Skip to content
All jurisdictions
West

California

96 dossiers133 claims84 legends34 alleged entities10 ghost townsheaviest files, ranked →

The record for California opens with RMS Queen Mary, Angel Island Immigration Station and Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel — the deepest files in the jurisdiction. The most-filed claim types here are Apparition (41 dossiers), Named Ghost Legend (26) and Reported Anomalies (23). Of its 96 sites, 77 are listed as open to the public — confirm access before visiting. The oldest dated entry is Benicia Arsenal, established 1851.

Counties:Mono Co. 2
Ship
High confidence

RMS Queen Mary

Long Beach, California

Site documented in a Ghost Research Society investigation report.

5 claims · 3 legends→
Detention Center
Medium

Angel Island Immigration Station

Tiburon, California

The "Ellis Island of the West"—where Chinese immigrants were detained under exclusion.

3 claims · 3 legends→
Hotel
Medium

Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel

Los Angeles, California

1927 film-colony hotel haunted—per lore—by Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift.

3 claims · 2 legends→
Ghost Town
Medium

Cerro Gordo

Keeler, California

1865 silver camp on a 8,500-ft Inyo ridge—now a private ghost town with overnight stays.

3 claims · 2 legends→
Ruins
Medium

Sutro Baths ruins

San Francisco, California

1896 glass-topped saltwater baths—burned 1966, ruins on the cliff.

3 claims · 2 legends→
Hospital
Medium

Napa State Hospital

Napa, California

1875 asylum on the hill—still operating, still haunted per lore.

3 claims · 2 legends→
Historic House
High confidence

Whaley House

San Diego, California

Site documented in a Ghost Research Society investigation report.

3 claims · 1 legend→
House Museum
High confidence

Winchester Mystery House

San Jose, California

Unusual mansion with an extensive modern ghost tradition.

3 claims · 1 legend→
Museum Ship
Medium

Star of India

San Diego, California

1863 windjammer with a sailor’s ghost in the rigging.

3 claims · 1 legend→
Former Hospital
Medium

Camarillo State Hospital site

Camarillo, California

1936 psychiatric hospital—its bell tower became a CSU campus landmark.

3 claims · 1 legend→
Hotel
Medium

Queen Anne Hotel

San Francisco, California

Former school associated with headmistress folklore.

2 claims · 2 legends→
Former Hospital
Medium

Linda Vista Community Hospital

Los Angeles, California

1905 railroad hospital abandoned in 1991, reborn as a horror-film set.

3 claims→
Former Shipyard
Medium

Mare Island Naval Shipyard

Vallejo, California

The Navy’s first Pacific shipyard—145 years of warship construction.

2 claims · 2 legends→
Ghost Town
High confidence

Bodie

Bodie, California

Historic settlement and ghost-town heritage.

2 claims · 1 legend→
Hotel
High confidence

Mission Inn

Riverside, California

Historic hotel with voice and apparition reports.

2 claims · 2 legends→
Former Prison
High confidence

Alcatraz Island

San Francisco, California

The Rock—federal penitentiary 1934–63, island prison since the 1850s.

2 claims · 1 legend→
Road
Medium

Proctor Valley Road

Chula Vista, California

The San Diego County road with the Proctor Valley Monster and the vanishing girl.

2 claims · 2 legends→
Mission
Medium

Mission San Juan Capistrano

San Juan Capistrano, California

The "Jewel of the Missions"—and the swallows that made it famous.

2 claims · 2 legends→
Mission
Medium

La Purísima Mission

Lompoc, California

The most fully restored California mission—and the most haunted.

2 claims · 2 legends→
Ghost Town
Medium

Amboy

Amboy, California

The town Roy’s built—population zero, still standing.

2 claims · 2 legends→
Site
Medium

Roy’s Motel

Amboy, California

The Googie sign—the mid-century icon on the empty road.

2 claims · 2 legends→
Ghost Town
Medium

Bombay Beach

Bombay Beach, California

The resort that drowned—where the art now grows from the salt.

2 claims · 2 legends→
Site
Medium

Fort Ross

Jenner, California

The 1812 Russian outpost—where the czar’s flag flew over California.

2 claims · 2 legends→
Site
Medium

Battery Spencer

Sausalito, California

The 1897 battery—where the bridge photos are taken.

2 claims · 2 legends→
Former School
Medium

Preston Castle

Ione, California

Reform-school "castle" where wards and a staff member died violently.

2 claims · 1 legend→
Playa
Medium

Racetrack Playa

Furnace Creek, California

Moving stones with observed natural mechanisms.

2 claims→
Hotel
Medium

Millennium Biltmore Hotel

Los Angeles, California

LA’s 1923 palace—the Black Dahlia’s last-seen hotel and the early Oscars.

2 claims · 1 legend→
Theater
Medium

Palace Theatre (Los Angeles)

Los Angeles, California

Broadway’s oldest LA theater—the vaudeville house with a dark double-balcony legend.

2 claims · 1 legend→
Site
Medium

Salton Sea

Mecca, California

The accidental sea—1905 flood, now dying.

2 claims · 1 legend→
Site
Medium

Salvation Mountain

Niland, California

Leonard Knight’s painted hill—"God Is Love" in adobe and paint.

2 claims · 1 legend→
Site
Medium

Manzanar

Lone Pine, California

The Owens Valley camp—11,000 interned under the Sierras.

2 claims · 1 legend→
Site
Medium

Fort Point

San Francisco, California

The 1861 fort under the bridge—where the cannon face the Golden Gate.

2 claims · 1 legend→
Site
Medium

Fort Humboldt

Eureka, California

The 1853 fort—where Grant served his lonely tour.

2 claims · 1 legend→
Site
Medium

Brother Jonathan

Crescent City, California

July 30, 1865—the gold ship on the California rocks.

2 claims · 1 legend→
Theater
Low

Pasadena Playhouse

Pasadena, California

The 1925 playhouse where founder Gilmor Brown kept an office.

2 claims · 1 legend→
Hospital
Medium

DeWitt State Hospital

Auburn, California

The WWII-era hospital where hundreds of patients were sterilized—and where the truth was hidden.

2 claims→
Dam Ruins
Medium

St. Francis Dam Disaster Site

Santa Clarita, California

Dam-collapse landscape in San Francisquito Canyon.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Hotel
Medium

Holbrooke Hotel

Grass Valley, California

Gold Rush hotel with guest-room folklore.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Ship
Medium

Delta King

Sacramento, California

Riverboat hotel with former-captain folklore.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Hotel
Medium

Hotel del Coronado

Coronado, California

1888 beachfront icon haunted by Kate Morgan, the "beautiful stranger."

1 claim · 1 legend→
Restaurant
Medium

Moss Beach Distillery

Moss Beach, California

1927 speakeasy haunted by the "Blue Lady"—a documented 1930s love-triangle death.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Park
Medium

Griffith Park

Los Angeles, California

L.A.’s great park sits on Rancho Los Feliz—said to carry a 19th-century curse.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Former Military Base
Medium

Benicia Arsenal

Benicia, California

1851 Army arsenal with a camel-barn ghost and unexplained arsenal lights.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Lighthouse
Medium

Battery Point Lighthouse

Crescent City, California

1856 tidal-island lighthouse—keeper lore and phantom footsteps.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Lighthouse
Medium

Point Sur Lighthouse

Big Sur, California

1889 light on a volcanic rock—keeper-isolation lore and the USS Macon wreck.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Hospital
Medium

Stockton State Hospital

Stockton, California

California’s first state hospital—1853, demolished after the mental-health era ended.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Hospital
Medium

Patton State Hospital

Highland, California

The 1893 San Bernardino asylum—still the largest forensic hospital in the state.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Hospital
Medium

Metropolitan State Hospital

Norwalk, California

The 1915 Norwalk asylum—famous for its "psychic" escape lore and film shoots.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Prison
Medium

Folsom State Prison

Represa, California

Johnny Cash’s 1968 concert prison—still active, still grim.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Prison
Medium

San Quentin State Prison

San Quentin, California

California’s oldest prison—the gas chamber, the condemned row and the ghosts.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Road
Medium

Niles Canyon Road

Fremont, California

The canyon road where the "Niles ghost girl" is said to hitchhike.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Museum
Medium

Bigfoot Discovery Museum

Felton, California

The Santa Cruz Mountains museum at the edge of Bigfoot country.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Mission
Medium

Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo

Carmel-by-the-Sea, California

Junípero Serra’s headquarters—and his burial place.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Mission
Medium

Mission Dolores

San Francisco, California

The 1776 mission that survived when the city around it burned.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Mission
Medium

Mission Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, California

The "Queen of the Missions"—and its cemetery and catacombs.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Mission
Medium

Mission San Diego de Alcalá

San Diego, California

California’s first mission—1769, and the site of the first Christian burial.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Mission
Medium

Mission San Gabriel Arcángel

San Gabriel, California

The 1771 mission with the oldest working California vineyard.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Mission
Medium

Mission San Miguel Arcángel

San Miguel, California

The 1797 mission with the best-preserved original frescoes.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Cave
Medium

Moaning Cavern

Vallecito, California

The cave with the rappel entrance—and the moaning sound that named it.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Estate
Medium

Hearst Castle

San Simeon, California

William Randolph Hearst’s hilltop "Enchanted Hill"—127 acres of opulence.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Estate
Medium

Filoli

Woodside, California

The 1917 Woodside estate—the Dynasty house.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Mine
Medium

Empire Mine

Grass Valley, California

California’s richest gold mine—106 years of hard rock.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Historic Site
Medium

Coloma / Sutter’s Mill

Coloma, California

Where Marshall found the flake that started the Gold Rush—January 24, 1848.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Landscape
Medium

Alabama Hills

Lone Pine, California

The rounded-rock landscape where hundreds of Westerns filmed.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Hotel
Low

Cary House Hotel

Placerville, California

Historic hotel with phantom music reports.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Hotel
Low

Napa River Inn

Napa, California

Former mill with guest-reported anomalies.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Hotel
Low

Glen Tavern Inn

Santa Paula, California

Hotel associated with Calvin and Rose folklore.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Cemetery
Low

Evergreen Cemetery

Yreka, California

Cemetery associated with guided local ghost-story interpretation.

1 claim · 1 legend→
Dune Field
Medium

Eureka Dunes

Big Pine, California

Remote dunes known for low booming sounds.

1 claim→
Dune Field
Medium

Kelso Dunes

Baker, California

Mojave dune field with occasional booming sounds.

1 claim→
Museum Ship
Medium

USS Hornet

Alameda, California

Apollo 11 recovery carrier and WWII veteran with a deep ghost file.

1 claim→
Historic Settlement
Medium

Benton Hot Springs

Benton, California

Living former mining town with attributed unusual experiences.

1 claim→
Hotel
Medium

Cecil Hotel (Stay on Main)

Los Angeles, California

1924 hotel darkened by decades of deaths and the Elisa Lam case.

1 claim→
Historic District
Medium

Old Sacramento & the Underground

Sacramento, California

Gold Rush district raised one story in the 1860s—its hollowed-out first floors remain below.

1 claim→
City
Medium

Fresno Nightcrawler site

Fresno, California

The walking-pants cryptid caught on CCTV in 2007.

1 claim→
Ranch Site
Medium

Spahn Ranch site

Chatsworth, California

The movie ranch where the Manson Family lived.

1 claim→
House
Medium

Los Feliz murder house

Los Angeles, California

The 1959 mansion where Dr. Perelson killed his wife and himself—left untouched for decades.

1 claim→
Hotel Site
Medium

Ambassador Hotel site

Los Angeles, California

The Cocoanut Grove and the pantry where RFK was shot—demolished 2006.

1 claim→
Museum
Medium

Museum of Death

Los Angeles, California

The Hollywood museum of serial-killer art, autopsy photos and execution artifacts.

1 claim→
Site
Medium

Church of Satan / "Black House" site

San Francisco, California

Anton LaVey’s 6114 California Street—the Church’s founding house, demolished 2001.

1 claim→
Town
Medium

Needles

Needles, California

The hottest town on the route—the Colorado River gateway.

1 claim→
Site
Medium

Slab City

Niland, California

The last free place—the Marine base turned squatter camp.

1 claim→
Site
Medium

East Jesus

Niland, California

The art garden in the desert—Slab City’s installation.

1 claim→
Site
Medium

Tule Lake

Newell, California

The segregation center—where the resisters were held.

1 claim→
Historic Site
Medium

Mary Ellen Pleasant Burial Site

Napa, California

NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.

2 facts→
Historic Site
Medium

Old Tuolumne County Courthouse

Sonora, California

NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.

2 facts→
Historic Site
Medium

Mary A. Brown Burial Site

Sacramento, California

NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.

2 facts→
Historic Site
Medium

Samuel D. Burris Burial Site, Cypress Lawn Memorial Park

Colma, California

NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.

2 facts→
Ghost Town
Medium

Old Town of Shasta

Shasta, California

Gold Rush town ruins and restored historic courthouse.

2 facts→
Detention Camp
Medium

Camp Tulelake

Tulelake, California

Former CCC camp later used for wartime detention.

2 facts→
Incarceration Site
Medium

Manzanar National Historic Site

Independence, California

Preserved Japanese American incarceration landscape in Owens Valley.

2 facts→
Ghost Town
Medium

Tumco

Winterhaven, California

Remains of a desert gold-mining settlement.

2 facts→
Ghost Town
Medium

Dog Town

Bridgeport, California

Ruins of an early eastern Sierra mining camp.

2 facts→
Mining Town
Medium

Malakoff Diggins–North Bloomfield Historic District

North Bloomfield, California

Historic hydraulic mine and preserved mining town.

1 fact→
Incarceration Site
Medium

Tule Lake Segregation Center

Newell, California

Preserved portions of the largest WRA incarceration camp.

1 fact→
Ghost Town
Medium

Calico Ghost Town

Yermo, California

Silver-rush town restored by Knott’s Berry Farm as a county park.

1 fact→