Historic Occidental Hotel
Buffalo, Wyoming, United States
Hotel · established
The Story
Buffalo’s restored Occidental Hotel remembers its frontier years through original saloon details, antique rooms and ghost stories told by staff and guests. One of the best-known presences is Emily, a young girl who appears in the hotel’s lore. The hotel welcomes overnight guests and visitors to its public downstairs rooms.
The Hauntings
From its ornate ceiling to the old saloon, the Occidental has more of the nineteenth-century West still in place than most hotels can claim. Set beside Clear Creek in Buffalo, Wyoming, it began as a stopping place for people travelling through rough country and became a gathering place for business, gossip and politics. Its present operators have preserved furnishings, architectural detail and a name that runs back to 1880. Along with historic guests, the hotel remembers a girl called Emily, whose reported footsteps and appearances have become part of the Occidental's story. The Occidental’s most familiar ghost is Emily. On its own website, the hotel says guests have claimed to see or hear spirits during their stay and singles out a beloved young girl by that name. The operator treats the story with humour and warmth; it is not a published death certificate or independent register of historical residents. Other regional accounts describe laughter, small footsteps and objects apparently moved in rooms. The hotel’s early saloon and upstairs corridors are the setting for many stories, while independent investigators have occasionally been invited to explore. In a 2011 paranormal-group report, Black Hills Paranormal Investigations described an invitation from a then-owner to examine the hotel. The report attributes a more elaborate account to the owner: Emily allegedly died of typhoid fever in 1902. That remains an attributed historical claim in an investigator’s report rather than a verified person whose death record has been located. The appeal of the haunting lies partly in the building's continuity. Guests spend the night amid an assemblage of rooms, hallways and furnishings the restorers rescued from earlier decades. The hotel welcomes reports and discussion of its ghosts without turning every room into a staged investigation. Its spirit stories can be heard as part of the same long history that makes the building worth visiting in daylight.
The History
The Occidental began around 1879 when Charles Buell offered lodging and meals to travelers near the Bozeman Trail. A permanent log hotel was completed in 1880. It quickly became an important gathering place in what became Buffalo, serving miners, cattlemen, political visitors and travelers. The present brick complex replaced and expanded the older building in stages during the early twentieth century, so it should not be described as an entirely unchanged 1880 structure. The property endured changing ownership, hard times and preservation work. According to the hotel’s history, a restoration effort began after a 1997 purchase and rescued original embossed ceilings, the saloon back bar and many furnishings. The hotel reemerged as operating accommodation and a public historic attraction. Its Western atmosphere is real architectural preservation work, not merely themed interior decoration.
A sense of place.
Visitor Experiences
Have you experienced something here?
This future chapter will bring together stories from the PHASM community. An unexpected encounter, a lingering feeling, or a quiet visit—your experience will be welcome.
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Sources & further reading.
- Historic Occidental Hotel — Living History (history)
- Visit Buffalo and Kaycee — The Occidental Hotel (history)
- Historic Occidental Hotel — Is the Occidental Haunted? (reports)
- Black Hills Paranormal — Occidental Hotel 2011 investigation (reports)
- Visit Buffalo and Kaycee — The Occidental Hotel (visiting)
- Occidental Hotel — Can I Just Come Inside and Look Around? (visiting)
- Occidental Hotel — Book via Email (visiting)
Plan Your Visit
The Occidental is an operating hotel with rooms to reserve through the official site. The operator says visitors who are not overnight guests may inspect the downstairs lobby, hallways, saloon, gambling room and beer garden; upstairs bedrooms are restricted unless you have a room or an authorized tour. The front desk can advise whether historic tours are currently available. No ordinary ticket gives unsupervised access for a ghost hunt, and a previous investigator’s invitation does not imply that private investigations are generally offered now.