A Bed, the Dead and Breakfast!

Besh Be Gowah Ruins

Funny the things you don’t quite see on the way to somewhere else. Try as we might for an earlier start, it’s usually nearing noon by the time we reach Globe, Arizona where we top off the tanks for the trek across the Salt River Canyon. 

We’ve got it down to an art, really; fuel, ice, food, kids, dogs, boat tarps and tires checked—and we’re on the road again. Unless of course, there’s a line at the pump, kids are too distracted by fast-food to eat sandwiches from home or we have to conduct an all-out search for a shady spot where the girls won’t scorch their paws on the blacktop. 

And it’s these extended stops that have led to some amazing discoveries of things you see and often miss.

For instance mi vida spotted the remains of the Old Dominion Mine while I was transfixed by the adjacent view of a long-ago schoolhouse atop a rugged, windswept hill where high sierras reach in panoramic unison for cloudless sapphire skies.  And still the mercury rose.

Now known as the Noftsger Hill Inn, it’s not all that difficult to imagine the stately edifice as the respected institute of education it once was. Given the artfully appointed rooms lending undeniably charged Feng Shui;( mirrors reflecting mirrors, elegant bygone era artifacts, spacious windows facing troves of vibrant fruit trees, the entire scene dotted with sociable cats)  it’s said to be impossible not to sense, hear and sometimes see the presence of turn-of-the-century classmates engaged in perpetual reunions.

While you may encounter the disembodied voices of children, pleasantly creaky wood floors or outright phantom footsteps in unoccupied rooms, visages are reportedly quite pleasant to behold. In fact, one woman’s account states that when motherly instincts prompted her to reassure the young spirit who had appeared at her bedside, the child then smiled and presently vanished.

 

By most accounts and many reviews, the food and hospitality are phenomenal for this quiet retreat where original chalkboards bear the messages of modern-day guests!

While you’re in the area you might also stop by the Gila County Jail where a waving apparition makes almost daily appearances!  But I would caution against getting too close to the catwalk; it seems there are a couple of specters of malcontent known to beckon the living into their otherworldly limbo…

Have you ever ‘happened’ on a memorable place? Would you stay at the Noftsger Hill Inn? Would you venture across the catwalk?