Bar Owner Seeks Ghost Busters to Rid Town of ‘Irate’ Spirits

A local bar owner is advertising for ghost busters, saying spirits that haunt this old mining town are getting pushy and scaring people.

Doug Truhill insisted that there’s more to his recent ad than a bid for publicity for his Old Washoe Club Saloon--although he certainly welcomes the attention.

“A lot of weird things happen up here, and lately they seem to be causing more of a stir than usual,” Truhill said. “It’s nothing that terrifies us, but it does scare the tourists.”

Truhill put up posters and ran an ad in the Carson Chronicle asking for help in dealing with “irate ghosts no longer satisfied with traditional mischief in certain buildings.”

Only a couple of people who described themselves as “sensitives” have responded, and “they just freaked out,” Truhill said. “They said they’ve never felt anything like this before.

“In the past, we’d have strange things happening every once in a while, maybe once a month,” he said. “Now it’s on a daily basis.”

Truhill said that at the Old Washoe, people have seen light switches turn off and on by themselves, chandeliers spinning on windless days and the bathroom door opening or locking when nobody’s near.

He said his wife, Sharon, has seen a smoky figure at the top of a spiral staircase, and he felt his bar stool move a foot sideways one night. Some customers also said they’ve been nudged in the back while sitting at the bar.

Truhill said his place and the art center in the old county hospital seem to be “the two most haunted places in town.”

But many other places report strange activity, he said, adding that owners of the Virginia City Coffee Co.--a mortuary in the 1870s--saw “tea bags flying across the room, like they were being thrown at them.”

Truhill said he has no idea who the ghosts are or why they’re more active. The Old Washoe, a saloon since 1867 and the oldest bar in Virginia City, once was known as the Millionaires’ Club, a posh private bar and hotel whose guests included Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas Edison, Mark Twain, Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp.