Afraid of Clowns? Don't Visit This Nevada Motel

Sure, there are a variety of purportedly haunted hotels available to book this Halloween. But if you’re looking for an extra-special getaway for your favorite coulrophobe, consider the Clown Motel, located in an otherwise fairly barren stretch of the Nevada desert. 

The motel—conveniently located next to a century-old miners’ graveyard—features more than 600 clowns in the office alone. Many of the walls are covered in clown posters, and various surfaces are bedecked in clown toys. Clowns even grace the front of each door.

Atlas Obscura recently created a video about the wonders and terrors of the Clown Motel, and they spoke to comic book writer and journalist Christopher Sebela, who is currently living at the motel (and tweeting about it here).  “Every day is a new adventure," he told Atlas Obscura. For what it’s worth, Sebela says he’s seen no sign of ghosts.

Clowns, of course, aren’t terrifying to everyone. As Atlas Obscura notes, the shadows around their cultural associations owe something to Charles Dickens, who edited the memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, the great-grandfather of the modern clown—and in the process made Grimaldi’s already unhappy life even darker. Clowns seem to have enjoyed a relatively positive public image during the mid-20th century, at least until the various clown horror movies of the 1980s came along. It’s been more or less downhill since then, despite the concerted efforts of American and international clowning associations. The Clown Motel seems to be trying to keep the joyful associations around clowning alive—and you can judge how well they're doing by watching the video above.