Haunted Histories: Insight into Bodie and Skidoo

Excerpts from the LA Times article by Hugo Martin. For full story click here.

Spirits of the West hang around ghost towns

The ghost towns of the American West recall a desperate era. Located on high plains and open deserts where sandstorms and cold winter nights embalm any semblance of life, these towns still whisper their legends to anyone willing to stop and listen.

You'll hear the stories of the men, the women and the children who abandoned their homes, gave up their mining claims and vanished.

Today, these ghost towns offer little more than dusty whiskey bottles on warped shelves, dog-eared hymnals in church pews and framed black-and-white photos, veiled in spiderwebs.

Skidoo, Calif.: Pity the hard-luck residents of Skidoo, perhaps the sorriest little mining settlement in the West.

In its short-lived, miserable history, the town had the misfortune of attracting such desperate characters as Joe "Hooch" Simpson. In 1908, this down-on-his-luck barkeep made the mistake of gunning down the town banker for $20, and when a lynch mob finally got its hands on him, they couldn't wait to build a proper gallows. They hanged him from the telegraph pole that brought news of the outside world to this benighted patch of earth.

When a reporter from the Los Angeles Times showed up to take a photograph, the good citizens of Skidoo accommodated him by digging up Hooch, brushing him off and hanging him again. But then the town doctor, in a macabre moment, lopped off Hooch's head to test for syphilis, the possible cause of his sudden madness.

No wonder the twice-hanged, headless Hooch still wanders these empty hills in Death Valley where all that remains are a historical marker, broken bottles and hundreds of abandoned mine shafts.

Directions: From Stovepipe Wells, drive southwest along California Highway 190 for nine miles, turn left on Wildrose Canyon Road and, after nine more miles, turn left on the first major gravel road and continue for almost eight miles. For more information, call the Death Valley National Park at (760) 786-3200.

Bodie, Calif.: Bodie is a cursed ghost town. Pilfer anything from one of the old sun-bleached buildings north of Mono Lake -- a nail, part of a clock or even an old bottle -- and bad luck latches onto you forever.

Don't believe it? Then tell it to the visitors of this ghost town who have been returning stolen stuff with tales of heartbreak, death and serious injury that beset them once they left this Eastern Sierra settlement.

One fearful visitor even returned the nail that pierced her tire as she drove through town.

Directions: From U.S. Highway 395, take California Highway 270 east. Drive 10 miles to the end of the pavement and continue three miles on a dirt road. For more information, call Bodie State Historic Park, ( 760) 647-6445.

Haunted House Round-Up!

Every year around Halloween, the mainstream news dishes out the goods on the local haunts, so here is a briefing on this year's featured California Cold Spots:

The LA Times published a photo slide show on 5 Haunted Spots in California that covers The Agua Mansa Pioneer Cemetery in Colton, The Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz, Winchester Mystery House, Queen Mary in Long Beach, and Alcatraz National Park in San Francisco Bay.

The MSNBC report on Haunted Ski Resorts claims Mammoth Mountain is not haunted but nearby Bodie, CA is:

Mammoth Mountain, Calif., hasn't had any ghostly sightings in town or on the mountain, but the nearby ghost town of Bodie, Calif., is a state historical park. This ghost town has been preserved in a state of "arrested decay." I'm sure there are a handful of ghosts wandering these streets by night. Only problem for us mortals is that the park is closed around sundown. I wonder why?

The MSNBC report on Pet Cemeteries (Howling Haunts: Where Ghost Pets Play) highlights the Los Angeles Pet Cemetery and the Whaley House Museum among other national locales:

The Los Angeles Pet Cemetery - also known as L.A. Pet Memorial Park - on Old Scandia Lane in Calabasas, Calif., is the final resting place for many of Hollywood's famous animal actors including cowboy hero Hopalong Cassidy's horse Topper and Petey the pitbull who starred in the movie Little Rascals. But it's silent movie star Rudolph Valentino's Great Dane named Kabar who is said to still walk through this hillside cemetery and playfully lick people who stop at his grave around Halloween.

The Whaley House Museum on San Diego Avenue in Old Town San Diego, Calif. is listed by the United States Department of Commerce as "an authentic haunted house". In fact, the Travel Channel's America's Most Haunted, claims it to be the number one most haunted house in the country. This classic example of mid-19th century Greek revival architecture was once the home of entrepreneur Thomas Whaley who came to California during the gold rush. Whaley's infant son Thomas Jr. died in an upstairs bedroom and visitors have reported hearing the cries of a baby coming from this room. The ghost of a small dog has also been seen coming and going from this bedroom, as well as outside the house in the yard.

The Dallas Morning News article, You'll Find These Hotels Haunting, covers the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park:

•Guests on Tauck's "California's Gold Coast" tour spend two nights in the rustic yet luxurious Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, but apparently some hotel guests have forgotten to check out – even after checking out. Tauck's Cindy Walker refuses to stay on the sixth floor, which is thought to be haunted by the ghost of Mary Curry Tressider. Tressider was instrumental in the hotel's development, and she lived in a sixth-floor apartment until her death in 1970. When President John F. Kennedy stayed on the third floor during a visit in 1962, a rocking chair was placed in his room so that he could rock and help alleviate his chronic back pain. After Mr. Kennedy's death, housekeepers began reporting seeing a chair rocking slowly in the room where the president had stayed, even though the room hasn't been furnished with a rocking chair since his visit.

Most Famous Haunted Hotels by MSNBC writes on the California's Paso Robles Inn and Sainte Claire Hotel:

In 1940, for example, a guest at California's Paso Robles Inn discovered a fire on the second floor of the hotel. He rushed downstairs, sounded the alarm and then died of a heart attack. But his actions led to all of the hotel's guests being evacuated. Today, the front desk receives mysterious calls from room 1007 and one night there was a call placed to 911 from the unoccupied room.

In the early Thirties, a young woman is to be married in the Sainte Claire Hotel in San Jose, California. Her fiancé leaves her at the altar, and that night she hangs herself in the hotel's basement. Today guests report hearing high-heeled footsteps against hardwood floors ... even though the hotel is carpeted.

And finally, Florida's Southwest Herald Tribune lists California haunted properties along with a text messaging service that provides their real estate values:

Try HouseFront.com, a real-estate search and valuation firm. Simply text message the home's address to 46873 (which spells "house"), and it will return the number of bedrooms, baths and the home's value -- even the date when it was last sold and/or built, along with the current owner's name. You can get the same information at www.housefront.com, all at no cost.

Manson Murders

The address also has been changed at the Beverly Hills, Calif., location where Charles Manson and "friends" slaughtered Sharon Tate, an actress who was eight-months pregnant, and four others in 1969. It's now 10066 Cielo Drive. But then, it's not the same house.

No one would purchase the Tate house because of the stigma it carried. So it was torn down and replaced with a seven-bedroom, 12-bath manse that sprawls over 16,300 square feet. HouseFront estimates its value at $7.4 million. Still, the chilling impact of the murders remains, as locals and tourists with a penchant for the macabre visit the site frequently (www.housefront.com/1993381).

Winchester House

Sarah Winchester, who inherited more than $20 million and a 49 percent stake in the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. from her husband, William, built this architectural marvel in San Jose, Calif., around-the-clock for nearly 40 years.

A medium told her to build a house for herself and never stop or she would die. Another account says that she believed the only way she could repent for the thousands of people killed by her family's rifles was to keep building. Either way, she built and built and built some more, from 1884, when she purchased a house under construction, until her death 38 years later.

The place started out as a six-bedroom house. But Sarah turned it into a monster mansion with 40 bedrooms, 40 staircases, 47 fireplaces and 1,257 windows (www.housefront.com/1976454).

Madrona Manor

Room 101 in the bed-and-breakfast at 1001 Westside Road in Healdsburg, Calif., is said to be haunted by a women dressed in black. Some guests are certain their possessions have been moved while they slept, and at least one dinner guest swears a ghost sat next to her and spoke.

The manor was built in 1880 by John Paxtron, whose corpse was kept in the house in a glass coffin by his grieving wife, Hannah, until her own death 15 years after his, according to HauntsofAmerica.blogspot.com. Later, one of their two sons committed suicide in the house. While the place was being turned into a bed-and-breakfast in the 1980s, workers complained they were being watched (www.housefront.com/1991256).