A Park City ghost: Hope Daisy Fuelling lives on in Flanagan’s

Park City is full of history, and inevitably, ghosts. Have you heard of the Flanagan's ghost, Hope Daisy? Photo: Flanagan’s On Main.

PARK CITY, Utah — From the Man in the Yellow Slicker to the Widow’s Walk, Park City history makes for great ghost stories and folklore. No one knows that side of Park City quite like Erik Hutchins, chief investigator for Park City Ghost Tours. Hutchins shares the tale of Parkite Hope Daisy Fuelling’s untimely end and enduring spirit.

In 1892, Hope was a regular 17-year-old girl, perhaps a bit of a flirt. She lived in what is now Flanagan’s On Main and what was then a bakery and confectionary with her family.

Fuelling had a sweetheart named Lewis Paradise. However, Fuelling’s family, and uncle Patsy Trotman in particular, disapproved of Paradise. Trotman was rumored to be harboring feelings for his niece. Trotman confronted Paradise, forbidding him from seeing Fuelling.

Paradise had prearranged plans with Hope to go on a stroll along the train tracks and didn’t plan to break them.

Trotman followed the couple and flew into a murderous rage upon seeing Paradise sling his arm around his darling. Trotman shot his niece, and she died. It is assumed in the telling and retellings of the story that Trotman was aiming for Paradise but grievously missed.

It’s said that if a loving couple with arms around one another walks by the Flanagan’s On Main windows, a third figure will appear in the reflection, following along, remembering when she and her sweetheart walked together in harmony all those years ago.

“There are times that glasses will break out of nowhere, lights will just come off and on, and we’re always like, ‘oh my gosh, Daisy’s here.’ You can feel her presence,” said Flanagan’s On Main manager Ivonne Timar.

In past years, Timar said Flanagan’s has hired mediums to come into the historic building and read the space. She said they all said the same thing. Timar noted,  “[the medium] said that there is definitely a playful female that lives here. And then there is a strong male presence; we think it’s the uncle.”

Another time, a patron of the restaurant went out of their way to tell Timar about the spirit that resides in Flanagan’s.

Timar has experienced lights flickering, glasses breaking, and what she thought was a coworker calling for her.

“I felt her upstairs for sure. Upstairs and someone was calling my name, and I thought it was a bartender downstairs. I went downstairs, ‘did you call me upstairs? Were you upstairs?’ and she’s like, ‘no, I didn’t call you.’ So, I felt something, and many of our coworkers have too.”

There have even been patrons in the restaurant that let the staff know there is a spirit lingering.

“That’s our Hope. That’s our Daisy,” Timar said.