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Things that shake in the night at Prospect Historic Hotel By Peggy Dover Oct 09, 2022 12:00 AM A A Prospect is a small mountain community about an hour north of Medford via Highway 62. Prospect was lively during a robust timber economy. That was then. Now, quiet reigns in the town of about 450 residents. The peacefulness works well wrapped around two nights at the cozy and comfortable Prospect Historic Hotel. Owned and run by congenial innkeepers Fred and Karen Wickman, the hotel opened in 1892 to serve adventurers traveling to behold our blue Southern Oregon jewel — Crater Lake. I’d visited the hotel many times over the years for meals at Easter and high teas during the hotel’s Victorian Christmas weekends. I’d climbed to the third floor and become enamored of one room in particular — the Record Suite. All 10 rooms are loaded with charm, but this room spoke to the writer, I guess. Record is the name of the couple who caught the vision to restore the grand old hotel in the 1980s. How I finally got to stay there is wild. Lane never wins anything, so he says. But one day last spring, he received notification he’d won a two-night stay at the Prospect Hotel. The package included dinner for two, breakfast each morning and a bottle of wine. He thought it was a hoax, of course, and texted me about it. I’d nearly forgotten about entering each of us in a drawing. I texted back, “Don’t trash the email.” We booked the Record Suite — a roomy space with two queen beds and privacy for each of us. After check-in, we walked the grounds situated next to Mill Creek. It’s a serene setting for a wedding, anniversary or family reunion. The hotel dining room is a throwback to the fine and fancy 1800s. We sat in classy elegance as we ate brownie sundaes for dinner the first night. There was no yammering crowd, boisterous laughter or competing background music, just other diners using indoor voices, with jazz playing at the right volume for conversation. I found an old mystery novel by Dorothy Sayers in our “game box” and began reading it aloud in lieu of TV, as there are none in the old hotel. Remember, we’re in the 1800s, but there is indoor plumbing. This is a high-class joint, after all. The following day, after a delicious breakfast capably served by Lynette, we walked to Pearsony Falls, a short jaunt from our digs. The Trophy Room was the only lunch spot open Mondays, and it lived up to its name. Impressive animal heads looked at us from the walls, including one antelope toking on a doobie someone had rolled for him. They served a fine chicken tortilla soup and burger, and the wood paneling made me nostalgic for the 1970s, bell bottoms and the movie “Duel.” Now, the scary part. Are there ghosts in the old hotel? There are many stories — some believable, others, meh. But Karen had one for us that I don’t doubt because she’s not one for hysterics or fabricating tales. She is a fun, practical woman. Just ask Fred. Here is her story. “It was in January or February, a very slow time of year, and there was no one in the hotel with me. I had the hallway door closed, but the lights were still on in the dinnerhouse, so I had to come through the closed and locked door to turn the lights off before I went home. So, I put my key up to the lock and started to put it in there, and the whole doorknob shook like crazy. I just turned around and went out the front door and said phooey on the lights. I can’t find an explanation for that.” They chalk up a lot of strange happenings to Dewey Hill, a handyman who worked at the hotel from 1916 until his death in 1978. He was a lovable town character. Apparently, Dewey loved Prospect too much to leave? See my Facebook page for photos and more on the Prospect Hotel. Peggy Dover is a freelance writer/author who believes in unseen forces. Reach her at [email protected].