A paranormal research group (snicker) says it has recorded voices inaudible to the human ear in the old buildings at Heritage Junction and is offering to take you on a exclusive ghost hunting expedition of the property for only $185.
Such is what passes for news these days over KHTS, which devoted a pretty long advertisement article to the strange and wacky phenomena experienced in the historical area, consisting of an old train station, school house, a tiny Ramona chapel and other buildings.
If you’re like me, you probably checked your calendar after reading the story; alas it is not April 1 nor is it the week before Halloween, so let’s dig in to this seemingly serious report.
Reporter Jon Dell states that things have been getting “spooky” at Heritage Junction lately and that many people are starting to ask questions.
Pat Saletore, the SCV Historical society’s Executive Director, confirms the suspicions:
“I sometimes tell stories that I have heard or experienced, but mostly we have tried to avoid the subject,” says SCV Historical Society Executive Director Pat Saletore. “I hear things all the time that I chalk up to spending time in old buildings, my imagination or whatever. Every now and then, though, I find myself walking out to the main entrance calling ‘Hello? Is someone there?’ –when there isn’t anyone there.”
Somehow, and Dell doesn’t detail how, an obviously enterprising group called the American Paranormal Research Association (website) contacted the Historical Society and was apparently invited in to search the property for wizards, poltergeists, ghosts, gremlins, trolls, and goonies.
Not surprisingly, they did find something. Cue Saletore:
“They found primarily EVPs (Electronic Voice Phenomena—recordings that are not heard by investigators, but recorded on electronic media like tape recorders or digital recorders) and audio recordings that were actually experienced by investigators. The really spooky thing is that some of them supported the stories we have been told by psychics who have been invited to visit!”
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So evidently this isn’t the first time the Historical Society has brought paranormal experts on site to investigate goblins. Saletore says they’ve had psychics who have heard the same words recorded by the audio devices.
Sadly, no hint on what those words were or whether the ghosts have any insight into the things that trouble Santa Clarita currently.
The paranormal association website says they are committed to researching “all things Paranormal and related to Parapsychology” and says its purpose is to obtain “absolute proof of paranormal events.” It invites people in the field of Paranormal studies and Parapsychology to join the Association as researchers, and hopes to build a group of researchers in every state to find “undeniable proof” of the other side.
Actually, check all that. There are so many “Association of Paranormal American” groups it was hard to find this group’s real website. After some more digging, I found that the group hosting the Heritage Junction party doesn’t even have a website; rather they only have a MySpace page and describe themselves as “a team of paranormal researchers and musicians,” in a “band known as Vow Of The Repentant.” They are based out of Bakersfield and their MySpace page has some audio and video clips of supposed paranormal activity (unclear if it’s from Heritage Junction).
They’re also apparently enterprising. Dell ends the article saying that the group “offered” to host a Ghost Hunting Party for up to 16 individuals for only $185 per person. For that, you’ll get to spend the night in the Saugus Train station “freight room,” a catered dinner, a continental breakfast, a lecture about “ghost hunting procedures and equipment” and a DVD of “evidence captured after review by APRA and sent to each participant.”
In any event, it looks like the Historical Society stands to benefit at least partly from this event, and if it gets more people interested in SCV history (yes, even 16 more would be great), then I’m all for it. But I feel it sullies and cheapens the SCV Historical Society to partner with a couple of musicians moonlighting as paranormal experts who sell tickets to the public.
Then again, what did I expect? Gravitas about Santa Clarita history? I wonder what Jerry Reynolds or Doc Rioux would say?