The Brookdale Lodge Haunting Investigation: Santa Cruz

Remember the movie "The Lost Boys" and the camera spans the surroundings of Santa Cruz? While your looking at an odd mixture of Santa Cruzians, the song from the Doors plays..."People are Strange". Well, I will explain why I thought the people of Santa Cruz were strange later on in this article. But, for right now, let me tell you the date of this event. It's Saturday, April 21, 2007. I'm sitting at home relaxing waiting on H.P.I. (Haunted and Paranormal Investigations) of Northern California - paranormal investigator Michele Stump. Michele is driving me to Brookdale, California, a small community of the larger city of Santa Cruz. We will be staying at the world famous Brookdale Lodge. This is the place where Al Capone and other assorted gangsters would take a vacation at. Many celebrities of the past frequented this establishment, that includes Marilyn Monroe. Brookdale Lodge was featured on Unsolved Mysteries, because of the little ghostly girl by the creek named Sarah. Yep! Brookdale Lodge is haunted. Some say by 49 ghosts. Ross Eric Gibson - author of "Historical Memories Haunt Brookdale" says: 'a girl in a formal dress runs across the lobby, then disappears into thin air....hidden rooms and secret passages are mysterious vestiges of Brookdale Lodge's rich past.' 1870 is the year that the Brookdale Lodge came into existence. I will discuss the Brookdale Lodge more as we get further into this article. For right now, let me tell you a story that Michele told me on our drive to Santa Cruz. I asked Michele how she got interested in the paranormal and this is what she had to say:

"When I was 8 years old, I lived on the Forni Ranch in the Sugarloaf area of El Dorado County. The ranch was haunted. I came to realize that when my brother was thrown off his bed. One time there was no electricity in the house and I was bored and built a card house, using a deck of playing cards and something mysteriously knocked it over. I used to hear footsteps, glasses clanking and upstairs there was laughter. Of course there was no explanation for these noises, because there was no living human being around, just me. One day, an entity walked past me and ran up the stairs and the door slammed. I would hide in the barn until my family returned, I was so scared. I believe the entity was 'old man Forni' who died at this ranch. The entity would tip over kerosene lamps and when we moved from the ranch, the ranch finally caught fire and everyone thought that old man Forni did it.'

Finally Michele and I arrive at the Brookdale Lodge, she played Rush, Police, Primus and Rolling Stones on her CD player in her vehicle, I was all rocked out by the time I reached the lodge and going uphill to the Bohemian Rhapsody towards the lodge. Michele drove from Cameron Park and picked me up in Elk Grove before making that trek to Santa Cruz. When we arrived we went straight to the buffet. I had lasagna, snitzel, coffee, apple pie and cheese cake. We listened to all of the presentations during our buffet lunch. Shannon McCabe played "AC/DC" during breaks throughout the presentation. The Northern California Paranormal Conference had begun. The itinerary included: Gloria Young of Ghost Trackers' presentation; Shannon McCabe/Alicia Perry of HPI's presentation of "Haunted West Sacramento"; Nancy Bradley - world renowned psychic; Robert Reppert - owner and head investigator for Gold Rush Ghosts Investigations" (Robert Reppert showed us his million dollars worth of ghost hunting equipment and gave us some good tips, such as how he tries to disprove a haunting and when there is nothing left to dispel, then it only leaves the abnormal or paranormal). As I surveyed the crowd, some of the paranormal investigators I recognized or was able to meet this day were sitting around intensely listening to Nancy Bradley and the other speakers. Let's do a roll call: Shannon McCabe - President/Lead Investigator H.P.I.; Alicia Perry/Equipment Technician; some members of American Paranormal Investigations (website: http://www.ap-investigations.com); Douglas Carnahan - President/Lead Investigator N.P.I. (NorCal Paranormal Investigations - website www.norcalghosthunters.com); Nancy Bradley - Renowned Psychic; Robert Reppert of Gold Rush Ghosts Investigations; Gloria Young of Ghost Trackers that rides in a pick up with the license plate 'GhstHntr"; Jennifer and Anthony Baca; Cherie Vincent (Self-proclaimed Vampire, Ouija Board Specialist - HPI Investigator); Shane Thornton - Lead Investigator of NPI; Dandamudi Veerendranadh aka Dee - HPI Investigator; Carol Gillis (Self-Proclaimed Vampire and HPI Investigator); Paul Dale Roberts - Ghostwriter/HPI Investigator; Michele Stump - HPI Investigator; Tim Hawkins, Brian Colbert/Lead Investigator; Mary Casiano; Anne Temple/Psychic; Jonathan Russell; Kristen Sheley/Researcher.

I interviewed Elayne Higbee who works at the front counter of the Brookdale Lodge and she said one time a woman customer approached her with excitement, because she had taken a photo of her spouse and behind her spouse was a full figure apparition of a man standing behind her husband. At MRA Fine Arts (MRAfinearts.com) - aka Gallery That and Gallery This, which is nearby to the lodge I interviewed the artist Martha Applegate and her close friend Jesus L. Galvan. Jesus said that he once saw Sarah (the little girl that drowned in the creek) run past him at the Lodge's bar. He told me that Al Capone and other assorted gangsters would stay at the lodge and that at times the gangsters would have secret meetings in the secret rooms of the lodge. While they conducted their secret meetings, sometimes someone in the meeting would be murdered in one of these secret rooms of the lodge. He goes on to say that there were whiskey stills nearby to the lodge too. He heard stories that some of the gangsters that hung out at the lodge and nearby Hofbraus were sometimes buried in unmarked graves in the surrounding mountainous wooded areas. Jesus says that David Ross, a well known Santa Cruz attorney had some paranormal experiences at the lodge and that one time when Jesus was in the surrounding woods, he came upon some ghostly apparitions of a Vietnamese family. Martha and Jesus discussed that at the art gallery a customer walked in and was looking at Martha's gorgeous paintings. She discussed one of the paintings with the person next to her, only to see that person dissipate into nothingness. This freaked her out and she ran out of the art gallery horrified! Jesus even says that it has been reported that there are ghostly mountain pumas in the mountaneous area near Brookdale. After hearing all of these stories from Jesus, Michele and I decided to check out some of the local restaurants. We stopped at Tyrolean Inn Restaurant & Beer Garden (www.tyroleaninn.com). Wow! Way too pricey! They serve German food, the restaurant looks pretty elegant, but too rich for my blood! This restaurant is located in Ben Lomond. Finally, we found a restaurant with reasonable prices, this was Don Quixote, that serves Mexican food. They had a live band called 'Extra Large' that was playing Latin tunes such as 'Mambo Jambo". I had an enchilada, taco, Pepsi and coffee. Michele and I found other HPI team members at this restaurant and we talked about this day and upcoming evening.

When Michele and I arrived back to the lodge, we met up with everyone at the log cabin. Nancy Bradley was waiting for us. Nancy described various spirits in the log cabin and what they were doing. I shook hands with Nancy and she was a very humble sweet lady with a gracious smile. During this meeting with Nancy Bradley, some girl started shaking and crying, she claims that she felt a feeling of sadness in the log cabin. Shannon and Carol Gillis had to take her out for some fresh air. Nancy Bradley said that two brothers, the Clayton brothers who died in a car accident haunt this log cabin along with other entities. She could feel the Clayton Brothers presence. Roger Reynolds, Security Guard who was at this meeting told me that he has seen Sarah at the front lobby, Fireside Room and the Brook Room. He says that ever once in a while the entities of the hotel turn the power on and off. He says that the infamous drowning victim Sarah is actually Sarah Johnson, age 9 years old, who died on July 1, 1936. Dandamudi Veerendranadh aka Dee ran over to me with a glee in his eye, he just took a photo in the log cabin and the outside area of 6 orbs in unison. He showed me some other orb photos. After the meeting, the band at the hotel started playing some rock and roll, like the song "Elvira". The crowd was a mixture of Bohemian culture with hippie mix. If you think there are no more hippies in California, just head out to Santa Cruz, this is where you will find them. A strange assortment of dancers with strange outfits and strange hairdos. This is where I thought of the Doors song..."People are Strange". Michele and I went to Cherie Vincent's room, room 42 and played her Ouija Board. Cherie has 2 small rose tattoos on her neck, they were once vampire bite tattoos. Cherie is an expert of the Ouija Board and had her sage ready to dispel any demonic entities. We said a prayer before commencing on the Ouija Board. We tuned into a child of the hotel that spelled out the word 'die' on the Ouija Board. Cherie gave me "Directions on how to use the Ouija Board" material to read over. When Michele and I left Cherie's room, I was greeted by Shane Thornton of N.P.I. He told me that NPI found some good findings, one of their members felt a spiderweb touch on their body. They captured orbs and what looked like miniaturized lightning strikes on film, including flashes of light. One photo depicts a whitely mist and this will all be available on the NPI website for the public to see.

The ghost hunt started when the band ended their music, we went from room to room and captured all kinds of orbs on our photos. What was impressive was that Kristen Sheley, a researcher for HPI captured a fast moving solid white orb on her photo at 1:55 a.m. The photo shows very good details of this moving orb. Some investigators heard laughter in the Brook Room and a couple of investigators heard a ghostly voice say 'shhh'. Michele and I discovered many secret passages that we investigated on our own, including a burned out area of the hotel. The fire damage came from a 1956 fire. At 2:45 a.m. my cell phone (which was fully charged) died out for no apparent reason during the investigation. On this night, there were ghost hunters, bikers, Bohemian/hippies at the hotel. What an assorted mix of people from all walks of life. On one hotel door, there was a hanging stuffed bat. Sunday morning, I saw the largest black raven land on the balcony of the hotel where I was staying. At 3:34 a.m. in Michele's hotel room, 3 faint knocks on the bedside cabinets were heard. Michele's room was room 45, next to Room 46 which is a well-known haunted room that an Australian couple was staying at. Sunday morning, Michele and I had breakfast at Brookdale Cafe and Grill. I enjoyed pancakes, cheese/ham omelet, coffee, hashbrowns. I was nice and full and ready for my trip back to Sacramento. How nice, Michele is driving and I can take a snooze on the way up to Sacramento. What's that? I have to be the navigator...sigh. At least Sunday is a nice day, because Saturday night it downpoured rain. A nasty storm for a fun ghost hunt! For more information on Gilbert's Brookdale Lodge, check out their website at: www.brookdalelodge.com For information regarding H.P.I., check out their website at: www.hpiparanormal.net

Paul Dale Roberts,
Jazma Freelance Writer
H.P.I. Ghostwriter/Paranormal Investigator
www.jazmaonline.com
5606 Moonlight Way Elk Grove,
Ca 95758
(916) 203 7503
JazmaPika@cs.com