Oct. 16–This being the season for spooky doings, USA Today's 10Best Readers Choice Awards just released a list of the nation's 10 most haunted historic hotels — and it's topped by a Nevada hotel with California wine country connections.

Built in 1907 at the height of Nevada's silver rush, the luxurious Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah has hosted prospectors, politicos, celebrities and, it seems, spirited ghosts who roam the halls, move objects about, and open and close the old elevator doors. Legends swirl around sightings of a Lady in Red, who was murdered by a jealous ex-boyfriend or husband, depending on the tale.

The Mizpah closed its doors in 1999 and sat empty for the next decade, until Fred and Nancy Cline, of Sonoma's Cline Cellars and Jacuzzi Family Vineyards, bought the property and began renovations. The hotel reopened in 2011.

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Why Tonopah? Nancy's family has deep ties to the town, which lies halfway between Las Vegas and Reno in Central Nevada. Her family was among the town's first settlers, and the Clines continue to spend time here. In addition to re-opening the Mtzpah Hotel, they opened the Tonopah Brewing Company in 2014, and their restoration of the town's 1906 Nevada State Bank and Trust Building should be completed next year, when it re-opens as the Belvada Hotel.

"The Mizpah Hotel was a work of passion," Nancy says, "and serves to honor so many who came before and sacrificed so much."

Find out more about the Mizpah Hotel at www.themizpahhotel.com, and more about the 10 haunted historic hotels on the 10Best list at www.10best.com. Meanwhile, here's a quick peek.

1. Mizpah Hotel, Tonopah, Nevada

2. 1886 Crescent Hotel, Eureka Springs, Arkansas

3. Myrtles Plantation, St. Francisville, Louisiana

4. Bourbon Orleans Hotel, New Orleans

5. Hotel Sorrento, Seattle

6. Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado

7. Black Bass Hotel, Lumberville, Pennsylvania

8. Sagamore Resort, Lake George, New York

9. La Fonda on the Plaza, Santa Fe

10. Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans

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