The haunted Hermosa Inn

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - It's two days until Halloween, and there is another good ghost story, this one surrounds the Hermosa Inn here in the valley.

If you've ever looked inside a Stetson Hat, you've seen the artwork of Lon Megargee, the cowboy painter once built and lived in what's now the Hermosa.

He passed away in 1960, but many say his spirit lingers.

Hotel doors were slamming on their own, pots and pans flying off the shelf, and the figure of a cowboy that swiftly disappears. These are the haunted happenings at the historic Hermosa Inn.

"Maids have been cleaning in the casitas and all of a sudden they see a cowboy appear with a cowboy hat in the mirror, and then turn around and he's gone," said Andrew Quinn.

Quinn started ghost hunting at the Hermosa Inn when he was a little boy. Now he's an expert guide and knows all the haunted spots, like a bridge where many have seen a lady wearing a pink gown.

"Guests see her from their rooms, and they say that she comes dancing across the bridge here, and then swirls around and out on the patio," said Quinn.

So who does Quinn think the ghost is?

"It might be one of Lon's happier ex-wives... she still comes back to have the beautiful feelings I guess," said Quinn.

Lon did love the ladies, he had seven wives, and in haunted Casita #7, ghost hunters say they've heard words that prove the playboy spirit is still going strong.

"I believe it was something like affair, and the bible, and priest, that were the words that came up with which again goes along with Lon's many marriages and all that," he said.

Lon loves to mess with the Inn staff, flinging pans from the kitchen stove, swinging galley doors as he pleases. But some say a group of younger spirits are haunting for fun too.

"The night cleaners that saw the kids playing in the parking lot, they didn't last. After that they went and found new jobs," said Jeremy Pacheco.

Quinn says they've had several staff members quit because they were so terrified by what they saw or heard. If you'd like to be spooked stop by Lon's at the Hermosa. Guests can get a personal haunted tour, and you can also take a self-guided ghost tour if you stay on the property.