Ghost Hunters & High Stakes: Inside the Canfield Casino with Charlie Kuenzel
Jul 11, 2025
The Saratoga Springs History Museum, housed in the legendary Canfield Casino, was recently featured on Discover Saratoga’s “Destination Saratoga: All Access” podcast in an episode titled “Saratoga Springs History Museum: Ghost Hunters & High Stakes with Charlie Kuenzel.” We’re grateful to Discover Saratoga for spotlighting the museum—and for helping share the many layers of Saratoga Springs history with locals and visitors alike.
In the episode, Program Director (and past Board President) Charlie Kuenzel sits down for a wide-ranging conversation that moves effortlessly between Saratoga’s dazzling Gilded Age glamour and the eerie stories that have made the Canfield Casino a nationally recognized haunted landmark.
A window into Saratoga’s Gilded Age
Charlie paints a vivid picture of Saratoga Springs as a booming 19th-century destination—one that became a magnet for wealth, culture, and high society. He explains how the city’s grand hotels didn’t just host visitors; they defined the Saratoga experience with music, dining, entertainment, and a full “all-in” social scene that helped shape American vacation culture itself.
The conversation then returns to the room the museum is in today: the Canfield Casino’s former high stakes gambling room, where select players once wagered sums that translate into staggering amounts by modern standards. It’s a reminder that this building isn’t just a museum setting—it’s a historic artifact of Saratoga’s past.
The museum today: preserving Saratoga’s story
Charlie also highlights how the museum continues to preserve, refine, and share Saratoga’s identity—from signature exhibits on mineral springs and historic hotels to women’s suffrage and Indigenous history developed in collaboration with tribal partners. He emphasizes the museum’s role as a living storyteller: protecting artifacts, updating research, and engaging visitors through tours and programs that connect the past to the present.
Ghost Hunters—and the stories that followed
The episode also explores the darker, more mysterious side of the Canfield Casino—especially the moment that changed everything: the museum’s decision to reach out to Ghost Hunters after staff and board members began sharing a growing list of unexplained experiences. In a twist worthy of television, Charlie describes submitting the request and receiving a response almost immediately—launching national attention and sparking a steady public demand for haunted history programming.
Today, those stories live on through the museum’s popular ghost tours—approached with a “history-first” mindset that keeps the experience thoughtful, grounded, and unforgettable.
Thank you, Discover Saratoga!
A sincere thank-you to Discover Saratoga for visiting the museum, capturing Charlie’s storytelling, and giving audiences a fun, engaging look at what makes the Canfield Casino such an iconic Saratoga landmark. We also appreciate the episode’s support from Julie & Co Realty, helping make local storytelling like this possible.