Furnace Creek Inn & Ranch Resort is in Death Valley National Park in California. Surrounded by the arid desert is this resort with two hotels. Furnace Creek Inn is a historic Four Diamond inn. Furnace Creek Ranch is the more family oriented 224 room lodge.
The ghost reported to be at Furnace Creek Inn is that of Chef James Marques. Chef Marquez worked at Furnace Creek Inn from 1959 until 1973. He was forced to resign due to illness and died just three years later.
Since Chef James Marquez passed away, there have been peculiar happenings including kitchen and dining rooms doors being mysteriously opened and closed. Employees have reported hearing noises from the dining room in the middle of the night. Legend has it that the kitchen has even been rearranged. Does Chef Marquez return to beautiful Death Valley and the career he loved?
History of Furnace Creek Inn
Furnace Creek Inn is in Death Valley, which in the summer can reach extreme temperatures of 125 degrees. Death Valley has extraordinarily clear air, making it a great location for Hollywood movie making. The film industry loves the clear air because it makes colors more vivid and alive on film. The towering mountains and colorful canyons are amazingly beautiful. Death Valley has been the backdrop of over 40 films and many television shows.
Death Valley, in the desert northeast of Los Angeles and northwest of Las Vegas, was an obstacle to the rich gold region during the Gold Rush era. The intensely hot temperatures made travel across the arid desert dangerous and deadly.
Furnace Creek Inn opened in 1927. The mission style building was set into a low ridge overlooking Furnace Creek Wash. The adobe bricks were made by hand by Paiute and Shoshone Indian laborers.
In 1930 a delightful swimming pool was built. The water was piped down into and through the pool into the inn’s gardens and into a date grove. The pool water remains a constant 85 degrees of naturally filtered water.
The inn was a popular destination, even during the years of the Great Depression. Since the road conditions through the desert were not good it was decided to promote the use to the Death Valley and Ronopah & Tidewater Railroads for transportation to the inn. Transcontinental railroads, The Union Pacific and the Sante Fe promoted packages for tourist travel to Death Valley Junction.
During the 1930s the inn provided a getaway for celebrities including William Powell, Claudette Colbert, John Barrymore, Bette Davis and Jimmy Stewart. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard eloped, getting married in Kingman, Arizona and spending their honeymoon at Furnace Creek Inn.
The Furnace Creek Inn closed during the World War II years, from 1942 to 1945. The inn reopened after the war, as elegant as ever.
The Furnace Creek Inn & Ranch Resort is a lush oasis in the desolate desert landscape of Death Valley National Park. The refreshing oasis consists of a 18 hole gold course, four restaurants, a saloon, cocktail lounge, shops, a Borax Museum, tennis courts, spring fed swimming pools, horseback riding horse-drawn carriage rides, massage traps, children’s playground, a 3,040 foot airstrip, service station and conference and banquet facilities. The resort is the perfect location from which to explore the Death Valley National Park.
The Furnace Creek Inn is open from mid-October through mid-May. The Furnace Creek Ranch is open year around.
The Furnace Creek Inn & Ranch Resort is a lush oasis surrounded by the vast, arid desert of Death Valley National Park. The resort is 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas, NV and 275 miles northeast of Los Angeles, Ca.
