Is Fresno's Pinedale area haunted?

Not many people may know this, but the north Fresno area of Pinedale has a long and interesting history in regards to the rest of Fresno. In March of 1942, the Federal government officially acquired the land which was eight miles north of downtown Fresno. At the time there were 21 warehouses and 11 other buildings.

From 7 May 7 to 23 July 1942, the Pinedale Assembly Center housed a total of 4,823 evacuees, with a maximum of 4,792 at a time. The evacuees were from Sacramento and El Dorado counties, and Oregon and Washington. Ten barracks blocks, each with 26 buildings, were constructed for the evacuees, and a separate block was built for the military police and administration.

But these was a temporary "assembly" center used until permanent ones could be built in remote locations. In August 1, 1942, on the site of the Pinedale Assembly Center became Camp Pinedale began receiving soldiers selected for training as Army Air Forces signal technicians in December of that year. The proposed use was for the Air Service Command to store clothing, parachutes, equipment, office supplies, and salvage material. In July of 1944 Camp Pinedale became the home of the 840th Army Air Forces Specialized Depot.

By war's end, the post had trained 25,000 soldiers as electronic specialists and for allied army assignments, clerks, truck drivers, chemical warfare specialists, camouflage specialists, ordnance technicians, and cooks. The camp was deactivated in February 1947, when the Corps of Engineers assumed custody of the sprawling base and began preparations for the disposal of the post's building and other installations.

During the period June to December, 1946, Camp Pinedale's operations were rapidly drawing to a close. Effective 3 December 1946, approximately 380 acres of the installation were declared surplus. The remaining 190 acres occupied by the 840th AAF Specialized Depot were declared surplus effective 1 March 1947. On October, 1947, the property reverted to its owner, the Pinedale Compress and Warehouse Company (formerly Valley Compress). Four years later it was sold to the California Cotton Cooperative Association Ltd (Calcot).

For the next few decades several companies occupied the land and buildings that were part of Camp Pinedale. It was only when the Vendo Company took hold of one building, that reports of paranormal activity begin to surface.

In the Mezzanine area, people would report being grabbed by some unseen force. Near the plant's entrance, several people saw a Japanese woman with half of her face rotted off, sitting on a green bench. People have heard sounds of choking and whispering, but never were able to find the source. And in one of the restrooms upstairs, a former employee hung himself and people would still see his ghost up there seven years later and after a while people refused to use the restroom due to seeing his spirit all the time.

There are rumors that a lot of Japanese Americans died at Camp Pinedale and there bodies are buried on the grounds and this would explain the number of incidents reported. To be honest, I'm not sure if this is true or not. But given the state of mind these poor people were in while they were being held here, it wouldn't surprise me that if some had died, that they still linger here. Not knowing that it's ok to move on. Still this is a sad part of Fresno's history that many people do not know about.

For a more detailed history of the area, you can go here.

These pictures I took back in August of 2005. They were all that was left of the buildings that were part of Camp Pinedale. These were off of Ingram, but if you go there now the only thing left is the water tower. Everything else has been replaced with new office buildings.

Mayor sends in troops after alien April Fool panic

A local newspaper's April Fool chronicling a late-night visit by 10ft aliens sparked panic in a town in Jordan.

The Al Ghad newspaper published a front-page article claiming a UFO landing near the desert town of Jafr.

The report said the aliens lit up the whole town, interrupted communications and sent fearful residents streaming into the streets.

Jafr's mayor, Mohammed Mleihan, was fooled by the paper's prank and sent security authorities in search of the aliens.

"Students didn't go to school, their parents were frightened and I almost evacuated the town's 13,000 residents," he said. "People were scared that aliens would attack them."

A Jordanian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss security issues, said an emergency plan was almost enacted in Jafr.

Mleihan said he may sue the daily for its "big lie," but added that the paper had called to apologise for the inconvenience caused by the joke.

Al Ghad's managing editor, Moussa Barhoumeh, tried to defuse the situation, saying the report has been "blown out of proportion."

"We meant to entertain, not scare people," he said.

The prank was reminiscent of the 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds which provoked panic in America.

Original story can be found here.

Strange hairless creature discovered in China

A bizarre creature, dubbed the “oriental yeti”, has baffled scientists after emerging from ancient woodlands in remote central China.

The hairless beast was trapped by hunters in Sichuan province after locals reported spotting what they thought was a bear.

One hunter, Lu Chin, said: “It looks a bit like a bear but it doesn’t have any fur and it has a tail like a kangaroo.

“It also does not sound like a bear — it has a voice like a cat and it is calling all the time — perhaps it is looking for the rest of its kind or maybe it's the last one.

"There are local legends of a bear that used to be a man and some people think that’s what we caught," he added.

Now stumped local animal experts have shipped the mystery beast to scientists in Beijing for DNA tests.

Original story can be found here.

Farmers claim aliens attacking livestock

A series of bizarre incidents involving sheep in Shropshire have led to farmers’ claims that aliens are attacking their livestock.

Farmers near Shrewsbury claim to have witnessed sheep being “lasered” by unidentified light from UFOs.

They have linked the unexplained incidents, where sheep’s brains and eyes were removed, to the mysterious orange lights in the sky.

They have found sheep with “neat holes” while their brains and other internal organs were removed. Other animals have lost eyes or had their flesh “carefully stripped away”, usually on the left side.

Phil Hoyle, 53, who has spent almost a decade investigating how the livestock have died, said the UFOs were found to have roamed a 50-mile "corridor" between Shrewsbury and Powys.

Mr Hoyle and 15 members of the Animal Pathology Field Unit, claimed they witnessed UFOs at work last month while working during the night at a Welsh hill farm near Radnor Forest.

“The technology involved in these attacks is frightening,” he told The Sun.

“These lights and spheres are clearly not ours.

“They are built by technology and intelligence that's not from here.”

He added: “For a short while it looked more like a Star Wars battle.”

Next day he interviewed farmers and "all but one had some type of unusual disappearance of animals or deaths with strange injuries", he told the paper.

Original story can be found here.

Island of Dolls, the creepiest place in the world?

I don't know the entire history of this island, just that it lies near Mexico City. The man seen in the video strung up dolls to protect himself from the spirit of a girl that reportedly drowned there years ago. According to rumors the dolls began to take on the girl's spirit. Visitors to the island reported hearing the dolls whispering to them and some felt drawn to come to them.

After this video was shot, the owner of the island was found dead by his nephew in the same canal that the girl reportedly drowned in. Now the nephew takes care of the island, continuing the practices that his uncle started.

Real video of a ghost, most conclusive evidence ever.

Scroll down.

April Fools!

UFO buzzed Tracy, California on March 26th 2010

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

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

Link to the original story can be found here.

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

Sacramento UFO sightings on the rise?

SACRAMENTO, CA -- Are UFOs taking a closer look at Sacramento? Local groups that track possible UFO sightings said there have been several interesting sightings lately.

According to Ben Stoecker, the contact person for the Sacramento chapter of the Mutual UFO Network, there's definitely something going on.

"There's a phenomenon, or perhaps several phenomena, that we don't even begin to understand," Stoecker said. "Maybe they are Pleidians, or whatever, from another planet, or from Mars, even."

Stoecker looked at a video of a possible unidentified flying object sighting in the foothills and said there are many possible explanations for some of the more unusual sightings.

"Maybe they're objects built right here by some group on Earth or by our own government," he suggests.

Sacramento City College astronomer Liam McDaid said he finds it difficult to understand why so many sightings are assumed to be from aliens from elsewhere in space.

"It's probably not an alien species that's traveled x-number of light years to come here and harass us, without doing anything obvious, or overt, like landing on the White House lawn, having a beer with Obama," McDaid said.

Per Stoecker, the idea of UFOs is not that difficult to imagine. He believes there may be advanced technologies, beyond human imagination, on Earth.

"We might be dealing with paranormal phenomena - a challenge to our very notion of reality," Stoecker said. "Or with some bizarre life form. We don't know."

Astronomer McDaid would like to see some hard proof.

"I need to see some actual alien hardware, technology, metal, (an) ash tray with Alpha Centauri Hilton on it, something that will make it clear to me that it does not come from our planet," said McDaid.

Original story can be found here.