Gage Hotel

This historic adobe hotel in the remote Big Bend region was built in 1927 by rancher Alfred Gage as a place for visiting cattlemen and hunters to stay. The rustic luxury property has been lovingly restored and sits at the gateway to Big Bend National Park, surrounded by vast desert landscape.

The Gage Hotel in Marathon, Texas, stands as a refined oasis in the vast emptiness of the Trans-Pecos region, but beneath its carefully restored 1927 elegance lurks a supernatural presence that has fascinated paranormal investigators for decades. The hotel's namesake and builder, ranching magnate Alfred Gage, reportedly never left the property he created, his distinctive spectral form appearing to guests and staff with remarkable frequency.

Alfred Gage accumulated over 500,000 acres of West Texas ranch land, and the hotel served as his headquarters and a hospitality center for the cattle empire he built. After his death, guests began reporting encounters with a tall, distinguished gentleman in period ranching attire who walks the halls with proprietary interest, checking on rooms and occasionally appearing at the foot of beds to observe sleeping guests. His apparition is most frequently seen in the lobby, where he seems to supervise the comings and goings of modern visitors.

Room 10 has earned a reputation as the most actively haunted accommodation. Guests report doors opening and closing on their own, the sensation of someone sitting on the bed beside them, and the distinct feeling of being watched throughout the night. Personal belongings move while guests sleep, arranged in different positions by morning. The bathroom door has a particular tendency to swing open repeatedly despite being securely latched.

Room 39 hosts its own supernatural resident—believed to be a former guest who died during a stay. Visitors report hearing a woman humming, smelling perfume when no one else is present, and seeing a female figure reflected in mirrors who vanishes when they turn to look directly. The courtyard fountain area generates cold spots and unexplained electromagnetic fluctuations that paranormal investigators have documented repeatedly.