The Oregon Caves Chateau
Virtual Tour
Part 3 - Guest Rooms

June 6-8, 2004

by Jess Stryker

Click on any photo for a larger image.
Click here to jump down to the ghost stories.

The Chateau Oregon Caves, Furniture and Guest Rooms

The Monterey Furniture:

The Chateau at Oregon Caves is primarily furnished with antique Monterey Furniture, made by the Mason Furniture Company in Los Angeles, California. Most of the pieces are original furnishings placed in the Chateau when it opened in 1934, making this the more rare early period Monterey furniture. This is likely the world's largest collection of Monterey furniture in a single location. George ("Monterey George") Mason created the Monterey furniture line, which he manufactured from 1929 until 1944. The furniture is primarily made from kiln-dried Alder wood, and features an "Early California Spanish Revival" appearance. Unfortunately, this style is not really in keeping with the Alpine architecture of the Chateau. My guess is they probably chose it for the Chateau because it was readily available and reasonably priced.

A Monterey chair. Note the wrought iron fasteners on the legs.

 

Monterey dresser.

 

Most of the Monterey furniture uses wrought iron accents and fittings as Mr. Mason's factory also did wrought iron fabrication, so they could make everything in-house. Many of the pieces are hand painted prior to varnishing. Mr. Mason encouraged workers in his furniture factory to take pieces home with them and hand paint them on their own time. They then returned the furniture and he paid them for the additional art work. So the quality and quantity of art work varies greatly.

Small Monterey table.

 

Monterey table with built-in reading lamp.

 

Monterey furniture like these pieces are now collector's items and are in high demand. The furniture in the Chateau is owned by the National Park Service. Damaging or stealing it is a Federal crime, so if you visit the Chateau, treat it kindly. There are few places where you can have this kind of free access to look at, examine, and even touch such classic furniture!

Most authentic Monterey furniture is "branded" with this mark on the back or bottom of the piece. More Monterey furniture can be seen in the following room photos.

 

Each piece is inventoried. Yep, they spelled "Monterey" wrong on the ID tag. But my speeling and gramar ain't that good either, so I won't complain.

 

The Rooms:

The Chateau doubles as a museum due to it's historic structure and furniture. The management graciously operates it as such, all the rooms are left with the doors open if they are not occupied by a guest. This allows visitors to freely examine and admire the historic rooms and furniture. Hopefully visitors will respect this policy by not messing with or taking things from the rooms. Generally this policy is not advertised in order to not attract undesirable elements. I'm letting you in on this little secret here, because I assume if you have come this far on our tour you are interested in, and will respect, these irreplaceable works of art. Please don't misuse this information so this open-door policy can continue and others can also enjoy this resource!

1st Floor

Room 101. Walls and ceilings in all rooms are stained fiberboard. Most furniture is genuine Monterey.

 

Room 102.

 

Room 102.

 

Room 103.

 

Room 103.

 

If you are looking close at the photos you may have noticed that there are a couple of items that almost every hotel has that are missing from these rooms. Yep, there are no televisions or phones in the guest rooms at the Chateau. Staying at the Chateau is much the same today as it was back when it was built.

2nd Floor

Room 202.

 

Room 208.

 

Room 209.

 

Room 209.

 

Room 209.

 

Room 209.

 

Room 209.

 

Room 209.

 

Room 211.

 

Room 211.

 

Room 211.

 

Room 214. This was formerly the manager's apartment.

 

Room 214. The manager's apartment had a phone in the room.

 

3rd Floor/Attic Rooms:

Room 301.

 

Room 304.

 

Room 304.

 

Room 304.

 

Room 304.

 

Room 304.

 

Elizabeth's desk in room 310. (There's more about the resident ghost at the bottom of this page.)

 

Room 310.

 

Room 310 bath. The bath is so small that they put the sink in the room.

 

Room 310.

 

The rooms still have radiators for heat. Like most radiator heating systems they make noise as the pipes expand and contract. Ghosts?

 

Ghosts:

Like most old hotels, this one has ghost stories. The resident ghost at The Chateau is "Elizabeth". The story is that Elizabeth and her new husband were honeymooning at the then just-built Chateau. She caught him cheating on her with one of the chambermaids. From this point the story varies:

• The most common version is that the distraught Elizabeth leapt to her death from the window of her room. Room 310 is almost unanimously said to be the room she stayed in, although I have heard the story using room 210. (We stayed in 210 and didn't see Elizabeth or witness any of her pranks.) If it was room 310 she had to climb out onto the roof, since the window is in a shed dormer on the roof. A quick slide down the steep, slick, mossy roof shakes takes you from the window to a 6- floor drop down to the rocky creek bed below.
• Another variation on the story is that Elizabeth didn't jump out the window, she slit her wrist and died in the bathtub of room 310.
• Another variation has her hanging herself in the room, or possibly off the roof?
• There's more- yet another very detailed "fanciful" version where poor Elizabeth meets her end in yet another way: "Why Can't You Stay Dead?", By Richard Ramsey.

Room 310. With window open for effect.

 

So what does the ghost of Elizabeth do to disturb visitors? She apparently is not a friendly ghost, but not particularly harmful either. The story is that when someone stays in room 310, she leaves the room and wanders the hallways all night. She cries and moans, with the noise often coming from the 3rd floor linen closet, where she apparently likes to hide. She also is rumored to not like those who don't believe the stories about her. She'll make things fall on you if you bad-mouth her while visiting, even in other parts of the Chateau. Apparently she does not restrict herself to the 3rd floor. She reportedly has dropped stuff on the head of a particularly vocal non-believing employee on a couple of different occasions in the kitchen!

OK, now for the reality check. There are no official records of any deaths at the Chateau. It is likely that if a jilted bride did a swan dive from the Chateau roof, or slit her wrists, or whatever, it would have been noted in the local papers. Certainly the Chateau management might want to avoid negative publicity, but it's hard to keep a juicy story like that under wraps! It's especially difficult to not leave some official death notice. It's doubtful they just snuck out in the woods and buried her body without anyone missing her. But every old hotel needs a ghost story! That's part of the fun of old hotels.

Room 310. It's a long way down to the creek!

 

If ghosts aren't your style, maybe you could hike the area in the early morning or evening hours and look for Bigfoot. There's a recorded Bigfoot sighting in the vicinity of the Chateau!

Now let's take a look at the landscape of Oregon Caves Chateau!

Click Here to Continue the tour.

Index of Oregon Caves National Monument webpages:

References- Websites

Oregon Caves National Monument. The Official National Park Service website.
Architecture in the Parks- Oregon Caves Chateau An excellent historical piece on the Chateau by the Park Service.
Cultural Landscape Report This is an excellent, in-depth report on the historical buildings and landscape or Oregon Caves. Lots of historic photos. By Landscape Architects Cathy Gilbert and Marsha Tolon of the National Park Service.
Floor Plans of Chateau & Chalet Click on the link at left, then enter "Oregon Caves" into the search box. This will give you links to copies of the floor plans for the historic buildings at the Oregon Caves, as well as photos of the old guest cabins take prior to their removal. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Buildings Survey or Historic American Engineering Record. Chateau Accessibility and Safety Study Prepared by Architectural Resources Group, 2006. Primarily recommendations for repairs to the building, this document also contains a brief history with time line and a good description of current conditions of the Chateau. Note: large file size- 8.9 mb.

References- Books

Specific to Oregon Caves:
Domain of the Caveman: A Historic Resource Study of Oregon Caves National Monument: A Historic Resource Study of Oregon Caves National Monument Written by the Park Historian for Oregon Caves. If you're interested in the history of the Caves & Chateau I highly recommend this book. It is one of the books in my collection.
Awesome Caverns of Marble in the Oregon Caves National Monument: Documentary

Books on other NPS Rustic Buildings, & Landscape:
Patterns from the Golden Age of Rustic Design: Park and Recreation Structures from the 1930's. By Albert H. Good. Hundreds of descriptions, sketches, and historic photos of classic park structures, from fire pits to lodges and everything in between!
Great Lodges of the National Parks: The Companion Book to the PBS Television Series. By Christine Barnes. Excellent coffee table book with gorgeous photos.
Dining at Great American Lodges: Recipes From Legendary Lodges, National Park Lore, Landscape Art, Music by the Big Sky Ensemble. By Sharon O'Connor. Recipes for famous dishes from the lodges, photos of food, and photos of the lodges. Includes a CD of traditional American songs.

Help!

If you notice any errors on this page, or have additional information you would like to share, please let us know. Write to Jess at the email address below. If reporting an error it really helps if you can be as specific as possible, and if possible, please give us the name of the page with the error.

Know of a historic hotel or lodge we should include?

We are looking for historic hotels and lodges to add to this website. If you know of one that you think we should tour and review, please let us know. We're particularly interested in hotels in States we haven't visited: AR, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, KS, MD, MN, MO, NE, NJ, OH, OK, SC. If you own or manage a historic hotel this is free advertising! Contact Jess Stryker at the email address above.

Historic Hotels & Lodges