The Crescent Hotel: America's most haunted resort where a cancer charlatan once peddled poison

This 1886 mountaintop hotel in the Ozarks offers ghost tours through a former morgue, a rooftop bar with sunset views, and the kind of dark history most hotels would rather forget. In the 1930s, a con man named Norman Baker ran a fraudulent cancer hospital here, injecting dying patients with a worthless mixture of watermelon seed, corn silk and carbolic acid.

Today, the hotel embraces its macabre past, leading nightly tours through Baker's old morgue and displaying hundreds of bottles from his "secret formula" discovered during renovations. It's equal parts luxury resort and cautionary tale.

Location

The hotel sits at 75 Prospect Avenue in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, a town that sprang up in 1879 around natural springs the Native Americans believed had healing properties. By 1880, over 15,000 people had settled here.

The Crescent crowns West Mountain at 2,000 feet above sea level, overlooking the Victorian buildings that fill the valleys below. Irish stonemasons built it from 18-inch limestone blocks quarried 10 miles away near the White River and hauled to the site by horse-drawn wagons.

The Grand Dame's Rise and Fall

Governor Powell Clayton and the Eureka Springs Improvement Company commissioned the hotel in 1884 as a luxury resort to capitalize on the town's reputation as a healing destination. Architect Isaac S. Taylor designed it to showcase the region's natural beauty. When it opened in 1886, the wealthy elite climbed the limestone steps to the East Garden, where staff announced their arrival to guests attending welcome tea. For 15 years, it thrived as an exclusive retreat.

But the hotel couldn't sustain itself. In 1902, the Frisco Railroad leased it, and to generate winter income, Crescent College opened its doors, providing education to young women until 1934. The building cycled through various owners and uses, slowly deteriorating. In 1925, former Arkansas congressman Claude Fuller and Eureka Springs mayor Albert G. Ingalls bought it. Then came Norman Baker.

The Fraudulent Cancer Cure Operation

In 1937, Norman Baker purchased the Crescent and transformed it into something far more sinister than a struggling hotel. He renamed it the "Castle in the Air" and opened the Baker Cancer Clinic, broadcasting over the radio his claims that he could cure cancer without surgery.

Baker was a former vaudeville magician turned millionaire inventor who had made his fortune manufacturing an air-powered organ called the Air Calliophone. He had no medical training whatsoever. His "cure" consisted primarily of drinking spring water and receiving painful injections of a solution containing glycerine, carbolic acid, alcohol, watermelon seed, brown corn silk and clover leaves.

Patients received five to seven needles a day, held in place until the medicine drained. One patient's husband later testified: "She said it was awful. She told me it didn't do much good; said she wanted to go home; that she was getting worse." His wife was dead by Christmas.

Baker had already run a similar operation in Muscatine, Iowa, where he made over $444,000 in 1930 from cancer sufferers alone. The American Medical Association relentlessly pursued him, publishing articles exposing his quackery. When five volunteers he sent for treatment in Kansas City all died, he reprinted articles claiming their miraculous recovery without changing a word.

The hotel still contains remnants of Baker's operation: a morgue with an autopsy table and a walk-in cooler for cadavers. During renovations in 2019, workers discovered Baker's midden containing hundreds of bottles of his formula and jars with surgical specimens removed from patients. Baker remodeled the interior in lavender, his signature color, and installed a hidden staircase from his first-floor office for quick escapes. His six-sided desk managed his six different businesses simultaneously.

Federal authorities arrested Baker in 1940 for mail fraud. It took just seven letters advertising his services placed in the US mail to bring him down. He served four years at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. A US Postal Inspector estimated Baker defrauded cancer sufferers of approximately $4 million during his career. The court of appeals opinion was blunt: Norman Baker's cancer cure was "pure hoax."

Ghost Tours

The hotel bills itself as "America's Most Haunted Hotel," and 17 national and international paranormal television shows have featured the property. In 2005, Ghost Hunters claimed to capture what they described as "a full-body apparition" on thermal imaging.

The standard Crescent Hotel Ghost Tour takes you through spaces where the spirits reportedly linger, ending in Norman Baker's notorious morgue. Guides share stories of resident ghosts including Michael, Theodora, and "The Ghost in the Morgue." A Kids Ghost Tour offers a 45-minute version designed for children ages 5 to 12, with a guardian accompanying free. The Expert & Expanded Ghost Tour features senior paranormal investigators sharing stories of spirits who checked in but never left.

For those wanting hands-on experience, the Midnight Investigation is led by a seasoned investigator from the Eureka Springs Paranormal Team, teaching ghost hunting techniques in the hotel's most mysterious spaces. There's also a separate paranormal investigation at the nearby Basin Park Hotel, which the Roenigks also own.

A self-guided historical tour runs along the fourth-floor hallway, displaying artifacts and telling the building's story without the supernatural overlay.

The Governor's Bar

Located in the Crystal Dining Room, The Governor's Bar pairs classic hospitality with nods to the hotel's 1886 heritage. The cocktail menu features timeless drinks alongside small plates designed for sharing. It's an easygoing atmosphere for winding down after exploring Eureka Springs or starting your evening with something light before dinner. The space offers a refined take on the traditional hotel bar without the stuffiness.

Top Of The Crest

The rooftop bar sits at the hotel's highest point, offering sweeping views across the Ozark Mountains. It's particularly popular at sunset, when you can watch the light change over the valleys and ridges stretching into the distance. The menu includes cocktails, frozen drinks, desserts and casual bites. TVs are available if you want to catch a game. Whether you're having a drink or sharing food, it's a relaxed spot to end your day above Eureka Springs.

Rooms

The hotel offers 78 guest rooms spread across its five floors. Accommodations range from historic rooms to suites, all featuring WiFi, room service and shuttle service. The property welcomes pets for a $35 per night fee, continuing a long tradition of feline residents. Morris the cat lived here for over 20 years, and current guests might encounter Ozzy or Jasper the Cat roaming the halls. The Crescent Trail across from the front entrance leads two-tenths of a mile down to Harmon Park's Bark Park.

Victorian color schemes with hand-stenciling decorate the walls, a design element Richard Pollard applied during the major restoration. The rooms blend historically themed furnishings with modern bathroom renovations and clever redesigns that make 19th-century spaces work for contemporary travelers. Four two-bedroom "treetop cottages" added in 2008 sit on the hotel's 15-acre mountaintop property, designed in a style inspired by E. Fay Jones, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright.

The Balcony Room

This room type features a private balcony overlooking the Ozark Mountains. You get the historic charm of the original building with the practical addition of outdoor space where you can sit with morning coffee or evening drinks while taking in the mountain views.

The Pool

The resort pool includes cabanas available for reservation or on a first-come basis, lounge seating, hot tubs and a changing area. During summer, poolside food and beverage service means you don't have to leave your chair. Saturday afternoons from 1pm to 3pm feature DJ pool parties. When winter arrives, the pool becomes a heated hot pool, maintaining temperatures between 100 and 104 degrees so you can use it year-round while surrounded by mountain views.

Frisco Sporting Club

The hotel offers a full schedule of daily activities that change with the seasons. Popular options include hatchet throwing, hiking trails, mountain biking trails, sunrise yoga, wine tastings and watercolor art classes.

Large outdoor games dot the grounds, including giant chess sets where the pieces stand several feet tall. The Frisco Cantina Taco Truck serves fresh tacos and quick bites while you're hanging out at the sporting club. Nature hikes and walking trails wind through the 15-acre property, and history tours beyond the ghost theme are available for those interested in the hotel's broader story.