Haunted Bowers Mansion: Seances, Scryers, & Spirits

Bowers’ Mansion in Washoe Valley was built in 1863 by Lemuel “Sandy” and Eilley Bowers. A life of financial fortune and personal tragedy set the stage for the many reported hauntings in the mansion and on the grounds.

Eilley Bowers

Eilley Bowers was an unusual woman for her time. She was one of few women in the area during the discovery of the Comstock Lode and had divorced twice, almost unheard of at that time. Eilley had converted to Mormonism and married a bishop, only to find she would not be his only living wife. She obtained her first divorce and married another Mormon, Alex Cowan. Alex heeded Brigham Young’s call to return to Salt Lake City while Elliey remained in Nevada. After obtaining her second divorce, she moved to Gold Hill, where she owned and operated a boarding house.

In addition to providing shelter and sustenance to borders in Gold Hill, Eilley supplemented her income with telling fortunes and crystal ball-gazing. Eilley had a crystal ball shipped to her in 1858, some say by way of famous area resident Snowshoe Thompson. Growing up poor in Scotland, Eilley was said to have visions of her adult life and of living in a grand estate.

Lemuel Sanford “Sandy” Bowers

It was said that when one boarder was unable to pay his rent, he gave Eilley a ten-foot claim of the Lode. Another of Eilley’s tenants, Lemuel Sanford “Sandy” Bowers, owned the adjacent ten feet. The two combined their claims and lives and Eilley married for the third time. Unlike many who sold their mining rights, the couple retained their productive claims, making them among the first millionaires of the Comstock Era.

Bowers Mansion

Like many newly minted millionaires around Virginia City, they built an elaborate mansion to display their wealth. The structure was one of the most expensive in the western United States. Designed by California ex-governor J. Neeley Johnson, it was based on Eilley’s remembrances of homes in her native Scotland with Georgian and Italian architectural influences. The house cost $400,000, approximately $13 million in current terms.

These Comstock millionaires did not furnish their home from catalogs or even from stores in San Fransisco. Between 1862 and 1863, Eilley and Sandy took a year-long grand tour of Europe, purchasing furniture and decorations. In their travels, Eilley requested an audience with Queen Victoria but was shunned, likely due to her divorced status. It is said she took a clipping of ivy from Westminster Abby and transplanted it to her mansion.

As was sadly common for the time, the couple had lost two children during infancy. On June 28, 1860, John Jasper was born and died on August 27, 1860, age one month. Theresa Fortunatas was born on June 16, 1861, and died on September 17, 1861, at the age of three months. On the boat trip home from England, a woman died and was buried at sea after giving birth to a daughter. Eilley and Sandy took the opportunity and adopted the infant, naming her Persia after the ship.

On returning to Nevada, the couple learned their strike had played out. Samuel became ill and died of lung disease on April 21, 1868. Tragedy continued to plague Eilley and Persia died on July 14, 1874, at the age of twelve, likely from a ruptured appendix. To support her beloved home, Eilley opened the mansion as a resort and touted the health benefits of the waters found on the grounds. For a time, the estate was alive with vacationers, dances, music, and parties. Unfortunately, Eilley could not recover from the financial losses at the mine, and the mansion fell into disrepair.

The Famous Washoe Seeress

Elliey had credibility for her supernatural skills based on her fortune in the Comstock Lode and having predicted the 1875 fire in Virginia City. In need of income, Ellie re-created herself as “The Famous Washoe Seeress,” a scryer and fortune teller hosting seances and using her “Peep Stone.” As mines played out in Virginia City, those able to retain their fortunes moved to San Francisco. Eilley lost her home to foreclosure in 1886. The story is told that she killed her transplanted ivy by tearing it from the ground and pouring hot lye on it before she too headed to San Francisco. Establishing herself there, she was well known for her peep stone and seances into the 1880s, having many prominent clients.

Eilley began losing her hearing and was unable to understand her patron’s requests. Penniless, she moved back to Nevada and into a poor house. Eilley’s greatest fear was not being able to pay for her burial and she attempted to obtain reimbursement for monies Sandy had loaned Nevada to fund the Paiute Indian War, but the processing window had closed. As all those she had known had moved or died, she fell into obscurity and was viewed as a poor, eccentric fortune teller.

Nevada and California argued over who was responsible for Eilley’s care. In August, 1901, California was held responsible, and she was placed on a westbound train in Reno with $30. She arrived at King’s Daughters Home in Oakland, where she lived until her death on October 27. 1903. Her remains were cremated and returned to Nevada for burial alongside Sandy and Persia.

Hauntings at Bowers Mansion

Author’s note: It is not my intent to convince the reader to believe – or disbelieve – the stories that follow. These are merely some of the tales one hears in these parts.

Take them for what you will.

The mansion grounds

The first reporting of hauntings at Bower’s Mansion was in the 1800s when teens claimed to have seen a ghost. For over a century, witnesses describe a glowing green figure moving around the grounds late at night.

Living Room

Visitors in the mansion report seeing Ellie as an apparition or orb at the site of her popular seances and on the second floor. They describe experiencing cold spots, eerie mist, and unexplained voices.

“Peeping Stones”

Persia’s Suite

Children visiting Bower’s Mansion have reported seeing a girl playing in the living room and telling them she used to live in the mansion. Later on the tour, when they see the portrait of Persia, they recognized the child as Persia.

Music Rooms

Stairwell and Landing

Pool

Several reports of hauntings center around the Bower’s pool. Witnesses describe a “shadow” near the pool, believed to be a victim of drowning.

Some believe the natural hot springs are inhabited by “water babies”. Local Native American tribes believe water- babies, or water-baby spirits, inhabit springs and bodies of water. Water babies are believed to be malicious and responding to their cries can result in catastrophe or death.

Ghost Photography

Following the devastation of the Civil War, a new religious movement called Spiritualism arose. Spiritualism was founded on the tenent that the spirit, or discarnate human, remains on earth following their physical demise. Spirits are able to communicate with the living and provide spiritual guidance. Photographers produced images claiming to depict the deceased alongside their living loved one.

Since the death of her only remaining child, Persia, she has been almost crazed with grief, and some consider that it will take many months, if not years to efface from her memory the sad scenes through which it has been her lot to pass.

Gold Hill News, Juy 15, 1874

Embracing Spiritualism, Eilley commissioned a ghost photograph with the resulting image depicting a young child over her shoulder. Many believe ghost photography is a hoax, but Eilley believed the image to be an authentic portrait of her and Persia.

Cemetery at Bowers Mansion

Visitors who climb the path to the cemetery report strange happenings. Many report seeing ghostly apparitions and orbs. Some report technical issues with phones and cameras are including batteries dying. Electronics then resume working with no explanation.

Maybe Eilley is unhappy with the misspelling of her name on the headstone. Her great-great-great-grandnephew noticed the misspelling and missing “L” in Allison.

Does Eilley’s ghost haunt her beloved estate?

Eilley’s pride and joy in life were her family and her beautiful estate. She rose from destitution to great wealth and fell back into poverty, losing everything she held dear. Perhaps, she finally obtained some measure of peace when she returned to her loved ones and her opulent home now maintained forever as a county park.

Or perhaps, she still wanders the grounds in her grief. Unable to put to rest the many tragedies that befell her.

Eilley’s lost fortune led to her eviction from her beloved mansion in life. Perhaps not so now.

You be the judge.

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References

• Culture Trip: The Twisted Story Behind Nevada’s Bowers Mansion
• Haunted Places: Bowers Mansion
• Haunted West: Ghost walk at Bowers Mansion
• National Park Service: Bowers Mansion
• Native Languages: Native American Legends: Water-Babies
• Nevada State Library and Archives. Searching for “Sandy” Bowers
• Newton, Marilyn. Alkali Angels: Recording Nevada’s Historic Graveyards. Carmel Publishing Company, 2004. Page 174.
• Paher, Stanley.  Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Camps.  Nevada Publications, 1970.  Page 45.
• Paranormal Ghost Society: Bowers Mansion
• Time-Life Books. The Old West: The Miners. Time, Inc., 1976. Pages 162-165.
• Travel Nevada: Legendary Nevadans: Eilley Bowers of Washoe Valley
• Only in Your State: This Creepy Nevada Haunted House Road Trip Is Not For The Faint Of Heart
• Washoe County: Bowers Mansion
• Wikipedia: Spirit Photography

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