A super full blood moon will rise over the land on October 17 and this, combined with a month of Halloween, helps set an ideal mood for a re-telling of a few ghost stories. The Sierra foothills teem with history from the Gold Rush, when people descended from far and wide after gold was discovered in Coloma in 1848. The area exploded into the Wild West—thundering horse hooves, gun-toting prospectors, mineshafts, saloons, and wood-plank sidewalks, that still stand. From all that history, some characters linger.
Placerville is home to many reportedly haunted places. One of the best books about the subject, “Gold Rush Ghosts of Placerville, Coloma & Georgetown” by Linda J. Bottjer (Haunted America: 2014), devotes 24 chapters to the town. (Bottjer used to lead Ghost Tours of Placerville.) Today, Moonlight Ghost Tours explores some parts of Placerville “where history meets the supernatural.” For more information, visit moonlighttours.co.
Placerville’s spooky spots on Main Street include the Historic Cary House Hotel, where “Stan,” believed to be a front desk clerk in post-Gold Rush times, earned a reputation for having a love for women and drink. His fun-loving spirit lives on at various locations around town—he’s credited for breaking glassware, sending books tumbling from shelves, and wreaking havoc with electronic systems. At the hotel, guests have described sensations of having their backsides goosed when they’re in the lobby; Stan gets credit. Meanwhile, certain rooms are supposedly haunted by others, and hotel guests have heard tinkling music and seen shadowy figures of a cat and a beautiful woman, among others.
Also on Main Street, the El Dorado Chamber of Commerce building, constructed in the 1920s on one of the town’s former hanging sites, carries claims of employees feeling energy shifts and the presence of “Darrell,” a wheezing man with a white transparent face, dressed in vintage clothing.
At Empire Antiques, in a building once inhabited by the Empire Theatre, ghost seekers and paranormal experts have said they’ve felt chills and warmth, and experienced cell sensors (electronic devices said to detect paranormal activity) ticking madly. Some past employees have cited antics from “Leonard,” who expresses opinions about the artwork by moving it around. It’s unclear whether Leonard is one of the same ethereal souls show-goers talked about during the location’s heyday as the theater, which opened around 1930 and closed in 1997.
California Historic Site #141, Hangman’s Tree, marks a spot that continues to stir controversy due to the longtime presence of “George”—not a ghost, but a noosed dummy commemorating Placerville’s vigilante justice past and its identity as Hangtown. According to hauntedhouses.com, Darrell visits these buildings. Other spirits, possibly ones who met their demise at the white oak tree that once stood here, come by, too. Over the years, customers have reported sightings of flying dishes, filmy men in miners’ clothing, and a jukebox that spontaneously bursts into song.
Just off downtown’s main drag, a pretty Victorian wedding venue on Bee Street, Sequoia Mansion (Bee-Bennett House), is one of the county’s more notorious haunted places, with sightings of children and young mothers. People also have said they’ve experienced cold air, soft breathing, tapping sounds, lights flickering, and water running.
At Diamond Springs Hotel, a few miles outside Placerville, guests have described hearing children giggling and running. They’ve also seen a girl in a yellow dress and a woman peering from an upstairs window. The late psychic Nancy Bradley, author and publisher of “The Incredible World of Gold Rush Ghosts” (2002), mentioned a vortex in the middle of the hotel’s dining room and an apparition of a man in a booth out back.
Off Highway 193, Georgetown Hotel & Saloon announces its haunting on the website with an article by Paul Dale Roberts of Halo Paranormal Investigations detailing the following: a ball bouncing, water turning on and off, footsteps, pipe smoke, a transparent nightgown and drapes that move in Room 5, presumably haunted by “Merna.” It seems Georgetown’s phantoms prefer Room 5. The American River Inn also may have a resident ghost, a grizzled old hard-working miner named “Oscar,” who prefers Room 5, one of the inn’s suites, because the woman he loved lived there.
What better place to feel a spectral presence than an oak-shaded cemetery? Coloma’s Pioneer Cemetery, where many ’49ers rest, is rumored to have a beacon: a raven-haired woman in a burgundy dress who stands on Cold Springs Road and gestures visitors in among the plots. Greenish lights, cold spots and mist have also been described.
Nancy Bradley and Linda J. Bottjer also wrote about The Argonaut/Old Schulze House in Coloma, today a restaurant where former owners perceived the presence of a washwoman named Alice. Also sighted: a phantom man with gray hair, stoutly built, wearing overalls, staring out the window at “the beautiful scenery of Coloma Valley,” wrote Bottjer.
From all that history, some characters linger.
Guests have described sensations of having their backsides goosed when they’re in the lobby.