Nevada Urban Legends and the Amargosa Opera House

A friend of a friend had told you about this place, and as a fan of the paranormal and unexplained, you agree to go. The car comes to a stop. Confuse, you look around a dark lot and wonder where the building is. That's when you find out that this is what it's about, going to an empty lot and trying to catch a ghost on camera. And so you take a few steps in, encouraged by your friends as a sort of dare, and walk through the lot to get all the way to the end of it and then come back. Of course, you felt your knees get a little weak at the thought of seeing something on your way there, but you agreed to take the challenge. You take a few steps in as your friends giggle by the edge of the lot. You turn back and they signal you to keep going. You look away from them and step toward the other end of the line. But it's then when out of the corner of your eye you see it a shadow, perfectly still to your right. You rub your eyes, hoping that it's just your imagination and wonder what it could be, but the shadow, the thing doesn't leave. You turn back towards your friends to see the last one of them hide behind a nearby fence. That's when your heart begins to beat faster. As you turn around to run back to them. You take a final glance back. The shadow twists and begins to move it to a woman, her head haunched in sadness, but she doesn't seem to notice you. You run us fast as you can to get to your friends, who can't seem to hold in their laughter any longer. If only they had seen what you saw. In this episode, we're gonna take a look at some of the most popular urban legends in Las Vegas and the Amargosa Hotel in Nevada. We'll start with the story of Little Chew Cheo Daycare. My name is Edwin, and here is dark Memory. While searching haunted locations in places that don't seem like they would have them, I bumped into article after article that mentioned a place called Little Chew Cheo Daycare in Las Vegas, a city most known for entertainment, nightlife, and restaurants in the state of Nevada. Surprisingly, this place had an address three three five Win Road, but when I typed it into Google Maps, there was some sort of business there named Ryan Mechanical, a contractor business. I think it was strange to see so much about an urban legend in Las Vegas that would drive fans of the paranormal to go check it out, even in the middle of the night, even if it really was just a business lot. But there in an industrial area. The thing is, people are going to the wrong place. But first, let me give you a little background. According to a site called Living Las Vegas, the story of this place goes back to whether there was once a building in the area that was a daycare. It was called Little Chew Chew Daycare. Children of the residents of that area would leave their kids there like a typical business. In order to stand out and make the place seem more appealing to the children and the parents, the business placed a train in the front yard for the kids to play in, and it worked well for a time. It's important to note that the toy train in the front yard was not some simple plastic toy, and it was not one of the typical carts that kids pushed themselves around him. This thing was gas power. It was strong, soldered together. I imagine this as one of the trains that you see at your local fare well. One day, a little boy was playing around in the front yard. He was interested in nothing more than digging the biggest hole in the dirt, and he had just gotten started, but he was well on his way. He crouched down near the ground and digging, imagining finding treasures and insects that he would show his friends. Life had other plans for him. As he was looking down at the ground, the train was being started. It moved slowly from across the yard and toward the little boy. The person who was operating the train didn't see him, and the child was run over in front of the other kids. Laughter eventually turned to cries, which then turned to the beginning of the end to Little Chuu Chuo Daycare. But the fate of the place was not sealed just yet. It took another tragedy to make the patrons of the place begin to search for other daycare services. It was said that a teacher at Little chu Chuo Daycare killed herself one morning during the times of operation, and today, residents of the area claimed to see the ghost of a little boy crouched down on the ground, still searching for treasure. Others claimed to see the ghost of a woman roaming the grounds where the daycare used to be. Remember how I said that the address were the daycare was supposed to be is wrong? Well on an article written by Ozzy Turner in twenty sixteen tell us about a different location. This one is mentioned by the locals who actually remember Little Chow Choo Daycare, saying that it's located in the area where houses are behind a middle school one named Hyde Park, not far from the original address. People old enough to remember it, and some even claiming to attend that daycare, have some strange stories to tell. By going deeper into this story, I found a link to another article about it, basically saying the same information, but down in the comments area, a man by the name of Sean Heinen wrote about his experience as a student at Hyde Park Middle School and also at Little Choo Choo Daycare. Could it be real? We don't know. And that's the thing about places before the Internet existed. Records, whether accurate or not, were not kept as easily. There were almost exclusively left to rot in journals and newspapers of the time. From that address, we go to five two eight five Dean Martin Drive, which has been investigated by various paranormal groups in Las Vegas, who have caught electronic voice phenomenon and strange changes in electromagnetic field readings. The place had seen his share of various businesses coming and going, all claiming that the strange occurrences would happen every once in a while. But more than that, it was believed that the location was cursed. Mexican restaurants, soul food restaurants, and many others have tried to make it work there with no luck. In fact, some say that the curse of the location has something to do with it. And I'm sure that has crossed your mind when you see that one business, this property in your own town that just can't seem to make it work. But on this one, the legend that goes along with it is intense. They say that the mob used that same land to bury bodies, a lot of them. But in twenty sixteen the place caught on fire, costing upwards of one hundred thousand dollars in damages and on the new sites they even mentioned that the location is supposedly haunted, so could a ghost have caused that? Again, we don't know. There is another location in Nevada that I found very interesting and creepy, but most importantly, it steps away from the whole urban legend thing because there are actual historical records and all that is coming up right after this. In the town of Death Valley Junction in Nevada, there is a place known as the Amerigoza Opera House and Hotel and it is still in operation. The place has about one hundred years of history behind it. But we'll pick up the story by meeting a woman named Marta Beckett. Marta was an actress, ballet dancer, artist, and mine from New York City back in the nineteen sixties. She was created from the start, showing interest in playing the piano, art and dance. Chasing those talents eventually led her to end up on show boat, dancing at Radio City Music Hall, and on Broadway in New York City. When she got married in nineteen sixty two, she started touring the country. For years she was traveling and performing or attending some type of event. In nineteen sixty seven, she and her husband took a vacation by camping and Death Valley her chance. The trailer got a flat tire and they were directed to the town of Death Valley Junction in order to repair it. It was then when Martin began exploring and fell in love with the place. She saw an old theater in there and wanted it. She felt a sort of connection that only an artist can feel to a place, and that's what she followed. You see, she had a dream of designing her own clothes, of choreographing her own dances, and to start her own show. This building named Corkhill Hall would be the perfect place. Her husband supported her idea and found the town manager who agreed to rent out the theater for forty five dollars per month. A couple would be in charge of their repairs, though, and so it started. The first thing she did was changed the name to Amargosa Opera House. Oh and it's worth mentioning that around this time, Death Valley Junction had been renamed Amercosa for the second time, so it was called Amergosa, which means bitter water. Then the post office came in and called it Death Valley Junction, and it was renamed once more to Amargosa. However, the name was changed again to Death Valley Junction. So if all the information is correct, the name of it today is actually Death Valley Junction. Just for clarification anyway, just about a year after that she gave her first performance, and that was in nineteen sixty eight. About a dozen adults came to watch her, but she didn't give up, and instead she kept performing, even painting people on the walls to give the hall some life. She painted the ceilings, decorated the entire place, and finally, by nineteen seventy four it was done. The whole thing started to take shape. More people started coming to the place. They added a hotel and cafe, and the other buildings of Death Valley junctions started getting fixed up. Eventually it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. But here's what makes this place even more interesting and relevant to the topic of this episode. There are several ghost stories that the staff and visitors have sworn by that are all pretty creepy. Some of the rooms of the Amargosa Hotel are reported to be haunted. In Room twenty four, guests often report hearing the haunting cries of a baby at night, even while there are no other families with babies in the premises. Strangely enough, they say that a young girl died in the bathta in that room in nineteen sixty seven. Room nine is said to be one of the most haunted in the entire place. Here's what they say about it. While people are sleeping, guests have reported that something, some unseen force, holds their legs and feet down. Then, in the late evening, while getting ready for bed, some guests begin to hear the sounds of a doorknob turning, like somebody's trying to get inside. When they walk up to the door and open it, you find that there is nobody there. But there is a theory about it. They say that the ghost of a child can be heard running up and down the hall, laughing. Perhaps that's who tries to open the door. Room thirty two has the darkest backstory. However, when guests stay in the room, they report feeling a strange sense of uneasiness. They get chills, feel a sudden loss of energy, and they don't know why. Well, it turns out that this room was once the whole of a mining boss. During the mining times, when times were good, there was lots of stealing and fighting among the miners and those who were making big profits. When people were going to be executed by hanging, they started taking them to this room. They would step inside but not come out alive. There's lots more to this place than just the rooms, though. In one of the sections of the hotel there was an area that was never renovated and it looks worn down and just plain creepy. This area is called Spooky Hollow by the staff because the area was once used as a hospital and a morgue, and things like noises from the walls, footsteps, showers that turn on by themselves, and shadows that appear on stage are all some of the strange occurrences that guests have mentioned. In fact, some visitors simply leave. They grab their things and leave in the middle of the night, just like that. This place has also been investigated by countless paranormal groups, including the Ghost Adventures team, who caught some strange things during the episode. The state of Nevada has some of the most interesting stories involving mining and ghost towns that I've ever read about, and I am sure that we'll be visiting this place against sooner. From the strange urban legends of properties in Las Vegas to abandon hotels that are brought back to life, ghosts seem to always find a way to find us again. It's as if they know that if they leave, their story will leave with them, leaving them eternally forgotten. This episode of A Dark Memory was written and produced by me Edwin Komaryaz. Thanks a lot for your reviews and messages Helpe. Next, be sure to check out my other show, Scary Mystery Surprise. It's a podcast where we talk about scary topics like these, but it's kind of strange and funny and more conversational. It's along with my co host Michelle. I hope to get to hang out with you over there. Thank you very much for listening, See you soon,