HPI Chronicles: The Ghosts of San Juan Bautista Part 1
by Paul Dale Roberts
(San Juan Bautista, CA USA)
HPI Chronicles: The Ghosts of San Juan Bautista
By Paul Dale Roberts, HPI Ghostwriter
HPI gets a call from Mags. Mags is actually the lovely Margaret
Clara Baker. She lives in San Juan Bautista and she lives with ghosts.
Holly DeLaughter will be the lead investigator for this case and sets
a date for the HPI core members to investigate. Mags was kind enough to set us up with plenty to do on our trip, as you will read later on...
The date is June 21, 2008.
Michele Stump, Historian & Core Investigator briefs Holly and the HPI team with the following:
The San Juan Bautista Mission was built by the Spanish clergy in 1797.
It was the 15th Mission in California and the largest mission. Before
the Spaniards built the mission, the land of San Juan Bautista was the
home of the Mutsun Tribe of Indians. The Mutsun were hunter/gatherers
or (Digger) Indians. Before the arrival of the Spanish, the Mutsun lived
in small mud, adobe huts in villages. Because the adobes were erected
without roofs, the structures were mostly destroyed by the elements. At
one time, the Mutsuns living at the mission numbered around 3000.
Unlike the dismal fate of most natives in California, the Mutsuns were able to survive due to the fact that the missions were considered sanctuary.
Violence, starvation, and disease were not as prevalent as it was in
other areas of the state. The spiritual practices of the Mutsuns were
banished and they were taught to practice Christianity. The last
surviving pure blooded Mutsun Indian died in 1930 and she is buried at
the Indian cemetery next to the mission church.
Jose Castro, of the Mexican Army, (or American Army if you want to be
Technical, as Mexico owned California at that time) built the "Castro
House" and then the Breen family bought the property in the 1840's. The
Breen family were survivors of the Donner party. Their son John brought
home $10,000 worth of gold dust and the family was able to buy the
house and it’s property in San Juan Bautista.
Because of the long and rich diversity and history of San Juan
Bautista, there are several varieties of architecture there including
Adobe, Spanish, Italian, English, and others. George Chalmers was an
architect in the town and built several properties there. He also had a
brother, Robert, who is the famous ghost of Coloma's Vineyard House.
Holly gathers her team of investigators, they are: Jen Baca, Bryan
Coleman, Michele Stump, Scott Young and of course me, Paul Dale Roberts.
We all arrive at my home to make the long trek to San Juan Batista.
We made the passing of time bearable as we blasted some Lynnard Skynnard.
If you make a road trip to San Juan Bautista from the Northern part of
California, make sure to stop at Andersen’s Pea Soup at 51 E. Hwy 246 of
in Buellton, CA. Check out their website at www.peasoupandersens.net
They have a great tourist shop inside their restaurant, with lots of fun peas soup trinkets. We stopped for refreshments and to stretch. After taking our roadside break, we were ready to roll.
One unusual incident happened to us on the way down to San Juan Bautista. Holly, who is quite sensitive, felt a feeling of dread as we went
through the Pacheco Pass, particularly at Pacheco Creek. She had this sinking feeling for the next 5 or 6 miles that she could not
overcome. The HPI Investigators told Holly she had lost all the coloring in her face until we were completely out of the Pacheco Pass area. And to validate Holly’s feelings when we met up with Mags, she introduced us to a native of the land named “Chief”. Chief proceed to tell us that there were a lot of lives lost in that Pacheco Creek area and it was historically significant and heavily imprinted.
Shannon McCabe, HPI’s president, later tells us that there is a ghost woman that haunts the Pacheco Pass and maybe Holly was picking up on her pain as well.
From what I know of Pacheco Pass is that it was on the original
Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach route which connected the American
Midwest with San Francisco all the way to 1858, until the
Transcontinental Railroad was built. The pass is named after Francisco
Perez Pacheco. Another name for Pacheco Pass is Robber’s Pass, due to
the many stagecoach robberies and hold-up’s.
The first person I interviewed was waitress Susanna Lopez of La
Poblanita Mexican Restaurant. She tells me that in the park near her
house, the swing would start swinging by itself, usually at 11pm. The swing
moves when there is no wind. It seems that the swing moves by itself
almost every night. In the home she lives in, her boyfriend once felt a
cold spot near his body. Her boyfriend’s sister has been pushed
during the middle of the night. She has seen a little girl at the building
near her home. She has even seen a light in the night sky that was large and
as she watched it, it became smaller.
This was an interesting story and I will later learn by the end of the day, that almost everyone in this town has witnessed something that was considered paranormal. It makes sense, since this town has seen its share of tragedy. For example, a Mexican stranger came into town in 1886 and went to the Plaza Hotel. He looked ill. Later it was learned he brought in smallpox to the town. 300 people of this town died of smallpox.
As we explored this town, I learn that on 1st and Washington Street,
there is a phantom stagecoach that has been seen. At the Cement Plant, people
have claimed to have seen Shadow People.
On this particular day, there was lightning and a quick rain. As fast as the thunderstorm came, it went. The only thunder I could hear was from the many motorcycles that rumbled down the street. The Chicano Style Motorcycle Club made their presence known, and they looked really cool doing it.
I decided to interview another person on the street that didn’t want to be identified. She told me that a certain house blows smoke from the chimney on a certain day in October and there is no one living in the house. She had me walk with her and she pointed the house to me. I only wish she would have told me the day!
It was now time for a briefing from Mags and her boyfriend Roger L.
Miller.
Here is what came out from the briefing:
Doors have opened and closed by themselves. One time the door slammed shut on the owner of this home. They have seen the door move 6 or 8 inches on its own. They have heard the door knob making a clicking sound, as if someone was
turning it. Roger felt like he was touched on one particular night. The
children of this home feel like something is trying to go through their
bedroom door and feelings of being watched. Particularly at night. The children have heard a knocking in the kitchen area, they knocked three times and heard a reply of three knocks back. They did it again and knocked only two times and got a reply of two knock back from the other side of the room. The air gets thick at times. One time a head was peeking
around the doorway. A tall black thin shadow person was seen at the
doorway. The bathroom and the one bedroom seem to have the most
activity. Mags has had had an “in your face” type of feeling from a male presence where she got a partial vision of what the entity looked like. Two of the HPI Lead investigators were able to psychically pick up on what they felt was the same entity and describe that same feeling and look of what Mags had experienced. Holly was able to give Mags a message that the entity did not like Mags’ current boyfriend. That totally made sense to Mags as the activity increases and the air becomes hostile when her boyfriend is around.
Holly and Mags really seemed to connect on a psychic and personal level. Holly was able to help Mags with a lot of different areas in her and her children’s lives.
Holly goes on to tell me that two weeks prior to the investigation she received psychic information on Mags’ youngest daughter and that she was communicating with the spirits her mother wanted us to find. She also received psychic information about a man that died by hanging. Whether he hung himself or was hung, Holly did not know. Holly thought that it might be at Mags’ house but actually found out that it happened directly next door after Mags did some research. Mags was also not aware that her daughter was speaking to any spirits and when she confronted her daughter after HPI arrived she told her her mother the whole story. So Holly does it again!
I have to admit, that when I went into the bathroom by
myself, there seemed to be an electrical charge in the air. Their home is 102 years old, so it has a lot of history.
Holly felt something dreadful happened on the stairwell, and one of the neighbors remembers a story about a murder that occurred, possibly on that very stairwell.
It is rumored that a butcher shop once was located downstairs and that some of the employees of this butcher shop lived in the rooms that are now part of
this apartment complex. Odors have been detected in this home,
like a man’s body odor and later they smelled Bay Rum cologne. Below this
home may be a tunnel that leads to the mission. There was a lady that
died at Cutting Horse Steakhouse, she was stabbed to death and her presence may be also be in their home.
Our next stop was the Cutting Horse Steakhouse and Saloon on 307 Third
Street. HPI ghost hunters get hungry and we all got our fill on some tasty
cheeseburgers and fries. We topped it off with a strong delicious
Cappuccino shot.
