Researched, written, and compiled by author, Aubrey Graves
The Cremer House, Fall Creek, The Felton Bowl, Felton Cemetery, Lompico Mountain, Monty’s Log Cabin, Roaring Camp Railroads
The Cremer House
Built in 1876, the Cremer House, once known as “The Creamer Hotel” is the oldest building still standing in Felton, California. It was first built and opened by Thomas and Margaret Creamer as an 18-room hotel, gambling hall, and restaurant; which was said to once be harbored by contraband liquor and prostitutes. The Creamers both ran the boarding house until their deaths; Thomas passed in 1880, and Margaret in 1892.
At least 2 murders occurred at the old brothel over the years. First, in 1884, a man by the name of Win Donnelly was found dead in his bed at the Cremer House, soon after he had been struck over the head with a fire poker, by a contractor named George Jansey. Jansey owed money to Donnelly, and Donnelly was harassing him for it. As Donnelly was walking out of the Cremer House, he told Jansey, “I will murder you on site.” Jansey then grabbed a fire poker near the hotel’s stove and hit Donnelly over the head with it. Donnelly was said to have a couple drinks after he had been hit, then went to bed for his very last sleep at the Cremer House.
The second murder occurred in 1890, when two of the hotel’s employees got into fight. The cook, George Duncan was stabbed to death by dishwasher, Henry Jackson.
Could these murder victims still be haunting the Cremer House? Locals, employees, and the current co-owner believe that the former hotel is haunted after experiencing a number of unexplainable events, particularly upstairs.
According to a Monterey Bay article, Cremer House’s co-owner Emily Thomas has been spooked on more than one occasion. There is even a tiny room upstairs that she refuses to enter because it scares her so much.
Not only is eerie energy felt and sensed at times, but electrical malfunctions are said to happen frequently, as well as random and unexplainable cold spots in certain rooms. “The women who do the filing back there have always noticed that when they’re in there the light goes out,” said Thomas. “We’ve had someone come in and change the light bulb, and someone come in and check the sockets and electrical in there, but every time they’re in there the light will go out.”
THE CREMER HOUSE
Year built: 1876
6256 Highway 9
Felton, CA 95018
(831) 335-3976
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Fall Creek
Nestled deep in the mountains of Fall Creek, covered in ivy and moss, stands the I.X.L. Lime Company ruins, originated in the mid 1870s. Henry Cowell bought the company in 1900, and it was used until 1919. The intense heat of the kilns at 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit, and the sounds of the loud blasts upset locals who lived in the area; it was common for workers to hear people yelling and cursing at them for making their habitat so uncomfortable.
My friend Morgan and I spoke with a spirit using the flashlight method at the ruins one afternoon in May of 2012. The spirit claimed to be a young, white male who died on the land, and told us that he would like to reunite with his family. Morgan began to experience unexplainable feelings of sadness. “When you first started calling on them, it felt like people were all around us,” he announced.
Shortly after visiting Fall Creek, I looked into its history and found that a 33-year-old Italian man by the name of Grossi Gotardo died there after a fatal accident in 1891. Gotardo and James Kirby, another worker, were crushed by rocks, severely injuring Kirby and killing Gotardo. Gotardo’s skull was crushed as the ledge gave out. He left behind his wife and three children in Italy. With this information, I can’t help but wonder if Morgan and I spoke with Gotardo, their histories being so similar.
Walking along a trail near the kilns, Morgan pointed out a certain area to me that is believed to have a portal or vortex to another dimension. It was once marked by bent trees, creating an arch over the entrance. He wouldn’t go near the area, though. After he had walked through one similar in a different location months prior, it just didn’t feel right.
In 2009, a psychic had a supernatural experience near the kilns as well. “All of a sudden I saw it … About fifty feet in front of us, I saw a large orb of energy – about five feet in diameter. It appeared as a distortion in the atmosphere like a ripple or like what happens when you view an object through a water bubble.”
-Charles Peden, Psychic, Medium
FALL CREEK
1400 Felton Empire Road
Felton, CA 95018
(831) 335-4598
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The Felton Bowl
The old 10 lane bowling alley was built and established in 1959, and operated until 2002.
Wendy, a Santa Cruz local once worked in the kitchen at the former bowling alley. One morning before anyone else was there, she had a truly eerie encounter: “I turned around and there was a large lady with a white old style uniform on, and hat … scared me. She was there for a minute, then disappeared.”
“Others also felt something there…” particularly behind the bowling machines.
FELTON BOWL
(Now Abbott’s Thrift Store)
Year built: 1959
6164 Hwy 9
Felton, CA 95018
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Felton Cemetery
The aged cemetery originated in the 1870s, and many of the graves are from that era. For the most part, the graveyard gives off a very welcoming and calm vibration, almost like being at Grandma’s house. Though, there is one area, on the right side of the cemetery, where the energy is a little unsettling.
High EMF has been found around the area, and possible spirit orbs have been caught on camera during the hours of darkness.
Some of the spirits who dwell in the vicinity are open to communication. Disembodied footsteps have been heard, and cold spots felt. Some people have even claimed to have been touched by unseen forces.
One night, while my friends and I were investigating the cemetery, I asked the spirits if they could finish the last two knocks from the tune Shave and a Haircut. I knocked on the gazebo, waiting to hear the “two bits.” Immediately, two uncanny knocks were heard.
While using the flashlight method to communicate with the spirits, one of them claimed to be an old soldier from World War II, and he seemed to be manipulating the light, possibly using Morse code.
“Are you using Morse code?” I asked.
The light stopped blinking and shined brightly.
In late 2012, I returned to the cemetery with a local psychic. During our visit, she saw the full-body apparition of a sailor dressed in a blue uniform standing just to the right of us several yards away. He stood there staring at us before vanishing. We approached the area where he had been, and sure enough, we found a grave marker for a young sailor.
FELTON CEMETERY
Year established: Circa 1870s
Love Street
Felton, CA 95018
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Lompico Mountain
For many years the Ohlone Indians occupied Lompico, located in the deep, dark, Santa Cruz Mountains. Some residences claim that the Indian tribes left imprints on the land, and some are even said to still haunt it. On occasion, usually during sunset, and when the wind is right, it is said that you can actually hear the eerie beating of drums and ghostly chanting up on the mountain in certain areas.
LOMPICO MOUNTAIN
Year founded: 1927
Felton, CA 95018
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Monty's Log Cabin
Every time I went past Monty’s Log Cabin surrounded by tall redwoods along Highway 9, I always had a sense it was haunted. I had never visited the bar before, until the night of December 3, 2011. As sensitive Mel U. and I walked into the country-style tavern (decorated with deer heads) I immediately noticed the paranormal energy in the cabin. After looking around, appreciating its cool mountain-man décor, Mel and I sat down at the bar next to an elderly gentleman who seemed a bit tipsy. I once again felt something, almost as if it were right behind me.
I turned to Mel and said, “This place is totally haunted, dude.”
She smiled.
Before she could respond, the man sitting next to us overheard me and said, “I’ve never seen you two here before.”
“Yeah, this is my first time, and Mel’s third time,” I said.
“So you’ve never been here, you just walked in and you claim it’s haunted?” he inquired.
“Yes!” I said with confidence.
“And you never heard of it being haunted?” he asked.
“No, I just know it, dude,” I said.
The man immediately leaned over the counter and shouted across the bar to the owner, “Hey, Monty, is this place haunted?”
“Yeah, it is!” said Monty. “George is still here!”
The man at the bar looked back at me in drunken amazement.
“Wow, you were right!” he exclaimed.
Monty walked over to us and explained who George was, filling us in on all of the activity they have encountered. He said George’s spirit is still very active, and that he and all staff members make a point to acknowledge George’s existence.
George was the bar’s previous owner from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Known for his great sense of humor, he died a little before his time due to Multiple Sclerosis in the early 1990s. Ever since, George’s presence has been felt within the bar. Doors are said to open and close on their own, along with lights turning on and off on their own.
A bartender said that she had actually yelled at George a week ago after he kept turning off the lights. She had to turn them back on multiple times throughout the evening, and the only explanation was that George was up to his old tricks again.
The owner explained how he and a couple of customers witnessed a cup of beer fly off the counter when there was no one near it. This was unusual behavior because George’s spirit is said to be very pleasant. Monty believes that George did it because he didn’t like the woman whose drink it was.
Every night before closing up the bar, a staff member sets out three chairs in front of the front door for their visiting ghosts George, his sister Rose, and a past staff member named Pat. One night a staff member forgot to leave the chairs out. That night the bar was broken into.
I went to the car and grabbed the K-2 Meter. Soon after I turned the EMF detector on, it started to spike. While sitting at the bar, the lights rose and stayed on for a matter of seconds before suddenly stopping. I got up and walked around to see what could be setting it off. The juke box seemed to give off a little EMF along with the neon signs in the windows, but the meter wasn’t spiking nearly as high as it did minutes after I had first turned it on. We left the device on during our visit and noticed huge spikes here and there. None of the spikes seemed consistent. What made our mouths drop was when a song came on and I jokingly started to dance and sing; it seemed as though George started to join in using the K-2 Meter. The lights on the EMF detector were lighting up, increasing and decreasing to the beat of the song. It went on like this for almost two minutes. It looked very much like an Audio Spectrum Analyzer on a stereo.
“Wow, he’s having fun,” said Mel.
We were both amazed and baffled. We had never seen anything like it before. I very much regret not bringing my video camera into the bar. We could feel his energy becoming very strong, almost as if he were standing at the bar with us, rocking out to the music.
Being there that night just felt right, which was rather odd since I very rarely go to bars. Later, I realized why the name George kept popping into my head a couple of weeks earlier. I thought of the name so much while Mel and I were investigating the Boulder Creek Cemetery, I said aloud to Mel, “I keep thinking the name George.” Either George was trying to make contact with me or I picked up on the fact that we were going to visit him. Either way, it happened.
MONTY’S LOG CABIN
Year built: Circa 1970
5575 Highway 9
Felton, CA 95018
(831) 335-9969
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Roaring Camp Railroads
Nestled in the Felton redwoods on Graham Hill Road, Roaring Camp Railroads built in 1875 has a long history. Before Spanish explorers came to the vicinity in the 1700s, where Roaring Camp now stands on Bear Mountain, it was once inhabited by the Zayante Tribe. In the 1830s, a logger named Isaac Graham settled in the area and constructed Graham Hill Road for his logging company so that he could easily commute to Santa Cruz and back.
In 1875, the city began giving rides to passengers on the steam engines from the mountains to the beach. Roaring Camp Railroads got its name in 1963, when it was made into a tourist attraction. The pleasant Roaring Camp Railroads is now a preserved piece of history from the 1880s. The park has an old western appearance, making visitors feel as if they have gone back in time when the trains first began to run.
Founder F. Norman Clark (1935- 1985) is said to haunt Roaring Camp after his death due to pneumonia at 50 years of age. According to local railroad historian, Ed Kelley, Norman’s ghost still watches over the establishment. “Quite a few employees have experienced Norman peering through the shop door with a displeasing look on his face; others have simply heard his mumbling, but have never seen him,” Kelley added.
Roaring Camp’s Jane Doe, a 125-year-old, female skeleton was found on Bear Mountain located in Roaring Camp off of Graham Hill Road in 1996. Some workers were clearing the brush and saw their dog playing with a human bone, which led them to the corpse that still had remnants of clothing and items from the early 1870s. The skeleton was found wearing a leather vest, a loaded .32 pistol revolver, a knife, gold coins, a gold watch, glasses, and a bottle of liquor. Her death looked as if it had been caused by a .44 bullet shattering the lower-left portion of her rib cage. The bullet was lying underneath the skeleton when it was found. This courageous woman’s spirit is said to still haunt Roaring Camp, after her murder over a century ago.
Her remains were buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Santa Cruz, CA, with a headstone that reads:
Gone to the Golden Hills
The Unknown Clamper
Died Circa 1890
Buried with Honors, 1998
In recent years, hikers found human remains near the tracks at this historical landmark. The corpse was never identified and specialists couldn’t predict whether it was a man or a woman because the pelvic region was missing. There have been no leads on how this person was killed. Whoever it was, though, is definitely trying to reach out and make their presence known. Ever since the body was found, trains keep stalling on their own during all hours of the night right where the corpse was found. Conductors claim to have repeatedly observed a woman crossing the tracks. As soon as they make the train come to a screeching halt, there is no one in sight. In 2009, a conductor claimed to see strange lights and shadows.
ROARING CAMP RAILROADS
Historical Landmark
Year established: 1875
5535 Graham Hill Road
Felton, CA 95018
(831) 335-4484
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