My Adventures at Zak Bagan's Haunted Museum

Chapter 3-The Oddities Room

Chapter 3 The Oddities Room

I couldn't believe it. I'd actually seen Zak come through and say "Hi", and got a picture. And I haven't even started the tour yet. The tour guide came in from the front door to the lobby, and I tried to concentrate on what she said. Rules were uttered. No pictures, video, recordings, food, or water while on the tour, and of course, no paranormal investigating equipment. The usual. But then she added, if you see Zak on the tour, please respect him and don't take pictures while in the museum.

I thought that was strange, since we'd just seen him and we were able to get one picture. But then, that was in the lobby, and we were allowed to take pictures in there. Then, it was off, and back through the lobby door to the outside. The tour guide had us stop as we stood in the front by the bay windows. She talked about the history of the mansion, built in the 1938 by Cyril S. Wengert, a well-known businessman in the Las Vegas area. He worked in banking and later for the Southern Nevada Power and Telephone Company. He was a civic leader in the area, and died in 1965.

After his death, the property was sold and turned into Law Offices and home to the Nevada State Bar. However, it was rumored that satanic rituals happened in the basement when it was abandoned and before it was turned into law offices. With that last bit of detail told to us, the tour guide whisked us over to the side of the house that was the original front door. The address numbers were still attached to the side of the house.

She asked for a brave soul to knock on the door. I, of course, volunteered. I went up and knocked. Nothing. Our guide chuckled, and got out some keys to open the door. She put one in the lock, and opened it for us, and we all filed in. We entered a room which was the original living room. Now, it was packed with shelves full of "oddities". Things that you would see at a carnival sideshow were on display. A strange two headed stuffed sheep, old dolls, skulls in a large roller shelf as if they were on display for sale, an old "Laughing Sally", and at the end of the room, a Fortune Telling machine with a likeness of Zak Bagan's as the fortune teller inside.

The tour guide stepped to the front near the machine, and we filed in to look towards her. "Is there anyone afraid of dolls?" A girl near me raised her hand. "You're perfect then, to be chosen to go into the doll room." Some of the people near me let out an "Ohhh". 

"What's with that?" One of the girls near me said, "Some of Zak's most haunted dolls are in that room. He only recently started allowing people to go in there."

The girl was allowed to pick someone to go with her. I smiled, and she chose me. I grabbed her hand and said, "Don't worry. It can't be that scary." We walked in together, and I thought it would be best to be nice to the dolls, especially if they were haunted. I started talking to them. "Hey, it's nice to be here. Glad that I finally got to meet you all." At that point, I heard a raspy scream and looked down. A little person, that was dressed up to look like a doll, jumped out at us. I screamed, and so did the girl next to me and laughed. "You got me," I said to the actress that looked doll-like. "You got me good."

We came out of the doll room not scared, but smiling. Guess the haunted museum was only haunted by paid actors. Next, the person with the fastest dollar bill got to put it into the fortuneteller and we all heard a recording of Zak tell us about the Haunted Museum. It even spit out a little card describing one of the displays in the museum, and we had to guess it.

With that, we got to look around at some more of the oddities, the tour guide answering questions before we were whisked into the next room. Before I left, some of the spooky dolls caught my eye, especially one named Lilly. I kept thinking I was hearing her saying, "Will you be my Mama?" I kept saying "No" to her in my head. You never know if it's true or not. But somehow, I kept thinking being her "Mama" would be a bad idea.

After our chance to look around, we headed through the door and down the hall to the next room, the Gambling Room.