The Ghosts of Six Flags: Magic Mountain

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

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.

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

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

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. 

The Little Chemo Girl

Can you see the transparent image of a little bald girl on the right hand side? The NEWEST Kaiser hospital in Irvine, CA, has documented 4 different spirits who wander the hall. They call this one the little chemo girl. Sometimes she is seen at the elevator and someone will offer to push the button for her. When they turn back around, she has vanished....

This sad tale and accompanying picture flooded the internet awhile back, and is currently making another round.  Really tugs at the heartstrings, doesn't it? Those who have commented on Facebook postings of this picture have been fascinated by its authenticity, with theories ranging from the idea that the little girl is an angel sent to escort the recently departed home, to simply being a little lost soul, doomed to wander the halls of this California hospital forever.

It's not true...

Like many other photos that seem too good to be true, this one is as well.  The image of the little bald girl is actually an image of a little boy.  While not as popular as the little girl in plaid, the little ghost boy (aka, The Little Chemo Girl) is a prominent feature of the Ghost Capture smart phone application, developed by Ghosts Don't Exist.  See him down there...bottom left, third one over.

Anyway, the ready-made caption to go along with this fraudulent photo mentions the name of the hospital and the fact that the "little chemo girl" is only one of several reported ghosts at the location.  Since even hoaxes are sometimes rooted in fact, I wanted to know if there were anything up with these claims.  What I found was simply that this particular hospital was built in 2008 as part of a larger hospital system covering several states.  I didn't run across any other stories about the little chemo girl or any of the other ghosts with whom she shares the halls.  However, I DID find a story submitted to the Shadowlands concerning an older Kaiser hospital in La Mesa, California.

In short, a police officer was in the basement break area, where emergency personnel were allowed to shower and get a snack while on duty.  A cup of coffee he was about to drink was knocked violently from his hand before a disembodied voice crudely told him to get out.  Other officers who responded to his calls for help were faced with the task of letting their brother in blue know that he had just had his first experience with Kaiser's well-known ghost. After that, the officer refused to use the services of Kaiser's break room, yet found himself once again in the basement area years later when the space was remodeled and used as doctors' offices.  Bringing up his experience years before, his doctor let him know that he wasn't crazy...at least six ghosts were said to have invaded the basement area which was once used as the morgue.

Ghost Adventures at Glen Tavern

Tomorrow night, the Ghost Adventures Crew will be bringing us a brand new episode from the Glen Tavern Inn in Santa Paula, California! 

Glen Tavern was built in 1911 by local architects, Burns and Hurt in the Tudor/Arts and Crafts style.  The hotel was built directly across from the town's train depot in order to accommodate the many out of town guests to the oil boom town.  The hotel, which was badly needed after a 1903 fire destroyed the Main Street hotel, and the local boarding house shut down in 1910 quickly became a social hub for the area.  The hotel has seen many renovations over its 100+ year history, and has seen quite a few celebrities grace its lobby when Hollywood discovered that the surrounding area was a great place to shoot on location, especially the popular westerns of the era.  Stars such as John Wayne, Harry Houdini, and even Rin Tin Tin stayed at the hotel.

There are also rumors that the third floor was once used an illegal gambling site, a brothel, and a speakeasy during the prohibition era.  And while the suspected ghosts come from a wide background, it seems like the most "popular" ghost is directly related to the 3rd floor shenanigans.

A ghostly man named Calvin is believed to have been an employee with a silent film company that was staying at the hotel in the early 1920s when he was shot to death in a card game on the 3rd floor.  Calvin is seen in the lobby, as well as the rest of the building, sometimes accompanied by the smell of cigar smoke.  He is described as wearing a western style coat and has long hair and a goatee.  He has even been seen wandering into the ladies' room on the 1st floor.

Calvin may be one of the two ghosts a local psychic communicated with in 1986.  She described him as a Buffalo Bill look alike who was looking for a cache of gold.  The other ghost she communicated with was a woman named Helen who was in her 30s and wearing a flowered dress with a white collar.

Over the years, many other ghosts have been seen by staff and visitors alike.  The inn's official website even boasts that 75% of employees have had a ghostly experience at the Glen Tavern.  The most haunted guest rooms seem to be 306, 307, and 218. Rooms have been dead-bolted from the inside and the sounds of children laughing and running up and down the halls and staircases is often reported.  One group even saw several children run down a hall and disappear into a wall.  An elderly couple staying in room 205 reported a young girl with blonde braids and white pajamas wandering into their room, only to vanish.  This girl has been several times by others as well.

It seems that the hotel has gone through several major renovations over the years, including the latest when the Jennetts took over the property in 2005.  A fire in 2006 caused the restaurant to be nearly destroyed, but much to the delight of all, it was rebuilt.  Has all these renovations really stirred up the latent energies that reside in this century old hotel?  Zak and the gang will be finding out tomorrow night!

Richard Senate Article
Ventura County Star Article (2011)
L.A. Times Article (1986)