Hotel Alex Johnson

Alex Carlton Johnson, a vice president of the Chicago & North Western Railway, wanted a grand hotel to serve the tourists he expected the Black Hills to draw. Work began in October 1927 – a day before carving started on Mount Rushmore, as the hotel likes to point out – and the eight-storey Tudor Revival building opened on July 1, 1928. Its lobby was decorated with Lakota-inspired motifs, painted ceiling designs, carved figures and a chandelier made of war lances, a tribute, in Johnson’s vision, to the region’s Native heritage.

The Alex Johnson was for decades Rapid City’s tallest building and its social centre. It was sold to the Eppley chain in 1947 and run by Sheraton from 1956 to 1968 as the Sheraton-Johnson, the name that appears in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959), whose stars stayed here while filming at Mount Rushmore. Presidents and celebrities have signed its register, and a multimillion-dollar restoration began in 2016; it is now part of Hilton’s Curio Collection.

Over the years it has also become known as one of the most haunted hotels in South Dakota. The best-known story is that of a “Lady in White” seen on the eighth floor, especially near Room 812, where she is said to have died. Versions of the legend make her a bride, or a relative of the founder; the hotel’s general manager told KOTA-TV in 2021 that it is not known whether her death was a suicide or a killing, and no historical record of her has been published. Johnson himself, who lived in the hotel, is said to walk the halls he designed.

Rather than downplay the stories, the hotel collects them. Guests’ accounts fill books kept at the front desk, SyFy’s Ghost Hunters investigated in 2011, and the hotel has offered ghost packages with EMF meters for guests who want to stay in its most talked-about rooms. Staff say the presence, whoever it is, has always been gentle.

Staff and guests describe a woman in white on the eighth floor, figures glimpsed in mirrors, objects falling from shelves and cups sliding across desks, voices answering a knock on empty rooms, footsteps, and figures on the lobby mezzanine. Others say they have seen Alex Johnson himself.

The eighth floor and Room 812 in particular, the lobby mezzanine, and staff areas in the basement and engineering office.

The hotel appeared on Ghost Hunters in 2011, is a regular stop for Black Hills ghost tours and features in many lists of haunted hotels. Its role in North by Northwest and its Native-inspired lobby make it a draw for history and film fans as well.