Is the Hanford Civic Auditorium haunted?

The Hanford Civic Auditorium at night.

If you happen to visit the small town of Hanford, located in Kings County, is located in Courthouse Square near the Bastille. And like the Bastille, there are stories that the auditorium is haunted.

In 1924 the city of Hanford built the auditorium for cultural and political uses as well as hosting community activites. It seems that over the years several of it's visitors have decided to stay for one reason or another. When you first enter the Civic Auditorium it is said that you can sometimes feel a very cold breeze passing by, even though the windows are closed. Also in the mens restroom, there has been reports of hearing men discussing legal topics even though there is no one else in the area. Occasionally a man dressed in an old style suit from the 1940's can be seen in the area, but always disappears without a trace.

The auditorium itself has several ghosts. Several spirits have been seen on the upper balcony appearing to be watching an invisible show. Also a man with dark brown hair and eyes and wearing a black suit with a white shirt has been seen applauding. As soon as he is done he instantly vanishes.

There is no reason given to why these ghosts haunt the auditorium, but one can speculate they are what's called a residual haunting. What a residual haunting is that someone or something makes such an impression on a certail location that it is theorized that they leave an imprint. The event replays itself over and over again like a movie and any spirit that is seen is oblivious to the living. The ghosts in the auditorium applauding even there isn't a performance going on seem to fit this criteria. As do the voices in the mens restroom. Both are instances of something repeating itself.

Though it is entirely possible that these are actual ghosts haunting the Civic Auditorium. Perhaps the spirits seen in the auditorium enjoyed it so much in life that they have returned there in death. Though without a proper investigation it's hard to theorize what is actually going on. But one thing is for certain, the Hanford Civic Auditorium is definitely haunted by something.

Chupacabra seen in Oklahoma?

A group of teenagers in Tecumseh, OK say they spotted the mythical Chupacbra behind the local high school. They described it as having long back legs and it's front legs were smaller and looked similar to a kangaroo's. The creature was also hairless and had a long tail. The group was able to snap a photo of the creature with a cellphone camera. Unfortunately the picture was a bit blurry and it's hard to make out any details.

The news story goes on to mention some of the other recent sightings and how that the likely explantion for those was some sort of animal with mange and that is this the case here. Still, this is the first sighting that I have heard of in Oklahoma.

The teens stated they have seen the creature several more times and their goal is to now capture it.

SyFy channel show airs strange video shot in Fresno

A few months ago I was contacted by a production company working on a new show for the SyFy Network. They were working on a show that investigated strange videos and they had come across the post I had done about the strange creatures that someone in Fresno had captured on CCTV. They had wanted my opinion on the video and talked for a good twenty minutes to the producer of the show.

Fast forward to last night and the episode aired. The show is called "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files" and is the second episode of the show and is entitled 'Unwanted Vistors/ Strange Sightings. Now I won't go into much detail as to what they showed, but some of it was interesting. Especially the part in the woods. I have no idea where they filmed this part at or what it has to do with the original video that was shown though I imagine it was added in there for dramatic purposes. Still I've sent an e-mail to the producers and hopefully they will tell me as I'd like to investigate for myself.

For those who missed the episode last night, they have the it up on their website. Unfortunately there isn't a way to embed the video, but if you click here you can go to their site and watch the episode in full.

Personally I'm happy with the show. It's nice to see Fresno mentioned in a context that doesn't have us (mis)labeled as the drunkest city or something else of that nature. Thanks to the Beehive for pointing this out yesterday that the show was going to air.

Bigfoot reported seen in eastern Tulare County

A view of Kings Canyon National Park, near where the creatures

were reportedly seen.

In the summer of 2007, a lone hicker was backpacking up the Pacific Crest Trail which lies about 70 miles east of Visalia in Tulare County in the Kings Canyon National Park. At around 2:00 pm that day the witness describes seeing two large upright figures in the distance covered with dark fur. At a distance of about 200 yards he observed the creatures at the edge of a deep canyon for around 10 minutes. The hiker then decided to make a coyote call to see what the creatures reactions would be. Needless to say it spooked the creatures and they left the area in a few seconds.

The witness further stated that he did have a camera on him, but he was so caught up in the moment that he forgot he had one on him. But given the distance he was from the creatures, the pictures would have not had that much detail to them. The witness decided to go back to the same location the following year (2008) to see if he could see the creatures again and this time photograph them. Unfortunately he didn't see anything, but did find some month old scat that he assumed was from a Bigfoot (why he thinks this is never stated in the report) and he claimed it contained hair from small mammals and some finely chewed vegetation, including some type of red berries.

As I had posted many months ago, this is another sighting seen in the area during the summer. A colleguae of mine theorizes that the Bigfoot are migrating through the area during the summer months and that's why most of the sightings occur then. One day we plan on making a trip up to where the sightings have occured, but with money being as tight as it is right now that may be a while. Hopefully an organization like the Bigfoot Researchers Originization can take a look into this and discover what's going on.

The link to the original report can be found here.

Ghost of little boy haunts Sanger residence

Is one of these houses on Acacia Drive in Sanger haunted by the

ghost of a little boy killed years ago?

In the small town of Sanger, located in Fresno County, there is a legend of a small boy's ghost that has been around for several decades. The stories goes that sometime in the mid 1900's, a young orphan boy was caught trying to steal a freshly baked pie that was cooling on a window sill of a local farmer's house. When the boy ran off with the pie, the farmer chased after him. The boy was finally caught on what is now Acacia Drive and was shot and killed while begging for his life.

Over the years people have reported seeing a young boy in one of the residences on Acacia Drive (for privacy I'm not going to reveal the address) begging for his life. Food missing from the refrigator have also been reported. Apparently this story is rather common in Sanger. A very good friend of mine used to work for the Sanger police department and was telling me a few of the local ghost stories (one he told me scared the hell out of me, but I'll save that for another day). He starts to tell me about the ghost of a little boy who keeps stealing food from these people's refrigator of someone that he knows. I ask him if the house is on Acacia Drive and he looks at me suprised and says yes. I told him about the story that's been around for years and was suprised that there may be a kernel of truth to it.

I asked my friend if it would be possible to meet with the people who live at the house to see what is going on. Unfortunately I never did get the chance to go there as he switched jobs soon after. But I still think about the ghost of that poor little boy still stealing food all these years later, and apparently he has never learned his lesson.

Madera man sees cigar shaped UFO on Fourth of July weekend

A Madera County man witnessed two strange craft flying over the Sierra Nevadas over the Fourth of July weekend. While laying in the back of his truck with his young son, they saw two bright silver cigar shaped craft with what appeared to be an orange or brown colored band around the middle. He estimates them to be about a quarter of a mile away and were only visible for a minute or so before leaving rather quickly, headed in a southern direction.

I wonder if this has to do anything with the other UFO sightings that happened over that same weekend? It's hard to tell if this was a daylight sighting or not, but given the fact that the witness describes it as silver in color and no mention of any lights leads me to believe it was a daylight sighting which in turn means that this was no errant firework shot into the sky as some others might be.

It has me wondering what the hell exactly went on that weekend and why such a rash of sightings? The Central Valley normally isn't a hot spot for UFO activity, but that weekend people saw some strange things in the skies.

MUFON report: Shimmering silver cigar shape with orange/brown band in the middle.

While lying in a pickup bed with my two year old son we both witnessed two u.f.o.s. They were above the mountain in front of my house about 1/4 mile away. The two objects hovered for at least a minute next to each other then they flew off to the right/south extremely fast leaving the skyline in a second or less.

My two year old son and I both witnessed the objects are were both very excited to have seen them. We have only told my parents who were also present but were inside the pickup truck and did not see the objects.

Pope Benedict XVI to set up exorcism squads

According to Father Gabriele Amorth, the chief exorcist for the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI wants to set up exorcism "squads" to deal with what he is calling the rampant growth of Satanism. The decision was made due to the rising concerns among Church officials over growing interest in Satanism and the occult.

According to Father Amorth each bishop will be provided with a group of priests who are experts in performing exorcisms and more will be trained as needed.

This has me wondering if a group will be sent to the Diocese of Fresno to assist Bishop Steinbock in any reported exorcists? Not that any information would be released to the public as this information is kept confidential. Given the fact that Fresno is considered the Bible Belt of California, I wonder if there will be a rash of reported possessions? You know us Catholics, we find anything bad to be evil and possessed.

More Chupacabra sightings in Texas

It seems once again that Texas is the hot spot for supposed Chupacabra sightings.

An animal control office in Hood County, Texas shot and killed a creature that was hairless and didn't look like anything he had ever seen before. But that wasn't the only creature that was seen. Another creature with similiar characteristics was spotted and killed several miles away.

The animal control officer was quick not to say whether he killed the legendary goat sucker or not. The animal was sent away for DNA tests (most likely at tax payers expense) before he makes a decesion. He did say he knew whatever it was it wasn't normal. Another officer stated that it was nothing like she had ever seen before.

To me that the creature shown in the video is either a coyote or dog suffering from mange, which would explain the lack of hair. As for the emanicapted look, that can be explained by both the mange and the fact the creature was problably starving (which would explain why one was in the barn, most likely it was searching for food).

I found it a bit humorous that the reporter was looking for a "pack of Chupacabras" at the end of the video and the rancher said if he was a Chupacabra, that a certain clump of trees is where he would live. Part of me was hoping something would have jumped out when he investigated the clump of trees, but alas nothing happaned. Hopefully when the DNA tests comeback showing that this was nothing more than an animal with mange people will realize that these aren't Chupacabras. But that has happened before and nothing has changed. Meanwhile the real Chupacabra is in Puerto Rico laughing at all the imposters in Texas and the rest of the Southwest.

Thanks to Brodiemash over at the DumbDrum for sending me the video.