Ghost Stories
Many of us can remember our first experience of sitting under the twinkling night stars, warming our fingers in front of a crackling fire and leaning forward to listen intently as someone begins to tell us a story. Sometimes the stories were sad, sometimes sweet, but often they sent a chill down our spines. Both fairy tales and ghost stories have been such an inspiration to the Museum of Make Believe that we centered many of our events around these types of stories.
When we host our ghost story events, our goal is to embrace the "around the campfire" tradition of storytelling by inviting locals to come out and tell their own stories. We thought it would be fun to share some local tales with you here today about our great city of Anaheim and the greater Southwest region.
If you have been to Founder's Park in Anaheim then you know the historic Woelke-Stoffel House, a two-story Queen Anne built in the late 1800's during Anaheim’s citrus era. Some still refer to it as the "Red Cross House" as it was later donated to the Red Cross. Some claim that the original owner Mr. Stoffel haunts the house today and is quite friendly. There are others that claim a less kind caretaker haunts the house as well and tries to make visitors trip down the stairs. And there is a ghost that considers herself a matchmaker and if she deems a man and a woman in a tour group a good match, she will push them together.
Of course, it wouldn't be Anaheim without a Disneyland ghost story and if you do a little research you can find several of them. My favorite by far has to do with Walt Disney himself. There are many stories about hearing knocking and footsteps in his apartment above the fire station on Main Street and it has been said that he never left Disneyland. One day a cleaning lady was tidying the apartment and turned the lamp in front of the window off. Then she went back outside and looked up to find the lamp back on. She went through this same process a few more times until finally deciding to take matters into her own hands. She turned the lamp back off and stood in front of it...imagine her shock when it re-lit itself right in front of her. This is the last time the lamp was ever turned off, because of course, if Walt wants his lamp on, it should stay on.
Some of the most historic ghost stories come from the Southwest. In Oatman, Arizona there is a ghost affectionally named "Oatie" who haunts the Oatman hotel. He was an Irish miner that died many years ago behind the hotel, but today is found running up and down the stairs, often when you least expect it! Driving down Route 66, you will end up at another haunted location, the Grand Canyon Caverns. There have been many deaths in the cavern and long ago it was the grounds of a Native American burial site. Many guests have reported hearing strange whispers, seeing a man appear and disappear by the elevator doors, and some people even report having rocks thrown at them. If you find these stories as fascinating as we do, you might enjoy seeing "Caverns, Craters and Mules" an episode of our videographer, Greg Nutt’s show, The American Landscape. You can find and enjoy the episode here:
We look forward to sharing a ghost story event with you all in person soon. Keep a close watch out for any spooky stories and you can share one with us in the future!