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 Sacramento Tunnels Hope you’ve enjoyed reading all about the locations we’ve been stopping at along the tour. Perhaps you’ve even been making notes for your own tour of California.
Flying in and out of places, as we’re trying to cover as many stops as possible, makes it difficult to conduct investigations or explore the settings in depth. However, we have managed to fit in some time for collecting possible evidence.
For instance, while at the Amargosa Hotel we had the opportunity to set up our night vision camera in our room and took numerous photos of the area. Our host, Rich Regnell, pointed out the room we were in had previous paranormal activity. We also tried to record some EVPs while in the area referred to as “Spooky Hollow”.
This was continued into the next day while visiting the town of Bodie. Taking avantage of the fact we had the entire cemetery to ourselves for a long period of time, we used the digital recorder to try and communicate with any of the Bodie residents that have been buried up on that lonely hill.
While we didn’t have as much time as we would have liked to spend investigating and we haven’t had the time to fully review all the digital information yet, it still might turn up some interesting evidence.
This is sort of a teaser to make us want to come back and explore even more. Until then we will continue pulling out the digital recorder, IR lights, and anything else we can fit into the mix. You never know what you might find.
 Calico Ghost Town As the sun rose in the desert the temperatures inched up for the Believe It Tour crew as we got ready for another fun day of exploring. After a cup of espresso and breaking down camp we decided to do a little more in-depth exploring of Calico.
We took a train tour through the back side of the town where we saw the original silver mine and left over relics from the mining boom in the 1880s. Brad and Diana even explored an old mine shaft while Mike explored the town. The crew was also able to talk to a few merchants in town about their paranormal experiences in Calico and hear a few interesting ghost stories.
In one store we talked to a merchant that had worked in Calico for six years and had heard many ghost stories. She said the store she worked in had a man in the back that had been seen over the years, but she had never seen him. Although she did have a curious experience with some missing keys that mysteriously reappeared after a month. While she’s not sure what happened she does know that someone played a joke on her, whether that person was human or a ghostly entity. She also directed us to another store where they had some activity.
In the next store we were able to speak with another Calico merchant who had a number of interesting paranormal experiences. She said her store had a male presence that roamed throughout the shop and a little boy who played on the plank porch in front of the building. She also experienced something that physically touched her when she was in a back storage room. She then said most of the buildings in Calico had numerous reports of paranormal activity that residents, merchants, and visitors had experienced over the years. She said at one time Calico had regular ghost tours, but currently they were only offered at Halloween.
Some of the other stores we visited regaled us with tales of the paranormal that ranged from a mysterious haze that would be seen hovering near the ceiling of a mine shaft to children’s laughter near a bridge that led to the old school house and the smell of perfume coming from one of the buildings that used to house a brothel to some other merchants capturing a number of EVPs.
After a fascinating adventure through Calico we’re back on the road heading to Death Valley.
 Sacramento City Cemetery Another ghost hunting adventure led me to Sacramento,CA and the historical Sacramento City Cemetery located at 1000 Broadway on the corner of 10th Street and Broadway.
The cemetery is one of California’s oldest and was established in 1849 with a ten-acre gift to the city from John Sutter. The earliest known burial in the cemetery was of Captain James Homans in 1849. The expansion of the cemetery continued and was finally complete in 1880 with a donation from Margaret Crocker that brought the city land holdings to 60 acres. Currently, the cemetery covers only a portion of that and contains over 25,000 graves of pioneers, immigrants, and many people important in the early days of California’s history.
One poignant spot in the cemetery is a mass grave for almost 1000 people that perished in the 1850 cholera epidemic and then a separate commemorative marker for the 17 doctors that lost their lives caring for the cholera victims. There is also a marker that states over 3,000 pioneers were buried in unmarked graves somewhere within and around the cemetery. The area surrounding the cemetery is all residential and built before careful excavations would have taken place, so it’s quite likely there are many remains under the homes in close proximity to the cemetery.
While I was in the cemetery I took numerous photos, but never captured anything except some interesting grave markers and monuments. Another person was managing a recorder in the hopes of picking up some EVPs, but we didn’t get anything when we listened later. I personally didn’t experience anything out the ordinary while I was at the cemetery, but one person did feel like something grabbed her and then quickly let go. She wasn’t scared, but she was definitely caught off-guard and stayed in the area for a while to see if she heard or felt anything more. Over the years, I’ve heard stories that people have had many different encounters while visiting the cemetery. While I didn’t experience anything paranormal on the particular day I went I did see some amazing monuments and get a little glimpse into California’s history and some of the people that figured prominently in it. Maybe next time I’ll have a different tale to tell.
 The Haunted Adobe- Long Beach, CA The day was a perfect Southern CA autumn day- cool and a little windy. An ideal day to embark on a grand adventure. I was making my way to Long Beach, CA to meet a group of ghost hunters that were going to explore a haunted adobe. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was heading over there with an open mind and my camera in hand.
To better understand this California historic site let me give you a little background. The haunted adobe, better known as the Rancho Los Cerritos adobe, was built in 1844 and is an important part of early California history. In 1784 Manuel Nieto received a grant from the Spanish government giving him 300,000 acres of California land and in 1834 his daughter, Manuela Cota, received 27,000 acres of his huge estate. With her husband and twelve children she built two adobes on this land and they raised a large herd of cattle. When Cota died her children sold the land to John Temple, who was a successful cattle rancher from Massachusetts and was the builder of the two-story Rancho Los Cerritos adobe. After an economic downturn in the California cattle industry Temple sold his property in 1866 to Thomas and Benjamin Flint and their cousin Lewellyn Bixby, who were all sheep ranchers. During this prosperous time, 1866 to 1881, many Flint and Bixby family members were born, lived, and died in the adobe. From 1890 to 1927, the adobe housed a number of different tenants and finally fell into disrepair before being renovated in 1930 and then given to the city of Long Beach in 1955. Needless to say between the Native American tribes and all the families that lived on this land there was a varied and rich past. Circumstances ripe for a ghostly encounter.
The ghost hunting group had visited this site before and were sure there would be some activity. We had a docent that took us around the adobe as many photos were snapped and voice recorders utilized to capture EVP. For those that aren’t familiar with EVP it stands for electronic voice phenomenon and is the communication of ghosts through tape recorders or other electronic devices. Three people in the group, myself included, had never done this before, but the other seven people had.
There were a number of rooms downstairs, but none seemed to have anything unusual in them to me. However, when I entered one room upstairs I got a little dizzy and felt strange, but I wasn’t if was due to a presence in the house or the Starbuck’s hot chocolate I’d powered down 20 minutes before. I noticed one girl in the group linger outside of a particular room and one man looked a little ill at one point. When the hour long tour was over we thanked the docent and the group reconvened outside to share their experiences.
The man who looked ill had gotten something on his voice recorder. He said it was the voice of a female who was saying some shocking things. He didn’t elaborate as to what was being said though. One girl in the group was a psychic that was used to seeing and communicating with ghosts. She confirmed there was definitely a presence in the house and it belonged to a young girl who was not a friendly spirit. I can’t say when I walked through the house I felt or saw anything out the ordinary and when I got home I looked through the many photos I took, but didn’t capture anything beyond what I saw when I was there.
It was definitely a fun adventure and I really enjoyed meeting the people in the group. I can say that I can’t wait for my next ghost hunting adventure. The next time you are in Southern California I’d recommend a visit to the Rancho Los Cerritos adobe, which is located at 4600 Virginia Road in Long Beach, CA. Who knows maybe you’ll be the one to hear a whisper in your ear or photograph a ghostly face in an orb.
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