The Headless Bride of Yellowstone’s Old Faithful Inn
Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park is a crown jewel of lodging in our nation’s first national park. It’s rustic and sophisticated in the middle of some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. According to lore, it’s also the scene of a gruesome murder that’s led to a more than century-long haunting and the most famous Yellowstone Ghost Story.
Yellowstone Ghost Story: The Headless Bride of the Old Faithful Inn
The story starts in New York City around the spring of 1915. It was then that the teenage daughter of a wealthy shipping company owner fell in love with a much older man. This man was a servant in their house and far below her status and class. She expressed to her father her desire to marry him, a request that was quickly denied.
After weeks of begging, pleading, and professing her love for him to her father, he relented and the marriage promptly occurred.
Despite his displeasure, the father gave a significant dowry as a wedding gift and a train ticket to Yellowstone National Park’s Old Faithful Inn for their honeymoon.
A Wedding Mistake
On the way to Yellowstone, it became clear that she should have listened to her father; she had made a terrible mistake. The man, now flush with cash, drank wildly and relentlessly gambled at the poker table the entire trip to the park.
Checking into room 127 at the Old Faithful Inn, any hopes of a civil and loving union were already in tatters. By day, the husband continued to drink and gamble. By night, they fought loudly. Soon, the money ran out, and their hotel bill was mounting. The young woman was unwilling to give up on her marriage and phoned her father, desperately pleading for more money. The request was flatly refused, but in a moment of pity, he offered to send her train ticket home. This, after seeing few other options, she accepted.
Later that night, her husband returned from an evening of debauchery, particularly inebriated. She told him of her plans to return home to her father and New York.
Her husband turned violently angry. An argument ensued that rattled the walls and frightened other guests and staff. Then, with one final slam of a door, the husband bolted from the hotel, never to be seen again.
A Gruesome Discovery
A few days passed, and everything was quiet in room 127—too quiet. Initially relieved, the hotel staff soon began to worry again. On a sweltering day, nearby guests began to complain of an odor starting to come from the room.
With reservations, a housekeeper opened the door to room 127, gagging as she loudly asked, “Is there anyone here? Is there anyone here?” The room was smashed to pieces; no one was in the bed, but the bathroom door was shut.
Fearing the worst, the maid opened the door to discover the teenage bride dead in the bathtub. She was dressed in a white wedding dress stained bloody red, but most disturbing of all, her head was cut off … and missing.
The staff searched high and low for the head. It was nowhere to be found. Then, one night after the ghastly discovery was a horrid memory, when the band climbed up to the crow’s nest to begin the evening’s entertainment…they found her head… staring at them.
Over the years, on certain evenings when unknown circumstances are just right, guests report seeing the headless bride wearing a blood-soaked white gown. She glides down the stairs from the crow’s nest with her head tucked under her arm.
