The Shining

1911

June 25, 1911

The Overlook Hotel was a beautiful place to work, and the most famous resort in Colorado. It was known to be one of the very few hotels in the entire world to be completely powered by modern electricity and running water. The notorious hotel was complete with 110 guest rooms, multiple storage rooms, a sprawling kitchen, a massive pantry, a large freezer, a beautiful ballroom, an impressive lounge, and even a dining room. It was almost perfect.

However, the luxurious hotel was built on an ancient burial ground. Chosen for the serenity of the nature surrounding the site, construction began in 1907 and was completed in 1909. The hotel was named The Overlook, literally meaning the failure to notice something. Native Americans attempted to stop construction, but were unfortunately unsuccessful. The hotel was built from their bloodshed. If only the builders knew what they were stirring up, they would have left the grounds alone.

The hotel was built by Robert Townley Watson, who was plagued with tragedy. One of his two sons died in an unfortunate riding accident on the property. Then, his adoring wife died of the flu. That was just the beginning of the hotels long and complicated history of violence and questionable deaths. Watson eventually died in the hotel as well by accidentally plugging his finger into an unstable electrical socket.

Despite being one of the most famous hotels and the top choice for Hollywood's biggest movie stars, the property was so isolated, an auxiliary gas lighting system was installed to provide electricity to the entire hotel. Modernizing it to become the hotel of tomorrow.

In 1911, room 217 was the Presidential Suite of the Overlook. On the evening of June 25, a powerful storm all cut the power to the hotel. While the disturbed guests were waiting in the lobby, the staff were instructed to light the acetylene gas-lamps in the rooms that acted as a back up for light.

Ms. Elizabeth Wilson was a chambermaid, and had been working at the hotel since it first opened. She was unaware of a gas leak, so she entered the room with a lit candle. In 1911, gas was odorless and undetectable. As soon as she entered the room, there was an instant explosion. The force of the explosion sent Elizabeth crashing through the floor and into the MacGregor Dining Room located directly under Room 217.

The massive blast destroyed it's entire west wing and blew out the front of the hotel. The compression explosion put out its own fire, otherwise the hotel built from wood with a timber-frame structure would have burned straight to the ground, where it belonged.

Elizabeth survived the explosion, but broke both of her ankles. The explosion injured eight guests. Fortunately, everyone survived even though part of the hotel was destroyed.

The Overlook was quickly fixed, and the manager tried desperately to keep the entire situation quiet from the press. They also had to replace the boiler down in the basement. Ever since that day, the boiler valve has to be released a few times every day to avoid another explosion.

The hotel never had a dull year. Elizabeth stayed working there until the 1950's where almost forty years to the day of the explosion, Elizabeth unfortunately died of a heart attack.

In room 217.