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While on the road searching for adventure and scouting out locations for our upcoming tour, Believe It Tour stumbled across Tolomato Cemetery in St. Augustine , Florida. This is one the nations oldest cemeteries as it dates back to the early 1700s. It’s also one of those places you don’t have a hard time believing is haunted with it’s old headstones and Spanish moss dripping from the trees.  Tolomato Cemetery The cemetery grounds have a varied past as they started out as the site for a Tolomato Indian village. When the Spanish arrived, Christian missionaries took over the village in 1763 and you can still see the chapel that was erected around that time. When Great Britain acquired Florida , the village was abandoned for a period of time until 1777 when Father Pedro Camps took over the burial grounds for his parishioners. For the next 115 years the cemetery was an active burial site with the last burial being in 1892.
While there are many town citizens and missionaries buried at the cemetery one of the most well-known is Chief Tolomato. The village’s original chief was buried just outside of what are today’s cemetery boundaries. At some point after his burial the town drugstore was moved atop his grave. If you visit the cemetery today you can still see the old building, which is still standing.
The ghost stories abound about the cemetery and range from a child that has been seen over the years playing around a large tree to a ghostly specter that stands watch at the entrance of the cemetery chapel. Who knows maybe when we have the Tolomato Cemetery as one of our upcoming tour stops we might even have our own ghostly encounter. Stay tuned to find out if we do.
 Bodie Ghost town After surviving the heat of Death Valley day five of the tour led us to the famous ghost town of Bodie. Armed with video cameras, a tape recorder, and cameras the crew set off to have an adventure.
Bodie is a ghost town that in its heyday had a population of over 10,000 and was the second largest CA city behind San Francisco. The town was named after W.S. Bodey when he discovered gold in the nearby hills in the 1850s. The current spelling of Bodie came about as the result of a misspelling by an illiterate sign maker. In its heyday Bodie had around 30 gold mines, 65 saloons, numerous brothels, and opium dens and Bodie was considered the most lawless and violent gold rush city in the West. It began its slow decline until 1962 when the State of CA took town over and turned it into a state park where the building are currently preserved in what is considered an arrested state of decay.
There are endless ghost stories around Bodie and even an alleged curse on the city. One of the most haunted houses in Bodie is the Jim Cain house where a maid committed suicide. The building has been used as housing for park rangers and was even open to the public at one time and many people have seen or experienced a somewhat frightening entity in the house. The other residence that has many stories is the Mendocini house where the sounds of children’s laughter and parties have been heard many times over the years. A number of people have also reported cooking smells emanating from the former residence.
While the ghost stories are well known and always interesting perhaps the most fascinating aspect to Bodie is its curse. Over the years the tale has been told that the spirits of Bodie’s former residents protect the town from any item of the former town being removed. If anyone visits the park and takes away a relic or unofficial souvenir the person supposedly has bad luck befall them and the park rangers report that they frequently have items mailed back to them as a result of the supposed curse.
The Believe It Tour crew had a great time exploring Bodie and came away with some good experiences, great video, and some fantastic photos. However, we were careful to make sure that everything we came into contact with stayed exactly as we saw it on our visit. Whether the curse is real or not, the crew wasn’t going to take any chances.
 Maydestone Apartment Building Always on the look-out for a new adventure I decided to explore an allegedly haunted location in Sacramento, CA on a recent trip to the area. I was able to squeeze in a quick trip to a historic building known as the Maydestone Apartments. It’s located at 1001 15th Street, on the corner of 15th and J Streets, in Sacramento’s mid-town area.
The building’s history is a little mysterious. It was built in 1912 and continually had tenants until 2003. Over the years tenants frequently complained of sudden cold spots, strange electrical phenomenon, unexplained noises, and an unknown presence that was felt throughout the building. In the late 1980s the Maydestone gradually became a dilapidated haven for drug addicts, prostitutes, and other assorted criminals. Apparently, on Halloween night of 2003 the building suffered a serious fire that resulted in substantial damage to the interior. It was closed for repair work, but never reopened. However, in 2009 Sacramento developer, D&S Development, took over an option to purchase the historic 34 room building.
When I arrived at the building the sun had already set, which gave the building a very oppressive and unsettled feeling. I’m normally never uneasy or prone to being jumpy, but for some reason I was definitely on guard that evening. I decided I would just walk around the building, get a few photos, and then leave. I got my camera out and used a parking meter as my unofficial tripod, so I could quickly snap a few shots. No sooner did I take my first few shots when my fully-charged camera stopped working and I had the overwhelming feeling I shouldn’t be taking any more photos of the building. All of my camera buttons stopped working and my display window kept flashing on and off. Then my camera gave me an error message just before powering down with a “charge battery” message. I was astonished as my fully charged camera would usually work weeks without needing a charge and here in a matter of minutes the battery was drained. At that point, there wasn’t much more I could do, so my friend and I decided to go have dinner instead.
Over dinner we discussed seeing the building and both of realized we had the same uneasy feeling while being there. I also mentioned how odd it was that my camera had such major issues, but I figured something must have happened on my plane flight. Maybe I bumped my camera and had accidentally turned it on. I reached into my bag, retrieved the camera to take a second look at it, and much to my surprise it fired right up complete with a fully charged battery. I was even more surprised to see I had gotten one shot and only one shot of the building. Now keep in mind it was completely dark out and I didn’t use a flash when I took the shot.
Now I can’t explain what happened that night, but I do think there was a reason my camera stopped working and I felt so unsettled being near the building. What do you think?
I’d love to hear any comments or experiences you might have had like this.
 It was a cold, late afternoon day when I embarked on a ghost hunting adventure. I was visiting Sacramento, CA and decided to see a few spots in the city that had some claim to being haunted. One of the stops on the tour was known as the Perrault House that was considered one of America’s most haunted locations in 1964. The house is a small unassuming structure on 14th Avenue near Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood. The house was owned by Hector Perrault and in the 60s Dorothy Lunsford and her teenage son lived in it. The house was filled with activity that ranged from unexplained fires starting on furniture to fuses that always blew out and light bulbs that burst while on to bottles in the kitchen that would explode. Heavy objects would also float or fly through the air and animals refused to go near the house. Apparently, at one point Perrault kept a 24 hour vigil going to ensure the house remained standing and wasn’t destroyed. The history is a little hazy as to why or how the activity stopped, but some time after the Lunsford family left things quieted down.
The house is still standing and another family now lives in it. The house looks warm and inviting even on a cold winter day. I think it’s safe to say that whatever was in the house back in the 60s is gone today.
Now the house next door is an entirely different matter…
 Sounds of footsteps in the attic, the pungent aroma of a cigar in an abandoned saloon, dark shadows peering from around a theater curtain…these are experiences familiar to ghost hunters. Some excitedly tell of moving objects, flickering lights, strange voices, and the living being gently touched, or sometimes violently pushed, by the dead. After 15 years of ghost hunting throughout the country and leading ghost tours in New Orleans, I feel like I’ve heard or experienced just about every type of ghostly encounter possible. But every now and then someone comes along with a personal story that makes me do a Scooby-Doo double-take…
A woman was watching TV when on came a car commercial. A luxury sedan was leisurely driving down a beautiful winding mountain road. Then the picture froze. The woman thought something was wrong with her TV. Out of no where, she distinctly heard a voice say, “My husband died on that road.” Then the commercial began again.
A couple was vacationing on a beautiful Caribbean island and took a tour of an old plantation. After returning home and developing their photos, one interior shot of the plantation home caught their attention. Some items were in the photo that they had not noticed while on the tour: a shelf full of books and a bowl on the table. They blamed this on their poor memory, and put the photos away. Later, they took out their vacation photos to share with friends and noticed something new in that photo. Through a window, one could now see a small wooden building on the back lawn. They knew for a fact that that building wasn’t there when they toured the property. Or was it? Puzzled, they put the photos away. Time passed and they took the photos out again to share with more friends. This time the photo had yet another addition. Someone was now standing just outside the window looking into the house at the camera. Curiously, this couple can no longer find the photo.
A friend of mine, Bill (that’s not his real name, by the way), was offered the opportunity to have a past-life regression. This fellow is an experienced ghost hunter, very psychic, open to all the possibilities of the universe, etc, etc. Even with this background, though, he found himself very skeptical about past lives, but went to the appointment anyway. During his hypnotic regression, he experienced a past life from 90 years ago. In that life, he was a 17 year old boy, living in a rural area only about 200 miles from his current home. He could vividly see the rickety bridge that crossed a small stream that lead to his simple home in the country. Going inside the home, he saw his mother who was very upset and worried about his father. Apparently, a big storm was brewing, and her husband was out fishing off the nearby coast. He should have been home long ago. Bill told his mother that he would go look for his father. Bill and his father both drown in that storm. After the regression was over, Bill thought, “Well, that was interesting,” but was rather indifferent about it all. Later though, his curiosity got the best of him and he decided, just for the fun of it and what did he really have to lose anyway, to go to the small country town from his so-called past life. After exploring around the various woods of this rural community, he was dumb-struck when found the same small rickety bridge over the same stream that lead to the home from his past life. Bill went up to the home, and discovering that it was abandoned, went inside. He immediately sensed a ghostly presence. In the same moment that he realized that it was his mother from that previous life, he experienced an over-whelming wave of warmth and love, literally feeling a mother’s unconditional love for her son. Bill gently explained to her all that had happened, and then helped her to cross over.
Before I go, I’ll leave you with one more mysterious morsel. A couple was staying at the Andrew Jackson Hotel in the French Quarter. When they returned home and downloaded their photos, they noticed that three extra pictures were taken. The photos were of them sleeping. The view was from high above near the ceiling.
written by: karen
 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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