Las Vegas, Nevada is home to some pretty amazing spectacles and shows. It is a purely entertainment driven town, providing fun and something interesting around every corner.
The Luxor Hotel is one Las Vegas destination that might have gotten a little more then they bargained for when they opened an exhibit of relics and exhibits from and related to the Titanic.
Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition includes recreated first and third class rooms done by the original manufacturers, recreations of the grand staircase and other major areas of the ship and even pats of the Titanic’s hull dragged up from the wreckage site.
But some guests and employees have reported ghostly goings on at the exhibition since it opened in 2008.
The actual naval disaster itself, when the HMS Titanic hit an iceberg in April of 1912, was an amazing event in it’s own right. One of the more extraordinary factors of the tragedy has to be the extraordinary amount of lives lost. Of two-thousand, two-hundred and eight passengers who left on the mighty ship’s maiden voyage, only seven-hundred and twelve would survive to tell the tale of that fateful night.
Those that did die most likely died in a state of confusion and agony, lost to the Atlantic Ocean forever.
Certainly with such a horrible tale comes the probability of ghost stories and some of the better ones are attached to the artifact’s display at the Luxor Hotel.
Wreckage From The Titanic
Joe Zimmer, an artifacts expert who works at the exhibition claims to have had his name being called out to him followed by playful laughing. He has also had his hair and clothes pulled and after closing the exhibit down for the night he has heard the strains of a phantom orchestra.
Some could say that Zimmerman might make the worst kind of witness as he has an obvious investment in that exhibit doing well, being employed there. However Zimmerman does address that issue to a degree in the comments he made to the Las Vegas Review Journal:
“I’ll say this a million times and on my deathbed, and maybe come back and say it after my death: I would not lie to you,
What I’m asking you is to keep an open mind. Some of the docents and even guests have had some serious experiences here. Now, is it a trick of the mind or something else?”
It is true that others have experienced paranormal phenomena at the Titanic exhibit at the Luxor as well.
Some patrons and employees have felt like they are being watched and hear footsteps, especially around the mocked up third class bunk area, a replica made to demonstrate what travel on the Titanic was really like.
In addition, actual apparitions have been seen, such as multiple sightings of an old lady in a bun and a black period dress embellished with a white collar and another woman who was seen waking down the grand staircase replica before the exhibit opened.
This figure was seen by a photographer at the exhibit who asked the woman multiple times if she wanted her picture taken, only to have her disappear a short time later.
Another interesting tale is about the photo of one Bruce Ismay who’s portrait fell off the wall one night after closing.
Ismay
Bruce Ismay was one of the Titanic’s builders and top men who pushed the Titanic project forward. In a infamous interaction right before the accident occurred, Ismay is said to have told a passenger that the ship would be speeding up rather then slowing down after the ship received an ice warning.
Ismay was also one of the survivors, with accounts differing on how exactly he found himself on one of the hard to find rowboats.
He also was one of the main faces in the news concerning the tragedy when he returned to land.
All of this leads to some excellent reasons for why a ghost from the Titanic might want to point out Ismay, but truth be told, I can’t find anything on the surveillance video the staff claims shows the picture sliding down off the wall and then a couple of inches across the floor.
I’d love to see it.
So is Titanic: The Artifacts Exhibition really haunted?
There is too little information to know for sure.
The tragedy surely makes it fodder for a good ghost story but the fact that most of the better accounts of activity taking place at the exhibit are by staff I also have to raise a skeptical eyebrow or two.
No matter what, the exhibit is a great piece of history on display which might also have brought back some of the spirits that died on that April night.
-Thomas Spychalski
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