Is a hundred year old tavern in Tracy haunted by a former owner?

The Banta Inn located in Tracy, California

Photo courtesy of Running Wolf Productions

About two hours north of Fresno is the town of Tracy. Though it was incorporated into a city in 1910, the city's history goes further back. In the late 1890's it was a small, but growing town, and a two story saloon was built. The first floor was the actual saloon and the upstairs acted as an inn of sorts. It was said the owner of the place was associated with Joaquin Murrieta and the saloon also acted as a gambling parlor where the upstairs inn doubled as a bordello. The inn was a popular stop on the stagecoach line and was also a known place for gold miners and panners to trade in their tired mules for a pair of fresh ones.

In 1937 tragedy struck as the Banta Inn nearly burned to the ground. No one knows what started the fire, but when it was finally put out the bodies of a mother and her child were found. Despite this tragedy the inn was quickly rebuilt, but this time as a one story general store. Given it's history, the owners decided to keep the original name of Banta Inn despite the fact there were no longer any rooms used as lodging.

Sometime in the 1960's the owner's daughter and her husband Ton decided to turn the general store back into a bar and restaurant. Tony's favorite place was behind the bar and he was known for stacking coins at the register and playing poker by himself when business was slow. One day in 1968, while tending bar, Tony had a heart attack and collapsed and died.

Even before Tony's death the Banta Inn was said to be haunted; the mother and child from the 1938 fire were said to have been seen around the Inn for years. Soon after Tony passed away workers would find money stacked by the bar's register even though it was locked and no one was in the room. Ashtrays and other times would be found in locations different than where they had been left. And sometimes the TV would change channels even though no one would touch the remote.

What are the reasons behind these hauntings? With Tony it seems that he is still at the bar where he was the most happiest. And it seems he still likes to make his presence known. But what of the mother and child, why do they haunt the Banta Inn? Witnesses have heard the voice of a child crying and as stated before both mother and child have been seen. Could these two not realize they are ghosts and are trying to reach out for help? Or is it just part of the incident replaying over and over like a video recording, fading as the years go by? One thing is for certain; the place is definitely haunted and is one of the more known spots in the country for having paranormal activity.

Last I checked the Inn was still open as a bar/restaurant and they are very open to their history, both regular and paranormal. Perhaps next time I head up that way I'll stop by for lunch or dinner and say hi to Tony.

UFO buzzed Tracy, California on March 26th 2010

At approx 8:00AM on the Friday of March 26th a strange object was captured on camera in the Tracy area of California as it headed towards an area known to be the Lawrence livermore Labs testing site or "site 300" as our friends refer to it as. The image was captured using a Canon Power shot SX10IS on a manual setting where the shutter speed can be adjusted on the fly. The camera was also set on rapid fire for multiple exposures.

We took these images ourselves while in route to the south bay area. As a former employee of the wind turbine company originally known as US Wind Power, this author has spent many hours looking out into the secret void in the Altamont hills known by all wind smiths as "Site 300". No matter when you gaze out into this classified area someone dressed in black was looking back through their binoculars. If you touched the perimeter fence in any way, even in areas of discretion, black vehicles would soon arrive on our location. OOPS. The images were the result of a spontaneous feeling to pull over and start taking pictures with "Site 300" in the background. We have heard by many investigative enthusiasts that many people experience a euphoric feeling just prior to and during a UFO event while in close proximity. We had that experience which encouraged those actions to whip out that camera and shoot like crazy. After the smoke cleared and a few hundred additional imaged had been recorded on our media we moved on down the road. It was not until after uploading the images that we noticed the strange flying object headed towards the place were we had once been employed ......while keeping a lid on our curiosity regarding our neighboring occupants. Perhaps this object was attracted to the mega watts produced by those wind turbines. Maybe this is a probe on its way home,..... back to the Lab. What ever it was we can assure you that we can do it again. If we all choose a day designated as "UFO capture day", where we all stop what we are doing at the very same time to take a few hundred pictures for 15 minutes the results would blow your mind. Can you imagine? A world wide event that would have profound validation, credibility and excitement. If Just 15 minutes could do that what do you think the rest of the day and night look like?

Link to the original story can be found here.

The pictures above can also be found with the original story. To be honest the object circled is too far away and too blurry to be anything conclusive. Still I'm interested in this reported Site 300. I think a day trip may be in order. Interested?