Title: Ghosts At Sweet Springs Resort
Author: Ray West
As a lover of all things abandoned, Springs Resort is too cool not to talk about. However, unlike most abandoned places no trespassing is required to visit Sweet Springs because it isn’t actually abandoned. You can check out their official website http://sweetspringsresortpark.org/, but they give various tours and have a number of events here.
Sweet Springs Resort is located in Gap Mills, West Virginia. So, it’s a bit of a trek away from Rockingham County. That said, it’s well worth visiting if you’re in the area, or even worth making the trip out just to see it if you’re a lover of abandoned things. While this isn’t a hike in the typical sense (i.e. hiking to an overlook, waterfall, etc.), the area does have some hiking/walking trails one can enjoy though you may have to trek past some unhappy cows to get there.
The resort has been around since the 1700s. According to the owners who were kind enough to give me and my friend an informal, impromptu tour, Native Americans originally used the springs as a healing pool, for birth and other illnesses. It was eventually owned by the Lewis family, who built a hotel there. In the mid 1900s, it became a sanitorium. This all led it to get a reputation as being “haunted,” and while I don’t believe in ghosts, I do enjoy history and horror.
Sweet Springs is open from 8:30am to 3:30pm Mondays through Sundays. We drove up and parked. A nice lady greeted us and told us we were welcome to look around, though I wouldn’t count on anyone always being there. There’s a log book to document your visit in front of one of the buildings, which we signed. A few friendly men were working on the main hotel and pointed us towards some hiking trails over the fence.
While they told us how to unlock the fence, my friend and I opted to climb over it instead since it opened to a field full of some very surprised cows who were not thrilled we were passing by them to get to the wooded area. As with all animals, we gave them a wide berth and stayed out of their way to find the trail.
This is not the place to go if you’re looking for a serious hike; the trails themselves while marked weren’t well-defined and we were short on time (and not wearing shoes for hiking), so we didn’t venture more than a few miles into the woods before turning around. Then, we explored the resort itself before asking to see the main part of the hotel. They politely told us that they offer tours for that, but after chatting for a bit we learned one of the men owned the place and he gave us a brief look inside.
Since we were basically getting a free tour, we refrained from taking any pictures of the inside, but it was interesting hearing how they do “paranormal investigations”, and also seeing some of the ways they “cured” people of various illnesses.
The owners are working on restoring the hotel little by little, and in the interim they have various events and offer ghost tours. While this isn’t a traditional hike I usually partake in, this spot is well worth the visit for its historical value alone.
