The Femme Fatale of Rosario Resort
Orcas Island, Washington
From the book "Ghost Stories of the Pacific Northwest" by Margaret Read McDonald
Rosario Resort on Orcas Island occupies the former mansion of Robert Moran. In 1939 the mansion changed owners and a flamboyant lady by the name of Alice Rheem took residence. Rumour has it that her husband bought the remote property as a useful place to ensconce Alice and her drinking habit. She became a familiar figure on the island, riding around on a motor scooter, often after one drink too many, sometimes dressed only in her red nightgown. And she was known to have a proclivity for handsome young soldiers, bringing them back to the mansion whenever her husband was away. Alice eventually died in the mansion, supposedly a victim of too much drink. But she seems not to have left quite yet.
In 1986 Alice was causing havoc. A tired housekeeping employee bedded down in an empty room in the mansion one night rather than drive home. Just as she was dropping off to sleep, she noticed a shadow pass across the wall. Turning on the light, she saw nothing. But the shadow moved again and something touched her hand. She waited and seeing nothing was about to trun off the light and go back to bed when she felt fingers caressing her hand. The girl bolted from the hotel, tossing the key to the desk clerk. "There's something in that room!" He shrugged, put the key back on the hook, and noticed that it was midnight.
As it happened, a trio of entertainers had been staying in the room next to her that night. They complained as they dropped off their key in the morning. "How long will that woman be staying next to us?" The desk clerk assured them that she had already left at midnight, the night before. But the entertainers had been kept awake all night, they said, by her carousing. Just before midnight they'd seen the light under the door go on and off three times. then the bed began to creak and the moans of passionate lovemaking started up. they were kept awake all night. The key to the room still hung on its hook and the desk clerk hadn't given it to anyone else. The hotel staff suspect that Alice was at work.
Go to Rosario Resort Web Site
I worked at Rosario the summers of 1970-74 on the front desk. Norris Woods was related to Gil Geiser and the Dahl's (part owners), and was a rough speaking maintenance worker. One day he and I were moving a very heavy, old coffee table in the Moran Room. He was cursing the table, and the mansion in general. His grip slipped on the table, and he fell to the side in the midst of the grumbling. One of the heavy ceiling half sphere light fixtures suddenly fell and shattered where he had been standing--falling about 6 feet horizontally as well! The bath on the 3rd floor used to mysteriously fill and overflow all the time too. We all know the place was haunted. Dean Strong, Snohomish
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