Hotel Monte Vista

The Monte Vista opened on New Year's Day 1927, one of the few American hotels built entirely with public money after a local fundraising drive, and it still takes guests on Flagstaff's San Francisco Street. John Wayne, Bing Crosby and Harry Truman all stayed here. Its best-known story is a phantom bellboy who knocks at the door near Room 210, the Zane Grey room, announcing room service to guests who open the door on an empty corridor; John Wayne is said to have had the experience himself while filming nearby. Rooms 220, 305 and 306 carry stories of their own. A widely repeated account of a man shot in a 1970 bank robbery who bled to death in the lounge is not supported by any record, and is best treated as part of the hotel's folklore rather than its history.