Bakersfield park said to be haunted by ghost of murder victim

Covered bridge over the canal where a ghost is said to haunt

Bakersfield's Central Park.

Photo courtesy of Hauntings Paranormal Social Network.

Today I decided to share a story from the southern part of the Central Valley, from the city of Bakersfield. And if my research on this tells me anything, it's one of the more prevalent ghost stories there.

There have been tales of a lady in white wandering the grounds of Bakersfield's Central Park for as long as the park has been around. Created in 1937, Central Park is located between 21st Street and 19th Street, just east of R Street. According to local legend a woman was shot and killed in the park and her bones were found buried at an old foundry and supposedly they were riddled with bullet holes.

Witnesses have reported seeing the ghost of a woman, usually wearing a white flowing robe or gown; wander along the park's canal right before sunrise. Some think she is looking for help, hoping someone will find her murderer. Others think she is just lost and wanders the place where she was killed.

What's interesting about this story that it seems to be a mixture of the Lady in White and La Llorona stories. Now I'm not saying it's just another local urban legend (though all evidence seems to point to that being a yes), but there are questions I have about this story. For one, who was this woman and why was she murdered at this park? A jealous lover, victim of a mugging, or something else? Every telling of this story didn't have this information. As for the bones that were said to be found, I don't know how true this is. And what's to link them with the woman who is said to have been murdered in the park?

So the question is this: another local urban legend that has been passed down through the years from word of mouth (and not made popular by the internet)? Or is there some truth to this story and an innocent woman was killed at this park and wanders it to this day, either looking for help or doomed to walk it for eternity?

Weird Fresno teams up with Ghost Tripping for video series.

A few weeks ago I had mentioned both on Facebook and my Twitter feed that I was working on a new project but couldn't really go into detail. I'm glad to say that I can now reveal exactly what I was working on.

I was contacted by a local film production company by the name of Ghost Tripping who was interested in documenting on film local haunts around the valley. They wanted me to act as their expert on the story and would film me before venturing to the location itself to film and tell the story as well as recreate what is said to have happened.

For our first endeavor they wanted to tackle the ever familiar Channel Road. Having recently just gone there I had some new stories that I wanted to share. Met up with them for an hour or so and they filmed me talking about Channel Road. They told me they were then going to film the rest later and would let me know when it was ready.

Received an e-mail earlier this week saying that they were done filming and had a trailer to tease what the final project would be.

The finished product should be done sometime in early March and I will post it then. I'm looking forward to my partnership with Ghost Trippers as finally the local legends can be filmed as they should.

Return to Snake Road

Last Saturday night I was bored and itching to do a bit of ghost hunting so I decided I'd take a drive to Channel, or Snake Road, in Sanger (which is in the eastern part of Fresno County) as it had been a couple of years since I had been there and I wanted to shoot some video for the website. Now normally I wouldn't advise anyone to go alone, so I let a few people know where I was at in case something happened.

For those who don't know the legend, basically it says that a woman and her two children were driving down the very windy road (this is where it gets the nickname Snake Road) and she took a turn too fast and drove off into the river. She was unable to get out of the car and drowned there. Her two children were able to get out, but they drowned downstream. Supposedly the mother wanders up and down the road at night looking for her two children. I did a more lengthy post here, explaining how I felt it was more urban legend than anything else. Still I wanted to check it out.

I left the apartment with both cameras fully charged. But when I got there, my video camera was nearly drained and had maybe four minutes left on it. I have no idea what caused this, but I have been on investigations before where electronic's would suffer battery drain similar to this when there was paranormal activity around.

Still I was able to shoot this bit of video. I apologize for the first part as it's pitch black, even with the night vision turned on. I decided to leave it in as you can hear the confusion in my voice regarding the battery drain. The latter part is me driving down the road as I wanted to show how windy it actually was.

I don't know what caused the battery drain. I did check my camera the next day after recharging it and there were no problems (even used it that night with no problems). Maybe the charge didn't take for some reason. Or maybe there was something out there that didn't want me filming. I think a second trip may be warranted in the near future.

The Walnut Girl

This is an old story I came across years ago. I had posted it on another blog and had completely forgot about it until today. So I thought I'd repost it here for anyone who hasn't read it yet. More than likely it's another urban legend. But it's one of those strange stories that refuses to go away. Perhaps there is some truth to the legend after all.

In the small California town of Armona, there is a legend of a nine year old girl that met a tragic end and her restless ghost haunts the area to this day. Sometime in the nineteenth century the girl and a few of her friends were skinny dipping at a local waterhole outside of town. A group of boys showed up and threatened to come into the water after them. Most of the girls ran away before the boys could get them into a nearby walnut orchard. One little girl was too scared to follow the other girls. Instead she dove underwater to try and trick the boys into thinking she too had followed the other girls. Unfortunately the poor girl drowned.

Legend has it the restless spirit roamed the area for years. The townsfolk named her the Walnut Girl because she was always seen where walnuts were grown. No male has ever seen the ghost, but stories say that girls around the same age as she was have seen glimpses of her.

Why does her restless spirit only haunt walnut orchards? Perhaps she thinks she will be safe if she can get to an orchard she will be safe from the boys she thinks are still chasing her. This is obvious as she will only appear to girls near her age. It appears even in the afterlife she is still looking for safety.