Bonanza Inn

The Bonanza Inn in Virginia City, Montana, stands in an 1866 building that served as the Madison County courthouse while the town was the territorial capital. After the county built a new courthouse, the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth opened St. Mary's Hospital for miners here, and in 1940 the building was remodeled as a hotel. Montana historian Ellen Baumler, who wrote about it in her book Spirit Tailings, records the story of a nun in a black habit who is said to keep watch over the sick. Sister Irene, a beloved nurse who made house calls around town and died in 1944, is the sister most often named. Guests have described the sense of a woman sitting beside the bed, and Baumler herself reported an odd smell like a hospital ward in Room 7 and small, sturdy footsteps in Room 2 that paused, unlocked the door and faded away.