Researched, written, and compiled by author, Aubrey Graves
Nestled in the deep, dark Santa Cruz Mountains stands the historic Brookdale Lodge, built in 1903. Located in Brookdale, California, the land alone has a great deal of history. I have spoken with two locals who say the small four-mile stretch of the census-designated place of Santa Cruz County is cursed by Ohlone Indians and holds residual energy from horrifying events long ago. Legend has it the property is said to have once been inhabited by the Ohlones who believed the creek on the land was a sacred healing source.
An ancient Indian burial ground is also said to be buried beneath part of the hotel. Years after the lodge was built - which is haunted by several spirits who never checked out, it made Brookdale have even more of an eerie vibe.
The hotel is claimed by psychics to be inhabited by exactly 49 spirits, who decided to never check out. It is also believed that there are portals and vortexes around the lodge, allowing spirits to come and go as they please.
Before the Brookdale Lodge was built on Highway 9, the property was owned by the Grover family (owners of the Grover Lumber Mill Company), who had a house on the land they rented out to travelers known as the S.F. Grover Cottage or the Minnehaha Cottage, which was in fact the very first in the area. Some state that the Grover Mill was actually where the lodge now stands, but according to historian Lisa Robinson from the San Lorenzo Valley Museum and Santa Cruz historian Margaret Koch, the Lumber Company was actually located north of the hotel at the end of what is now Camp Joy Road.
Judge James Harvey Logan owned land next to the Grover’s estate since the early 1890s and bought the property from the Grovers in 1903. Logan recognized the land’s beauty and that same year the Minnehaha Cottage was converted into the Minnehaha Hotel, where 40 rooms were added.
In 1908 he changed the name to the Brookdale Hotel. Logan, also the owner of the Brookdale Land Co. furthermore purchased the town in 1902, which was known as Reed’s Spur, Clear Creek, and Brookville, before becoming Brookdale.
J.H. Logan was also known for accidentally inventing the Loganberry (a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry) in 1883, on his farm Hillcrest Terrance, near the Mission Hill area of Santa Cruz, before moving to the Santa Cruz mountains.
Legend has it that shortly after James Harvey Logan bought the hotel his young niece, “Sarah Logan,” was said to have had an unfortunate event which cut her life short. Around the early 1900s, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed, six to eight-year-old was running from her nanny Maria around the creek on the property. Sarah got too close to the edge and was said to have slipped and fell into the brook, hit her head and died.
Logan suffered the loss of his first wife, Catherine Frances Logan. Catherine died at their family home (which was once located on the hotel’s property, at the time of death) on July 13, 1909, at 68 years of age from sclerosis of the brain. She was buried at Santa Cruz Memorial Cemetery, Santa Cruz, Calif.
During the 1920s through the 1940s it was a known getaway spot for gangsters, including Al Capone, the American gangster who visited periodically before being sentenced to Alcatraz prison in 1931.
Meetings among “wise guys” would go wrong and fights would break out. Some were reportedly murdered on the property. They built a special tunnel that led to a small room (known as the notorious “Meat Locker”) underneath the lodge so victims could not be heard screaming as they were killed. Mobsters even created numerous secret passageways throughout the establishment. Some are said to still be discovered boarded up. The alleged tunnel entrances are claimed to be in the bar, the Mermaid Room and the cabin across the street. Bodies are said to be buried under the floor, particularly in a small room off of the Brookroom.
Being so outstanding and exceptional, the lodge hosted many famous people such as President Herbert Hoover, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Mae West, Shirley Temple, Rita Hayworth (photos below), Tyrone Power, Howard Hughes, Joan Crawford, Henry Ford, Hedy Lamarr and more.
President Herbert Hoover was said to fish off of the honeymoon bridge in the Brookroom on his visits, with a fishing pole in one hand and a cigar in another.
Marilyn Monroe stayed at the Brookdale Lodge so often that she had her own suite, now known as the Marilyn Monroe Suite.
Several hotel rooms are claimed to be occupied by spirits that scare some guests so badly, they leave without staying the night.
In 2007, an article titled “Brookdale Lodge’s Ghosts Intrigues Tourists,” from the Watsonville Register reported people’s strange encounters. “With a chuckle, Dale Braudrick (former employee) gave an account of a rather common occurrence in the lodge. He can’t even start to number the times guests have come down to the main office or adjacent lounge to complain of odd occurrences happening in their rooms.”
“I had one guest come into the bar, slap her room key down, and say, ‘She’s in my room! I’m leaving!’ And the woman did,” Braudrick explained.
A past employee stated that they always have activity going on in Room 28; and Room 13 was allegedly changed to Room 12A because of complaints of activity. Note: The room is now currently 123 (as of 2022).
Legend has it Room 46 is purportedly very haunted after a man was said to have been murdered in the suite. Since his alleged death, guests say they feel watched by an unseen force and never feel alone in the hotel room.
In the 1970s a woman lived in Room 46 for exchange of housekeeping and reported that she was repeatedly being disturbed by entities in the hours of darkness. She claimed that objects would move on their own and that she once saw two floating heads move around her bed. One man had an eyeball that was hanging from its socket, the other head was said to have a large gash across his cheek. Once she claimed to feel an unseen force sit on her bed and began to lightly stroke her arm.
“One guest was lying in bed watching television when suddenly an invisible person lay down next to him, causing the bed to wiggle.
Another couple was staying in Room 46 when they saw a misty apparition hovering at the corner of the bed,” stated in the book, Supernatural California.
During the time of the Lumber Company, there were several cabins occupied by lumberjacks and their families in the location of where the hotel wings now stand. During that time, it is said that a young boy died in one of the cabins. His spirit has been felt, heard and witnessed over the years by guests staying in Rooms 31, 32, and 33.
It is said that also during the time of the logging camp, a man brutally shot and killed his wife in one of the cabins on the property.
Other guests have experienced unexplainable breezes and cold spots in their rooms as well as strange sounds, noises, smells, electronic malfunctions, moving objects and ghostly vibes.
Rooms 26, 211, and the Marilyn Monroe Suite are also said to be haunted. “After one night’s stay in Room 26 of the lodge’s motel wing, I can definitely assure you I am a firm believer in ghosts … drawers were opening and closing by themselves, a faucet in the bathroom turned on by itself, and after my shower, a ghost wrote the name, ‘Kristie,’ on the foggy bathroom mirror. I could tell it was a child’s handwriting, and she had drawn little stars around her name. I slept with all the lights on,” said an anonymous contributor.
The Brookroom, built in 1922, is identified to have the most paranormal experiences throughout the hotel. Unexplainable glowing orbs and flashes of light have been seen flying around the room at night, particularly in the back of the babbling brook. Dark moving shadows are seen moving about on the balconies. Objects such as dining utensils are said to move on their own occasionally. Many have claimed to hear glasses, plates, and silverware clinking, along with hearing footsteps, voices, and conversations from dozens of ghostly diners. Some have even caught ghosts on film.
"I would be the first person to get there in the morning. While sitting at my desk, I’d see shadows of people walking past me in the lobby within my peripheral vision. When I’d look up, there was always nothing there. I had this distinct feeling of all these people walking around. It didn’t really bother me, but it was interesting.”
-Michelle Kelly, Past Employee
The Brookdale Lodge’s first owner, Judge James Harvey Logan, is believed to haunt the vicinity. Psychics, including Sylvia Browne (RIP), claim to have made contact with him. After communicating with Logan, he allegedly slimed Browne with ectoplasm.
The most well known ghost who roams the hotel is the ghost of a little girl that’s believed to be Sarah Logan. Over the years there have been countless sightings of her seen by visitors and employees, and she has been observed more than any other spirit in the lodge. The innocent adolescent with long blonde hair has been seen wearing a blue and white Sunday dress with a sash around her waist. She’s been witnessed sitting on the fireplace in the lobby, running around an additional fireplace in the Fireside Room, or dashing throughout the halls and on the balconies. Sarah has been heard giggling, singing, talking and running, typically in the Brookroom, and has also been felt and heard in her area known as, “Sarah’s Room,” or Sarah’s Closet.”
The faint sound of Sarah riding her tricycle has also been heard being ridden around the lodge, sometimes accompanied by a gust of cold air, late in the night. Some claim to have approached Sarah and spoken to her as she cried for her mother. When the eyewitnesses looked away, she vanished.
Paranormal investigator, researcher, and author Jeff Dwyer stayed at the Brookdale Lodge in the 1970s when he was thirteen years old. While he was sitting down near the creek, he felt someone touch his shoulder and figured it was his younger sister. At that exact moment, his mom called up to him from across the brook and he saw that his sister was with their mother. Jeff saw a solid apparition of a young, blonde girl in a blue dress near him on the side of the bank, before she suddenly disappeared.
Another ghost who has been seen by many is speculated by psychics to be Sarah Logan’s mother or nanny who is believed to be looking for Sarah. She is mostly seen in the different areas of the Brookroom, walking across the bridge and has also been sighted looking out the large front windows of the second balcony. The smell of gardenias often permeates the room at night, although there are no gardenias throughout the entire haunted lodge. Several people who experience the paranormal phenomenon assume that the scent is from the middle aged woman dressed in a long white gown, who shows herself occasionally.
Residual sounds of big band music being played has been heard by guests and employees in the Band Room, as well as full-body apparitions being sited on the dance floor.
The Mermaid Room is said to have paranormal activity, and certain corners are unexplainably unnerving when the room looks empty, but definitely doesn’t feel like it. (They call it the Mermaid Room due to having a large window that overlooks the inside of the lodge’s swimming pool.)
There, women would swim and men could watch through the glass while having a drink. The area includes a small bar, where some have stated that they witnessed the ghost of a man standing at the counter having a swig long after closing time.
Visitors and employees have experienced hearing whispers, voices, and soft music when the Mermaid Room is completely empty, and glasses and chairs have been seen and heard moving on their own.
A few psychics said they have seen, heard, and sensed a group of mobsters still occupying the room, having shots and smoking.
Years back, an anonymous local claimed to have a frightening experience while she was swimming in the pool and looked through the windows of the Mermaid Room.
“When I went under I saw a little girl just standing there (in the Mermaid Room) looking at me blankly. She was small, like around the age 5, I'm guessing and had a blue and white dress on … I went back to the top of the water to catch my breath and went back under and she was gone.”
The Pool Room is also said to have ghosts of its own. Guests have reported seeing the teen that allegedly drowned in 1972 floating above the water, with her long brown hair flowing. Some have complained about feeling cold spots, and being touched by unseen forces. A few visitors claim to have encountered hearing the teen speak quietly, and splashing in the pool when it was vacant. Ghost hunters have recorded lots of strange noises and EVPs in the Pool Room.
In the ‘90s while Psychic Babianna Mince was attending a pool party at the lodge, she and her friend along with some of the children who were there, saw the ghost of a woman in her late ‘30s or early ‘40s, stepping out of the pool dressed in late 1800s bathing attire. Babianna asked the ghost who she was. The entity responded with the name, Cora. Bobiana noted that some of the children were frightened of the ghost and said that she didn’t have eyes.
Over the years, people have claimed to see ghosts in the windows of the upper balconies in the Pool Room looking out on the small open field behind the building. Some guests who have sat in the balconies have also seen dark apparitions standing in the grassy area looking at them.
Karen Casella Adamski, a paranormal investigator from San Jose, Calif. said that she and others have seen strange light anomalies skipping across the pool. Karen stated that she has seen the unexplainable phenomenon on more than one occasion while investigating the Brookdale during the hours of darkness.
“What I see almost regularly in there is like sparks over the water across the pool near the balcony. They are blue sparks and sometimes they’d move like someone throwing dice or skipping rocks,” Karen said.
“I know I’m not the only one who’s seen it,” Karen stated.
Karen, Nancy Bowman and other fellow investigators spoke to a ghost of a man who was at the bar located in the Pool Room. He was unhappy.
“The bottom line was, he said that the bar (near the swimming pool) was not where it was supposed to be.” Karen said. The bar wasn’t original to the room, and so he didn’t like it in the vicinity for some unexplained reason.
The Log Cabin located off of the Brookroom was once used as the lodge’s main entrance and lobby for many years. A large, six-foot tall fireplace occupies one wall of the dark, rustic room made from logs. After the cabin was no longer being used as a lobby, it was used as a poker room, conference room, or private lounge.
Several paranormal investigators have had numerous experiences with the deceased in the Log Cabin including watching objects moving on their own, seeing unexplainable mists, hearing and recording disembodied voices, and feeling an overwhelming sense of anxiety.
Karen Casella Adamski had a couple interesting encounters in the cabin while investigating the lodge in the mid ‘2000s. On that visit, Karen said that the spirits at the lodge did not like an investigator who came along with them and made it clear how much they disliked the provoking ghost hunter.
“When she’d enter the room the Ovilus device would start going off, saying words such as ‘Bitch,’ and the F-word, continuously.” Karen explained to me.
Psychic Babianna Mince had a horrible paranormal encounter in 2009 while setting up Roger Reynolds’ memorial at the lodge.:
“I was walking into the Log Cabin with my son and I was pushed,” Babianna said. “When I tried to get up, I was pushed again by what felt like to be small hands of a child on the lower part my back. It fractured my foot in three places.”
In the 90s', during a Friday the 13th event, an unknown guest took a photo of the fireplace, in the Log Cabin Room known to be one of the main portals of the lodge. In the photo below, you will notice four faces inside the fire. I shared the photo with four psychics. Three of the psychics sensed it is in fact authentic. Are these ghostly images within the photograph actually real? You be the judge.
In the bar, there is usually some story going around about the most recent haunting. Bartenders at the Lodge are aware that they don’t just clean up for the living; they clean up after the dead as well, when glasses and bottles fly and slide off shelves, or when the jukebox and television are turned off and on by an unseen force.
One thing’s for sure … when asking for spirits at the Brookdale Lodge; you may just get more than a shot of whiskey.
Psychics speculate that an old Lumberjack by the name of George haunts the lodge, predominantly in the back of the property, where he once chopped wood for the hotel. He has also been seen in the conference rooms on the second floor.
Mediums have also sensed the ghost of a woman named Mary, and have communicated with a young boy who says his name is Robby. His spirit has been seen underneath the honeymoon bridge in the Brookroom.
“My friend, who has had encounters prior, cannot speak of that night without becoming visibly shaken. I now believe that what your naked eye may not reveal, the hair on the back of your neck does.”
-Michele Phillips, Lodge Guest
Paranormal activity tends to occur in almost every room throughout the main structure of the haunted Brookdale Lodge. Some of the activity seems to be residual energy trapped and continually replays a moment in time; while other instances, it’s clear that there are spirits in the vicinity going about their business.
The kitchen attached to the Brookroom is said to have constant phenomenon, from pots and pans swinging and banging around to shadow-like figures that fly about. In an article from the Santa Cruz Sentinel dated January 9, 2008, a chef claimed to have seen a heavy cooking pot full of water do a full rotation on the burner. He said the doors to the kitchen sometimes swing open and closed, as if someone has been walking through them. Lights are said to turn on and off on their own as well. The walk-in freezer was allegedly used to store bodies during the big band era and some feel uneasy when entering.
Even the bathrooms have paranormal activity. “Doors would slam on their own and toilet paper rolls would unwind in the men and women’s bathrooms at the same time,” stated in a Santa Cruz Sentinel article, 1991.
In 1995, some women claimed to have a paranormal encounter in the ladies’ room one night that spooked them.
“Halfway upon my exit the door slammed shut,” wrote Joanne from ufoparanormal.com. “Since I was not entirely out of the doorway it struck my back so hard that it sent me flying into my friend waiting about five feet from the door. My hand was nearly caught in the door jamb as I was sailing through but was somehow agile enough in that split second to pull it away. Needless to say she witnessed the door slamming shut and saw that I hadn't pulled backwards on the door or any variation thereof to cause the incident. With that we ran the hell out of that hallway, but reluctantly returned to attempt to repeat the same action of the door, but with no success.”
“It’s impossible to live there and not feel it. It’s going on all around you. It attacks people that seem the most vulnerable.”
-A Past Anonymous Tenant
When you first enter the lodge and go through the lobby, you pass by the Fireside Room where residual big band music is softly heard.
Some have claimed to feel a cold unseen presence near them in the vicinity and others have claimed to have been touched. Disembodied footsteps and muffled cries and laughter have been noticed, in addition to Sarah’s spirit being witnessed and heard running around the fireplace. Her soft, sweet laughter is said to fill the room, as well as sound of her footsteps.
“We heard laughter in the Fireside Room. We thought we saw a shadow by the fire, and we actually looked for somebody, but no one appeared,” said Jennifer Gilbert, in a 1997 article of the San Francisco Chronicle.
In a little nook attached to the Fireside Room, there is a pool table where some allege being touched by an unseen force.
While visiting the lodge in 2011, I noticed what may have been spirit orbs moving through the lens of my video camera. The orbs were floating along the pool table going different speeds, and in various sizes and directions. I filmed two orbs shooting across the pool table, almost like they were imitating pool balls. One anomaly shot across the table fast and disappeared. Then it reappeared and floated down into one of the table’s pockets before floating over the top and disappearing once again.
Over the years ghost hunters have caught EVPs at the lodge. Many have recorded the disembodied voice of a little girl believed to be the ghost of Sarah Logan.
-- Below are two EVPs caught by HPI Paranormal during a private investigation in the Brookroom in 2007. (Courtesy of Shannon McCabe, HPI Paranormal)
Note:
The first clip you'll hear a little girl start talking over the rushing water of the creek about 30 seconds in.
In the second clip you'll hear her humming about 44 seconds in.
** (I'd like to add that there was NO children on the property during the investigation, in addition to there not being a single (living) soul in the main building besides the team.)
“Still today guests report hearing muffled cries of, ‘But I don't like peas and carrots and I won't eat them,’ throughout the grounds by Sarah Logan.”
-Michelle M.
In 1991, the Gilberts hired two priests to do a serious spiritual cleansing on the lodge, but it was said to only make things worse. “If anything, they may have annoyed the ghosts,” said Kim Gilbert, quoted in Haunted Houses of California, by Antoinette May. “Shortly after the failed exorcism, I awoke one morning to find wooden planks ripped off the wall in the banquet room across from that small room where the mobsters are supposed to be buried.”
While visiting the lodge in 2016, I received these words and several more on my Ghost Radar app (screen shot shown above). On many occasions I have made contact with Judge Logan, the first owner of the lodge, and did that day as well.
Documented deaths at the Brookdale Lodge:
•1909 : Catherine Logan, 68, wife of J.H. Logan dies at Brookdale
•1943 : Dr F.K. Camp’s mother, Mrs. Julia Johnson, 91, dies at lodge
•1959 : The hotel’s electrician Louis W. Huntington, 53, was found dead do to a stroke, in his cabin on the property
•1974 : Lodge manager John Eugene Madera collapses from a heart attack in parking lot and dies
•2009 : Man, 35, falls from opening inside lodge and dies in the hospital 5 days later
** Note: Despite what people say, along with the plaque that’s on the front of the lodge (as of 2022), not one single living being was ever killed in any of the floods or fires. - Not even a cat!
Spirits in the fire- Log Cabin Room fireplace. This is believed to be a REAL and authentic photograph that was in no way enhanced . Courtesy of Roger Reynolds and Jane Reynolds Heath (RIP) .
** FOR MUCH MORE INFORMATION, HISTORY, AND GHOST STORIES OF THE BROOKDALE LODGE, CHECK OUT GRAVES’ BOOKS:
THE HAUNTED BROOKDALE LODGE, AND THE HISTORY OF THE BROOKDALE LODGE
BOTH AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT THE LODGE'S NEW GIFT SHOP, AND ON AMAZON.COM!
THE BROOKDALE LODGE
Year built: 1903
11570 Hwy 9
Brookdale, CA 95007
(831) 609- 6010
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The Brookdale Swimming Hole
On July 15th, 1912, tragedy struck in Brookdale. One hot summer afternoon, two girls who were lodging nearby met their maker. Fifteen-year-old Lilly McDonald and sixteen-year-old Gladys Hawkett decided to go for a swim, but felt their swimsuits were inappropriate for the lodge’s main swimming pool so, went down the river to the “big pool,” not knowing how treacherous the water was.
“The bank at the spot slopes steeply into the water from 12 to 15 feet deep. The two girls ran down the slope and plunged into the water before finding out how deep it was. Neither could swim, and they became helpless in water over their heads,” The Call, July 16th, 1912.
The girls began screaming to Glady Hawkett’s sister, Mrs. May Cripps, 30, who was on the bank with her two young children. May, also not knowing how to swim, frantically jumped into the pool trying to save the girls, but tragically went under in her heroic attempt. By the time help had come, the three victims were gone.
On July 13th, 2013, my psychic friend Renee G. (pendulum specialist) and I visited the old Brookdale Swimming Hole and the spirits of its past victims. Using my Ghost Radar, a mini Maglite, and two pendulums, we began to attempt to make contact with the four drowning victims.
“Is May Cripps here?” I asked.
The Maglite immediately turned on.
“OK, thank you, and nice to meet you,” I said. “Now can you please turn off the light so we can ask you another question?”
The Maglite turned off about 5 seconds later.
“Is your sister and her friend who drowned in this vicinity also here?”
The light turned on again. To verify, Renee repeated the questions on her pendulum.
At that moment, the Ghost Radar said, “Disaster,” and "Yell.”
By that time we were both able to feel the ghosts of the girls around us; their 100 + year old spirits felt strong.
We asked them if they were happy there, and they said they were. They knew that they were dead; and answered, “Yes,” when asked if they knew there was another place to go after you die, but they seemed to have little interest in it.
The Ghost Radar then randomly said, “Water.”
After asking several questions, we discovered that May Cripps, her sister, Gladys Hawkett, and her friend Lilly McDonald continue to haunt the river where they tragically drowned over 100 years ago.
THE BROOKDALE SWIMMING HOLE
Brookdale, CA 95007
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