If you’re one of the few real estate buyers who’d really like to buy (and not just see) a haunted property, you now have your chance.  Josh Bond, the owner, emailed me a story and some links on this fascinating bit of haunted real estate, so I wanted to share it with my readers. The bid is open until - of course - Halloween 2009.

This is not just your typical old adobe.  It was one a stagecoach stop, store and saloon and hails from the days of the wild west (1850s). Oh, if the walls could speak!  It was damaged in an electrical fire a few years back. Is Bond sure it’s haunted?  He is.  He contacted the West Coast  Ghost and Paranormal Society (WCGPS), which investigated in May 2009 and found ”evidence of voices, shaking door handles and footsteps when no person was present”.  Living there full time, he had the sense that he wasn’t alone, so the findings came as no surprise to him.

For information on the property, see http://www.CucilloBar.com and to write your bid on it, visit the ebay link.

Recently, I was interviewed by Seth and Molly for “Skeptical Sunday” at Radio.Seti.org on the topic of ghosts, particularly the one(s) at Toys R Us in Sunnyvale, CA. 

They had a number of other guests on this edition too.  The spin, of course, is that of the skeptic, and it seems that none of the other guests/experts were at all open to even the possibility of the existence of ghosts, or possibly of God. (In this edition, it seemed as though all religion and faith were at times dismissed as psychological weakness.)  That part was a suprise to me! 

I would agree that skepticism around the topic of ghosts is a very good practice, and that natural explanations should be sought first, always, when something unusual or seemingly inexplicable occurs. Sometimes, though, there appear to be no natural explanations and perhaps what we’re bumping into is something that cannot be explained logically or scientifically.

Have a listen ~ I’d be interested in hearing your feedback!

Skeptical Sunday: Ghost of a Chance  http://radio.seti.org/

I could not sleep if I thought a ghost was going to be visiting my hotel room, but I know of others who actively check out haunted hotels. One of them is Adrienne Foster, who reviews haunted hotels for epinions.com and who kindly sent me a link to this page on Haunted National Trust Historic Hotels of America.

This article is a series of short stories on haunted hotels across the United States. One of the pieces involves our local treasure, the Sainte Claire Hilton in downtown San Jose, and a ghost bride who still lingers. A funny story tells of vanishing vino from a Napa Valley inn. Lots of hotels with haunts. Have a look - but don’t blame me if you can’t sleep when you visit them later!

Today’s post is written by Roshandra, a Los Gatos area intuitive and feng shui practitioner.

Trick or TREAT time ~ Halloween 2008. Where does the TIME go as we are entering Halloween? This time of year is one of my favorites. My work and ‘gifts’ bring me into this Realm of Ghost Whispering and ‘seeing’ things most others do not see.  

During this time of Halloween and just before All Saints Day, we enter the most haunted time of the year.  

All Hallows, which is Halloween, or October 31^st and All Saints Day, which  November 1^st are the days for the dearly beloved that have passed over. It’s when the VEILS of energy between our world and the world of Spirit is the thinnest.  This is the time as children we enjoy trick or treat. Playing with the ideas of spirit and ghosts. We also have experiences at this time of the year that can often MAKE the most non-believer a BELIEVER. 

Living in Los Gatos, I am always delighted to explore the older buildings in town that many say and see as haunted. Recently a dear friend of mine that is a nurse at Good Sam was saying to me I had to visit the old funeral parlor in town.  It had been renovated into a great high end eatery. It’s very, very nice spot now.

She asked me all kinds of questions on how people can put a business into a place like a funeral parlor and be ok with that. Some people will not go or eat there due to it being a previous funeral parlor.  On the other hand she suggested she wanted me to ‘read it ‘and we set off to explore it. She was concerned about a dear young male chef, a friend of hers who just started working there. He had just returned from Las Vegas and under Wolf Gang Puck and the new chef he would be working under at this Los Gatos place also worked under Wolf Gang Puck. The Sous Chef was a ‘sensitive and he loved his work’. So we set off to see what I could read on this Local HIP EATERY in Los Gatos.

Do you ever visit Yelp? It’s a place where I’ve offered some restaurant reviews. Today I found something on ghosts and Silicon Valley, and thought I’d share the haunted experiences with my readers here. Enjoy!
http://www.yelp.com/topic/san-jose-ghost-stories-ghostly-encounters-ghost-hauntings-and-ghost-missions-

Locals who have a penchant for hearing ghost stories have heard for years about the haunted Toys R Us in Sunnyvale, the moved-but-still-haunted Rengstorff House in Mountain View, the nationally known weirdness and haunting at the Winchester House in San Jose, and perhaps also the Coleman Mansion in Menlo Park (now the Peninsula School). Wave Magazine did a really good piece summarizing all four of these and you can read it online here:

http://www.thewavemag.com/pagegen.php?pagename=article&articleid=22497

It’s no surprise that San Francisco has more than a few ghosts, given its colorful history. What is suprising is the list on the Top Haunted Spots article. Several sites are extremely unassuming and un-scary looking, such as the Safeway at 2300 16th Street, where a ball field used to stand and apparently some players are seen in the aisles, no doubt wondering where their field has gone.

http://sanfrancisco.citysearch.com/roundup/40468#g1

Today’s post is shared by Dennis Byron, a friend of mine and  a Broker (and Realtor) of Byron & Associates in Los Gatos, CA.  Over coffee last week, he shared this story with several local agent friends and he kindly agreed to retelling it for my readers here.

In the early eighties I owned, with investors, the Jeffery Hotel, the
Magnolia Saloon and most of the other buildings in Coulterville, California.

The Hotel and Restaurant had been closed for years. I was working on
remodeling the hotel at the time and the restaurant was to be the last of
the items I was going to work on. It still had the chairs and table in the room just as it was after Ed Sacket, the former owner, died. He had owned
it since the 40’s.

I had stayed over in the hotel with one of my investors named Jim. I had
just come down stairs and was walking around the porch, which circles the building, enjoying the morning air, when I saw Jim standing by the front door of the restaurant. He did a double take and asked  “How did you get out here?” I replied, “what do you mean?” Jim informed me that he saw a man sitting in the restaurant and assumed it was me. I told him that I hadn’t been in the restaurant in days. He insisted that he had seen someone sitting in there. We went into the bar, where a picture of Ed Sacket hung and Jim said that’s the guy he saw in the restaurant.

Of course it couldn’t have been, since Ed had been dead for years….or could it have been?

Dennis Byron
Byron & Associates
(408) 395-6900
http://www.byronandassociates.com
Contact online (form)

Today I received an email regarding The Ivy House Inn at 815 South Ash Street in Casper, Wyoming, which the owners, Tom & Kathy Johnson, would like to sell. It’s located near the downtown area of Casper and features 3 guest rooms and 2 suites plus the owners’ quarters, which comprises the third floor of the abode. 

It is not the typical commercial property for sale. This one’s haunted, and the ghosts are fairly active. Fortunately, they are not malicious and the Bed & Breakfast has a happy feel, Tom tells me.

What happens there?

“We are also haunted, especially by the woman who was the matriarch of this place when it was a Mormon Colony House.  She also had two Siamese cats, who also remain here.  We have hundreds of pictures with many things, including orbs, vortices, ectoplasm, a full apparition, and several faces (one in a window, and one in a mirror).  And we have voices on audio recording.”

Interested in buying a haunted inn? Contact Tom & Kathy at ivyinn@yahoo.com  or phone them at (307) 265-0974. 

I’ve attended a couple of Bay Area Ghost Hunters meetings and I have to tell you, this is a really nice, warm, “together” group of people.  Tonight we met at the Starbuck’s in downtown Los Gatos to do some organizational planning, but also to share some stories over a latte or two.

There were some great tales told tonight!

So what does a group with a quirky interest in investigating the paranormal do, besides sipping on sodas and a little java while shooting the breeze about things that go bump in the night?

They plot. They plan.

We’re ready for an outing (in my case, a first field trip with the group - for others, it’s “another outing”).  A visit to a creepy place that harbors more than what usually meets the eye. A haunted place. A haunted building or house.

Got ghosts?

We are looking for haunted places in Santa Clara County (or nearby counties) to check out. Do you know of anywhere with a ghost or more in San Jose, Campbell, Santa Clara, Milpitas, Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Los Gatos, Los Altos or Palo Alto? The spooky site could be residential or commercial. We’re talking haunted apartments, houses, restaurants office buildings - anywhere the owner or manager would be willing to have a group come in and investigate.
Got ghosts?

Silicon Valley DOES have ghosts.

Let’s hear about ‘em.