OKAWVILLE, Ill. — During October, we’ve been checking out some of the most haunted places in and around St. Louis.
Our Sydney Stallworth is getting a look inside a hotel and mineral spa in Okawville with a reputation for mysterious happenings in and out of their world-famous waters.
“I mean, this place will take a skeptic and turn you into a believer,” Kendra Rennegarde, a waitress at the hotel, told 5 On Your Side.
Opened in 1867, the Original Springs Hotel has had thousands of people walk the halls. Some, maybe, never left.
“The ghosts really keep it interesting for us around here,” Rennegarde said.
For over a century and a half, it wasn’t just what was in the hotel that attracted guests from around the country, it was what flowed underneath it.
The hotel is famous for its mineral water. Owners said the spa is the only operational natural mineral spa left in Illinois.
We spoke with Mary Rennegarde, one of the owners of the Original Springs Hotel.
“A lot of people with arthritis and some of their other things, they come and they take the mineral baths to get some relief,” she said.
They said it has healing properties. And the appeal is what led to one of the hotel’s most famous ghostly legends.
“One of the spirits they say is the ‘Lady in White’ and they believe that is Mrs. Shearbaum,” Mary said.
Mrs. Shearbaum was a woman who claimed she gained the ability to walk again after bathing in the mineral water, convinced her husband to buy the hotel and ran it with her family. Mary said Mrs. Shearbaum’s son is also believed to be one of the spirits hanging around.
“Well, one of her sons who ran the hotel, he had some marital discord,” she said. “He was here by himself and I guess things just went wrong and he was here down the hallway here. And he shot himself.”
That’s where the haunted legend began.
There are reports of other deaths at the hotel. Some rumors are rooted in things more easily explained.
“There was Mr. Rogers who passed away in one of the hotel rooms on the third floor. He died of natural causes,” Mary said.
But the supernatural sightings are enough to turn the heads of the most stubborn skeptics.
Workers in the hotel have stories for days.
One evening in the bath house, Andrea Kellerman, who is now a cook at the hotel, said all the tubs were cleaned and closed for the night in their usual order.
Then, she said, “Whenever we walked in, I said ‘Do you hear water?’ She says yeah. I said, ‘That's weird.’”
Andrea said she saw one of the fossettes of a bath was somehow turned upside down and shooting water into the air. She said all of the fossettes were turned off before closing.
A scary sight from behind the bar is something one waitress will never forget.
“I was doing dishes just at the sink and it was literally like I could just see them walking down the hallway, and no one is there,” Kendra Rennegarde said.
She said that’s not the only place she’s had run-ins with spirits.
“I have seen somebody all dressed in black on the balcony around the pool. Again, no faces. But you can see it’s a human form,” Kendra said.
Mary said over a third of the guests who come to stay at the hotel to look into its paranormal reputation.
The owners told 5 On Your Side the property is up for sale. After over 30 years of ownership, the couple hopes to retire and spend more time with their grandkids.
They said they hope any interested buyer will love the hotel as much as they do.
Click here to learn more about the Original Springs Hotel.