling, panning for gold and Roadshow-quality antiquing. From the old mines to the historic Chinese cemetery, the town drips California history. The jewel in the village’s crown is Doomtown Manor, built in 1885 by silver, gold, and petroleum tycoon Elijah Fremont Caine. Until his shocking death in 1915, Caine used the Manor as a hunting lodge, a retreat for the likes of banker Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford, William Bowers Bourne III, who founded PG&E, and other great men of the time.
Caine engaged in hands-on philanthropy, mentoring a number of young women of vulnerable virtue. He turned his attic into a dormitory and taught these unfortunates skills considered useful for young ladies of the time. Several of his Seamstresses, as they were called, went on to have great social success. Some did not. In 1915, one of his charges, Mabel Watt, also known as Red Mabel, stabbed Caine to death. Contemporaneous accounts say she followed him from room to room, and stabbed him seventeen times. She was found in the attic, with bloody feet, clutching a kitchen knife.
Mabel Watt is one of only three women ever hanged in this county.
For more about Red Mabel, visit our sister site, GoldCountryDead.com/ghostwalk.
Plan to arrive no later than sunset. If you will be delayed for any reason, please call or text the number below and we will arrange alternate lodging for your first night.
The Manor provides an invigorating and truly unique lodging experience. The guidelines below will ensure your stay is as safe, comfortable and memorable as possible, allowing you to return home with original stories to tell family and friends!
(1) The painting in the foyer is indeed of Elijah Fremont Caine. The eyes do seem to follow you about. Do not stare back at the portrait.
(2) Some guests believe they hear a baby crying under the ground floor stairwell. Do not investigate. There is no baby.
(3) The long opulent room on the ground floor is called the Smoking Lounge. Despite its name, no smoking is permitted there or anywhere in the Manor. The Lounge is a popular place for seances. During those events, some female guests report feeling a presence looming behind them, breathing on their necks. Some feel a wave of claustrophobia, and others report shortness of breath or a sense of being choked. Consider limiting your time in the Smoking Lounge.
(4) The basement is off-limits to guests, no matter what you think you hear. The door is always locked. Even if it isn’t locked, the basement is off-limits. Don’t go down there.
(5) Some guests believe they’ve heard a baby crying in the scullery. Do not investigate. There is no baby.
(6) You may hear tapping sounds from the upper floors, near the outer walls. These are merely our local flickers or Nuttall woodpeckers. Nothing to worry about. You may hear a weird, maniacal cackling—that’s still the woodpeckers.
(7) We keep the 13 mirrors in the house covered. For your comfort, leave them that way. If someone from your party is found gazing into one of the mirrors, remove them from the property right away and call or text the number below.
(8) The attic is off-limits, no matter what you think you hear. The door to the attic stairs is always locked. Even if it isn’t locked, the attic is off-limits. Don’t go up there. If you see a set of wet, red footprints leading to the stairs, do not follow them.
(9) For safety and convenience, when you are bathing or showering, please use the cold-iron doorstops we’ve provided to prop open your bathroom door. We recommend a “buddy system,” with a person always within earshot while you are bathing.
Some guests have chosen to wear protective religious medals in the shower. It is the policy of our parent company not to offer opinions on matters of spiritual practice so we can’t comment on the effectiveness of this approach. Mabel herself was Catholic, and pretty devout.
(10) Some guests believe they’ve heard a baby crying somewhere on the third floor. Do not investigate. There is no baby. No baby. Trust me.
(11) The “closet door” in the Green Bedroom does not open into a closet, but to a shaft that descends below the basement. Do not lower yourself down the shaft no matter what you think you hear. There is no one screaming, crying, praying, or laughing maniacally. No one is yelling for help. That could be the woodpeckers, right? It probably is. I’m pretty sure it’s woodpeckers.
Earplugs are stored in the two bedside stands. Or, you know what? Skip the Green Bedroom completely. That’s probably best.
(12) Don’t split up.
(13) You may hear a slow, steady tapping from the bottom of the Green Bedroom airshaft. It seems to climb up the walls, getting slower and louder until you hear it everywhere, as it pounds away around the house, wall to wall, floor to floor. This is not the woodpeckers. If you hear it, gather your group and leave the house at once. Seriously, don’t stop to pack. Don’t look in the mirrors. Don’t split up.
After your stay, our parent company may ask some of your party to complete a brief survey. We eagerly await those five-star reviews.
We are looking forward to meeting you and getting you started on your once-in-a-lifetime vacation experience!
See you soon,
Abigail Watt, Innkeeper
Marion Deeds
Marion Deeds is the author of Comeuppance Served Cold, published by Tordotcom Books, and the portal fantasy trilogy Copper Road from Falstaff Books. She is a long-time participant in the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference. She doesn’t necessarily believe in magic, but she doesn’t disbelieve it either, and her favorite fictional place to play is on the border of our world and all the other ones. Sometimes she wishes she had become a librarian, and not simply because of her first name. She loves playing with language, watching the ocean, feeding the ravens, and wearing wonderful hats.