Investigative Report by Paul Dale Roberts

The Michele Stump Story:
Hauntings in El Dorado County
Written by Paul Dale Roberts,
H.P.I. Ghostwriter/Paranormal Investigator
Edited by Shannon "Ms. Macabre" McCabe,
President of H.P.I.

Last night I went on a scouting mission with HPI Paranormal Investigator Jennifer Baca in Elk Grove. Today, June 2, 2007, Saturday, I am headed out on a historical scouting mission with HPI Paranormal Investigator Michele Stump. The only problem I am having today is that I didn't get enough sleep. I swallowed down some Starbucks, threw on some James Brown songs, such as Gravity, Living in America and Goliath to wake me up and take the long drive on Highway 50 to El Dorado County, where I would meet up with Michele Stump at Round Table Pizza in Placerville. Michele Stump is sort of a ghost historian of El Dorado County, she's read up on a lot of the areas that are supposingly haunted. She has taken the time to talk to the locals. So, today we are on a historical excursion. She will take me to various haunts and explain the history of these haunts in El Dorado County. We're not really trying to find a ghost or ghosts, even though she did bring her EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) monitor. Just to let you know, we picked up no EVPs on this scouting quest. Here are some of the places in Placerville that Michele showed me:

Placerville Historical Museum, which was once the Chamber of Commerce and the locals say that it's haunted by miners.
Cozmic Cafe:A ghostly black dog has been seen on the stairwell and there are miner caverns underneath this restaurant. You can actually enter the caverns and dine in the caverns. A lot of ghostly activity has taken place in the caverns in which patrons claim to have witnessed.
Once when Michele walked into the caverns, she felt a tugging on her leg. There is some ghostly activity in the bar section too.
El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce:Once it was the Old Vet's Building in 1852. Then later it became the Kossuth House (Hotel) for the miners. More miner ghosts seen at this location.
Empire Antiques:Used to be a theater. Sometimes items at this store are moved around for no apparent reason.
Cary House: Supposed to be extremely haunted. The hotel elevator goes up and down on it's own. In the elevator sometimes there is the smell of cigar smoke. When Michele and I, entered the elevator we smelled the cigar smoke and then it was gone. Patrons have seen full body apparitions in the hotel. Sometimes the piano plays on its own. Two ghosts that are popular and have been seen is Stan the ghost, once an employee of the hotel. Another ghost sometimes seen by the stairs is of a young beautiful lady.
The Hangman's Tree Pub (Bar):Unique bar with dollar bills hanging from the ceiling. The actual hangman's tree is inside the bar. On a limb of the Hangman's tree is a rope. Outside is a dummy of a man hanging by his neck. Bloody Dick and two criminals were hanged from this tree. The 3 desperadoes faced no other than Judge Lynch. Altogether there were 4 hangings on this tree. Talked with an employee of this bar named Heather Mclean (Email to bar: Hangtree1@hotmail.com) and she says that sometimes the ice cream scooper moves on its own accord. Michele got dizzy inside this bar and had to step outside for some fresh air.

As we left Placerville and headed over to Georgetown. Michele relates to me that she once was a 911 Operator for the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department. She told me that at Green Valley Road by Shingle Springs, there were 6 ghostly horses galloping along the road and the sheriff was called out, when he arrived the horses disappeared. The story of the ghostly horses has been told before by other witnesses.

From here on out, are places that are haunted in Georgetown.
Georgetown was once called Growlersburg, because the miners said that the gold nuggets were so big, that they had a growling sound when hitting the pan. Georgetown is an unusual little town. It's so small, people drive in the middle of the road and park their cars and walk to the bar. There is a rumor that a Chinese morgue is buried underneath the town. Now let's talk about some of the places we visited:
Georgetown Hotel.Sometimes items are moved around. Footsteps heard. The bar is very unusual, it has a real wasp nest hanging from the ceiling, stuffed heads of various animals, stuffed wolverine smoking a cigarette, strange signs, stuffed teddy bears, old pictures. A ghost named Verna haunts Room 5. Some ghostly kid and a ghostly old man make their appearances known ever once in a while.
Georgetown Volunteer Fire Department Building:A ghostly fireman with full uniform and hat sometimes stands outside of this building.
American River Inn:A woman fell from the 2nd balcony floor to her death and she appears at times on the 2nd floor. This hotel was built in 1863. Once when Michele visited this hotel, she used the bathroom and the bathroom door on its own accord flew open. Celebrities like David Hasselhoff (Knightrider fame), Ruth Buzzi and Carol Channing stayed at this hotel. People write their ghostly experiences in a big white photo album. I read some of them, they mostly take on religious overtones, where the patrons ask the ghosts to go towards the light. One famous ghost of this hotel is Oscar, a former patron of the hotel that seems to wander around here and there. Braundeline who works at this hotel has heard footsteps, when she looked to see who was walking down the floorway, there was no one there. Shannon Knox House built in 1854 is the oldest residence in Georgetown. No ghostly activity has been recorded at this house. They should have a sign at this house saying...'this house is in a ghost free zone!' Georgetown's Pioneer Cemetery established in 1848. Michele tries her EVP monitor. No EVPs recorded. Greenwood Pioneer Cemetery established in 1852. According to Nancy Bradley, Psychic, she claims this is one of the most haunted cemeteries in El Dorado County. A lot of people who died in this cemetery invested into a railroad that never went through their town. Another interesting factor is that Placerville and Georgetown are the most haunted places in Northern California, according to residents. Michele receives no EVP readings at this cemetery.

The Bayley House.
This 3 story mansion was formerly a hotel. It was built in 1862 by Assemblyman Alcander John (AJ) Bayley. Michele has investigated this mansion at night by herself and has captured orbs on her digital camera. Sierra Nevada House. The ghost of politician Robert Chalmbers has been seen here. Michele's mom worked here as an employee and has witnessed bar stools spinning on their own. Shotglasses moving on their own. Robert Chalmbers who lived here, caught syphilis and went mad. His wife locked him in a room by himself, so he wouldn't hurt himself or others. Robert eventually died in that room.
Coloma Park:Where gold was discovered in the streams. Sometimes apparitions have been seen here. Well, that's it! This was an interesting scouting mission on historical proportions.
If you ever visit El Dorado County and want to do some ghost hunting, just follow my listing.
For more information on H.P.I. (Haunted and Paranormal Investigations) of Northern California, check out their website at: www.hpiparanormal.net

Paul Dale Roberts, HPI Ghostwriter/Jazma Freelance Writer
www.jazmaonline.com
5606 Moonlight Way Elk Grove,
CA 95758 JazmaPika@cs.com
( 916) 203 7503

The Jennifer Baca Story:

A Haunting Investigation in Elk Grove and Sacramento's Pocket Area By Paul Dale Roberts,

There is a blue moon tonight, so that makes things even more eerie. I think back when I was in the Army. The Army had scouts to check things out, before a unit made their move on an enemy site. H.P.I. (Haunted and Paranormal Investigations) of Northern California has their own scouts. Tonight HPI Paranormal Investigator Jennifer Baca and I, will scout out two haunted locations in Elk Grove and one haunted location in the Pocket Area of Sacramento. Today is June 1st, 2007, Friday. Jennifer with her big smile arrives at my home in Elk Grove, she is eager to do some ghost hunting. I bring along my Jack Russell Terrier named Pika. Pika has sensed a ghost once at the Old Broadway Cemetery, so he might be useful in this investigation. You can say Pika is a paranormal investigating dog, while my black Chow T-Rex is oblivious to any kind of hauntings. Pika will sit and watch the Cartoon Network or the Animal Planet and T-Rex is only concerned with food. So, unfortunately T-Rex stays home, while Pika gets to go on this ghost hunt with Jennifer and I.

When my son Jason lived at home, Jason and his friends would party near the wetlands. Some of the kids would party at a clump of Eucalyptus trees and also party at a historical site called the Lee/Wightman site off Big Horn Blvd. Jason's friends claimed they have seen a white wisp near the trees and at the historical site. I never took any credence to their claims, but later discovered that the clump of trees were imported from Australia. Because Eucalyptus trees usually grow in clumps and they are tall, they make for good shelter. Shelter that was used by early settlers of the Elk Grove region.

The historical site that Jennifer and I will also investigate is the "Jennifer"Lee/Wightman Site. A site that once had a blacksmith
shop there in 1865. Renovations done in 1907, and later a barn and tenant house that was built on the site in 1936. There is nothing there now, except a sign describing what was once there. The sign says that it was a ranch with a main house, blacksmith shop, smoke house, barn granary, pumphouse, harvester shed and a storage shed.

Let's talk about who Jennifer is.
Jennifer is a very interesting and beautiful lady, from January 1994 to September 1995 she was in the Navy. She was an E-2 Electrician Mate. She was stationed at Washington State and lived in Bremerton. She also performed duties on the USS Camden. All her life she was around the military. She grew up as a military brat and lived in places like Yokota/Okinawa - Japan. In fact she graduated from high school in 1992 from Okinawa. She lived in Texas, Oregon, Florida, Charlevoix - Michigan from 99 to 2000 and once vacationed in Hawaii. She has been married twice and is now very happily married to a great guy named Tony and has two children named Cameron and Makayla. She has experienced the paranormal through her ex-sister-in-law Karen, who is a medium. (See article - Ghostbusters at the Old Historical Cemetery - which details her past paranormal experiences). Jennifer is a very enthusiastic young lady that has a sense of adventure. She loves driving Quads, she is set to take scuba diving lessons. Her other recreational activities include hiking, biking, swimming and reading good horror books. She has a unique ancestry, she is quarter Japanese, quarter Taiwanese, Irish, French, American Indian - Senaca. Her favorite movie is Titanic and she always had a desire to be an actress. A song that she plays all the time is "How Deep Is Your Love by the Bee Gees" When relaxing in front of the TV, you will find her watching American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, House, Sopranos, all of the CSI's and Gray's Anatomy. I was getting all of this information about Jennifer for this article, while Hannibal Rising the movie was playing in the background. Jennifer was glued to this horror movie. Yep! I can tell she loves horror, she makes the perfect paranormal investigator!
Jennifer has always had an interest in the paranormal, she thinks its in her DNA!

Now that I have told you everything about Jennifer, let's talk about our ghost hunting adventure.

As we arrived at the clump of Eucalyptus trees, Jennifer worked her EVP (Electronic"JenniferVoice Phenomenon) monitor. There is a lot of graffiti on the trees, probably placed there by my son's friends. Jennifer, Pika and I walk over to the historical site and again used the EVP monitor. Both Elk Grove areas look 'haunted'. The clump of trees swaying in the wind and the beckoning glow of the blue moon above us was frightening in itself. The historical site feels old. As we walked around this area, we felt a forbidding strangeness. I felt like I was walking in the past as images in my mind told me what was once there.

BELOW LEFT: JENNIFER WITH THE DEAD OWL
RIGHT: JENNIFER IN THE CLUMP OF EUCALYPTUS TREES

"DeadAs we stumbled around in the dark and Jennifer talking through her EVP monitor, we came across a gorgeous, but very dead white owl. We can see that it recently died, but the beauty of this dead owl made us both say...'ahhhhhhh'. We didn't see anything significant, so we headed back to my car, a 2003 Maroon Stratus that I affectionally call 'Ghost Tracker' and headed out to the Sacramento Pocket Canal Area.

A little history about this place, the Pocket Area homes near the canal area were supposingly built over a Portuguese cemetery and it has been known that some of the Pocket homes are haunted and it has been documented and entered in a few books in regard to California hauntings.

As Jennifer, Pika and I walked down the canal path next to these homes, we found a park next to the canal. We took several digital photographs and captured some orbs, but what was so surprising is that I took a picture towards the park and the picture showed a huge light image. "StrangeWell, the strange thing is that where I positioned myself to take that picture, it was totally dark! Where did that light come from? I took a second picture at the same location and the picture was naturally dark. Jennifer takes a picture at the same location with her digital camera and it's still a naturally dark picture. So, where did this burst of light come from? Did a ghost make his or her presence known by coming directly to the lens of my camera as I took that picture? During my many haunting investigations I have taken a zillion pictures of orbs, I have seen other investigators take pictures of white mist, but never have I or any other investigators taken a picture of a burst of light in a totally dark area! As we walked away from this area, Jennifer got frightened twice, she heard a big fish hit the water and a goose in the background making a strange quacking sound. It was time to shut down this investigation, now it was time to get home and analyze what we found through the EVPs and photographs!
I asked myself driving home, were these three areas credible for a future haunting investigation or were the two areas in Elk Grove where my son and his friends would party at, just a place where they imagined seeing a white mist, due to some wild partying and drinking unknown beverages? Who knows, Jennifer and I still had to check it out to make sure. The Pocket Area holds more credence, since many people who live in this area have said that their homes are haunted. Jennifer and I seek out the unknown. When the unknown is searched out, the unknown will find you and reveal it's secrets. It's just a matter of time.

As for the EVPs, we couldn't detect anything because of the wind, but we did get some unusual photographs in the Pocket Area.

For more on H.P.I. (Haunted and Paranormal Investigations) of Northern California, check out their website at: www.HPIparanormal.net

Findings: Faint orbs photographs taken at Pocket Area. Burst of light photograph taken in a naturally dark area - unexplained - Pocket Area. No EVPs due to wind activity for Elk Grove and Pocket Area. Natural photographs taken in Elk Grove area.