Ghost Hunting 101: Treading First Haunts in Local Areas

 "The more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts."
Italo Calvino

There are few adventures for a writer as satisfying as exploring the environment where their novel takes place. In some cases, as in writing a novel that includes the paranormal and local ghost stories, the writer’s adventure can be a lovely undertaking full of both mystery and suspense. In the spirit of investigating local haunts, I chose to go on a reconnaissance mission of my own and visit some of the most famed ghosty places of Ventura California in person. The places I visited were: Scary Dairy; Cemetery Park, The Pierpont Inn and The Landmark 78/Candlelight Restaurant.

Before this excursion, I'd never considered going ghost hunting. It was my "Readings in the Genre" novels, and stories of the paranormal that made me wonder what kind of ghosts haunted my own back yard. I decided to go on a quest to find out.

Scary Dairy

        Scary Dairy is located near University Drive in Camarillo, California, near the California State University of Channel Islands.  It’s in an odd hilly region just a few miles from the ocean and close to Point Mugu Navy Base, and it's surrounded by some agricultural fields on one side. There are no main buildings in sight, and the area is devoid of anything that appears urban.
            Scary Dairy is located near what was once the Camarillo State Hospital, a mental institution and it was supposedly a dairy farm and/or a slaughter house. After the place burned down a few years ago, it was renamed “Scary Dairy” by the locals. It’s rumored that a number of murders occurred on the grounds, but now it seems to be more like a place for University plebes and graffiti artists to hang out.

            I traveled there Saturday morning (September 17th) with my daughter. It was my second attempt to find the place. Luckily, on our first pass near the main University road, there was a gate that was open which I hadn’t noticed before.  We turned down the dirt road, and passed a group of people flying model planes and helicopters at the Model Airplane Landing Strip, then rounded a bend of trees, and there stood a dilapidated barn and a low white structure just beyond that.

            It probably didn’t help that we visited during daylight hours, although the sky was gray and overcast, but the place didn’t seem very scary. It had more of an artistic feel to it.  The falling, rotting barn was missing several metal panels, but on almost every bit of wood and aluminum sheeting still attached to the frame, there were a number of interesting pieces of graffiti artwork.

            When we traveled into the main building, large holes in the walls and burnt wooden beams above made the place just a bit eerie. There were concrete troughs, such as those that might have been used for feeding cattle. I imagine if I’d been out there alone at night I might have found the experience quite unsettling, but my daughter and I took pictures and talked with a photographer that was there taking shots of the building. It was obvious from some of the artwork that local fraternities and sororities used this place occasionally, but as I looked out on the strangely vacant hills that surrounded the structure I could only imagine what types of nefarious activities might have once occurred here. I've added some pics below for you to get a feel of the place.

Cemetery Park

      On October 1st (Saturday), I decided to go on a longer haunting exploration, and hit three regularly haunted places during the weekend. When I made the hotel reservation, my husband said the local adventure sounded like fun, and so he accompanied me on my tour.

      We stopped at Cemetery Memorial Park on the way, a place I'd only heard of a few months ago. I'd heard, and read that the City of Ventura converted this cemetery into a local park, and that they left the bodies remaining interred in the ground. I couldn't believe such a story at first. Who in their right mind would turn a cemetery into a recreation area? But as you take time to read the sign below, you'll understand that's just what the city did.

      I'd read in a couple of posts that this park was haunted regularly by a teenage boy who hung himself from a tree. I wondered if perhaps cemeteries themselves are not filled with ghostly spirits, but perhaps only places where troubled spirits meet their end are haunted. The idea gave me pause and dispelled some assumptions.

Leopold Gisler (no disrespect intended) has the name of an awesome potential character to be used

in a novel. I do hope Leopold won't mind the use of his name. He died young, and perhaps I can

lengthen his life a little.

James Sumner was the recipient of the Medal of Honor, for participation as a U.S. Calvary Memberin the Indian Wars. Something in me found it eerie to see the upside-down five pointed star inside the

shape of the Pentagon we all know very well in Washington D.C..

 

Here is a name of a deceased child (I assume, because there is no date but one), and perhaps the best name I came across in all of the Park headstones. I have decided "Tennessee Hobson" will one day be a character in a book I write. That way, he'll live forever.

 

Pierpont Inn

      When my husband and I arrived at the Pierpont Inn, we were amazed at how many weddings and local functions this little place hosts.  When we stepped into the common area, we were told there was one wedding reception and a retirement party in progress.  The hotel has a fairly large lobby, a couple of gas fireplaces, and a nice little grassy area adequate for weddings, retirement parties and the like.

      

Our room was number 403.  And for some reason, it was the only room that night that would not get Internet Access.  We checked into the room and headed out to the restaurant (Landmark 78...see below) for dinner.  In the process I took several pictures, but when I went back to check my camera, some of the photos I thought I had taken were no longer on the camera.  After we returned from dinner, we went to bed.  I woke up at 1AM, and couldn't get back to sleep.  I went out to the grassy area near the main building, found a seat with my computer listened to an audio book.  2AM.  3AM. 4AM.  Nothing. Only the slight movement of the wind caressed the nearby palm trees.  4:35AM.  I got a little excited.  I saw a shadowy movement float across the sidewalk and then out scuttled the larges possum I'd ever seen.  It moved almost silently, skulking alongside the building in search of leftover retirement party treats.  I was a little disappointed, but I'd had a lovely morning ghost hunting and looking for signs and symptoms of the paranormal.  It still doesn't explain what happened to the pictures on my camera.

The Landmark 78/ Candlelight Restaurant

     The Landmark 78, once known as the old Victorian Carlo Hain house, is considered Ventura California’s number one haunted restaurant. Situated in the heart of the city of Ventura, on Santa Clara Avenue, it serves as a popular steak house, as well as a late night party area for local youth.  

     In addition to it's current uses, it is also known as the ghostly abode of a woman named “Rosa” who reportedly committed suicide by hanging herself in the room that is now the women’s restroom.  If Rosa saw the color that the bathroom was now, it's no wonder she haunts the place probably hoping for the assistance of a good interior designer.  I learned from one of the waitresses that sightings of Rose first began in 1969, and she is often seen standing on the stairs next to the old fireplace wearing either a pink or green-blue dress.

       At first brush, my husband Jim and I had trouble finding the restaurant. It is parked behind a tall thick hedge of bushes that block out the view of the building. The two story building is constructed rather oddly, with a garish number of angles both outside and inside the house that lend to its creepy feeling when walking near it or in various rooms.  

      We were escorted to a table near a gas fire and I chose the spot where I could observe the staircase.  Before my meal, I toured the bathroom, and took several pictures.  Unfortunately Rosa never did appear.  But I did have an odd feeling of being watched.  It may have just been the waitress looking at me, hoping she'd get a big tip.  In the entire building we were one of two couples having dinner that night.  A Saturday night.  Incredible.

     Dinner came, and it was delicious, and I found myself wondering why such a nice place remained empty for the most part.  The owner only opened the restaurant Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.  And late evenings were for youth parties and dancing on the weekends.  The rest of the time, the building remained closed.

    Jim and I finished our meal, and did a later night tour of the building which had two very weird staircases going up one side of the building and down the other, like one was used by servants and the other used by visitors and the owners.  The back patio area was transformed into a spectacle of candlight which would drive any Fire Marshall to a high pitched frenzy, but which (I must admit) was extremely enchanting.

 

     One place I still want to go is the Victorian Rose Inn.  It's a church that was converted into a Bed and Breakfast.  Stories say a woman once hung herself from the balcony area in the church. Other stories say she plummeted to her death from the balcony. The B&B stays relatively full most of the time, and it is difficult to get booking during weekends or holidays.  But I plan to go there soon for another adventure.

     In conclusion, I've found ghost hunting quite enjoyable, although I did it this time as an amateur choosing to only 'visit' places known to be haunted. If I had the opportunity, would I go back late at night with flashlights and dousing rods and other implements of tracking ghosts?  I might.  But I don't believe ghosts only haunt our world in the dark.  They are there day or night, roaming the borders between our world and theirs...hoping for some sense of peace, freedom and relief of their pain along the way.  As for me, I hope that they find what they're looking for...as long as they're not looking for me.

~Cin