Halloween attractions in the Fresno area

Someone had asked me the other night what Halloween activities were there to do in Fresno during October. Besides knowing of a few attractions, I didn't really know. I checked around but didn't find anything listed, so I decided to make one of my own. After spending some time on Google, this is what I found.

Hobbs Grove.

I'm sure everyone is familiar with Hobbs, since it's been around the longest. But for those who aren't, it's located outside of Sanger on 24 acres. There are a haunted house, haunted forest, and a haunted hayride attractions as well as a midway with live music, food and drinks, and several vendors. Hobbs is open from Oct. 9 - Oct. 31 (Closed Oct. 12, 13, 19, 20 & 26.) and the gates open at 5:30 pm. Tickets run from between $10 - $12.50 (depending on the attraction), but there is a discount if you buy combos. For more information on Hobb's and how to get there you can go here.

Fright Night Scream Park

I had recently mentioned this attraction last week. This one is located in Clovis at the Sierra Vista Mall behind Target. There are four attractions here, the Necropolis, the Psychosis 3d, the Desecration, and the Asylum. For more information and directions you can go here.

Raisin Hell Ranch

Raisin Hell Ranch is located north of Fresno in Madera County on Ave. 7, just as you pass the San Joaquin River on Highway 99. There are three attractions there, the Scarecrow's Revenge, the Fresno Monster's Blackout Maze, and the Chupacabra Feast. Raisin Hell Ranch is open from Oct. 17 to Oct. 31. Gates open at 7:00 pm and tickets are $15 for one attraction, $25 for two, and $30 for three. For more information and directions you can go here.

Haunted Fresno

Haunted Fresno is located in downtown Fresno on Fulton. It has five attractions, the Fortress of Fear, the House of Zombies, the Last Ride, the Museum of Oddities, and the Seance. It's open from Oct. 15 - Oct. 18 and Oct. 22 - Oct. 31. Hours are 7-11pm on weekdays and 7pm to 12:00 am on weekends. Museum of Oddities costs $5, the Seance costs $10, Fortress of Fear and House of Zombies is @20 and there is a combo ticket for the Fortress of Fear, House of Zombies, and the seance for $25. For more information and directions you can go here.

Corn Maze at Cobb's Ranch

The corn maze at Cobb's is open from October 10th thru Halloween and their hours are 6-9pm M-F and 11am-9pm Saturday and Sunday. Ticket prices are $10 for adults (12 and up) and $8 for kids (4-11, kids 3 and under are free). Directions and more information on the maze can be found here.

Update.  

I found out about another new Halloween haunt and wanted to pass it on.  Sierra FFA presents "The Farm".  The 320 acre working Ag Farm is the background for a night you will not forget.  You will start with a hayride through the Farms Haunted Forest, on thru the Implement shed, Barn and last but not least the Feed Mill.

They are open four nights only.  Oct. 28-30, dark until 9pm and Oct 31, dark until 11 pm.  Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for 17 and under.  All proceeds will go to the Sierra Future Farmers of America.  To get there, take Hwy. 168 from Fresno to the stop sign (at the bottom of the 4 lane), continue thru on Lodge Road about a mile.  It is located at the Bert Weldon Memorial Farm (across from Sierra High School).  The address is 33326 Lodge Road, Tollhouse, CA.

I was told by the proprietors that this is an extremely scary haunt and is not recommended for younger children, people with heart conditions, or pregnant women.  Parental discretion is strongly advised.

For those who aren't interested in things jumping out at you, but still may want to get scared there are those ghost walks in the Tower District and in Old Town Clovis. Both tours are historical in nature with a focus on the paranormal. Each stop on the tour is at a location that is reported to actually be haunted. The guide discusses the history of the place as well as the paranormal activity that has occurred there. Tours are from 7:30 – 9:30 PM and start the first weekend of October and run through the middle of November. Please note that the tours are for those 18 and over. For reservations you can e-mail them at nightfalltours@yahoo.com.

These are all that I could find that are happening in Fresno area. If anyone knows of anything else, please let me know and I'll add them to the list.

The dead, killer clowns, cannibals, and the insane take over abandoned building in Clovis for Halloween.

As I had mentioned last week, something weird (even more than usual) was going on in the Fresno area. We had zombie protesters at the Shaw and Blackstone intersection. While I was there I discovered where these undead ruffians were staying while they were in the area. It turns out that they had taken over an abandoned building behind the Target in Sierra Vista Mall. Apparently even the dead are attracted to Clovis way of life.

Armed with a night vision enabled camcorder and not nearly enough alcohol in my system, I ventured to the abandoned building, which turned out to be an old movie theater. Pulling up, I noticed there was a bit of a crowd here. Rather perplexed as to why so many people, I found out that many of them were looking for missing family members and had heard that they may be here. Outside the front entrance there was a woman named Mrs. Lovett selling meat pies. Since I just had dinner I politely declined her offer.

Walking up to the doors, I noticed a young woman. I asked her if she knew what was going on and she said she could show me everything and beckoned me to follow her inside. Figuring she had already been inside looking for a family member, I followed. As usual, I was wrong.

As we walked inside, I followed her to what she called the Necropolis. "But don't worry." she said "This isn't my home." Laughing I asked her "Where is your home?" "Oh I'll show you, don't worry." said my guide. And with a sinister smile she added "And soon it will be yours too." Confused I asked her what she meant. "Oh you won't be leaving this place" she smiled sweetly "You'll be dead soon. Just like me." At this point I wanted to get the hell out of there, but a rather large (and dead) looking man prevented me from doing this and we were ushered into the Necropolis.

I was able to get some video of the Necropolis as you will see below, though it isn't much. Apparently my guide was intent on killing me and took every chance she could to push me in front of anything that would do the job. Luckily I was faster than her (the dead aren't that quick) and was able to avoid certain doom.



Finally we left the Necropolis and I could tell she was frustrated that I was still alive. She then asked me if I liked clowns. Now I am not scared of clowns, they just make me feel uneasy. I blame Stephen King's IT for this. And as usual I didn't think before I spoke and said I didn't. "Good." she replied "The ones I'm going to introduce you to will definitely kill you then." As we walked up to another portion of the building, there was a clown that greeted us. My ever sweet and innocent guide informed said clown that I hate clowns (told you she wanted me dead). The clown then opened a door and yelled "Hey guys, this one hates us clowns!" and pushed us both in. I was able to get some video, but I really don't think it shows the horror that was Psychosis 3D.



Feeling emboldened now that I had thwarted her attempts to have me killed I teased her about that she wasn't doing a good job of killing me. "That's fine, we can go to Desecration." she said "I know they are hungry for meat there." You would think I would have learned to keep my mouth shut by now, but no. Desecration was even more horrifying than the previous two as it was filled with cannibals. And they were hungry as you can see from the video I was able to shoot.



Barely escaping that we then headed to the last part, the Asylum. Having given up on killing me by now, my guide abandoned me and figured that my own stupidity would get me killed. Honestly this part had to be the most terrifying. There were some bat shit insane people in here. I was able to shoot some videos of the residents, but the deeper I got the more scared I was. So finally I just gave up and got the hell out of there.



Luckily I was able to barely escape with my life. But as I was leaving, I noticed my guide was taking several people in. Apparently she had a quota to meet or something and figured she could fill it faster with a group. I'm going to have to go back in a week or two. This time I will bring backup as a few friends of mine are interested in seeing what is going on for themselves.

Now this place isn't for the faint of heart, but if you are interested in going I heard that they are selling tickets for the different attractions. You can go here for more info. They are open from October 2 - October 31, except closed on Mondays and Tuesdays Sunday the 4th and 11th, Wednesday the 7th and 14th, and Thursday the 8th. You can buy tickets either on the website or there and I noticed that if you do several attractions, the price for each one is less. Also, I was able to "procure" several tickets (I figured I was owed something since repeated attempts on my life were made. I will be giving these out sometime next week so make sure to check back then.

Unknown object filmed over Fresno, CA

Someone sent me a link to this video that was of a UFO that was reportedly shot over Fresno sometime in August 2008. Not really sure what it is to be honest.



What I found really interesting is that the strobe pattern of the lights is similar to this UFO which was seen on Interstate 5 back in 2007. Could this be the same craft or something similar? Only time will tell.

Zombie protest in Fresno, CA

As I had mentioned yesterday, there was to be some sort of gathering of zombies at the intersection of Blackstone and Shaw area. Armed with my camera, my iPhone for video, and a hell of a lot of courage I headed to the area around 6:00. When I got there I was a bit surprised. There were actually two groups that were protesting. Feeling that the safer group was the one against zombie rights I headed to that one first. Not really sure if that was a a smart idea or not.


The anti-zombie rights group of people

Upon arriving at their corner, I was greeted with anti-zombie chants of how they were taking people's jobs, brains, etc. I talked to them for a few minutes and was even able to get some video asking them to share their views on why zombies should not have the same rights that us living have.



After recording that bit of video I decided to muster enough courage and head across Blackstone where the (larger) group of zombies were at. I figured if they came after me I could just run into traffic and let Fresno drivers take care of them for me. As usual I was wrong.


This is what waited for me across the street.


At this point I started to change my mind, they looked
a bit hungry.

As soon as I arrived at the zombie corner, they eyed me rather hungrily. Thankfully when I told them I was there to document their plight, they backed off. I tried asking questions but all I got was a series of moans, grunts, and cries for "Braaainnnnssss". As I read their signs I realized all they wanted was equal rights that us living have. From jobs, to fair treatment. And these zombies seemed to come from all walks of life.


Even the undead are hurt by the current
recession. If I had kids I'd hire this one to
look after them.

Feeling a bit safer now I decided to take even more photos and some video. Apparently that was a bad idea.



The only way I had escaped that was that a car had mistakenly turned into the parking lot where the zombies were at. There were a group of people in the car and thankfully the zombies turned to these new treats allowing me to get to a safe distance.


I almost pitied these poor people, but they should
have been more aware of their surroundings.


Luckily the group got away. What you don't see is
the carcass of a zombie being dragged from their
back bumper.

At this point I realized I had better get the hell out of there. I thought I would do one more video just to show the plight these poor zombies were going through as I still felt sorry for them. Once again I found out that recording video of zombies is a bad idea.



Thankfully I was able to get out of there with no zombie bites and my brain still intact (though if it was intact before I had shown up is debatable). As I was leaving I noticed several zombies (and even a few of the living) holding up signs for a Halloween attraction called Fright Night Scream Park. Apparently this is where both groups will be staying during the month of October (along with other groups of friends apparently). For more info you can go to their website here. I'm going to try to venture to there next week just to see what exactly is going on.

Zombies to invade Fresno today!

Could road signs like this be a daily occurrence in Fresno? Let's hope not.

I get plenty of strange e-mails here at Weird Fresno. From people claiming to have seen Bigfoot in their back yard, to seeing lights in the sky. But after doing this for over a year now, I recieved the strangest e-mail yet. Zombies are to invade Fresno today.

You read correctly. The walking dead are in Fresno.

Now I'm not really sure what is going to happen. The e-mail I sent was rather cryptic. All I was told is that there is to be a gathering of zombies on one of the corners of Blackstone and Shaw today from 5:00 to 6:30 or so. Nothing else was said. Blackstone and Shaw has been known lately for protest gatherings. Could the walking dead be protesting something? And why here in Fresno?

Whatever the case may be, this blogger of all things weird and completely bat shit insane intends to find out. I'll be armed with a camera, a video recorder, and a sawed off shot gun. Expect a post tomorrow of what happened. Assuming I don't get bit and join their ranks. Or you can check out for yourself what is going on this evening, if you have the stomach for such things.

My first paranormal investigation

I have been investigating the paranormal off and on for nearly a decade now. Even though I was interested in the subject I never actively pursued anything with a serious mindset. That changed in the summer of 2000.

I was waiting for my friend Tom (whom I mentioned before in many posts) to get off work as we wanted to go look for some ghosts, when he told me a co-worker of his Fred, was also interested in the paranormal. I met Fred, and while he was a bit energenic, I could tell he definitely new about ghosts. Even better was that he had a digital camera, which at that time was a big deal since they were so expensive. I was excited by this because I had been reading on the internet at that time that ghosts would usually manifest themselves as "orbs" or these balls of light and a digital camera was the best way to capture them. I told him about the New Hope Cemetery in Madera which Tom and I believed to be haunted (the stories behind that are for another post). At that time, Tom's roommate Scott showed up to see what was going on. Scotty has always been a skeptic so we decided to drag him along just to see if we could get him to believe. Fred asked if he could take a friend of his along (it was a girl, so I think he was trying to hook up with her) and we all headed off in Tom's truck to Madera.

I had been wanting to go back to the Madera Cemetery for a while. I had recently purchased an EMF detector (theory on these is that ghosts can alter the magnetic field in the area and these things detect the changes) and wanted to try it out on this cemetery which Tom and I believed was haunted. Even better now that Fred had a digital camera, we could hopefully document anything that occurred. I decided to give Scotty the EMF detector and told him how to operate it. The rest of us had flash lights and I had a film camera. Tom and I headed in one direction, while the others headed elsewhere. Not even five minutes into this, I heard Scotty yelling that the EMF detector was going off and Fred was getting several orbs in the pictures.

Excited by this, all of us grouped back together and starting taking pictures and noticed we were getting even more orbs. We were so excited by this that we didn't think to what could cause the increase in orb activity, we just figured the place was really haunted. After a few hours (and rolls of film), we left. We did try a cemetery up in Raymond but didn't have any luck up there.

At this time, I thought we had hit the jackpot. We finally had proof of the cemetery being haunted with all the orbs we got. For years I thought we had captured ghosts on film (albeit the digital type) and told anyone and everyone I knew about it. Hell, the four of us even started our own paranormal investigation group as we were so emboldened by what had happened that night. The problem was, I didn't know any better. I had read something on the internet from a self-proclaimed expert on the paranormal that orbs were the manifestation of ghosts. But these weren't ghosts, they were dust particles reflecting the flash of the camera. What I did not mention before, was that this cemetery is out in the country and that there is no grass there, only dirty. And during the summer the ground is dusty. So by us walking around, we were stirring up dust which the camera was then picking up as orbs due to the flash. As for the EMF detector, I discovered later that if you held it a certain way the thing would light up. That's what I get for buying something that is supposed to be a ghost finder on the internet.

My point of this story is this. Don't believe everything you read on the internet, especially when it's involving anything paranormal related. When I do investigations (which are infrequent now) if I get an orb in any photo, I discount it almost immediately. Unfortunately there are still groups out there that post nothing but orb pics, but it is not my place to judge their methods. I've learned a lot since that night. I'm much more skeptical now of things, though I still do believe in the essence of the paranormal. Just that I need hard evidence to make me believe something when I'm told it's a ghost, or a UFO, or a bigfoot sighting.

Panama youth claim to have killed alien

The discovery of a strange creature in Cerro Azul, Panama, sparked controversy among the people, for what some say might be a creature from another planet, others simply believe that it is just an animal.

A few young men were having fun on a hill when they saw at the entrance of a cave a creature that was approaching them. They were frightened and stoned it to death.

Panama's Channel 13 showed images of a strange creature that appeared last weekend in Cerro Azul, east of Panama City, and alarmed local residents.

According to Telemetro, polemic unleashed between those who believe it is an animal and those who think it's an extraterrestrial creature.

No authorities said anything about the find.

Telemetro said four children, aged between 15 and 16, saw the "thing" out of the water fall of Cerro Azul and stoned it to death, afraid of being attacked.

Here are some photos of the alleged alien.



Personally, I believe this isn't an alien. What kind of intelligent being, capable of traveling light years across the galaxy, if not the universe, would be hiding in some cave (wearing no clothing) and then be stoned to death?

I was talking to Katrina Neufeld last night via Twitter about the creature and she mentioned that she thought it might be a sloth. It’s hard to say without a close-up of the creature’s hand to see if it has long curved claws that sloths are known for having. But a sloth does have a snout similar to what is shown in the pictures, albeit it’s black.

Perhaps this is an albino or some sort of mutant sloth (which would explain the lack of any hair and skin pigment). As far out there as that theory is, it seems more plausible than that of an alien being stoned to death in a cave in the middle of the jungle.

Link to original story.

Strange creature chases witness in Orange Cove, CA

A witness reports that while leaving a friend’s house in Orange Cove late one evening, they saw something strange. They left their friend’s house around 2:00 am and headed south on 10th street towards Sheridan school. They were about four houses away from their friend’s when the witness saw some movement in a driveway. They were ready to disregard it until they saw a figure in the porch light instantly leap onto the roof of the house from the ground. Startled the person slowed down to try to see what was going on and could make out some movement on top of the house. Not much could be seen of the figure, though its size was estimated to be larger than a cat.

Running late, the witness continued to drive down 10th street. As they looked into their rear view mirror, they saw the figure jump back off the house. Scared they locked their doors and began to drive faster. Looking back into the rear view mirror again the person to see that the figure was now chasing the vehicle. They could only catch a glimpse of whatever it was, but it was enough to make them drive faster to escape it. From what they could see, it was about four feet high and had long spindly legs. Whatever it was, it wasn’t human. The witness even further describes it as somewhat of a toad like creature as they said it looked like a toad would look if on its hind legs.

Terrified now, the witness reached Sheridan school now, which is at the end of 10th street and turned west onto J street. They stopped at the intersection of 9th and J street to see if the creature was still following them. At first they didn’t see anything, but after a few seconds the creature came back into the person’s field of view. It continued south across the street towards the school, avoiding the street lights so it wouldn’t be seen. It jumped the chain link fence with no problem. A bit curious now (and with the car doors locked) the witness turned south onto 9th street and drove alongside the west gate of the school and tried to stay focused on the creature. They were able to follow the creature as it ran across the school field, but as they reached the end of the block and turned west onto South street they lost sight of the figure and were unable to find it again. A bit terrified they went home as fast as they could.

From what the witness describes, it wasn’t running extremely fast, maybe comparable to an average athletic person. But it’s ability to jump great heights definitely exceeded that of a human being. The witness mentioned the sighting to his friend the next day. The friend had never seen anything like that nor heard of any sightings. But they had heard someone or something constantly running up and down the street late at night.

The original witness's story can be found here.