The history of Shafter's Green Hotel and its ghosts.

The Green Hotel, located in Shafter, California, has a rich history dating back to the early 1900s. Originally known as the Shafter Hotel, the building was constructed in 1913 and served as a popular stopover point for travelers along the Southern Pacific Railroad. The hotel was later purchased by the Green family in 1945, who renamed it the Green Hotel and operated it as a family-owned business for over half a century. 

During its heyday, the Green Hotel was a hub of activity in the small town of Shafter. The hotel's bar and restaurant were popular gathering spots for locals and visitors alike, and the hotel's 32 rooms were almost always occupied. In the 1950s, the hotel even played host to famous guests such as Clark Gable and Carol Lombard, who were traveling through the area. 

Today, the Green Hotel still stands as a testament to Shafter's rich history. Although the hotel is no longer operational, the building has been beautifully restored and now serves as a popular venue for weddings, events, and photo shoots. The hotel's unique architecture and vintage charm continue to draw visitors from all over California and beyond, and the Green Hotel remains an important landmark in the town of Shafter.

Along with its rich history, the Green Hotel in Shafter, California is also rumored to be haunted. There have been several reports of strange occurrences and apparitions within the hotel's walls. Some guests have reported feeling a cold presence or hearing unexplained noises, while others have claimed to have seen the ghostly figure of a woman dressed in white roaming the halls. 

Legend has it that the woman in white is the ghost of a former guest who died under mysterious circumstances at the hotel. Others believe that the hotel's bar is haunted by the ghost of a man who was killed in a fight many years ago. Despite these eerie tales, however, the Green Hotel remains a popular destination for those seeking a glimpse into the history of Shafter, and many visitors still flock to the hotel in hopes of experiencing a supernatural encounter.

Is Disney California Adventures haunted by the ghost of a little girl?

The entrance to Disney California Adventures. - Photo taken by me Oct. 2012

Most of you that know me personally know of how great my love/obsession with Disneyland is. Since 2012 I have been there multiple times. I even wrote something on the ghosts of Disneyland which I really need to revisit sometime soon. So imagine my surprise when I was told of a new story, this time across from the original park at Disney's California Adventures. 

@thedavidvaughn

Reply to @el_gorio #greenscreen how are we all seeing the same Disneyland ghost girl FOR REAL???

♬ original sound - David - Disneyland Tips

My friend Michele shared with me the above Tik Tok video of someone claiming that multiple people have unknowingly seen the ghost of a little girl at California Adventure. He had stated in an earlier video that he was at the lockers as you first enter the park and saw a little girl out of the corner of his eyes. Turning to look she suddenly wasn't there. He was accompanied by his sister and she had the same experience. Current and former cast members started to comment they had seen her too, one former member who used to work one of the candy stores in DCA even told a story on how he was working late one night and on his walkie talkie he could hear security calling out a little girl being seen in different parts in the park and could even be seen on camera. 

@thedavidvaughn

##duet with @cheify9 The Disneyland ghost girl spotted by security in California Adventure ##disneyland ##ghosts

♬ original sound - Anthony Reyes32313

So multiple have claimed to see this little girl in different parks at different times and even when the park is closed, but is this really a ghost and if so where is there any data to back this up? Doing a bit of digging on the Disneyland forums I found a post from someone that a little girl was killed in the old Disneyland parking lot some time in 1985. If true this would make sense as Disney's California Adventure was built over the old parking lot. Doing a quick Google search I was able to find out that this story was indeed true and that sadly around September 15 1985 a seven year old girl was crushed by a tour bus from Santa Barbara. Apparently she was trying to cross the lot with a relative and somehow fell into the side of the bus. Sadly the poor thing was ran over by the rear wheels of the bus and was killed. The link to the original article can be found here.

So now we have a confirmed death and numerous sightings of a little girl wandering the park by multiple witnesses. This has me wondering, does she not know she is dead and in a state of confusion is looking for the relative that was with her when she died? Or does she know that she is and instead wanders the park, eternally enjoying the place as a little kid? One thing is for sure is that numerous people have seen her and Disneyland may not just be the happiest place on earth but one of the most haunted.

Also you can find me here on Tik Tok. I'm trying to add old videos and will be posting some new ones as well.

Former keepers are said to haunt Monterey Lighthouse

Being President's Day weekend and needing to get out of Fresno for a bit, I decided to head to Monterrey for the day and go to a favorite place  there called The Crown and Anchor.

Don't get me wrong the place is fantastic, but I can't justify driving two and a half hours there and back just for some food so I began to search for something to do besides the typical “go to the aquarium and Cannery Row” trip. While searching for haunted places  I haven’t been to yet (because that’s how I am) I came across Point Pinos Lighthouse in nearby Pacific Grove. Perfect. A plan was formed

Leaving on a dreary and rainy Saturday (perfect lighthouse visiting weather if you ask me), and made it to Pacific Grove a little past 1:00 pm. The rain had stopped but it was still cloudy and the surf below was active with rather large waves, indicative of the next storm that was coming. I walked up to the light house marveling at the view it had.

The lighthouse itself was small but cozy. And I soon found out it was still in operation and was the oldest operating lighthouse on the Pacific Cost. Walking inside I was met by a pleasant docent and she began to tell the history of the place.

Built between 1853-1854 the Point Pinos Lighthouse was one of eight commissioned by Congress to be built on the West Coast. Charles Layton was the first keeper and arrived with his wife Charlotte, and family in 1854 and watched over the house until the lens for the lighthouse was installed and lit on February 1, 1855. Sadly his tenure as keeper would last less than a year. While part of a posse searching for local outlaw Anastasio Garcia, Charles was shot in the stomach and a few days later he succumbed to his wounds.

Without a lighthouse keeper, the people of Monterey suggested that Charlotte be made keeper as she was familiar with the upkeep of the lighthouse, plus she had her children who she needed to take care of. In the first part of 1856 she was appointed keeper of the lighthouse and became the first woman keeper on the west coast.

Charlotte wasn’t the only female keeper in the history of the lighthouse. In 1893 Emily Fish became its keeper. She was recently widowed and her son-in-law was able to get her the position at the lighthouse. For over twenty years she took care of the lighthouse and added to its grounds by bringing in soil so she could add landscaping such as trees, hedges and bushes, and grass to its sandy locale. It was said the 92 acre station had cows, horses, and chickens roaming it by the time she was done. Finally in 1914, and her health failing, Emily had to retire as keeper, ending one of the longest tenures there.

Over the years Point Pinos Lighthouse had thirteen keepers from 1855 until 1964 when the US Coast Guard took over. Today the city owns the property with the Coast Guard tasked with upkeep of the light itself. Everything is automated but it seems that some of the former keepers still like to tend to things there.

Charles Layton’s ghost has been said to have been seen wandering the area where the light is kept on the third floor, tending the light or polishing the windows of the copula as well as doors seemingly open and close on their own.

Emily Fish is also said to haunt the lighthouse and it seems she is seen more throughout the house. She has been spotted wandering the second floor of the house, specifically where her bedroom used to be as items wind up missing or are misplaced. Others have heard the swishing of skirts going by them as they catch a scent of the perfume Emily would wear.

 As I mentioned I had discovered that the lighthouse was rumored to be haunted by both Charles and Emily. After exploring for a bit I found one of the docents and asked if there was any truth to this. Figuring I would get the reaction I get here at home of “There are no ghosts here, please stop asking.” I was a bit surprised at her reaction. She said she hadn’t seen anything or heard of anything but admitted that she didn’t believe in ghosts anyways and that if there was something there she wouldn’t see it. Still we talked for a good fifteen minutes about Emily and all the things she had done for the lighthouse when I heard a grumbling sound.

No it wasn’t a ghost, it was my stomach telling me it was time to go eat lunch. I thanked the docent for the talk and she said that one of the other docents would know more but was out to lunch and I should stop back by some time. After a quick stop to the gift shop where I picked up two new ghost books on Monterey and then headed to the Crown and Anchor for lunch. Which I recommend to anyone who visits Monterey, the food is fantastic and the atmosphere fun. And try the sticky toffee pudding. It’s life changing.

Is the Point Pinos Lighthouse haunted? It’s hard to say. I was there for maybe an hour and talked to one person who worked there. She was surprised by the stories but they had to have come from somewhere. The author who wrote the two local books I bought didn’t mention the lighthouse in either, but I still plan on contacting him. Perhaps when he wrote the books he wasn’t aware of the stories. I really wish I had a chance to talk to the docent that was out to lunch and see what she thought and knew. I guess that warrants a second trip back to Monterey. And not just for sticky toffee pudding.

I took more photos but didn't want to post them all here so I saved them to this album if anyone wants to see.

Phantom figure said to wander back roads of Madera

There is a story of a wandering phantom that is seen along the country roads outside of Madera. The location isn’t exact but most accounts have seen the spirit somewhere in between Ave 15 and Ave 18 1/2.

The first recorded sighting happened in January of 2010 when a witness and her husband were driving home to Clovis from Madera on Avenue 15. They were driving down the country road when the witness suddenly saw a man walking down the middle of the road and had to quickly swerve to avoid hitting him. The man seemed oblivious to almost being hit despite the fact that the car was going almost 60 miles per hour. The witness described the figure as Caucasian, in his early twenties, wearing a dark sweatshirt with a hood and blue jeans. After they passed him they hit a thick patch of fog and the man was nowhere to be seen. The witness notes that her husband didn’t see the man at all despite looking in the same direction as she and he was surprised by her sudden swerving of the car. Ever since that night the witness has refused to drive down that stretch of road when going home.

An incident occurred late winter of 2013, this time on Avenue 18. This witness was driving home around 3:00 am and it was somewhat foggy. They were driving down the road when out of nowhere a man wearing blue jeans and a hoodie was seen in the middle of the road. The witness swerved to avoid him and noticed that he didn’t even try to get out of the way, which she thought was odd. When this occurred they didn’t think much of it as they never saw anyone on that road before that late at night. It was only upon hearing that other people had seen the same figure in the area that they thought this wasn’t a normal person.

Another account involves two witnesses who were driving down Avenue 18 1/2 around 1:30am. As they were passing a church a young male, Caucasian and wearing blue jeans and a hoodie suddenly appeared about five feet in front of them. He was standing on the dividing line of the road and the driver missed him by inches as they swerved to avoid him. Despite being so close to him they were unable to see his face. As they drove past him, she looked back and he was no longer there.

There are more accounts like this with the same description of the man, late teens to early twenties, Caucasian and wearing blue jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. Some witnesses have also said he was wearing white tennis shoes, but this varies. Another common theme is how the man is oblivious to the oncoming car and is described usually as looking down. Also most of the incidents happened late at night and it seems all the witnesses are females.

So here’s the question. Who is he? Conjecture (which I’m great at) has me wondering if some young man was walking down one of these roads late one night and wasn’t paying attention (like he was looking down) and didn’t see the oncoming car and was hit and killed. Perhaps the person who hit him was a woman and this is why he seems to only appear to them. It’s hard to say without researching more, which I will be doing. But it does seem that some poor soul is doomed to wander the country roads outside of Madera.

Revisiting the ghosts of Roosevelt High School

It occurred to me the other day that I have been doing Weird Fresno for over seven years now and in that time I have written hundreds of stories about the weird and unusual in the Fresno area. Looking back at some of the early stories made me want to revisit them and share them with anyone new to the site. Looking through some I did in the first year I came across one of my favorite (and most popular stories). The ghosts of Roosevelt High School.

When I first wrote about Roosevelt High I had only heard of two locations that were haunted, the boys restroom in the East Hall and the school’s auditorium. Since I’ve written that article I’ve received nearly forty comments (as I write this) of people who have witnessed things in these locations as well as others I didn’t know about at the time. Now if these stories are true or not, it’s not my place to say. I’m just here to share what I’ve heard and add to the legend of Roosevelt High.

East Hall at Roosevelt High School - photo courtesy of Historic Fresno

With the boys restroom in the East Hall no one knows who it really is but it’s been rumored for years that it is the ghost of a student who committed suicide there. I’ve looked for any news article to add some validity to this but have been unable to find anything to substantiate it. That being said something has been felt there over the years and the stories cannot be discounted. One night a janitor was working late and heard coughing coming from the restroom. Thinking it was a student who had somehow snuck in and was hiding, he went to investigate the noise. Upon entering the bathroom it was completely empty and there was no way that anyone could have left it without him seeing them exit the restroom from where he standing in the hallway that he was cleaning.

For a while the restroom was closed and used for storage but was finally reopened in the 2007-2008 school year. Cold chills are sometimes felt when the door is opened even though the air is warmer everywhere else. Many students said they have felt a presence in the area and some have even heard noises as if someone was in there with them even though they were all alone.

Some of the other stories talk about how a girl supposedly jumped from the bell tower to her death and haunts the location to this day. Other stories say that she hung herself there. If either are true it’s hard to say. Another story was told to me by a student that heard from the kitchen staff that a spirit supposedly haunts the kitchen area but nothing specific was really said to them.

As I said, whether there is any truth to the above stories it’s hard to say. But the next one does have itself grounded in a true story, albeit a sad one.

Roosevelt High School Auditorium - photo courtesy of Historic Fresno

The school’s auditorium is said to be haunted by a student who was performing on stage, collapsed due to a heart attack and died. The spirit was called “Lester” and was said to roam the auditorium and sometimes play pranks on people by letting his presence be known. That was all I had heard and from the comments it seemed there was nothing more to the story. That changed a few months after I wrote the original article when a cousin of Lester’s, or Leslie as he was actually known as, contacted me to tell me the story was true.

It was October 10, 1960 and Leslie Chambers was six days away from his sixteenth birthday. It was a school assembly day and Leslie was performing a cheer on the stage of the auditorium in front of all the assembled students and faculty when he collapsed mid-performance and died on the spot. The doctors later found out he had a congenital heart defect and that was what led to his death. The school was obviously grief stricken and a memorial was quickly formed near one of the trees where Leslie and his girlfriend shared lunch each day.

It was a sad story to say the least and his cousin had contacted me so Leslie's story could be shared. I found interesting in that right after I posted that story I received some comments saying that the students in the auditorium still remember “Lester” and never forgot about him and they still consider him one of their own. One student said they were told by faculty that things would always wind up missing and they said he supposedly played pranks on students (the commentor doubted this as they felt the teacher was just messing with them but still wanted to share it). But what was said next brought a smile to my face (and maybe a tear to my eye). The students have always included him in every production done there since his death by listing his name in the cast/crew sign in sheet and it is a tradition that has been passed down over the years from student to student, class to class. Seems Leslie Chambers memory continues on, even over fifty years later.

Leslie Chambers
October 16, 1944 - October 10, 1960

As I post this it will be October 13, 2015, three days before Leslie would have turned 71. I hope someone from Roosevelt sees this before Friday October 16 and gets the word out to the RSA at Roosevelt and they wish Leslie a happy birthday. I know it would make him happy.

Does the ghost of a murdered girl haunt an oak tree near Sanger?

A reader shared this with me last week about a weird encounter that happened to his cousin outside of Sanger late one night. This is what he sent me:

"Alright so here's a true story that happened to my cousin. He's about 14 years older than me, I'm 35. This happened to him in the early 90's. He was going to college and was working graveyard part time at one of those convenient gas stations that's open 24 hours. He lives in Parlier but he used to work that job in Sanger. This happened one night in the winter. He got off around 1 in the morning and he would take Newmark to get from Sanger to Parlier. He was driving and it was foggy so he was going slow. He was going down Newmark when he sees what looks like a young girl walking down the side of the road. My cousin is genuinely a good guy, a good Samaritan type. He pulls over and lowers the window and asks "hey did you need a ride" the girl keeps walking and doesn't even turn around. He tries one last time, and he asks again "are you okay, do you need a ride." He said he turned the light on in his car for whatever reason, but after he asked that 2nd time, she poked her head in the car and repeated verbatim what he asked her. He said she had the ugliest face ever, like someone over did it or got crazy with black make up. After she spoke she started laughing and he said that laugh sent shivers down his spine. He freaked out and sped off. He said after that he NEVER took Newmark to get home when he was getting off late." 

Creepy story to say the least and it reminds me of the stories I've heard that happened on Channel Road. Talking to the person some more they told me of a local Sanger story of a young girl that was supposedly raped and killed by an oak tree on Newmark and Central and haunts the road where she was killed. He thinks this is what his cousin saw driving on Newmark late that one night.

The oak tree in question. Just south of Newmark and Central.

Looking at a map I saw this was very close to Snake Road. I'm still researching this story, but if it's true could this be the actual origin for the Snake Road ghost? Granted they are very different stories, but is it more than just coincidence that two haunts are near each other? I've already been on record saying that I think the Snake Road story is nothing more than a retelling of La Llorona. But I've witnessed weird things on that road and know others who have as well. Could the things I and others have witnessed actually be this poor woman haunting the area and people used her story to spin a cautionary tale for Snake Road? Or is Sanger cursed with two ghosts that both share tragic, but different tales?

Does the spirit of a police officer haunt Friant Road?

It amazes me that after researching stories in the Fresno area that I am still discovering new ones. The fact that this story has been around for over 10 years and I have never heard of it until last Saturday night amazes me even more.

I was with a group of friends heading up towards Lost Lake Park to investigate the area. Unfortunately when we got to the park, it was already closed. Deciding we would come back when it was open later (it closes at 7:00 right now, but starting April 1 it closes at 10:00) we headed back down Friant towards Fresno. As we were driving back I brought up the fact that there were multiple traffic related deaths on the road and wondered if anyone could possibly haunt it. One of my friends asked me if I had ever heard of the police officer who died on the road and now haunts it, pulling over anyone who was speeding or driving dangerously. This was the first I heard of it and asked him how he had heard the story. He told me his dad had encountered the officer himself. This is what happened according to his dad:

His dad was driving down Friant late one night, speeding as the road had hardly any traffic. He took a turn when he saw the familiar red and blue lights of a patrol car flashing behind him. He pulled over and waited for the officer to approach him. When the officer got to the window he asked the driver if he knew how fast he was going and said that he should be more careful as there are always traffic accidents on that stretch of road and he could have been killed taking a turn too fast. But he was in a good mood and decided to write a “warning” ticket and let the driver go on his way. Confused as to what the ticket was for, he went to the station the next day to find out. When he showed the ticket to the officer at the front desk, the officer was surprised and asked him where he got it from as they haven’t used that particular one in years. He told them he was pulled over by a police officer and was given the ticket as a warning. They decided to check the badge number to see who had wrote it. When the officer looked it up, there was a look of shock on their face. That particular officer had died on Friant Road several years ago. It seemed even in death he was patrolling the road to make sure no one met the same fate he did.

I found the story interesting, particularly because their was a piece of actual evidence (my friend is trying to get in touch with his dad about the ticket). Curious as to if there was any credence to the story, I posted on Facebook the next day posing the question as to if Friant Road was haunted given all the accidents that have occurred over the years. So imagine my surprise when two separate people told me the almost exact same story. That a phantom police officer was pulling over people for driving too fast and issuing them a warning. When they would inquire about the officer they were told he died on that road. Just out of curiosity I contacted a friend who is a local police officer and he too had heard the story. Now we have a legend, someway, somehow this story was getting around. The question is whether there is any validity to it or not.

Researching deaths, I did find one officer died on Friant, but it was in 2011 and he was off duty. When I went back to Lost Lake on Monday to take some photos I noticed that there was an officer memorial sign as I passed Willow Ave. Could this be the name of the ghost? I was able to find the officers obituary and he did die in 2003, but not on Friant but near Fowler. Could these two stories have some merged into one? Don’t believe so as the first story I was told occurred before 2011.

So is there any truth to this story? As usual it’s hard to separate fact from fiction. This story has to have a genesis as all and somehow it grew bigger and bigger, having a life of its own. The best course of action right now is to research the road and see if any other officer died on it or if possible to get the ticket mentioned to me from the other night. But even I can’t find anything concrete, could there still be some truth to this story? Have people actually been pulled over on Friant Road late at night by a phantom police officer, one who is trying to prevent the same fate that occurred to him on that road years ago? It’s hard to say, but given what I've been told I wouldn't be surprised.

When legend comes to life. My encounter with the ghosts of Adelaida Cemetery.

I've been searching for ghosts, UFOs, monsters, you name it, for over a decade now and everyone always asks me when I was the most scared. Normally I tell them the story of Fidget the Necromancer hitting on my friend Scott (a story I need to put on here one day), but that's just for laughs. The one time I was truly scared shitless was on one of my very first investigations.

A family of tombstones dating from the late 1800's

It was the summer of 2000 and I had formed my first paranormal investigation group with several friends of mine who also shared the same interest in the paranormal as I did. After doing a few local investigations we felt we were ready to do something bigger. I had recently purchased Haunted Places: The National Directory by Dennis Hauck which lists haunted locations by state. After checking out what was near us, I came across a story of a haunted cemetery outside of Paso Robles. It was a small cemetery by the name of Adelaida and it went back to at least the mid 1800's. The story behind the haunting was that sometime during the late 1800's a woman was distraught over the death of her two children after they had succumbed to diphtheria during an outbreak. Finally she couldn't handle the loss anymore and out of desperation (and probably madness) took her own life. But it seems that even in the afterlife she continued to mourn for her children. According to the book she would appear on Friday nights between the hours of 10:00 pm and midnight and leave flowers on her children's grave. Perfect. We had a story and a time and place for us to be. We decided to this would be our next investigation.

A sign hanging from a tree located in the cemetery.

Our researcher called up the cemetery district to dig up more information on the story and to make sure it was ok for us to investigate at night. The cemetery district was more than open to the idea of us investigating (something rare these days) and even gave us the name of the ghost we were looking for, Charlotte Sitton. As Friday approached I was anxious; we had investigated local cemeteries but this was different. This cemetery was in a nationally published book and to me that meant something big (mind you this was before the advent of social networking and Google wasn't the search engine giant it is now). Finally Friday 5:00 hit and I met up with the other three of the group and we headed off to Paso Robles expecting to arrive at the cemetery around 9:30 or so.

The front gate to Adelaida Cemetery.

We arrived at the cemetery's front gate almost exactly at 9:30. I marveled at the location, it was heavily wooded and rather hilly, which is different than the cemeteries here in Fresno. We parked on the road and walked through the pedestrian gate. Our game plan was to find Charlotte's two children's graves (since it was said that she left flowers on their graves) and investigate around that area. As we started to walk around we noticed that most of the graves were from the 1940's to the present. This didn't sync with the story taking place in the late 1800's, but upon further investigation we found the older part of the cemetery up on a hill. As 10:00 approached it was decided the four of us should split up into two groups of two in order to cover ground faster. Myself and my friend Scott would take the portion of the cemetery near the front gate and my other two friend's Tom and Fred would explore the portion up on the hill. If either found the graves we were looking for we would notify the other.

A portion of the cemetery I explored. Note the dense covering of dead leaves on the ground.

As 10:00 approached Scott and I started exploring our section of the cemetery. Most graves were from the 20th Century, but I felt it was best to check every grave just to make sure. I didn't want to skip a portion and then find out later it was what we were looking for. As we started walking around we began to hear crunching noises about twenty feet from us. The ground was heavily littered with dried oak leaves (the trees there nearly formed a canopy over the cemetery) and every time you walked you would make a crunching sound as you crushed the foliage underfoot. What we were hearing sounded exactly like this. Problem was, Scott and I were the only ones there. I looked up at the hill where Tom and Fred were at and I could see their flashlights so I knew it wasn't them. As we walked around the footsteps would follow us, only stopping when I called out to see if anyone was there and then starting back up again when we would continue to walk. If I didn't know any better I'd say we were being followed. And while all of this was going on I happened to look up at the hill and notice both Tom and Fred's flashlights waving around wildly and even heard Tom yell out something (he was too far away for me to be able to make out what he said). Soon after this the foot steps stopped. And then I hear from Tom as he's coming down the hill.

"We found Charlotte's grave."

Excited, both Scott and I run up to meet him and Fred. He shows us the grave and inscribed on the tombstone it read "Charlotte Sitton". I was excited that we had found the grave and noticed that her two children's graves were next to it. As I started taking pictures I asked Tom if he had been down in our area at all to which he replied he hadn't. When asking me why and I mentioned hearing the footsteps, his face went blank for a second. He said that both he and Fred heard the same thing and assumed it was us playing a joke on them at first.

I described to him what happened while we were searching for Charlotte's grave. What's interesting is that he and Fred heard their set of footsteps around the same time as we did. He continued to say that their footsteps were more active and at one point sounded like several persons running around them. Not sure who it was he shined his flashlight around trying to see where they were coming from (this is what I saw when I was down on the lower portion of the cemetery) and started calling out for anyone who was there to show themselves (once again this was what I heard). Here's where the story gets even more interesting. Tom went on to say as he was shining his flashlight around, it passed over Fred and landed on a shadowy figure. That figure, once noticed, began to move and disappeared behind a tombstone. Tom ran over there to see where it went and noticed the name on the marker. Charlotte Sitton.

Charlotte's grave with the four of us standing around it looking like we were bad asses. Oh to be 23 again.

He said after that the activity stopped. And indeed the rest of the night was quiet. We stayed until about 12:30 taking pictures and hoping Charlotte would show back up. But we knew that she had already made herself known and wanted us to find her grave. As we left we thanked her and I said a small prayer as I closed the gate.

I've done over a hundred investigations since that hot summer night back in August of 2000, but it's still fresh in my mind as if it had happened just last night. I was truly terrified by what I was experiencing at the time. Now it might have been due to my lack of any experience, but I've had encounters before. Once at my mom's old house where I saw my first ghost and a cemetery in Madera County where both Tom and I heard what sounded like little girls laughing, despite the fact that we were alone. So why was this different? Was it the footsteps, the shadowy figure? Or maybe it was both those and the story. Here was a story, and a sad one at that, that seemed to have some credence to it as we witnessed what the story is said to occur. I'm convinced it was Charlotte and her children we heard, and she that Tom saw that night. Yes I have no evidence, but that doesn't matter. Turns out that we are now part of the legend.

An abandoned building located on the cemetery grounds.

Our group lasted a few more months and then disbanded, real life having taking a priority. But I kept up on the paranormal, especially as the internet became more and more prevalent. So imagine my surprise one day when I was on a site called Shadowlands.net, which lists haunted locals by state, when I saw one on Adelaida Cemetery. I started reading it and it was the same story as I had read in my book years ago (which I still have btw, though there have been two newer publications since). The listing mentioned the story as I had heard it but with a bit extra added on. It mentioned how a group went there on a Friday night in the summer of 2000, heard mysterious footsteps and encountered Charlotte. Could this be us? I checked a couple of other sites and they said the same thing. Somehow our story got out there and was added to the legend of Charlotte. To me that's better than getting the best piece of evidence.

Sadly the cemetery doesn't allow investigations anymore. When I was with CCPI we had inquired about investigating but was turned down due to the heavy vandalism that occurred there. Seems a lot of thrill seekers wanted to see Charlotte for themselves and ruined it for everybody else. CCPI and I did go there one weekend to help clean up the cemetery and offered to clean the area around Charlotte's grave. The place looked the same as it did almost ten years before, but it broke my heart when I saw Charlotte's grave was broken at the base. To say this was disrespectful is putting it lightly to say the least. Still we cleaned up as best we could, cutting weeds around a good area of the cemetery. I did say hi to Charlotte, though I didn't receive a response. Though I know it wasn't my fault, I did apologize for the vandalism that had occurred. But I did thank her for that night and the story that I get to tell people about the one time I was truly terrified. I like to think she appreciates the fact she isn't really forgotten.

Note: I want to apologize for the poor image quality. The originals were lost years ago and the scans were lost when a hard drive crashed (this was way before the cloud) and all I was able to find were these photos. I did have one of Charlotte's grave, but it was so small that you couldn't make out any detail. 

Murdered prostitute said to haunt old Sanger bar where she was killed

On May 16, 1993 one of the worst massacres in the history of Fresno County occurred on the outskirts of the town of Sanger at a little bar called Carrillo's Club. It was after 2:00 am and the bar had just closed when two men armed with semi-automatic weapons entered the bar and opened fire on. When it was over a total of seven people were dead including the owner, his mother, his half-brother, a friend, and three employees. For years the murders remained unsolved until an inmate that was already serving time for another murder in Fresno County, a Johnnie Malarkey, admitted the being one of the two gunmen (the other, a Allen Helfin, committed suicide in 1998). Upon his admission the case was closed and he is currently serving several life imprisonments for the crimes he committed.

The murders aren't the only sordid history that Carrillo's Club was a part of. For years the place was rumored to be a hub for drug trafficking and prostitution and was well known for being a scene of rapes, stabbings, and numerous shootings. Given the fact that it was on the outskirts of Sanger it fell into a grey area of jurisdiction between the city and Fresno County as to who had authority over it. The murders were the finally grisly act in a place steeped in a history or illicit activity.

Even though the bar is no longer around, it seems one of its former patrons ghostly form has been seen near the old location. Many witnesses have seen the ghost of a young woman walking down the road in the direction of Fresno. She's usually only seen for an instant before she disappears. Interesting enough it's thought she isn't one of the victims from the 1993 shootings, but was a prostitute that was murdered there years ago. For whatever reason she continues to walk down the road, perhaps still trying to get home.

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.

Is the old Sanger High School haunted by a pair of star crossed lovers?

Apparently schools are a popular haunting spot for star crossed lovers. There's a story that the old Sanger High School (now the Washington Academic Middle School) has a pair of ghosts that haunt its theater area. Sometime in the 1990's there was a young couple madly in love like only teenagers could be. The girl's parents were very strict and she hid the fact that she had a boyfriend from them for several months as she knew they would not have approved. One day her mother finally found about the boyfriend and demanded the daughter break up with him immediately and never see him again. Defying her mother and apparently taking inspiration from Romeo and Juliet, she met her boyfriend at the high school and both committed suicide in the theater by hanging themselves.

Why they chose the theater to take their lives is never said. Perhaps it was their favorite place to spend time, or maybe they met there and it held a special place in their heart. What is known is that both ghosts have been seen in the theater since their deaths. The girl is usually seen on the second floor near the area where the balcony used to be located. A more gruesome vision of her has also been seen hanging from a rope in front of the stage. As for her boyfriend, he is usually seen near the main entrance to the theater. No one knows why he is seen here, some think he may be waiting for his love for some unknown reason.

Now whether this story has any merit to it or not is hard to say. Someone e-mailed me the story, saying they had heard it when they went to the old high school. I did the obligatory internet searches, but it's not like Google is going to find me a website with this story on it (well I guess it will now once their bots scan this page). Hopefully someone reading this will know something and it will be able to add to the story. Still an interesting story and adds yet another legend to the area.

Is Fresno's Chandler Airport haunted?

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from a person who has an office at Fresno's Chandler Airport and is researching the history of the place. In the e-mail I was told the place had several ghosts in it and was asked if I would like to meet and investigate. I had heard stories for years that Chandler was haunted, but was never given any details so I jumped at the chance to visit.

A brief history on the airport before I delve into the paranormal part of it. Chandler Airfield started unofficially after World War I when pilots would land on an empty field owned by then State Senator Wilbur Chandler and his wife Edna. For several years the Fresno Chamber of Commerce tried to pass bond measures that would allow them to purchase land for use as an airport but with no luck. In 1929 the Chandlers gave 100 acres of their farm to the city to be used as an airport and in November of that year the airport was officially dedicated and soon after several buildings were erected to service the airport. In March of 1930 the airport received a famous visitor when Charles Lindberg and his wife landed at the airport and were greeted by a crowd of over 20,000.

In 1936 construction began on a terminal building and was designed in what was called Streamline Moderne (an architecture style popular in the 1930's). Planes flew in and out of Chandler daily (except during World War II when it was used as a military base) up to 1947. At that time airlines refused to land at Chandler anymore saying that the runway was too small and the amenities of the airport couldn't service the new type of aircraft coming out. For the most part flights ceased to occur at Chandler and most traffic was diverted to the newly built Fresno Air Terminal.

Though Chandler isn't as busy as it used to be, it still does see some traffic. The old terminal building now is the administration building for the airport. Of all the buildings there, this is the one that received the most foot traffic over the years as it would be the place passengers would enter to board their flights or the first thing one would enter after exiting a plane upon landing.

And it seems some of those that passed through its doors have never truly left.

The staff that works there have seen a variety of phenomena, but it seems the main terminal area is where most of the activity takes place. One of the workers has seen several figures emerge from a wall near where you would buy tickets, only or them to walk across the room and then vanish oblivious to the fact that he was observing them. Others have seen a figure of an older man in the old control tower (which is on the second floor of the administration building) staring out onto the field as if he's watching invisible planes taking off and landing. And still others have reported while they were outside of the building, seeing figures moving inside and upon entering the building finding it to be completely empty.

The main terminal isn't the only area that has activity. There is a restaurant that is adjacent to the terminal area (same building) and from what the staff told me it is active in its own right. They have heard voices late at night while they were closing, yet there was no one else there. Even more interesting is that several of the kitchen staff were cleaning up one night when they heard a rattling noise. They looked to the direction to where the noise was coming from and saw a plate wobbling across a counter top until it fell over the edge and onto the floor. This was late at night and there was no aircraft or any other vehicles in the vicinity that could have caused this. And interestingly enough the plate didn't break when it hit the floor.

It's hard to say what could be causing all the activity here. Given the age of the place and the countless number of people who passed through its doors it's possible that some have decided to stay here even after death for whatever reason. This is a place I definitely need to visit again. Not just to investigate, as this does need to be done, but to interview all the witnesses as well. The stories I heard briefly were interesting and definitely need to be documented. From there the history of the location needs to be researched more. Not just from a paranormal point of view, but a historical one. I didn't even know Lindberg had landed there until I was told. It makes me wonder what other secrets the airport is hiding just waiting to be uncovered.

North Fresno hotel rumored to be haunted by ghost of suicide victim

I was recently contacted by a reader asking if I had heard of the R.S. Gibson story. Apparently Gibson committed suicide at a local hotel and is said to haunt the very room in which he died.

From what I was told the incident occurred sometime in June of 1972. Gibson was having an affair with a woman named Marilyn (who was said to look like the legendary Marilyn Monroe) and they would have their rendezvous at a hotel on the outskirts (of then) Northern Fresno near Herndon and Blackstone. Gibson, who had owned a used car lot on Abby Street, had met Marilyn when she was a cocktail waitress at the old Tropicana and their affair lasted for over four years.

But their torrid affair was not meant to last. One night Marilyn met with Gibson in the hotel room they frequented and told him that she didn't want to see him any more. Distraught after she left, Gibson grabbed a pen and paper and wrote a final note to his love before grabbing a gun and ending his life with a self-inflicted gun shot to the head.

Since then guests have claimed to hear whispers in the very room where Gibson ended his life. A hoarse voice would cry out the name Marilyn over and over again scaring any guest that was in the room. Most would check out the next morning not wanting to deal with whatever is in the room.

The e-mail stated that the hotel in question is the Roadway Inn, which does lie on the corner of Herndon and Blackstone. They were unable to tell me the exact room where Gibson committed suicide but claimed that an article ran by the Fresno Bee in June of 1972 would have more information. Unfortunately I was unable to find anything to back up this claim in the Fresno Bee archives or any other online news archive. So I decided to head to the hotel and talk to the help there to see if any of these stories were true.

When I arrived at the hotel there was a lone worker at the front desk. I introduced myself and told her what I knew of the story. She told me she hadn't hear of anything in particular, but that she had only been there for four months. I left my card and thanked her for her time, but I definitely want to go back and talked to someone who has worked there longer.

So is this story true? It's hard to say. The person claimed that the story could be found in the Fresno Bee archives, but I couldn't find anything. Doing a Google search of the name "R.S. Gibson" did come up with an auto dealership, but the address was on Broadway not Abby as I was told. To verify this story I'm going to have to dig further. But still the story is an interesting one. And if it is true it is a tragic one.

Former Tulare County General Hospital rumored to be haunted

While doing some research for another article I'm working on I came across the story of the Hillman Health Clinic in Tulare County.

The set of buildings located on K Street and Bardsley Ave were formerly part of the old Tulare County General Hospital center. When the hospital moved to its current location on Cherry Ave, the buildings were converted to be used as a public and mental health clinic (with other services that occupy the second floor and maintenance housed in the basement).

Most activity seems to be centered on the second floor and in the basement. The elevator will move between floors and when the doors open there is no one inside. The evening cleaning crew refuse to work past 9:00 pm as heavy footsteps can be heard on the floor even when it's empty. And apparently a staff member was once taken to the basement even though they pressed the button for a different floor.

In the basement a maintenance worker reported seeing shadowy figures several times moving around and even walking through walls. The strangest incident was when they were asked by a supervisor to check on a room for something. As they approached the room the witness came across a nurse dressed in a white uniform and had a white cap with a red cross on it. Curious as to why a nurse would be in the basement, he turned around but she had disappeared. Upon returning to his supervisor he asked if any nurses were in the basement, but was told there wasn't any. When he described the uniform, the supervisor looked confused as she said that type of uniform hadn't been worn by the nurses in decades.

I've always wondered if hospitals were haunted, given the amount of death that must occur here as well as the amount of emotions that the place had seen over the years. Perhaps the footsteps being heard are a residual haunting, were the same event is played over and over. But what of the incidents that happen with the elevator? Someone still trying to leave the hospital even after all these years?

And then there's the story of the nurse. Obviously the worker saw someone who worked there many years ago, but why was she still there? I know most people think that a person haunts the place where they die (and this is definitely possible with a hospital), but I've always been of the belief that someone may haunt where they were most happy. And in the case of the nurse, it was where she worked (which would explain the uniform).

Whatever the reasons may be, there is definitely something wandering the floors of the Hillman Health Clinic late at night.

Dinuba High School rumored to be haunted

In the small town of Dinuba, the local high school is rumored to be host to several hauntings.

Several teachers have reported hearing doors closing on their own late at night, of lights turning on and off by themselves, and a feeling of being watched while walking down the halls. It's said that sometime in the 1970's a janitor was accidentally electrocuted and died from his injuries. Some think that these odd occurrences are the janitor trying to make his presence known.

Another story is that the English Building is haunted by the ghost of a woman who died there years ago. No one knows who she really is, but strange noises in empty classrooms are attested to her. Others have claimed to have heard her either walking down the hall or in one of the restrooms.

And finally there is the legend that surrounds the school's football field. The story goes that years ago a young girl decided to break up with her boyfriend. They met near the bleachers on the football field and in a fit of rage the boyfriend strangled his girlfriend to death. He decided to hide her boy in the back as there was an area that was covered in black plastic that was used to store equipment. Unfortunately the girl's body wasn't found for more than a week as it was hidden with all the equipment. It's said that late at night you can see the girl running across the football field, assuming that she is still trying to escape her boyfriend.

Whether any of these stories are true or not is hard to say. But Dinuba High School, like other high schools in the Central Valley, has its own stories that are passed down from class to class and student to student. These stories add to the history of the school and to the local community.

Porterville Memorial Auditorium rumored to be haunted

The Porterville Memorial Auditorium is said to be haunted by

the ghost of a little girl.

Photo courtesy of Reverbnation.com.

In the small town of Porterville, on the campus of the local high school, lies the Porterville Memorial Auditorium. Inside the building is the Frank "Buck" Shaffer Theatre, named after the school's long time band director, is said to be haunted by the ghost of a little girl.

No one knows who she is, but it's said that she was playing up on the balcony one day when she tripped and fell over the railing and died. Now it's said that if anyone is near the railing that she will appear and play tricks on them to get them to fall over the edge and die just as she did.

Inside the Frank "Buck" Shaffer Theatre. You can see the balcony

where it's said the little girl fell from to her death.

Photo courtesy of Reverbnation.com.

Another story says that backstage in the left wing near where several portraits are hung up on the wall, that their eyes would follow you as you walked by them. Whether this is some sort of paranormal activity or an optical illusion isn't know but still interesting none-the-less.

Are the stories of the little girl on the balcony true? It seems that almost every theater has its own ghost, like it is a prerequisite or something. It is interesting to note though that if you look at an index of haunted places throughout the county, theaters seem to be at the top of the list (bars and taverns run a close second). Why is this? Some paranormal researchers theorize that ghosts somehow feed off of people's emotions. What better place to experience the gambit of emotions; from happiness, sadness, and anger, than a theater? But perhaps the little girl is a vengeful spirit, upset over her untimely fate and tries to lure others to suffer the same fate as her.

The ghosts and legends of Sierra Sky Ranch

Sierra Sky Ranch during winter.

Image courtesy of sierraskyranch.com

I've been mentioning both on Facebook and Twitter (which you should be following me and if you aren't for shame!) the past few weeks about my trip up to Sierra Sky Ranch to do a live tweet of the investigation conducted by Central California Paranormal Investigators and the Paranormal 101 class from the Fresno Adult Education Center. I'll be doing some other things during the day (mostly shooting video and doing some investigating of my own) but my hopes is to have you dear readers interact with me on both social networks as I shadow the students and CCPI as they investigate and give you live updates as the group investigates the ranch. That being said, I wanted to give a brief history of the Sierra Sky Ranch. Granted I did a piece when I first started writing for Weird Fresno, but I wanted to update that with what I know now.

The Ranch was founded sometime in the 1870's and was the area's largest cattle ranch. The original ranch house was built sometime in 1900 and over the years piece by piece the land was sold off to pay off debts. Finally the last of the property was sold and that is where we get our first ghost from. There's a story of an old ranch hand that haunts the back portion of the property that went by the name Elmer's. There are two different versions of Elmer's untimely demise. One says that as he was chopping wood one day under the back tree, the ax slipped from his hands and severed the main artery in his leg. He called for help but his cries went unanswered and bled to death. The other story states that distraught over his home being sold off and having nowhere else to go, he hung himself from the back tree. Whatever the case may be, Elmer now haunts the area around the tree where he died. Some have seen Elmer himself, but most have felt a presence watching them.

Sometime in the 1930's the ranch was converted to a tuberculosis hospital (this is the time that the hotel wing was built onto the original ranch house). It's from this time period we get our next group of ghosts. A woman named Sarah, who was a nurse at the hospital, was in charge of two young children (rumored to be siblings) who had contracted the deadly disease. Unfortunately both children died from the disease and soon after Sarah followed (it's not known if she died from the disease, but given how contagious it could be this is highly likely). Guests have reported hearing children running up and down the halls late at night only to find out from the hotel staff that there are no children guests there. Others have witnessed what felt like a child's hand tugging at them, as if wanting to play. The children aren't the only ones seen. Witnesses have reported seeing a woman peering out from both the ground floor and the loft windows, as if she is watching someone. When asked who the woman is, the staff claims no one. Perhaps Sarah is still watching her two chargers she lost almost a century ago.

During World War 2 the property was converted to a rehabilitation hospital for wounded Army soldiers. There have been recent reports of a soldier seen in the hotel's library area, still in uniform. If this person was a patient here it's hard to say and more investigation needs to be done to find out.

After the war in 1946 the ranch was turned into a luxury resort and catered to such Hollywood celebrities such as John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe. There are several other ghosts that are associated with the ranch, and no one knows when they were here just that they decided to stay even in death. The first is the ghost of a young man who, for whatever reason, likes to stay in the honeymoon suite and usually in the bedroom area. Psychics have sensed a very paranoid man crouching in the corner, almost like he is trying to hide something. No one knows who is he or what is his name, but many have felt his presence. It's known for people sleeping in the bed to be woken up by a gentle nudge. Why the ghost is doing this is uncertain, perhaps he wants there attention for some reason.

The final two ghosts reside in the kitchen and make it apparent that they don't like anyone else in their area or each other for that matter. Kitchen utensils are always missing (once an entire cutting board was reported missing and never found again) and kitchen equipment will turn on by itself, even when shut off for the night. One ghost tends to hang out in the main prep area, while the other tends to stay mostly in the pantry. The negative energy from both of them is easily felt as there is always a heavy presence in the kitchen and on several occasions arguments have broken out among the kitchen staff.

So that's just a bit of the legend of Sierra Sky Ranch. I've heard other stories, from a night staff person seeing a couple dancing in the main lobby only to disappear when seen, to a person peeking through a dining room window despite the fact the window is at least 7 feet off the ground, to a pear tree with such a strange energy to it that people's electronic equipment always seen to malfunction around it, the ranch has it all. The Ranch is open to their paranormal history and with it being only an hour drive away, is a great spot to have dinner and maybe even spend the night. For more info you can find their site here.

Check back both on my Facebook and Twitter pages (you can find links to them on the right) on Saturday to find out what's going on.

More info on the Walnut Girl of Armona

Seems there's a bit of a theme developing lately here at Weird Fresno. Last week I had written about how I had received some information regarding one of the ghosts of Roosevelt High School. As I was working on that, Ken Summers (who contributes to Who Forted?, one of my favorite paranormal sites) sent me some information which he believes might related to the tale of the Walnut Girl of Armona.

Scan of the June 16, 1942 post from the

San Jose Evening News.

According to the San Jose Evening News while driving along the Last Chance Ditch Canal, which is located about five miles northwest of Hanford, a car blew out a tire and ran off the road into the ditch and overturned. Four out of the seven in the car drowned, including 9 year old Gloria Castillo. Could this somehow be the Walnut Girl?

Ken was kind enough to send me both a copy of the article and a map of the area that shows the location of the canal and it's proximity to Armona. One could theorize that the ghost of the girl, for some reason, moved south until it reached Armona. And given that her and her family were fruit pickers, perhaps that is why she is said to have been seen in orchards and packing houses as she had hoped to find them there somehow.

Map of the Hanford/Armona area. The canal is in blue

and the red X is the presumed location of the accident.

Still this doesn't explain in the legend how it took place in the 19th Century (Armona was founded sometime in the 1880's), the fact that she always appear naked and only to girls around her own age. But the fact that in the news article a little girl drowned in a body of water that was nine years old can't be coincidence. Or can it?

The truth is, no one will ever know. There will be those out there that claim the 1942 crash to be the genesis for the story and someone added changed the date and details to make it more "romantic". Others will claim that it did originally occur sometime in the late 1800's and the setting is accurate. And then there will be those that say it's just complete bullshit. Honestly it doesn't matter. The more and more I research these stories the less I care about proving their factuality. For whatever reason stories compel us, everyone has one and they allow us to relate on a humanistic level. And that's why I share them.

I have to give credit where credit is due. If Ken hadn't sent me an e-mail, this bit of information would still be unknown to me. Like I said, he writes for Who Forted? (check out his latest article here on why ghosts are always seen nude) and you can find his website here and link to his blog here.

Update to the Roosevelt High hauntings

Leslie Chambers, who's death at Roosevelt

High School has spurred a ghost story that's

lasted over 40 years.

I've written over dozens of articles on haunted locations throughout the Fresno area and beyond. But that's what they have always been, stories. You are never really sure of the truth behind the names and events that are said to have occurred that created the haunt.

One of the more popular articles that I've done is the one on the ghosts of Roosevelt High School, especially the story of "Lester". For those who aren't familiar with the story, it's said that in 1977 a student named Lester was performing on the stage in the auditorium and collapsed there and died from either dehydration or possibly a heart attack. Ever since then people have felt his presence in the auditorium in one way or another.

Being the skeptic I am, I wasn't quite sure on the truth to this story. So imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail the other day from someone saying they were Lester's cousin and was then able to verify what happened. Turns out the story is true in most regards as a student did die due to a congenital heart defect while performing on stage. His name was Leslie Chambers and was born on October 16, 1944. On October 10, 1960 (just 6 days before his 16th birthday) while performing a cheer on stage as part of a school assembly, Leslie collapsed mid-performance and died. At that time his mother and grandmother were out shopping for his birthday and were quickly notified by the school. He was well loved by both his family and classmates and after his death the school created a memorial on one of the trees at the school where Leslie and his girlfriend met for lunch each day.

Now I don't know if Leslie haunts the stage where he died, and now that this story has both a name and face to go with it I certainly hope not as the story seems more personal now. But this is one of those times that the legend has some truth in it. Now it's possible that someone just made up the entire story of "Lester" haunting the auditorium and used the known death of a student to give it an apparent kernel of truth, but that's uncertain.

What I do hope is that the students at Roosevelt (current and future) that hear the story of Lester read this and find out the truth about Leslie Chambers and don't remember him for being a ghost that haunts the auditorium, but of a young life cut short.

Was Visalia's Mooney Mansion haunted by the spirit of a little girl?

Statue of Hugh Mooney and his favorite hunting dog, located in

Mooney Grove Park. - Image courtesy of Visit Visalia.

If you've ever visited Visalia there's a good chance you have been to or at least driven by Mooney Grove Park; so named for Hugh Mooney who donated 100 acres of his ranch to act as a park in 1909. For over a century the park has hosted many gatherings and since 1948 has been home to the Tulare County Museum. But there is another location that was associated with Mr. Mooney. His home. And it was said to be haunted.

The house itself was located on Court Street and changed ownership through the years after Mr. Mooney passed away. Sometime in the 1980's the owner turned the mansion into a boarding house that had nine bedrooms with a common bath and kitchen facilities. One of the upstairs bedrooms was turned into a billiards room complete with an antique table. Also, downstairs in the main foyer there was an antique jukebox that played an old selection of 78 rpm records.

But in the evenings for many years, random thumps would be heard from the upstairs billiard room usually right before or after midnight. The inhabitants of the house would go upstairs to investigate and when the opened the door and entered the room they would find billiard balls and cue sticks on the floor; the balls were usually stored a wall rack with the cues or left in the table pockets. This happened on many occasions and once it was said that when the people entered the room to check on the noise the balls were still moving as if they had just been touched.

Even more interesting is that the antique juke box would randomly play, and usually around the early dawn hours. It got so bad that the owner started to leave it unplugged during the summer months when the occurrences were more likely to happen.

Curious as to what was causing all the strange activity, the owner of the house started to research the history of the home. After talking with several historians at the Tulare County Museum they discovered that sometime in the early 1930's a young girl, about the age of 6, had died in one of the upstairs bedrooms from some type of lung malady. She wasn't a member of the Mooney Family, but it's believed that she might have been the daughter of two San Francisco socialites who had come to Visalia to visit the Mooneys. Her full name is unknown but the owner was able to discern that her first name was April and her last name was Mc-something. It's said that her body was buried somewhere on the property, but there has been no documentation to prove this.

The strange occurrences seemed to stop sometime in 1990's when the property was sold numerous times and the interior of the house was gutted for refurbishment. During demolition an old doll was discovered in one of the walls in what was the billiard room. The doll was given to the Tulare Historical Society and was able to be dated to being made sometime in the 1920's and was made in a factory in San Francisco.

Was the little girl haunting the room where her doll was at because she wanted it back? That could explain the odd sounds and objects being moved. But what of the antique jukebox playing on random (was it playing Queen?) down in the foyer? Perhaps the little girl liked to listen to music. It is interesting to note though that the activity stopped when the doll was found. I wonder since the doll was given to the Tulare County Museum to put on display, is there any activity there now?