If you want to find Orange County ghosts, for the most part you need to focus on the community's oldest neighborhoods and structures. For example, Mission San Juan Capistrano and Rancho Capistrano are both rumored to be haunted. There are numerous ghost stories in communities such as Fullerton, La Habra, Orange, San Juan and Santa Ana, including the Fullerton Police Station and Plummer Auditorium. Haunted restaurants and bars include the Paris Restaurant in Anaheim, the Alley and Spadra in Fullerton, Rutebegorz in Orange, and some of the restaurants in the historic Los Rios District in San Juan.
Each fall, the Fullerton Museum Foundation hosts a haunted Fullerton walking tour: <a href="http://www.ci.fullerton.ca.us/depts/museum/events/haunted_walking_tours.asp">http://www.ci.fullerton.ca.us/depts/museum/events/haunted_walking_tours.asp</a>
Also, keep in mind that many ghosts inhabit private residences and businesses. The ghosts remained trapped there for intensely personal reasons and rarely reveal themselves to outsiders. I recall a touching story of an elderly couple who lived in Santa Ana, Fred and Dee -- perhaps they had been married for 50 years. Dee's health declined to the point where she was bed-ridden and required 24/7 in-home care. Unfortunately, Fred passed away shortly thereafter and the couple had no children. The pain of leaving his bed-ridden wife in the care of strangers must have transcended space and time, because many a caregiver has reported the presence of another person in the house. On occasion, Dee would emerge from her sleep and mention being held or caressed -- something that was impossible while the woman was alone in her bedroom. Were these events the paranoid imaginings of stressed caregivers and an elderly woman, or the traces of a loving husband crossing over from beyond to ensure that his wife is cared for until they can be reunited in eternity?
<strong><a href="http://www.foxfullerton.org/aboutthefox/history.html">Fox Theater, Fullerton</a></strong>
For over 80 years, the Fox Theater inhabited a prominent spot in the downtown Fullerton business district. It was closed in 1987. The Fullerton Historic Theatre Foundation is working to renovate the old theater so it may again serve as a cultural institution in Fullerton. The Fox Theater is haunted.
The ghost of a child named Sara is a benevolent spirit who resides in the theater. She is rumored to be the daughter of a vaudeville-era performer. How she died and why she inhabits the theater is unknown, but her presence is generally deemed friendly.
On the other hand, if you ever find a dime in the third row of the theater -- do not pick it up! The dime represents the ghost of a Depression-era hobo who is rumored to have died while squatting in the theater one night. (Bones were found in a long-forgotten basement. Some believe the bones are those of this hobo.) Anyone who picks up the dime will unwittingly bring this ghost home with them and will no doubt experience a restless evening as the hobo shacks up with them for the night before returning to the theater the next morning, looking for his next host. This ghost has been known to be harassing, although not particularly malicious.
<strong><a href="http://www.lahabracity.com/section.cfm?id=100">La Habra Children's Museum</a></strong>
The Children's Museum at La Habra opened in December 1977 and is located in a historic 1923 Train Depot. It is this history as a train depot that is said to give rise to its haunting. No one has put a name or story to the hauntings, but paranormal investigators have documented a myriad of poltergeist activities here at night. Fortunately, virtually no activity occurs during the day when the children are present. Perhaps the ghosts respect the innocence of the children and stay away, or perhaps the power of a child's love simply overcomes the mischief of a ghost?
<strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knott's_Berry_Farm">Knott's Berry Farm Ghost Town</a></strong>
Ghost Town is the oldest part of the Knott's amusement park, and includes most of the buildings Walter Knott brought to the property in the 1940s and 1950s. Inspired by the real ghost town at Calico, Knott was determined to create an authentic wild west ghost town. Knott brought real buildings from real ghost towns to his amusement park, no doubt bringing their paranormal inhabitants with them. The list of ghosts and spooks inhabiting Knott's is endless, and for the most part, they are considered harmless. Perhaps living in an amusement park keeps them in good spirits?
<strong>Disneyland</strong>
Knott's isn't the only amusement park in town, nor is it the only one with hauntings. There are several prominent ghosts said to inhabit the "Happiest Place on Earth."
Of course, there are rumors of actual hauntings in Disney's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_Mansion">Haunted Mansion</a>. Thousands of people visit the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland every day. What they may not realize is that there are several real ghosts haunting the place. Two well-known ghosts are referred to as "the man with the cane" and "the man in a tuxedo," although no one knows who these ghosts represent. But they have each been spotted in the park attraction, either as "extras" lurking in the ride's various ghost scenes or even, on occasion, as passengers.
A more recent ghost has origins that might be familiar to some of you. One year, at the annual Disneyland "Grad Night" party, a high school boy was killed when he disembarked from his "Doom Buggy" mid-ride. Thinking he was stepping out on a solid surface, he actually stepped into a void and fell nearly 20 feet, breaking his neck. It is said that you can sometimes see and hear him near the "S?ance " portion of the ride.
The other documented Disney ghost inhabited the old People Mover attraction. According to legend, a young man was riding with his girlfriend and decided, for some reason, to climb out of the moving vehicle. He lost his footing and fell to his death, although not without first grabbing at his girlfriend's hair in a vein attempt to regain his balance. Thereafter, riders on the People Mover -- particularly those girls with long, blonde hair -- would feel the fleeting sensation of their hair being gently tugged. Even today, the ghost has been known to tug on blonde pony tails in the vicinity of the old People Mover ride.
<strong>Trabuco Canyon</strong>
Thus far, all of the ghosts I've identified have been harmless apparitions or at worst, supernatural annoyances. If there's one place where sightings of genuinely malicious spirits have occurred repeatedly, it is Trabuco Canyon.
There is a legend of a ghostly horse drawn carriage that has been encountered at precisely the stroke of midnight on Silverado Canyon Road and surrounding streets.
I?ve saved the most sinister haunting for last. There is a large parcel of private property off Santiago Canyon Road that is for the most part abandoned. On rare nights, however, members of a satanic cult will sneak onto the property to perform their heinous rituals, including animal sacrifice and the conjuring of evil spirits. This property holds two sinister secrets for those who dare visit by night. On nights when the satanists are present, visitors have seen rituals that would make their blood run cold and have been chased away by men with bats, machetes and guns. Even worse are the experiences of those who visit on nights without human presence. The repeated conjuring activities of the satanists have clearly opened up a portal to the world beyond, as the area has been the source of numerous bone-chilling sightings and encounters. Visitors have reported being enveloped by a chilling mist or fog, hearing disembodied voices, seeing dark shadows (typically a humanoid or dog form) moving effortlessly and silently through the scrub and on a few occasions caught a fleeting glimpse of a headless figure walking in the dim moonlight.
I would also like to comment on the religion versus science debate. Science is the wrong comparison to make to religion ? science is based on verifiable evidence and religion is based on faith. But I have to chuckle at those of you who use gravity as an example of something so self-evident that no rational person could deny its existence. Perhaps you can answer me this ? what happens to your gravity at the quantum mechanics level? As you know, the verifiable and provable law of gravity weakens and fails in the most basic structures of our physical universe, including at the very nanomoments following the Big Bang. In order to patch together a quantum theory of gravity, physicists are now theorizing that the smallest objects in the universe vibrate in up to ten spatial dimensions ? dimensions that are physically impossible for us to observe or verify. So in some ways, we do take gravity on faith?
But that's not the point. The point is that the correct analogy for religion is love. I can not prove to you that love exists. And while you might be able to identify certain hormones or electrical activity in my brain when I profess to feel love, love is not something that can be touched, measured or studied in a lab. Yet, ask any mother as she cradles her child if love exists and she will tell you that it most certainly does. Ask Fred and Dee ? finally reunited in the hereafter ? whether love exists, and they will tell you it is more powerful than gravity. So it is with God ?no one will ever be able to prove the existence of the supernatural to anyone but themselves, and that is why our faith can endure long after science and reason give way. As with encounters with the ghosts above, all it takes to experience God is an open mind, but God will never allow himself to be proved/disproved -- not in any scientifically valid way, at least.
Happy haunting everyone! Being cryogenically frozen sucks.
