"Don't go there!"

I don't think I have to add a single word of warning to this photo.

[quote]I grew up in the barren nothingness desert near Twentynine Palms, California.

I want to hear about how much Marine dick you got in Twentynine Palms.

Twenty years ago, I was accurately warned about Boyle Heights, CA.

I was warned about walking around the slums of Chicago twelve years ago for a project. I paid no attention. People carried guns and sold drugs openly in several places but I never felt threatened except for one crazy lady, and a kid at a university stop who picked my pocket. I don' t think I would do that today.

I was told to stay away from Datalounge and, yet, here I am.

Like many people on DL I grew up fundamentally Christian. When I suspected something amiss- I started out with a list of sins I'd never tried before. Then I kept going.

The Freetown Forest, which was impossible as our house abutted it.

When I was in Joshua Tree National Park, there are signs saying to not step off the trail. I passed atourist who either didn't understand the signs or disregarded them. He or she was writhing around on the ground with hundreds of cactus needles sticking in them. It looked pretty bad.

Sounds like cholla cactus, R8. Nasty little cactus balls that are low to the ground and almost jump out at you.

I'm going to Death Valley next week. I hope it doesn't live up to its name.

OP, this one is scarier.

I was driving a shortcut from Twentynine Palms, CA to Albuquerque, NM. Twentynine Palms is located in the desolate high desert east of LA. The shortcut was all two lane road through total nothingness, except for passing through Amboy, CA. Amboy is a nearly abandoned town nearly as far below sea level as Death Valley, with a dormant volcano and lava field on one side and a salt flat on the other. It was also, at the time, a hotspot for satanic group activity.

So I was driving by myself in the afternoon. I stopped in Amboy and snapped a picture of the city sign, just to prove I was there to friends who dared me to take that route to the I-40. I got back in my car and proceeded to drive up into the mountain range between Amboy and the I-40.

Once I reach the top I am driving north through a canyon with high grass on both sides of the road. Up ahead I see some stuff in the middle of the road. As I approach I slow down to see a red Pontiac Fiero stopped sideways across both lanes, a suitcase open with clothes scattered everywhere and two bodies laying face down in the road, a man and a woman.

I stop a hundred feet or so away and the hair on the back of my neck is standing up. Being a Marine, I reach under the seat and pull out a 9mm pistol and chamber a round. Something seemed very wrong, it looked too perfect as if it were staged. An ambush? Was I being paranoid? Something was just wrong. Getting out of the car seemed unthinkable, it was the horror movie move.

As I scanned the road I saw a line I could drive. Pass the guy in the road on his left, swerve to the right side of the woman, behind the Fiero and I'd be on the other side. I dropped it into first gear, punched it and drove the line I planned.

I passed the back of the Fiero without hitting it or either of the bodies in the road. I continued forward a couple hundred feet and slowed down so I could breathe and let my heart slow down. As I looked up into the rearview mirror I saw that the two bodies had gotten up to their knees and twenty or so people emerged from the tall grass on either side of the road by the car and bodies. At that moment my right foot smashed the gas pedal to the floor and did not let up until I had to slowdown for the I-40 east onramp.

I will never know what would have happened to me had I gotten out of the car to check on the bodies or stopped my car closer to them. Somehow I do not think it would have been good. Sometimes real life can be scarier than a movie.

The abandoned house on the corner.

Kids used to say some Michael Myers killer lived there, but the truth was it was just a "for sale" plot where teenagers went to make out or smoke weed.

Why not make a list m

Pearblossom Highway in Southern California. There was for many years a billboard proclaiming it "DEATHTRAP HIGHWAY!" The sign was paid for by the family of people who were killed in a crash on it. It's a twisty two-lane highway with no guard rails and no center divider.

Don't do that. It didn't turn out well.

R14 It looks pretty benign to me.

Don't go there?

In the summer of '85, outside to play at the park or even the street after sunset. That was the summer the Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez, was terrorizing Southern California. I remember it was a damned hot summer, and we had no AC, so we sweltered inside the house with fans. I still recall the news bulletin that came out that the Night Stalker targeted yellow houses by the freeway.. and lo and behold, we lived in a yellow house by the freeway.

I remember my dad painting the house the next day.

R11, I saw that story also when looking up Amboy. That seemed to be the only story about strange or satanic things and some the comments are sure if its fact fiction.

The long desolate stretch of road to get there looks like a highway where you would get raped or taunted by a motorcycle gang. They would try to run you off the road and the sheriff wouldn't believe you.

"Little yellow houses, for you an' me, babe!"

Naah. Doesn't have the right ring to it . . .

Byberry Hospital for the mentally ill after it was closed down in the eighties. The buildings were all still there, and you could see the cells they kept the poor patients in. Also there were rumors of devil worshippers gathering there late at night. The place had such an evil vibe that I wouldn't be surprised if it's true.

Del Taco

[quote]Sounds like cholla cactus, [R8]. Nasty little cactus balls that are low to the ground and almost jump out at you

Official plant of DL.

In my suburban town, girls were NOT to go to the "carnival" without boys. The carnival was a travelling amusements company with rides and games that would set up in mall shopping lots.

On summer holiday in the cape, boys were NOT to go to P-town alone, due to the homos there.

My granny most her life in a nice little house in an industrial city that declined from the 70's on. Eventually one of the most dangerous slums was a couple blocks away. Of course the slum was "dangerous" not just a poor shitty neighbourhood and we were NEVER to go there.

There was a hot hot hot Italian woman in my neighbourhood who was separated from her husband and had a series of extremely hunky 70's guys as boyfriends. She wore bikinis! We boys were not supposed to go play with her kids at her pool.

R20 forgot to tell you that Byberry State Hospital, opened in 1907 and closed in 1990, was in Philadelphia.

Dudleytown, Connecticut.

Let me start by saying that I'm a skeptic, not a ghost hunter. However, many years ago, an ex-boyfriend with an interest in the supernatural convinced me to drive to the place in Cornwall where Dudleytown supposedly existed. Yeah, yeah, whatever, I said.

Cornwall is a charming New England town with lots of foliage and covered bridges. To get to the Dudleytown section, you have to drive up a long, narrow, winding path through the woods. As we drove up that path, I started to feel really claustrophobic. It was a weird sort of dead silence, like you were suddenly all alone in the world. It was really unnerving. No birds, squirrels or other living creatures in sight. The woods seemed to start closing in on us. I told my boyfriend to turn around and get the hell out of there.

I don't know what it was. All I know is that it felt really creepy--like death.

Interesting to hear about 29 Palms OP. My Partner and I love Palm Springs and Joshua Tree. One time, another friend wanted to explore the ghost towns surrounding the Salton Sea. Very creepy and a vibe similar to what you describe. We drove through one town and it was mostly abandoned trailer homes . A few people were sitting outside and gave us the stink eye and one person in a motorized wheelchair followed our car for a bit. Creepy!

Sears

Yeah my dad made me promise to NEVER step foot in Walmart. He thought it was one huge step in the demise of the USA.

Frankly, I would avoid driving any of California's highways at night, especially if I were by myself. It's shocking how many people have disappeared on those highways over the past 20 years. It reminds me of that Valerie Harper movie.

bump

Here's Amboy today. I didn't realize Rte. 66 runs right through the middle of it. Looks to be nothing more than a small conglomeration of raggedy structures and on old (possibly closed) motel.

That group of people does look rather sketchy.

Somebody took a random photo of the Amboy hotel, and didn't notice until later that one of the rooms had blood stains splattered all over the walls..

The photo in question.. you might have to zoom in to appreciate the lovely detail...

[quote]Parents always warned me to stay away from a little almost-ghost town called Amboy.

Weird. Even Google Maps haven't been back since 2008.

Here's a zoom in on what could be nothing but a huge blood splatter. Looks like someone probably blew their brains out in that room. Probably shot through the mouth.

R35 = >>

My parents made us roll up all of the windows of the car in downtown St. Louis.

They were afraid that the residents would throw hypodermic needles into our cars and get us addicted to heroin.

Amboy's Roy's Motel & Cafe review:-

“The smell of poo”

1 of 5 bubblesReviewed 4 October 2016 via mobile I knew Roy the original owner of Roy's and the place was cleaned regular when I would stop by on the way through to Laughlin, NV. So many times we stopped over the years, and I have always treasured the memories of the place.

I stopped this time and have never wanted to puke so much, the stink was a vortex of maggot feast, it was so horrible it smelled worse than a portable john at a construction site. The buildup of fecal matter was beyond putrid, the urinal area smelled like stagnate urine from days past. The mixture of smells was astonishing, an abomination to the nasal passages.

The staff member I notified was possibly lacking in the intellectual capacities, as he did not see a cause for concern or even a reason to react to the complaint. For the lack of emotional connection to the job, I would say this person should be removed from the job, but it is my understanding this person was the owner, even worse that they had no pity, understanding or caring towards the situation at hand.

Looking in the cafe area, it seemed to be reasonably clean for what is comparable to a truck stop that was well travelled. The floor looked swept, but the edge by the counter seemed to be grimy, or possibly a colony of black mold had taken up permanent residence in the edge of the floor.

When I went outside I could see the trash flowing freely from to and fro, with ease. The outside was semi ok, beyond the trash from traveling packs of drifters.

The hotel area looked like something from a bad Stephen King movie or novel, like you may not wake up to the morning sun if you stayed.

Over all I have to give this one star, even though it deserves a lesser score.

Visited October 2016

Creepy story from Amboy:

No story, but thank you OP for giving us a thread unrelated to he who shall not be named.

OP's story is very creepy and corroborates other reports about Amboy, some of which may or may not be decently written amateur fiction. Only four people live in the town, I wonder what they're like and what stories they have to tell? Did the Satanic rumors (?) come from a time when there were a few dozen more people living there, or was the alleged activity relegated to the natural area surrounding the town, rituals done by people who traveled from the surrounding area? The fact that it's built next to a dormant volcano in the remote desert is pretty creepy and no doubt could attract weirdos or inspire great urban legend.

I incriminated my own white trash roots by revealing I grew up in Twentynine Palms. Not a nice place, and no redeeming qualities other than its proximity to Joshua Tree, and yes, as R2 pointed out: hot, young and bored military men, of which I also have stories, but those are tales for another thread...

Over the years I've wondered if those were satanists who set those thumbtacks down.. I've concluded, probably not. More likely, they were desperate, drugged-out meth-heads who would rob you of your underwear if they felt it meant scoring their next fix. The CA desert has no shortage of these types. Whoever they were and whatever they were up to, I'm glad I didn't stick around to find out.

Are there devil worshippers in that part of the desert? Yes. I went to school with long-haired guys who listened to metal and spraypainted satanic graffiti. I know they took it as far as animal sacrifice. Beyond that? I have no clue what they got up to, and only heard rumors... I know a lot of them still live in town, not doing much of anything.

That part of the desert typically attracts 2 types of people. People who are in the military or work on the base, or people up to no good. By no good, I mean bikers, druggies, anti-government conspiracy types, people running from the law and people who don't want the law or anybody's nose in their business.

And if that is not enough to scare you, this region is one of the few in California that went hardcore for Trump.

Not a nice place.

Interestingly enough, I have friends (a gay couple) who are avid rock-climbers, love going to Joshua Tree, have fallen in love with the desert scenery, and expressed interest in buying property out there. Land is cheap out there, and they want to build up a nice vacation home that they could use, and then rent out as an AirBnB or vacation rental sort of deal. While that sounds appealing, I cautioned against it. They really wouldn't know what they are getting themselves into. Too many druggies who wouldn't think twice about breaking in or vandalizing property.

They are better off sticking to Palm Springs if they absolutely must live near the desert.

r42 I'd love to hear a few tales about those hot, bored, soldiers! Need some good DL gossip.

This house was near my Grandmother's house. It looked similar to this 50 years ago. Since that time, it was completely refurbished at least once, but it always winds up looking like this, and quickly. It is very strange. It does appear that someone is living there despite appearances.

It has beautiful stained glass windows and I'm sure it has beautiful detail. Gram's house had a servants staircase, stained glass window, two parlors, servants' pantry, wainscoting, a grape vine, a fish pond and separate turtle pool, etc. It was a nice neighborhood, except this house, though it gave the neighborhood character.

Even 50 years ago, we talked about it as haunted. Maybe it's loaded with lead and it makes the residents crazy?

We had to come here and see why we had so many hits on fucking, Amboy, CA!!

Turn back to me, OP!

OP. You did not "incriminate" your "own white trash roots." The sentence is nonsense.

You incriminated yourself, not your roots, as being white trash.

If you're going to post such long posts, please learn English. The horror show is not supposed to be you.

r48 is Datalounge's resident pissy little hall monitor. Pay her no mind OP, that was an interesting story.

Fuck off , R48. Thanks ,OP, for your interesting contributions. As an Easterner, the high desert fascinates me. Not sure if I'd ever dare to visit, unless for one of those bored, horny military studs you mention...

[quote]OP. You did not "incriminate" your "own white trash roots."

He was just being defensive AND jokey.

In fact where he comes from is pretty original and very interesting. His stories about where he comes from clearly interest people here. I think it's a fascinating part of the world to come from.

OP, loved the story. That house in the photo (in the original post) is so groovy. What's that style of architecture called?

Another nice view inside an abandoned Amboy building. Charming...

R52, I'm not an architecture wiz, but I would guess Victorian, or American Gothic, which overlapped in the same period I would believe.

R53 is creepy but confusing. Is that a vent or something else?

It looks like a vent or a crawl space to me.

It's Second Empire, r52.

We knew this lady from Twentynine Palms.....

That sounds like a Joan Cornellà cartoon, R37.

Thanks for the responses re: architecture, guys.

R32 That motel looks fine to me.

Isn't Desert Hot Springs sort of the white trash/meth-y area of the Coachella Valley?

[quote] "Amboy's Roy's Motel & Cafe review:-

“The smell of poo”

1 of 5 bubblesReviewed 4 October 2016 via mobile I knew Roy the original owner of Roy's and the place was cleaned regular when I would stop by on the way through to Laughlin, NV. So many times we stopped over the years, and I have always treasured the memories of the place.

I stopped this time and have never wanted to puke so much, the stink was a vortex of maggot feast, it was so horrible it smelled worse than a portable john at a construction site. The buildup of fecal matter was beyond putrid, the urinal area smelled like stagnate urine from days past. The mixture of smells was astonishing, an abomination to the nasal passages.

The staff member I notified was possibly lacking in the intellectual capacities, as he did not see a cause for concern or even a reason to react to the complaint. For the lack of emotional connection to the job, I would say this person should be removed from the job, but it is my understanding this person was the owner, even worse that they had no pity, understanding or caring towards the situation at hand.

Looking in the cafe area, it seemed to be reasonably clean for what is comparable to a truck stop that was well travelled. The floor looked swept, but the edge by the counter seemed to be grimy, or possibly a colony of black mold had taken up permanent residence in the edge of the floor.

When I went outside I could see the trash flowing freely from to and fro, with ease. The outside was semi ok, beyond the trash from traveling packs of drifters.

The hotel area looked like something from a bad Stephen King movie or novel, like you may not wake up to the morning sun if you stayed.

Over all I have to give this one star, even though it deserves a lesser score.

Visited October 2016"

So I gather it's not AAA-approved, then?

R8, that was a "Jumping cholla" cactus, and they are wicked. The needles seem to jumpoff the plant onto you. They have microscopic barbs that dig into your skin. I brushed my hand too close to one and got about 50 of those on the back of my hand. My friends had to yank them out and it hurt like hell. No need to build a border wall - just plant a 50-foot wide barrier of these plants all along the border and nobody will ever get through it.

Desert Hot Springs does seem to have a reputation as a trashy, meth, crime-ridden place, which may or may not be deserved. I didn't see any evidence of it when I was there. I went swimming at the Desert Hot Springs Spa Hotel, where they have 8 pools of mineral water of different sizes and temperatures. It was only $3 to swim there on a Tuesday and I enjoyed it. Don't know what the rest of the town is like though.

When chollas attack...

I have to say that this is the most fascinating DL thread in recent memory. Thanks to OP and the other posters! There are quite a few scary desert towns throughout California (a couple), Nevada (quite a few more), Utah and Arizona. Utah was the worst - I was driving through the state cross country and had to stay overnight at one. The few locals had so much disdain for my bf and I that I couldn't get the fuck out quickly enough. From the miserable hotel, to the gas station, to the fast food dump that we grabbed breakfast at - daggers for us from every human. Had we spent too much more time at any of the above - being murdered and having our car and possessions stolen was immanent. Driving in a Mercedes (not even a very new one) didn't help matters; the hatred was palpable. I don't remember the town but could locate it on the map if I backtracked.

Oh, are those cactus named after Mexican cholas?

Cuz those bitches can jump out at you and stab you too...

[quote]hot, young and bored military men, of which I also have stories, but those are tales for another thread...

Please

Please

Please start that thread....

Boy, the Marine's story about the two people lying in the road and their twenty henchmen is insanely creepy, like something out of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

I wonder if that's a common set-up on deserted roads all over the country.

[quote] Utah was the worst -

I agree. There are places in Utah that are creepy as hell.

I spent a few weeks at locations in and around Moab on a film production. I had never been anywhere before where everyone seemed so unhappy and suspicious. There was no warmth or friendliness at all. This is the only place I had ever been told "Don't got there. Stay away." referring to a fundamentalist-Mormon compound outside of Moab.

I had decided to drive there from L.A. to take the opportunity for a road trip. Like a lot of people I wanted to get off the main highway from time to time to enjoy the scenery and try to pick up on some local vibe. In southwest Utah, near the Arizona border, I pulled into a small town for gas. Immediately it creeped me out and I got a strong and clear vibe that I didn't belong. The town was deserted. No signs of life at all. No cars on the road, no pedestrians, no kids playing in yards..... nobody. Otherwise though it didn't look abandoned. The houses, yards etc seemed in decent condition. People obviously lived and worked there but none of them were visible. I needed gas though, so I pulled into the service station/mini-mart. One person came out of the back room to help me. I paid for my gas, and she said "If there's nothing else you need, I suggest you get in that car drive on out of here." WTF? Holy shit, so of course I did. She was the only person I saw in that town.

I had never been to Utah before outside of Salt Lake City/Park City and never paid much attention to the Mormon church. This visit was when I learned that there are small towns completely inhabited by and completely strictly controlled by fundamentalist break-away sects of Mormons. Outsiders are seen as threats and are not welcome. It was a couple of years later that "Big Love" came on HBO and I was struck by the fact that all the wierdness and creepiness on the show is not an exaggeration.

I guess I need to take a road trip to Eastern So-Cal.

R71 and others - I watched an amazing documentary a while back called "Prophet's Prey". It was fascinating and I highly recommend that you guys check it out. Those breakaway sects are creepy as fuck - deeply disturbing.

Will you be driving from New York to East California, r72?

OP, R11, Thank you (and others) for this fascinating thread.

Get your kicks on Route 66..

Thanks to OP and the other posters for their stories! I've never been to this particular region of California, but I know a few people who've traveled through there and they've all told me the same thing - it's weird, kind of creepy, and there's just an "off" vibe to it all. Part of me wants to go on a road trip at some point to check it out, but another part of me is kind of frightened of doing that.

Guardian Chinese lions randomly in the desert near Amboy..

I just went to Google Maps to see what my creepy old street looks like now and there's a guy parked on the side of the road reading a newspaper -- and this is in the middle of nowhere -- with a black dog lying in the road next to his door; not dead or injured, just relaxing.

Pilgrim State Psychiatric center. Stories from the 80s. Stories from 2010 at the little mansions that held doctors. Before and after they were razed. Photos on my iPhone came out so warped inside a big building there. Next to the mansions. Also got a tick from the high grass. Looked later online about the buildings. Someone posted another warped picture of the same staircase I photographed and their photo had a black demonic looking shadow with a fedora just a few feet passed the staircase I refused to ascend. I ran out of there like a kid afraid of the basement. Saw other photo a few years later and got the creeps intensely. I grabbed some quality old brick from the demolished mansions and sold them online. Didn't want them after that. I believe it was this building with the freaky staircase that came out all warped. Located near the mini brick mansions. Ugh.

r80, ....geesh, did you do a stay there? ....sounds like it.

This is the building. Believe it's gone now.

R81, thanks for contributing...NOTHING!

BUZZKILL to all you encounter. You're the creep.

R66, great video! Teddy Bear Chollas! It looked real, but the guy seemed too knowledgeable about the cactus for it to be a random accident.

That's what I observed and tried to describe in R8, except the victim was on the ground, rolling around in shock, I guess, but getting more pricks while rolling around and aggravating the ones already gotten. Now it makes me wonder if the person survived! Before we came upon the person, someone came running past us. He said nothing but I still remember the look of panic on his face. So, STAY ON THE FUCKIN' PATH!

Mexican friend in IT, cable company sort of job. Building towers. Scary stories in Mexico but by locals. Contracted a gig in Colorado or New Mexico. Went out there at night to check a cell tower alone and broke the speed limit on a desolate road back because there was a large human like figure running right next to his driver's side window. No matter how fast he drove, he said it kept up. As he reached town it disappeared. He was in total shock. The locals noticed this at his motel and said they saw a skinwalker follow his car as he left the exit ramp. He had no idea what a skinwalker is known to be. Grabbed his belongings while staying awake all night and ran out of town when the sun came up.

I lived in Twentynine Palms for a bit about 10 years ago (I was working as a civilian on base). BTW, the Marines call it 2-Stump. Away from the base, it is a desolate, creepy place. One time, I was sitting out in our yard by the pool, and this guy who looked like Conan the Barbarian on meth ran through the neighbor's yard. We had 2 big dogs living with us at the time. I went down to check out the Salton Sea, and it is also desolate, creepy and very malodorous. I had to stop to get gas, and a couple hungry-looking pit bulls started running towards me. There is some place near there called "Slab City" where a bunch of drugged-out misfits live.

And yes, the are plenty of hot, young, bored Marines roaming around. Plenty of 'em are gaylings. They tend to be crazy.

Not only Don't Go There but don't take that job there. Missing people galore. Creepy Indians living in the forest all drunk and violent. Don't go skidooing around off the beaten path.

Oniontown, NY. Just up the road from the former Harlem Valley Hospital. My dad, of course, had stories about it, but something about that area just wanted me to get the hell out of there.

Also, Wilton, CT. I grew up a few miles down the road from Wilton, a rich, quaint New England town. There was something about Wilton that made my skin crawl everytime we would go there.

R88, nothing creepier than a town in Connecticut known as Danielson. Used to be Danielsonville. Town next to Pomfret. All of those old houses there are haunted. Especially the fireplaces, have a life of their own.

^creepy shit found inside the walls. Old alcohol bottles from pharmacist and those insulators from old light poles. Blue in color from old glass. An antique collectable you should never buy at a swap or antique store. Let them stay there. They carry a strange, sick making energy.

Eureka Springs, Arkansas is one of those weird, weirdo places. It was known for its "healing springs" in the late 1800's and was frequented by scores of rich Victorians who were sick and I assumed died there. One of the most haunted buildings in the country, the Crescent Hotel, is very off as a structure. The floors are slanted one way and your drink on the table slants the other way. Your sense of balance is completely off in that place. Though built in the 1800's, it was turned into a "cancer curing hospital" in the 30's by a scam artist who cured nothing but gruesomely disposed of the dead to hide them from the other patients. The entire town is located in a "pit-like" valley that can only be accessed via tiny weird roads (not that there is much of any urbanity in any direction - Bentonville is known as the corporate headquarters of Walmart and that's about it...Fayetteville is slightly larger but also weird in every way). The skinny roads of Eureka were built for carriages not cars due to its age and the original roads in some parts of the hilly town were paved over. Many of the stores have access to these underground cave-like areas and a large amount of pagan rituals go on there. I happened across one accidentally while in a mineral/crystal store and it was......off. There is a huge meth production in the area which supplies the neighboring towns. The place is WEIRD if that is your cup of tea...

There's a low income apartment in Danielson that is haunted. Even in the winter hoards of flies come from nowhere hitting the windows trying to get in. With snow on the ground!

City Island New York or Connecticut has a totally haunted boat yard next to a seafood restaurant on the water. The marina is creepy as hell over there. Rumors there's weighted down skeletons in the sand around the marina. Mob hits from the fifties. People report finding skeletal digits floating next to the wooden docks from time to time. A feeling of doom. Some say the bones are from a nearby potter's field but that doesn't make sense. Anyone know this freak tale known among the insular locals? What about the haunted cottages nearby?

Coco Peru grew up in City Island! I wonder if she has any T ;)

The Valuejet crash swamps are known to have suitcase and wallet belongings making it to the surface from time to time. Not haunted but things break off and rise in the waters. Dead alligators found in area from eating debris.

Didn't Oliver Sachs have a house on City Island?

The woods around Bear Mountain, NY and bridge. Not woods but forest. A dumping ground for the mob and many serial killers. Tons of bodies supposedly washed to the bottom of the mountain. Perfect dumping site. Nobody hikes the incline, so steep but falcons known to use bones to build their nests.

R17, I remember that summer like it was yesterday. My family also lived near a freeway, and Ramirez had called a young Asian woman in my city! Freaky time! The whole was so relieved when he was finally caught!

The VA center in Northport New York. Filled with souls. Seen in underground tunnels. Stories from anyone working there. Anyone and everyone has a quirky story. Sister was so scared doing an internship there. Supposedly bones in the woods from escaped Vietnam patients who walked off. Human hand found on golf course. Old bones but still.

Wasn't it weird that they didn't try to recover the valuejet? They'll go to the bottom of the ocean in the middle of the Atlantic, but not the Everglades? It's very strange.

No R100, that's swamp and mud. First half of plane lodged in tight. Only the tail above mud and silt. Still stuff rises to the surface and causes havoc in wildlife. What a dive or dredge that would be. Hope someone takes it on.

What about Yosemite? How many missing yet never found?

Quicksand pits located around. Where are the most quicksand pits located?

I know a cane faced dyke that fell into quicksand pit as child and her dad pulled her future humorless and depressed self out. Wie schade.

So Gilligan's Island

Lots of strange things going on in Eerie Indiana.

Anywhere south of the I-10 in LA

R107 - south of I-10 ONLY IF east of I-405 you mean. Some of the more $$$$ LA real estate lies on the coast south of I-10 (part of Santa Monica, coastal Venice Beach, Marina Del Rey, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Palos Verdes, etc.). Also, there are some decent hoods south of 10 and east of 405 - but I do very much get where you are coming from.

Slab City was made famous by the film "Into the Wild," part of which was filmed there. People do live there, for free and off the grid. It has its own hot spring and even an art section called East Jesus.

I was in the right place at the right time, and got into the Goldfield Hotel in Nevada, which reputedly has over 100 ghosts and has been on the ghost hunter shows 4 or 5 times. Also I volunteered to help clean up weeds around the Goldfield High School, and was allowed inside the building, which reputedly has some very active ghosts of children. I did not see any ghost activity, though I did see an owl living in one room and an enormous black widow spider. But it is a grand and beautiful multi-story building.

R102, most dead bodies in Yosemite are eventually found by either hikers or park employees. There is a fairly fascinating book called "Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite" by Michael Ghiglieri which details many of the incidents. The most popular way to die there is by drowning, and sometimes the bodies are not discovered until water levels become lower late in the year. There is also a book about one specific incident there called "Shattered Air" by Bob Madgic.

Michael Ghiglieri also wrote a similar book about the Grand Canyon called "Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon" and there is a similar book about Yellowstone called "Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park" by Lee H. Whittlesey. These books make for slightly morbid reading, but are also highly educational about nature and human behavior and how they interact.

I did make a joke about Del Taco, but in the early 90s my car broke about 9 miles before Needles, CA during a sandstorm. The worst three days I've ever spent.

After getting towed to Needles I was informed the part would take two days to arrive because all the land lines were dead due to no land lines available because the copper from those lines had been pirated for hundreds of miles.

The only motel I was able to get smelled like incense and piss.

The first night I swear I heard a woman being assaulted in the alley of the lovely establishment I was stuck in.

I only went out in the day to get junk food from the one convenience I could find. Never was so glad to see the "Welcome to Colorado" sign in my life

Hey, speaking of Del Taco, the first-ever Del Taco, opened in 1961, is still there in Yermo, California, though it's now Tita's Burger Den and has good American and Mexican food for a song - hamburger, fries and drink for about $5 plus tax. Burritos maybe $3. And milkshakes made the old-fashioned way with a blender and real ice cream. It's not too far from the Calico Ghost Town attraction. About 10 miles east of Barstow in the Mojave Desert. Young guy that runs it is friendly and good looking (though I believe straight).

I rented a motel room a couple of years back in Blythe, California, for $35, with a concrete floor and about 9 p.m. a prostitute came knocking on the door. I wasn't sure if it was a guy or a girl - looked and dressed like a girl, but sounded like a guy. I sent him/her away. Weird place.

Unsolicited, R114?!

Yep, at 9 p.m. there was a knock on the door, and this guy/girl was there, maybe 24 years old or so, and asked me if I could give him/her a ride to a different motel down the road. I said, "No, sorry," and he/she said, "What are you up to?" or something like that. It was obvious he/she was trying to get to spend time with me. I felt sorry for him/her, how sad and desperate to be a hooker in godforsaken Blythe, California in the middle of the desert. But I just kept saying, "no thanks" and finally he/she left. I think knocked on another door. I hope he/she found something better in life.

I want to hear more Joshua Tree stories. Is that bail bond shack still there?

There's a little place near Joshua Tree National Park called Pioneertown, which was built as a movie set, but remained as a minor tourist attraction. Last October it unexpectedly became internationally famous. During the week between his 2 performances at the Desert Trip rock festival, Sir Paul McCartney played a small show at Pappy & Harriet's in Pioneertown. Only 300 people were admitted, tickets were $50, cash only at the door as you entered, and if you left you could not re-enter. Another 200 or so who could not get tickets were allowed to listen from outside (the doors were open). McCartney performed 22 of his songs. (An hour before this performance, he did an 8-song warmup in a barn in Pioneertown which a smaller group of fans got to hear from outside).

As a kid, I saw quicksand in movies and TV shows and thought I had better learn how to escape from it, because I would probably fall into some at some point in my life.

Cypress California had a rapist who would target Asian girls in the late 70s.

I've heard the Salton Sea is the worst.

[quote]Asian girls in the late 70s.

so he had Yellow Fever AND a granny-fetish!

Talk about "having a type".....

The Salton Sea is gross if you go right up to it. It's highly polluted now, there ar dead fish along the edge and it smells bad. A catastrophe considering that 50 years ago it was promoted as a winter vacation resort. Pesticides and fertilizers from the farms of the Imperial Valley run off into the salton Sea and have nowhere else to go. The New River ends at the Salton Sea and is the dirtiest river in the U.S. It's a creek full of heavy metals and other toxic chemicaks from the maquiladoras in Mexico a few miles away, plus raw untrated sewage from Mexico, full of bacteria and viruses. People swim in it anyway to cross the border.

The area surrounding the Salton Sea has a lot of interesting stuff, though. The Calipatria mud volcanoes, Slab City, Salvation Mountain, East Jesus, Glamis Dunes, the various hot springs including Five Palms, Agua Caliente and High Line Hot Well, the International Banana Museum, Painted Gorge, Plaster City, the Ocotillo Wind Farm, Imperial Desert Museum, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge are all in the area. I have seen flocks of what had to be at least 50,000 birds all the same species go overhead while around there.

For the person who mentioned Danielson, CT

I was younh and innocent and feeling something strange during my visit to neighboring Brooklyn, CT. Only years later did I learn the presence I sensed was Death

And this was a few weeks.before a serial.killet first struck in the area.

Damn that Japhet in R121's video is Grade A husband material.

[quote]Eureka Springs, Arkansas is one of those weird, weirdo places. It was known for its "healing springs" in the late 1800's and was frequented by scores of rich Victorians who were sick and I assumed died there. One of the most haunted buildings in the country, the Crescent Hotel, is very off as a structure.

My partner and I stayed at the Crescent Hotel a few years ago and it's seriously creepy. In the middle of the night, our dog who was with us, stood up in the bed and started growling at something invisible in the room. He's never done anything like that before or since. I'm convinced he sensed a ghost in the room with us.

lol - R119

Kids are funny.

R125 That hipster thin thing?

[quote]Never was so glad to see the "Welcome to Colorado" sign in my life

Needles is across the river from Arizona, not Colorado. (Although it's the Colorado RIVER.)

Ha yes, R128. To each his own!

R125, my thoughts exactly.

"Hipster thin"? He's not THAT thin. He's what I would consider enviably healthy/trim/sexy. I even like his tied up hair and conspicuous rings on his fingers. Delicious.

That old dormant volcano (known as the Amboy Crater) outside of Amboy, Ca. is wicked. The thing is only 250' high, but just look at the long, and apparently ancient, trail of soot it left on the ground to this day.

A full view of the Amboy crater.

This would make a great tv show premise.

I watched some report on tv about some offshoot Mormon town where a reporter tried to go in and he was followed every second by armed men in trucks. Very creepy and insulated.

I, too, have driven through Amboy and can confirm that it is a desolate, strange place. I drove there with a few friends just to take a few pictures of the Roy's Motel, which isn't operational as a motel anymore. It's just sort of a gift shop, and you can get really expensive gas if you need to.

The man who runs the gift shop is not particularly talkative or friendly. I asked him, just out of curiosity, if it would be possible to stay a night in town by camping. And he just looked at me and said, "You wouldn't wanna stay here."

The drive to and around Amboy is littered with decrepit desert houses in bad shape. Made me wonder who lived there, or if drifters squat in those homes?

One thing I could never stomach bout Amboy was all those god damn gargoyles.

[quote] R117: I want to hear more Joshua Tree stories.

The Joshua Tree Park Service Info Building has a display of US coins. They told me it is so they can be pointed to for foreign tourists who don't speak English. The Susan B. Anthony dollar coin they had displayed (in 2004) was the rarest one, a 1981-S, worth about $175 today.

Byberry Hospital for the mentally ill after it was closed down in the eighties. The buildings were all still there, and you could see the cells they kept the poor patients in. Also there were rumors of devil worshippers gathering there late at night. The place had such an evil vibe that I wouldn't be surprised if it's true.

It was the second week of June 2006 when demolition and clean up of that place was completed. I moved to Philly two weeks later.

Magnetic Springs, Ohio. This was back in the early 1980's when I would go on super long bike rides. My parents had a sheer look of horror on their face when i told them I had taken a ride to magnetic springs. At the time it was full of outlaw motorcycle gang members. I did not know that when I took a ride out there.

R137, that is a really dreamy picture.

Did devil-worship rituals actually take place in these abandoned spots? Empty asylums and the woods and all that? What evidence was there that they happened? Did anyone ever come forth with any credible confessions of taking part in devil worship? I'm not interested in the nutty child-molestation/Satanic sex ring stuff at day care facilities or wherever else. I'm talking about the kind of cult rituals depicted in Race With The Devil.

Any truth?

Paul Macartney at Pioneertown is the weirdest story on this thread. Why the hell would he play for cash only in a place like that? I hope it was for charity.

R129 I was simply referring to getting out of Needles. Yes, I had to drive through parts of AZ and NM to get to CO,

Well, r126, since the Crescent Hotel apparently bills itself as "America’s Most Haunted Hotel", you probably should be grateful that they upgraded you to a room with a ghost.

Didn't Cheryl once mention that she was from Amboy, CA?

R126, a lot of the of devil worship in the Freetown Forest was just bored kids. It already had a reputation as being one of the worst parts of the Bridgewater Triangle, with strange animals, sacrificial rocks, UFOs, Indian curses, etc. so it wasn't really a stretch for kids to ride their dirt bikes into the woods and do some Blair Witch staging to "discover" later with their friends.

The next level up was the wannabe Satanists who killed animals. That can't be denied...the bodies and bones were always being found. I doubt that they were organized.

There were also a few murders and lots of suicides. The latter, probably for the same reason people choose hotel rooms -- isolation and no chance of being found by a family member. There was a girl who disappeared riding her bike home from school a few towns over and her body was eventually found in the forest, which was horrible. People hiking found her body standing up, bound to a tree. She had been left there alive. Her killer was a rapist who had tried to kidnap other girls before that; nothing to do with the occult.

There were two other nearby murders carried out by a pimp and hooker who claimed to be part of a huge Satanic network that held rituals in the forest. An undercover cop had infiltrated their drug business and their rituals were just a bunch of heroin-addicted hookers nodding off in an apartment while their pimp babbled in a made-up language and tried to brainwash them into believing he was the devil. The consensus now seems to be that the murders were committed for more mundane reasons but were dressed up to keep the other girls in line.

We were warned to avoid a certain park where there were "pervrrts"

R80 I went to rehab in Pilgrim State like 10-12 years ago.

R143, the venue where McCartney played is really popular with musicians (even before he performed there). Since he was booked nearby, its not that strange that he would want to do a surprise show there.

He can embrace my pussy anytime.

If you're going to visit Amboy, why not also stop by Zzyzx, the "last place on Earth?"

Let's go to Kalifornia! Maybe ride share with strangers, what could go wrong?

Googled Zzyzx, and what the hell is going on here?

The Forest of Dean, UK. Worked with 2 brother's from there. The 1 brother was mentally slow & the other slow, ginger & cross eyed. A very poor gene pool. Found out later at a work nite out the parents were related.

Well, there have been 2 films, a year apart, one called "Zzyzx" and the other called "Zyzzyx Road" (not sure if they intentionally misspelled the name). That still in R154 could be from either one. The original development of Zzyzx was as a health spa resort, but now the property is operated by California State University as the Desert Studies Center, where they research the Mojave Desert environment, but I believe the land is still owned by the federal BLM.

When I first moved to LA, a long-time resident told me that any place that had Park, Heights, or Gardens in the name was to be strictly avoided.

You're just judging Zzyzx because of its name.

When we were moving to LA our tire blew out in the Mojave Desert. About five cars in total passed us in the 45 minutes we were waiting for a tow truck. I couldn't help thinking, "This is how Missing episodes start" the whole time. We slept in Needles, which felt methy.

I went to Twentynine Palms a few years ago and stayed in a ratty hotel. There were a lot of bikers. When dusk fell, a lot of scruffy looking men started to filter out of the park for food. I read up on it, and apparently Joshua Tree never closes and people have taken up residency there.

The weirdness of that area is exaggerated by the landscape. I've heard it called Seussian, and that's accurate. The Joshua trees themselves are human scale or slightly larger. They have very strange proportions, with long dangly limbs that collapse. Add the uniform tan stone and sand and the crazy cactuses and it's like a different planet.

Needles and Baker are pretty awful. Barstow gets a bad rap but it's a lot better than Needles or Baker. Blythe isn't much better but at least the food is fresh there, due to the many farms irrigated with water from the Colorado River. Never been to Twentynine Palms but as there's a Marine Corps base there it could be kid of fun.

Not all that far away is Deep Creek Hot Springs, where nudity is commonplace:

But Baker has the Mad Greek! I always stop here on the way to and from Vegas when driving from Los Angeles. I love their gyros and zucchini fries. I do always wonder about the people who are trapped living in this "town", it's just a few roads surrounded by desert.

[quote]any place that had Park, Heights, or Gardens in the name was to be strictly avoided.

yes.... well, your friend would feel uncomfortable here. Let's say he wouldn't "fit in", so it's best he would avoid us.

The Mad Greek has another location in Primm, NV (just over the border from CA) now (in a former Denny's.)

Baker also has Alien Fresh Jerky and "the World's Tallest Thermometer."

I've been to Salton Sea. I must have gotten lucky because the stench wasn't too noticeable that day. I guess it's worse when it's windy. It's worth seeing if you are in the area, especially if you are into photography. Between the abandoned, rusting old resort structures and the hundreds of birds that flock there, it's pretty fascinating. I dig abandoned stuff though.

Dying, depressed towns that never recovered after a loss of industry really creep me out. There are dozens of them in New England. Fall River (famous for Lizzie Borden) New Bedford, Lawrence, Lowell, Woonsocket, etc. They have a dark atmosphere full of hostile, hopeless people, rampant substance abuse, etc. I think Detroit and much of Appalachia would qualify as well.

This thread is why I prefer Brooklyn.

My parents advised me always to look for the Exit in a bar or night club. Looking back, it's pretty good advice. They never told me to stay away from anyone or anything. My friends were (with a few exceptions) good people. I grew up in NYC and took public transportation all the time. My folks always said to be aware of my surroundings. Again, sound advice!

Yes, Baker has that Alien jerky store which is very cool to look at. The Mad Greek has good food, and it's open 24 hours a day, but the prices are very high, in my opinion. Everything in Baker is overpriced; the gasoline is always $1 more per gallon than anyone else. The Bun Boy motel and restaurant are closed up. Somebody did buy the World's Tallest Thermometer and repaired it; it now has electronic numbers with the highest one up showing the current temperature. The ARCO gas station at the east end of Baker has a food court inside the building with 5 or 6 fast food vendors and an amazing soda fountain in the middle of the court with 37 different sodas to choose from. But I would not want to live in Baker. Seems like nothing to do there and it's brutally hot for 5 or 6 months.

Lynn, Lynn the city of sin

You never come out, the way you came in

You ask for water, but they give you gin

The girls say no, yet they always give in

If you're not bad, they won’t let you in

It’s the damndest city I’ve ever lived in

Lynn, Lynn the city of sin

You never come out, the way you came in.

Has anyone been to Mount Shasta in northern California? I've never been there, but over the years I've read so many postings on various forums and message boards about the weird vibes and occurrences people have experienced there.

That area seemed really creepy in the movie Jennifer 8 with Uma and Andy Garcia R170.

Fargo

I thought the original Del Taco was in Barstow and still standing? The Del Taco there still serves the "Original Del Taco." If you ever had it back in the 80's and have one in Barstow you'll be reminded that Del Taco was once pretty good.

Speaking of the Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez..

I remember being a kid and a classmate of ours told us that her parents would always force her to spend the weekends at her Grandparents house in the Valley. She hated it. They put her in the Guest Bedroom and she was terrified of sleeping there primarily because it had its own entrance. If that weren't terrifying enough for her (we were like maybe 7 at the time), there was something wrong with the door. The door handle wouldn't lock properly and the only thing that would keep the door shut was one of those chain latches. Her Grandparents were too cheap to fix it.

One night she's over there and like every weekend she can't sleep because she's terrified. She said it really late and she thought she heard something move outside. Because she was always scared there she often scared herself into hearing things so she tried to just tell herself she was imagining it.

A minute later someone tried the door and was able to open it but the chain latch prevented it from opening it all the way. The person tried so force the door several times but it was making too much noise (the Grandparents had stuck wind chimes on the door because again they were cheap and that was their Alarm system) and so they eventually left.

My friend was in bed paralyzed and couldn't scream because her Grandparents had warned her they wouldn't come if she did (they were fed up with her being scared).

I remember her telling us this the weekend after it happened and being kids we were all then terrified. A week or two later the news comes out that there's a serial killer on the loose. Once word got out about that the kids in our class started telling the girl she was lucky the house wasn't yellow. She hadn't heard about Ramirez and asked why they were saying that. Turns out the house was Yellow and she lost her shit.

The teacher had to pull her off the playground and call her parents to pick her up. She didn't come back for like a week and had to get some kind of counseling because she was traumatized and wouldn't sleep.

Who knows if she actually dodged him, but still freaky!

When I was about 12, there was an adult book store in the sleaziest part of town. It was rumored that "queers" hung out there and did despicable things with one another. This seemed seemed like a great idea to me. I hung around outside of this book store, because they wouldn't let me inside. Guys coming and going would occasionally scope me out, but no one ever approached me and I was too shy to start a conversation. The only consolation I got was that I'd usually go home with masturbatory fantasies of some of the guys I'd seen there.

Yeah…pathetic, I know.

This is one all of you should watch with John Waters as the narrator about the Salton Sea.

The Norwich State Hospital in Preston, CT. An old mental hospital that was closed many years ago, and the building has been sitting empty ever since. I pass by it ever so often and it's creepy as hell.

There is a Del Taco in Barstow that says it's the oldest Del Taco location that is still a Del Taco. I've stopped there a few times while passing through Barstow. It looks like a new building, not an old one, but they do have murals painted on the walls about the history of it. I am pretty sure it's open 24 hours. The people working there seem happy and friendly. It's a busy place on the main street of Barstow.

The first-ever Del Taco location is now called Tita's Burger Den in Yermo, California, 10 miles east of Barstow. It is a great deal as I mentioned upthread. Burger, fries and drink for barely over $5. And a full menu of burritos and other sandwiches plus great milkshakes made the old fashioned way. All homemade tasting. All for a song. And it has a feeling of character to sit there and eat, although there are only outdoor tables and it's often windy there. The young guy that runs it is very sharp and friendly and good looking. Though I believe straight. The hours are limited, though, I think only 11 am to 7 pm and closed on Sunday.

Another interesting place is the chaotic Barstow Station, a former train station now converted to a sort of mall with several types of quick-order food places including a McDonalds built from old train cars. There are a coup,e of gift shops and a liquor store. It alwas seems crowded with energetic families and travelers. Every few minutes a freight train thunders past outside, adding to the excitement.

By the way, if you're ever looking for a place to stay overnight in Barstow, an alternative from the bland motel chains is the Route 66 Motel, an original business from the Route 66 era. It has circular beds and good air conditioners, which are a must there in the heat of summer. The grounds are decorated with old cars and equipment and lots of original Route 66 memorabilia, and the office is crammed with old Route 66 souvenirs on display. This is a "go there," not a "don't go there."

I may be wrong on this, but that Roys Motel in Amboy looks like the scene from an old 50s movie, Touch of Evil with Orson Wells Heston & Leigh.

Interestingly, "Touch of Evil" was filmed in Venice, California, although it depicts a fictional town in Mexico called "Los Robles." Welles wanted to film it in Tijuana, Mexico, but the film studio refused. So he settled for Venice, which is part of the city of Los Angeles.

bump

The cemetery near my hometown in Pa where Becky Brown is buried. We were all told that members of the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang sat in the trees and shot at anyone who tried to come near her grave. Also, I was not to go near the house of the eyeball people (which was right down the street from me) because they ate people's eyeballs. True story-I was skateboarding with my friend and the eyeball people were all sitting on their porch. Right as I passed them I fell off my skateboard (!) and they all jumped off their chairs-my friend started screaming "Run! They're going to eat your eyeballs!". I never ran so fast in my life.

Thanks, OP, for reminding me that the world isn't as safe as it seems, usually.

My mother use to take us kids on a once yearly tour of ancient cemeteries when we toured the oldest house in town (1600s). It was part of the day's activities. As a result, or not, I love old cemeteries. The older the better. Modern cemeteries don't move me, though. I'm in New England and for some reason, the homeless love old cemeteries and aren't particularly respectful. In one cemetery, they literally moved into these old, utilized, tombs. They moved the bones out, somewhere. Eventually, the city stopped it by resealing the tombs.

It's weird because my mother's mother made her, at about age four, kiss the corpse of her father and it scarred her. As a result, she never attended funerals of anyone except immediate family.

I do remember one story from the mid-1980s involving the homeless people who'd camp in the more remote parts of an old cemetery in Upstate New York. There's this secluded valley with a winding path and old vaults and, at the time, there were a lot of incidents with vandalism, fights, etc.. One night, some homeless man broke into this old Gothic vault, smashed open some of the coffins (most were at least a century old), stole whatever jewelry he could find, and then committed "acts of necrophilia" with several skulls (one of which was never found).

For years, I wouldn't visit that particular cemetery.

I will never understand burying someone with their jewelry. You can't take it with you and theft is inevitable.

R186, my distant cousin was buried with a sterling silver antique box of some kind from (pre-revolutionary) Versailles for some reason. She was buried within living memory, so this is not ancient history. Her family is very wealthy.

I think it's a crime to bury people with valuables. Donate them somewhere if you personally don't want them.

r187 exactly. it's basically buried treasure...

Both Tom Mix and Benny Hill were buried with diamonds, so they encased their coffins in concrete to protect them from theft.

Amboy must be conducting an extensive Wikipedia PR campaign.

About 2 years ago, I drove from San Diego to Bremerton and stopped in Crescent City on the OT state line. I think it was spring break because literally every hotel on town was full except the Town House Motel, which should have warned me. The many online reviewers have more eloquence than I do (including on The Bedbug Review) except for those hilariously obviously written by the manager. It's near Pelican Bay Maximum Security State Penitentiary, making it perfect for undetected serial killers to stay in while visiting their buds inside.

[R180] - Touch of Evil has one of the most famous opening shots. It's really quite impressive.

r189, measures like that don't always stop people from trying to steal from the graves.

Locally, there was a woman who left very specific instructions for her burial vault. Her coffin was to be sealed in a lead box, then a stone one. The door to her mausoleum was to be locked, the key was to be tossed in the river, the keyhole filled with cement.

No one knows why she planned it that way. She was the widow of a lawyer and, while she didn't lack money, she wasn't THAT wealthy. But the precautions requested prompted rumors that she was buried with a fortune - gold, jewels, etc..

Some thieves decided to use explosives to blow open the vault. They only succeeded in getting the outer door to blow and found the entrance behind it was sealed with a heavy stone wall. They gave up, but the damage weakened the mausoleum and, within a few years, it had to be demolished anyway. The woman was reburied in a regular grave and, during the reburial, there were no signs of treasure after all. Just a wedding ring and a small gold chain.

What kind of Attorney was her husband, R193? Maybe she was afraid some of his disgruntled and would break into her coffin and perform desecrate her body.

I want to hear more about Amboy, OP!

I drove by there once and did visit that gift shop that somebody mentioned earlier. Not a friendly guy, the one manning the store. That entire region gives me the creeps.

Don't go there!

The LA River! And for good reason!

This is a cool time suck of a site. The abandoned section is particularly interesting, as is the California part.

BUMP

Interesting thread!

The Night Stalker near-miss story really gave me the willies!

Maybe this house?

The Springfield Three house is haunted by the ghosts of at least two of the women. It's been a rental for years, and nobody stays there for the full year lease. They bail after a few months, because of all the paranormal activity.

Link to Springfield Three ghost stories, R202? I googled but came up with nothing about haunting.

As a born Floridian, long time Dallas native and later settler of Toluca Lake, Los Angeles - I was intrigued by the rotting rust belt. When one of my best buddies from Dallas suggested that I meet up with him for his friend's wedding in Detroit - it was hook, line and sinker for me to explore the rot of the American Dream, the failure of the "City of the Future", and a chance to see the worst kind of abandon. The year was 2013 and I was excited to see the decaying city that we all have read about for years. My downtown hotel was pricey I thought for such a decrepit city. I was a bit annoyed, but it was half or a third of LA hotel rates - so no biggie. The downtown area at first glance was just fine. Little communal gardens abounded and the structures looked OK. We had lunch at a decent restaurant within walking distance. Sketchy types abounded during the day however - mostly begging for money or doing drugs out in the open (either meth or crack pipes - I am not shrewd enough to differentiate) and lots of needles with zonked out heroin users lying against buildings). Also, pot was smoked freely on the streets and the overwhelming smell alone gave you a contact buzz. By night, things became a lot more intense - a few gun shots and cops arresting people in the lobby of my hotel. That aside, the tiny downtown area seemed somewhat tame. The next day I drove in my rental car north on Woodward Ave. into Highland Park. The name alone conjured images of huge, gracious mansions. If you have ever lived in Dallas, you know that some of the priciest, most affluent estates reside in a very manicured tony "island city" called Highland Park. In LA, Highland Park is far from one of the nicest areas, but is not at all a no-go-zone either. Highland Park/Detroit is horrifying. It is hard to verbalize my feelings. Rot, abandon, burnt structures, and a horrid sinister vibe to the few "residents" that inhabit the place. I have gingerly driven through Compton and Inglewood and never felt that fight or flight reaction - but this was dire. We were approached on the street (crazed guys running in front of the car and pounding the windows to ask what smack we wanted to purchase and then kicking the rental car when we said none). More than 3 cars filled with sinister men followed us when we tried to get the Hell outa Dodge - one rammed our rear bumper (light enough to not cause any major damage except to our nerves). Very scary, hideous female hookers lurked in the shadows and walked out when we stopped at any intersection. Outside of that - the area was a burnt up ghost town. I would advise DON'T GO THERE.

An amendment to the above was that we were driving to see Palmer Woods - once a VERY affluent part of the city. It still kind of is......I guess. This sequestered area of faded beauty that sits right against a horrid part of town - almost surrounded by it. They have private security for good reason - it is a nasty area. The homes in "Palmer Woods" are very beautiful but everything about the area seems scared shitless. I can not even imagine wanting to live there; you are surrounded by utter depravity and it is one that must be preying on you 24/7. The faded glory that is Detroit.

Thank God for the Twin Theatre in Detroit!

R206 - good luck finding your car after you park there or getting out alive if you don't.

Great thread. Wish we had more like these. Used to in the past.

Great thread! Any movies I can watch along these lines? I loved Joy Ride, the one with the trucker coming after the two hotties after one impersonates a woman on CB radio. Please recommend. I want to be scared.

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Crescent City in CA by the Oregon border isn't so much creepy, but it's full of offspring of murderers serving at Pelican Bay. Because most men at Pelican Bay have not only committed violent crimes on the outside, but to get to PB you also have been violent in prison. So the men are serving very long prison terms. As a result, the city is full of families of these killers. And the apples fall close to the tree....

I was stationed at 29 Palms about 12 years ago (largest Marine base in US, it's up the hill from Palm Springs, in the high desert. The town itself isn't creepy but...once you drive more into the desert there are a lot of weirdos and meth heads out there. The marines head down to bars and clubs in Palm Springs and Cathedral City on their free nights.

R211, I've been up to Crescent City a few times, and there is something a little "off" about the city and people. Well, aside from their occasional tsunamis even. Thanks for explaining. It makes sense.

r203 it's just anecdotal evidence. I've heard too much. It's truly frightening.

Ok, my cousin and his girlfriend rented "the Springfield Three" house when they were both going to MSU in the early 2000s. He told me he woke up in the middle of the night because he felt like there were hands on both of his arms, holding him down. His girlfriend used to wake up in the middle of the night and see "a ghost" staring at her. She said she was frozen and she couldn't move.

They left after about five months. That's all I can remember, if you want I can ask him what else happened.

op's pic is the munster's house.

We were just in Palm Springs/Joshua Tree a couple of weeks ago. That's my fifth or sixth trip out there over the years. Joshua Tree feels like you're on Mars. I always feel kind of stoned and disconnected out there. After a day of hiking out there, I always have a feeling of "that's enough of that" and hate the desolate schlep back to PS.

Thanks for sharing, OP. Amboy is now officially on my "must visit" list.

And I'm a native Californian and have never been there before.

R7 I agree. Freetown State Forest is no fucking joke. I know many Wampanoag and Narragansett people and they have a very strong historical precedent about not messing with that land. A lot of bad - historically chronicled - events took place there that negatively influenced the future of their tribal culture and homeland. What you shared just builds on that earlier history.

It's so long ago, I don't remember many details, but one of the creepiest places I've ever been to was (is?) in north west Connecticut. My boyfriend and I drove a friend up from the city to visit his mother. It was one of those bucolic areas with low stone walls, wildflower fields and rickety old covered bridges. We were getting low on gas, so we pulled into a service station on the edge of a kind of charmingly delapidated New England town that looked like it had once seen much better days. After filling up, we decided to explore... pretty soon we came across a structure (the size of a small house, but obviously not built to be habitable). It was, as I recall, 4 or 5 painted plywood cubes, stacked in descending size order. Covering most of the exterior was what appeared to be roughly painted text. Most of it was too faded or chipped away to be understandable, but it was very apparent that the creator had been angry, depressed and more than likely mentally unstable when he built it. We were able to discern that it was a memorial, of sorts, to his daughter, after she had been removed from his custody by the state. Why she was taken from him was not addressed, but it was obvious it had been a traumatic and contentious matter, at least for him. All of us left feeling uneasy. On our way back through the town we stopped at a cross between a bookshop, general store. The clerk (an elderly woman) was chatty and friendly, so we asked about the odd monument. She told us the story, but it was too convoluted to really follow, but we learned that the store had once belonged to the girl's father. She took us back to a small brick-walled in yard. Worked into the walls were chards of broken bottles, spikes, barbed wire, etc. we couldn't get away fast enough! The whole experience was so eerie that we didn't talk about it then, or for years after. When we eventually did, we all remembered the general story, and each recalled some different details that jogged the others' memories, but none of us has ever been able to recall the name of the town, or specifically where it was located, other than n.e. CT. Has anyone else ever happened upon this strange place?

The Georgia Guidestones. Call for humanity to be capped at half a billion population. Which means 7 billion people have to uh....vanish.

Is this it, R219?

R147 you might need to re-check - the poster at R126(? or thereabouts) isn't talking about the MA forest; he's talking about CA.

Oops, sorry R 147 he was not talking about CA. My bad.

Eugene, Oregon. It was always 13:00 there. Creepy company town vibe.

Old Town/Chinatown, Portland, Oregon. Encrusted with decades of bad overall vibe and predatory malevolence. It's just a wrong place and makes me think of Stephen King's "Crouch End" story. Turned down meeting friends at a gay bar there tonight because I just don't like the vibe, especially at night.

R224, I've visited Eugene before and it seemed like a fun, hippy-dippy college town? I enjoyed the river-walk. Lots of panhandler types though.

Bump, for more than just Amboy, CA.

[quote]I just went to Google Maps to see what my creepy old street looks like now and there's a guy parked on the side of the road reading a newspaper -- and this is in the middle of nowhere -- with a black dog lying in the road next to his door; not dead or injured, just relaxing.

I did that to my childhood home, it was one house from the corner. Now there's a bus stop and in the Google Maps shot there's a guy sitting on the bench drinking out of a paper bag.

The Springfield Three is going to blow up soon. It will be 25 years next month, and there's a lot of activity on the Facebook page.

Yellow Missing Signs...

Bump

I think we're all collectively overestimating the number of satanists there are today after the rise of the web. The couple I know of are more into sexual stuff (extreme prolapsing and bestiality) these days rather than animal sacrifices or rituals in the middle of nowhere.

Also, I would very much like to see a gay atheist version of Ghost Hunters or Paranormal State or Most Haunted (for our British posters). We'd sit around the table, sipping tea or coffee (for our continental posters) in seemingly most haunted places on earth, and just bitch about the latest episode of Drag Race, feeling totally unperturbed and superior. Who's pitching this to Logo with me?

bump.

Driving an RV through Death Valley late at night I kept seeing these little white things on the pavement, hundreds of them. I didn't know what they were but couldn't avoid hitting a few of them. My friend told me they were sidewinder rattlesnakes who had come onto the pavement to warm up. I spent the rest of the time worrying that I had flipped one of those snakes up into the chassis of the RV and it was slowly making its way into the bunk where I was sleeping.

Stopped in Yosemite for a night at the Wawona Hotel. I remember thinking it looked creepy but had never heard of its haunted past. Our room was in a cottage that housed three other rooms connected by locked doors. About 11pm as I was just about to fall off to sleep, the lights suddenly came on next door. I could see it through the cracks in the door and heard loud voices like a drunken party arriving for the night. My boyfriend was awake too and heard them. Early the next morning I passed by the room and it was empty, the curtains drawn. I asked the desk clerk if anyone had checked into the room the night before. He said No. When I was back home I looked up "Haunted Places in Yosemite" and sure enough the Wawona came up. Back in the 1920s (I think) a small plane crashed on the grounds of the hotel and they carried the pilot into the cottage I had stayed in, where he died. Freaked me the fuck out. I'd never had an experience like that before.

The Kings Park Psychiatric Center on Long Island. I went with my father when he was working there while getting his PhD in Sociology. It was so creepy looking even while it was open. Bars on the windows.

A schizophrenic uncle of mine spent a lot of time in Pilgrim State, which is a few miles from the Kings Park Center. Both of these places scared the shit out of me.

Digression: r182, You mean Catasauqua's Becky Brown? Because that would mean that in the last three days there have been posts with Catty, Tamaqua, and Allentown!

momma said steer clear of the queers at college when i went away to live in the university of houston dorm

i got to suck the captain of the swim team every night.

god bless u momma

did anyone else have to keep the lights on after a scarey movie

i watched paranormal activity 2 and im on day 4 of all lights on 24/7

R197, I think I recognize one of those tunnels from an old Kolchak Night Stalker episodes.

I used to volunteer at a state mental hospital all female ward.

Parents did not let their daughters go alone to the "carnival" that set up in the strip mall parking lot. 1970's. It was feared the carnie guys would fuck their daughters and probably give them drugs! The Horror! Parents grew up when circuses were quite sinister and sinful. Actually they were probably correct even in the 70's. My sisters friend Marsha was fucking the guys in the caravans. Some of those guys were very exciting rough trade looking. Don't blame her. She probably got great picking if not also her first STDs.

great DICKING

[quote] My granny most her life in a nice little house in an industrial city that declined from the 70's on.

Bridgeport?

[quote] A schizophrenic uncle of mine spent a lot of time in Pilgrim State, which is a few miles from the Kings Park Center. Both of these places scared the shit out of me.

I did my psych rotation at Pilgrim State. It was an OK place, really. It had underground tunnels and little "snack" areas in the tunnels run by patients. You could get coffee, eggs, rolls, hot dogs or hamburgers. Some of the patients were pretty normal and had had only one psychotic break in the past, or were put there by husbands when they hit menopause. Menopause was treated like a mental illness in the 1920s and 1930s. All it took was a husband and a doctor to sign you away. Then hubby told the kids mommy died and he got remarried.

It was heartbreaking reading the charts. In several charts I read the patients had been normal up to a certain age, then they got a childhood illness. They didn't know in those days that encephalitis epidemics sometimes followed childhood illnesses like measles. The children were brain damaged and spent the rest of their lives locked up.

A relative of mine ran a geriatric ward at Pilgrim and it was very bright and cheery inside. Lots of artwork by the patients, clean as a whistle and the patients got excellent care and loved being there. It was a fucking tragedy when they closed the state hospitals and the patients were farmed out to various nursing homes. Some of those patients had known each other for 50 years.

There was a separate building for children. They called it "A Child's World." It was for children diagnosed with schizophrenia or childhood psychosis. Years later those kind of children were called autistic, not psychotic, and now they stay home with their parents. In the past, children who were uncommunicative and engaged in harmful behavior (to themselves and others) were institutionalized.

When I was at Pilgrim, the patients could no longer smoke inside except for in these barred outdoor balconies. It was pretty awful at first because most patients smoked to relieve anxiety, so patients were very tense. Eventually they couldn't smoke anywhere.

It wasn't a terrible place. There were real people in there, not imaginary monsters or serial killers.

Canteens -- that's what the snack areas in the tunnels were called at Pilgrim. "Everyone meet up at the canteen under building 7 at 1pm" our profs would say.

R243. Thanks for the input! I actually don't remember going to Pilgrim State, only the Kings Park institution. My dad took me there. The place was scary but the patients seemed docile enough. All medicated . I was about 12 then. My dad was playing in a ballgame with the staff. I remember one young girl coming up to me and asking if I liked her nail polish. She held up her hands and she had painted all of her fingers bright red.

Dad never took me to see his brother when he was at Pilgrim State. It was a big secret that he was schizophrenic. This would've been in the 60s-70s. He was an intelligent, creative guy who wrote for TV in the 50s, but then something went wrong. So I'm glad that the place sounded bright and friendly because he spent a lot of time there.

bump

Wow this thread makes me want to visit the desert of California

I was born in Blythe, CA, but got out fairly young. It is indeed a vortex of hopelessness.

Huell Howser had a glass of lemonade in Amboy. (starting at 17:10)

Harlem in the late 20th century. That was then.

R9 Are these the nasty cacti of which you write ? This guy on Flickr seems willing to travel far and wide for painful experiences.

New Jersey. They told me never to set foot there.

current story up in the Owens Valley

"Huell Howser had a glass of lemonade in Amboy. (starting at 17:10) "

Huell Howser had an absolute genius for missing whatever it is that made the places he visited interesting.

Fort Revere, Nantasket Beach, MA. Without knowing anything of the history, I remember what a sinister, creepy vibe it had. I recall seeing shadows in the tunnels.

Fort Revere, Nantasket Beach, MA. Without knowing anything of the history, I remember what a sinister, creepy vibe it had. I recall seeing shadows in the tunnels.

Speaking of Twentynine Palms, I was just talking to a guy who recently attended a 10-day meditation retreat at this place. Sounded interesting, but I think it would be really challenging to go for 10 days without speaking or any electronic devices.

Very sorry for the multiple posts. Hope admin will delete.

R25 I grew up in NW CT, and have been to Dudleytown MANY times. There's not a lot to do up here when you're just 16/17 but I remember my first trip going with my friend and her father, this was when we were 12 or so, you could walk though the entirety of the old remnants of the foundations which were cool. But contrary to the Warrens claims that's it 'evil' due to the lack of wildlife was totally bullshit. There were birds and chipmunks, squirrels etc.

The creepy thing about the place were the artifacts clearly left by people who'd visit at night and do whatever they did. On that visit there was a wooden pitchfork placed standing upright in the middle of one walking-path. There were animal skulls also placed at intersections or areas where paths would branch off, and there was a Ouija board left in one of the foundations. Never saw the 'White Lady' although I did also go with same friend and father to a lecture they'd given and had spoken about Dudleytown- my friends dad who was the coolest actually had to excuse himself to stifle a laugh as a cough. The place is creepy because people with ill intent go there and do whatever they think will serve whatever they're practicing. There's several books from the Oliver Wolcott Library that are more obscure (or atleast there were in the 90s) and the theories range from plausible to strange/scary.

We'd go up there on Halloween nights just to scare ourselves b/c its so close to the town I'd grown up in.

The last I'd heard that area had been developed and is a now a closed road of modular housing which happened in the last 10-15 years, kind of feel bad that the area wasn't developed, with the current paranormal craze tours to that area could've been a lucrative plan for a dying state. Which btw has a TON of haunted areas b/c of the age of the area.

R11 That story (not questioning credibility) is very Children of the Corn with a touch of The Strangers thrown in, former being one of my favorite scary movies when I was a kid. That was one of the creepiest stories on this thread. I wonder if anyone else had any similar experiences with that kind of situation.

This is a great, creepy thread. I've passed by many places in my life that just give off a sinister vibe and I can't explain it at all.

Sometimes there's a prosaic reason for that "sinister" vibe. I used to pass a grandiose old house on my walks through the neighborhood where I used to live, and I always felt a sinister vibe from the place. The feeling surprised me the first time, and never really went away, and I passed the place for years. I found it on a list of local "haunted places", but I also saw a news story saying that the place had been uninhabited for years because of a disputed will, and that the will had been resolved and the place would be fixed up. The big house lost its haunty vibe after that and became something of a showpiece, I think all I'd ever perceived was the vibe of the one house on the street that was uninhabited and covered by a security service.

Sometimes it's no more than that, although I do know of places that always feel strange, and I've never figured out why.

One of the times I rented a cabin in Appalachian Ohio, I got out my maps and set my GPS to help me find the Moonville Tunnel. I eventually found it, but I didn't feel like wading through Raccoon Creek to see it up close. I didn't want to, though, once I got there. There wasn't anyone else around (I never passed another car of inhabited home for miles), but I felt like someone was watching me. When I got back to my car, I seriously checked to be sure there wasn't someone else waiting for me in the car. I've been to many supposedly 'haunted' places in Ohio, and I could see why they might be creepy, but never felt anything. The Mudhouse Mansion, for example (since demolished) was creepy looking, but I never got any little frisson of threat when I finally located it (the handwritten notices were creepy, though).

Appalachian Ohio is beautiful, but has a very sad vibe. The woods are full of little ghost towns, left from the coal mines that have since been abandoned. The people I've met there have been very sweet, though.

Mad River Glen ski mountain.