Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 13:29:27 -0600 (MDT)
From: James Mangin (James.Mangin@central.sun.com)
Subject: Re: Brookdale Lodge - ghost experience
To: obiwan@best.com
My experience with the Brookdale Lodge happened about 1990 or so. I grew up in San Jose and spent most summer vacations up in Boulder Creek - one of 4 small towns that sit along Hiway 9 in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I've read a lot of articles about Brookdale being in Boulder Creek, but actually Brookdale is the next town going south - about 3 miles from Boulder Creek. Anyway, the place has a real interesting history going back to the early 1900's ( I won't elaborate since there is a complete history that you can read at brookdalelodge.com) and has changed owners several times, as well as being closed & re-opened many times. During the early 1980's, we used to go there and explore. I used to take dates there. *grin*. The Lodge was closed at the time and we would sneak in and explore the old dining rooms, find hidden passageways that would come out near the cavernous inside pool area or end in blank walls, and generally have a great time. We never saw anything ghostly, but used to get gooseflesh, particularly in the old Pool area - it was definitely a weird place. One night in the summer of 1990 (I think, might have been '91) a friend and I stopped by to have a drink at the bar there, about 1:30am. We both lived in Boulder Creek at the time and were bored. As you walk into the lobby area, you have the bar on the right, which can be seen through the large fireplace, and on the left is the lobby proper with glass display cases with merchandise and newspaper clippings & history of the Lodge.
As we walked in, my friend went left into the lobby and I went right towards the bar, where I sat in a chair, still in the lobby area, that faced towards the 4-way open fireplace that looked into the bar. I sat there for a minute or so, checking out the little girl who was sitting on the bar-side of the fireplace; she was looking off towards the left side of the room. She had shoulder-length blonde hair, pretty face, pale complexion, a blue & white knee-length dress tied about the waist with a coth belt or sash, and looked to be about 5 or 6 years old. I was thinking that I didn't think it was very cool for parents to be bringing a little girl to a smoky bar at almost 2am in the morning. About this time, my friend began reading aloud from one of the display cases about the ghost of a little girl that was supposed to wander around the Brookdale Lodge. I think the legend is that she drowned in the creek that runs through the building. I turned and looked at him and forgot, for a moment, completely about the little girl and walked over to him. All the hair on the back of my neck was standing straight up. I walked over and took a quick look at the newsclipping and then looked back at the fireplace where the girl had now disappeared. My friend, seeing the look on my face and the gooseflesh all over my arms and neck, was more freaked out than I was when I told him I had just been looking at a little girl sitting in the bar on the fireplace hearth. About 20 seconds had passed since I looked away from her, and nobody had come out into the lobby to leave - the only way out at that moment. Both of us went into the bar and there was no little girl. I asked the bartender where "she" went and said that nobody else had been in there, especially not a child. She said I was one of the few people who have seen the ghost of the little girl.
Epilogue
I live in Colorado now and returned to the Bay Area for a business trip about two months ago. I spent most of my free time in Boulder Creek during that week and on my last night I got a room and stayed at the Brookdale Lodge. (definitely run-down, but neat). I spent a few hours at the bar then wandered the grounds for a while; I couldn't really explore anything since it's all locked up now. Never saw anything, never even got weird feelings, and didn't see any ghosts. But I know what I saw that one night - a little girl as real as you and me. She had substance, depth...she did not look you would think a ghost would be. I must've been looking at her, and looking her way, for at least two to three minutes and she was real, although in retrospect I don't think I ever saw her move which should have tipped me off. And then she was gone.
Regards,
-Jim Mangin
Westminster, Colorado (formerly of Boulder Creek, California)
I just looked it up - the girl is supposedly the niece of one of the former owners and she drowned in the creek. The dress she was wearing was not what I would consider formal, just a nice blue & white dress a little girl might wear to church. I still can't get over how REAL she was, so weird...
More information on ghosts.org:
Brookdale Lodge, Article 2 (added 06.26.01)
Brookdale Lodge, Article 3 (added 11.07.03)
Brookdale Lodge, Article 4 (added 04.03.05)
Brookdale Lodge, Article 5 (added 04.03.05)
Brookdale Lodge, Article 6 (added 04.03.05)
Links to other sites:
Brookdale Lodge Their official
site
Historical
Memories Haunt Brookdale An article about the haunting
If you have an account of a famous haunting you'd like to share, or more information to add to a haunting already listed, please feel free to email me.
This page (http://www.ghosts.org/brookdale.html) last updated April 3, 2005.