One of the many ways I'm staying distracted from what's going on in the real world during this stay-at-home order is by re-watching old Shane Dawson videos. Shane's back-catalog covers a pretty wide variety of topics, but my favorites (of course) are his conspiracy theory videos and any videos related to ghost hunting, haunted places, or other weird and spooky topics. The other day I watched the HAUNTED AMUSEMENT PARK video from back in September of 2017 in which Shane, Ryland, Drew, and Garrett visit Six Flags: Magic Mountain in Valencia, California for the park's annual Halloween celebration, Fright Fest!
During the group's VIP experience, their tour guide tells them that the park actually IS haunted. The ghost is a young boy with dark hair, wearing a blue shirt. His name is Jacob and before he passed away from a terminal blood disease, he loved visiting the park. Unfortunately, he was confined to a wheelchair during the last few months of his life, making riding most of the park's rides impossible.
However, in death, Jacob is free to ride whatever he chooses. Ride operators have reported seeing Jacob out of their corner of their eye during closing, so they always make sure to run the ride empty, one last time for him, before shutting it down for the night. The guide also told the group that security guards at the park have seen the young boy in blue well after the park has been closed for the night.
Obviously, I was intrigued and wanted to learn more about this ghost haunting Six Flags: Magic Mountain!
Jacob/The Boy in the Striped Shirt
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| Colossus, From LA Times |
Magic Mountain, located just north of Los Angeles, opened for business on May 29, 1971 and was sold to Six Flags in 1979 who has operated the park ever since. And, in its nearly 50 years of operation, Magic Mountain has amassed more than a few ghost stories aside from Jacob's. One such ghost that is repeatedly featured in articles about the hauntings of Magic Mountain is a little boy in a striped shirt. I assume that this is actually Jacob, although I've never seen a name mentioned outside of Shane's video.
This boy, whether or not the same boy as Jacob, has been spotted running and playing among the support beams under the track for Magic Mountain's wooden coaster, Colossus. Witnesses to the boy's apparition near the coaster also claim that whenever he is seen under Colossus, he's also HEARD. The sound of the lift chain, pulling the coaster up, seems to accompany the boy's apparition, despite the ride already being closed for the evening.
Colossus originally opened in 1978 and unfortunately was the site of one of the park's approximate eight deaths. A young woman named Carol Flores was at the park the day after Christmas that year with family members. Her restraints didn't fit properly, and her lap bar failed to lock, leading to her untimely and tragic death from being thrown from the car. (I've seen this death also associated erroneously with the former Psyclone coaster. I think this connection may come from the fact that during Fright Fest, one track of Colossus is run backwards, using a train that belonged to Psyclone.) The ride did undergo renovations shortly after that, and in 2015, the track was converted to steel, with the coaster opening under the new name, Twisted Colossus. Despite the death associated with the ride, the only ghost reportedly connected to it is the young boy/Jacob.
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| Cyclone Bay Game Area by InMapz |
And Jacob certainly gets around the park! Aside from his penchant for roller coasters, he seems to love games as well, and another spot he frequents is the old Cyclone Bay area. This area, which is home to all the carnival games, is another favorite spot of the young boy, and he has been seen multiple times underneath the tarp to the basketball game. Staff have reported seeing the boy in the striped shirt, reaching under the tarp area, as if trying to get his basketball. At times, the boy isn't seen, but instead, staff will find a lone basketball left out, knowing that they had just put everything away and cleaned up for the evening. In a BackpackVerse article entitled the Nightly Visitors of Magic Mountain, there's a story from a security guard who encountered the young boy late one night. He yelled out to the kid, but when he didn't respond, the security guard approached him to tell him that the park was closed and he needed to leave. However, before the security guard could crouch down and lecture the boy, the boy had disappeared! He asked a Games Attendant who was shutting down for the evening where the boy had gone, and the attendant had to break it to him that the boy was not just a ghost, but one that was seen in the area quite often!
Goliath
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| By Arthur Levine |
While Jacob/The Boy in the Striped Shirt is probably the most well-known ghost at Magic Mountain, he certainly isn't the only specter haunting the park. The roller coaster Goliath also has its fair share of spooky stories. Goliath is an extreme steel coaster with an opening drop of 255 feet. The coaster opened for the 2000 season, but a year later it would be the location of another untimely death. On June 2, 2001, 28 year old Pearl Santos suffered an aneurysm while riding Goliath. Since her death, staff members have reported weird issues with Goliath's phone system. Security guards monitoring the park from the security office will receive phone calls coming from Goliath's line, well after the last visitor and ride operator have left for the day. When they answer, there is nothing but static on the other end. This happened so often, that a group of officers set out one night to investigate who was playing around and trying to scare them. To their surprise, nothing out of the ordinary was found, aside from an eerie sense of dread, leading many to believe that Pearl haunts the place where she died, getting people's attention by interfering with the phone lines.
Revolution
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| Revolution 1976 by montezooma |
The Revolution coaster originally opened in 1976 and then underwent a major renovation in 2016, which added things such as a VR experience to the ride. Riders of the looping coaster have reported hearing a woman's hysterical screams shortly before arriving back at the station after their ride. This may be a residual haunting associated with another tragic death that happened in 1996. On May 30, a part-time employee named Cherie La Motte was crossing the tracks in order to switch positions with another employee. Unfortunately, as she stepped onto the tracks, she was hit by a car coming into the station and thrown below the ride, succumbing to her injuries. Could these screams belong to Cherie, or perhaps one of the many visitors/staff who witnessed the tragic event?
Other Ghosts of Magic Mountain
The three stories above seem to be the three more well-known, most frequently occurring hauntings at Magic Mountain, but the internet is FULL of other brief-yet-terrifying-encounters associated with this Californian amusement park. Here are just a few I came across:
*A UFO being seen from one of the park's tower rides (2010?) YouTube Link
*An apparition known as the Grey Man is seen near Jet Stream, the boat ride. People also report having their hair pulled while on the ride or waiting in line.
*Indians seen around Samurai Summit
*Woman in a white dress seen at night in the area around the former Magic Pagoda
*Apparitions/Unexplained Noises seen in the Magic Moments Theater
*A former female employee returns to haunt Center Ring Games
*More stories can be found in the Comments Section of Haunted Places: Magic Mountain
*Disclaimer: I love haunted amusement park stories and I love sharing them with my readers! But, haunted amusement parks seem to have an even higher rate of well...inaccuracy...to them even greater than your average spooky tale. As the stories are passed down from staff member to staff member, shared with visitors, or posted online, details tend to get a little muddled. New information may be added to fill in the gaps and to help explain spooky experiences, and that information may not always be true. Amusement parks are fun, thrilling places...but they can also be home to tragic deaths as well. Those deaths may be wrongly associated with perceived paranormal activity just because they are either a convenient way to explain what someone has experienced...or because it makes an interesting story. In addition, amusement parks are always changing, with old rides being renovated, renamed, or torn down completely and replaced with new ones. I've tried to present these stories as they are told and shared, but also to add as much verifiable detail as I can find. Names of the deceased are added for accuracy, not disrespect and I've tried to make sense out of conflicting reports. Please see the bibliography below for where the information in this article came from. Thanks, and happy haunting!*
Sources
1. Haunted Amusement Park YouTube Video by Shane Dawson. Uploaded 9-27-17
2. Six Flags Magic Mountain: Tragic Events YouTube video by Mighty Ride Junkies. Uploaded 5-31-17
3. The Nightly Visitors of Magic Mountain by Backpackverse. Updated 2-20-20
4. Six Flags: Magic Mountain Wikipedia. Accessed 4-15-20
5. Haunted Honeymoon Blog: Haunted Places-Magic Mountain. Summer 2006
6. Weird Fresno: The Ghosts of Magic Mountain. Published 5-9-2011
7. Roller Coaster Worker Broke Rule, Officials Say. LA TIMES article. Published June 1, 1996 by David Wharton.
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