Inside The Inland Empire - What to do and where to go when you're in the Inland Empire

Christmas on Euclid

Ghostpainter — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:44:31 -0800

Nativity scenes return to Euclid

More than 60 community volunteers turned out Saturday morning to help put up 12 Nativity scenes along the median of Euclid Avenue, continuing a 43-year civic tradition.

By 6 a.m. Saturday, volunteers were erecting backdrops and putting up the lights, speakers and figures that by late Saturday afternoon had downtown Ontario decorated with the traditions of Christmas.

Typically set up the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the Nativity scenes will be on display through the first Saturday of the new year.

The display features more than 30 life-size statues depicting the biblical characters said to have been involved in the birth of Jesus Christ, and is an annual holiday attraction in the Inland Valley.

For the community, this is something that is tremendously important, said Tom Burciaga, a member of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce's Board of Directors and yearly organizer of the Nativity scene setup. We're talking tradition, we're talking history. This is something that people have been coming to with their families for years and years. It is really important.

The city's Chamber of Commerce has been funding the annual Nativity scenes for several years, since the city deemed it inappropriate to fund an expression of one particular religion.

Now, instead of just Christian representations, there are displays reflecting a variety of religious traditions, including a Jewish menorah. This is a reflection of the various religious faiths in the Inland Empire as well as an attempt to keep the ACLU happy.

In an effort to minimize the chamber's costs, several different business's involved with the chamber donate storage space each year, and this year a pancake breakfast will be provided for all the volunteers.

Commuters can expect an increase in traffic on Euclid for the next several weeks, as residents from throughout the area make their annual trek to see the display.

This is something that people come from all over to see. Families even pull over, he said, so they can bring their kids over for an up-close view.

In Upland, the Christmas light display starts at the intersection of Foothill and Euclid and trees decorated with lights run the entire length of the center divider down Euclid to the 10 freeway and then continue south till the meet up with the Holliday scenes at G street in Ontario.

I personally can remember riding with my mom and dad down Euclid looking at the light display as early as 1960. I can remember one time in 1974 when several inches of snow fell down to holt, turning the Christmas trees and the nativity scenes into something really special.

I hope you enjoy the lights as much as I and my have done for over 50 years.

Gary Hall the ghostpainter

CHRISTMAS AT LAKE ARROWHEAD.

Ghostpainter — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:49:21 -0800

The last time we went up to lake arrowhead for the Christmas holidays, we did so when a 3 foot snow fall occurred in 2005.

When we arrived up there it was about 18 degrees, the air was crisp and clean and the crowds light and it was in the middle of the week. Having previously lived in the mountains we knew that the best time to go up to any event, say like they used to have at Santa village, the crowds were always lighter.

This year, no snow has fallen but I am pretty sure that by the Christmas holidays there will be plenty of snow on the ground. In past drought years they have actually made snow just for the village and the surrounding Christmas venues.

This year the Christmas celebration will run from November 1st thru December 31st. The main Christmas light ceremony will take place on November 28 at 6:30 PM. Irregardless of weather conditions.

November 28 thru December 24 Santa will be on scene weekends only starting at 12 noon. If the crowds warrant they will make arrangements for Santa and his elves to make more frequent appearances.

The History of Lake Arrowhead

The first white man ever to set foot in Little Bear Valley (now known as Lake Arrowhead) was a fur trader, who was a partner of Jedediah Smith, in 1826. At that time, about 40 Paiute Indians, a warlike tribe, used the mountains for their hunting grounds. They lived in the high desert area. Many were finally killed in a fight with the white men of Little Bear Valley, resulting from the Indians setting fire to one of the white men's cabins.

At the same time, a more peaceful tribe of Indians, the Serranos, lived very near Bear Valley, in an area now known as Rock Camp, on the north side of the mountain. They did not bother the settlers until one of the white men made advances to an Indian maiden, which caused a skirmish killing both Indians and white men.

Later in the 1860's, the main attraqction for the white man at Little Bear Valley was logging, lumber and cattle, and there were several saw mills in and around the Valley.

The first so-called "Mormon Road" up the mountain was built in 1852. The "Daley Canyon Road" was built in 1870. Summers were productive in the Valley, but everything stopped in the winter. A few families remained during the winter months and their only diversion was to snow shoe to their neighbors (usually miles away) to visit.

In 1891, three Ohio businessmen chose Little Bear Valley as a likely spot for a reservoir, to supply water to the southern lowlands. Land was purchased and water rights were obtained. The Arrowhead Reservoir Company was formed. In 1890, a tramway, was built from Waterman Canyon up the mountain for the purpose of transporting supplies for the building of the dam. However, engineering problems rendered it unsuccessful. Consequently, supplies and machinery were transported via the switchback road. Construction of the dam for the reservoir started in 1893. "Camp 1" on the north slope of the valley served as living quarters and messhalls for the workers.

In 1905, the property was transferred to a new corporation -- Arrowhead Reservoir and Power Company -- because the idea of utilizing the water for power had been conceived. The dam is what is known as a semi-hydraulic, fill dam, 200 feet high, 720 feet long and 1,100 feet thick at the base. It has a steel reinforced concrete core wall, embedded 20 feet in bed rock.

The trees and brush were removed from what was to be the bottom of the lake, so that decay would not be a problem. The lake filled slowly from runoff.

By 1912, the dam was 80% complete, and work continued for several years after that. The plans called for over 60 miles of water conveyances and tunnels. However, only 6 1/2 miles of tunnels were completed, when it became known that the State ruled in favor of the ranchers on the upper desert side of the mountains, who relied on the water from the northward facing watershed, and passed laws which prevented the diverting of water from its natural watersheds for other than domestic use.

Thus the Company was stopped from continuing with its plan to transport water to the areas south of the mountains, and even though the lake was filling with water, the project was abandoned.

The Arrowhead Lake Company, a Los Angeles syndicate, bought Little Bear Lake and surrounding land (approximately 4,800 acres) in 1920, and changed the name to Lake Arrowhead, deriving the name from the rock formation in the form of an Arrowhead on the face of the San Bernardino Mountain, near Arrowhead Hot Springs, which is rooted in Indian legend.

Gary Hall, the ghostpainter

Night of Lights at Mammoth...

Ghostpainter — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:37:26 -0800

With gas prices once more down into resonalble rates those far away Christmas events now are within a days drive. One of the best is Mammoths Night of Lights.

Mammoth Mountain Ski Area is getting ready for the return of the Night of Lights event at Canyon Lodge on Saturday, December 20, 2008. The Night of Lights celebrates the magic of the holiday season with a winter lights show against the majestic backdrop of Mammoth's ski slopes. Guests of all ages will be invited to ride the complimentary Village Gondola to Canyon Lodge where they can enjoy a fun filled night complete with a firework show, torchlight parade, Red Bull Air Force skydivers and live music by Pinback.

Night of Lights is really a thank you from Mammoth Mountain to their guests. It's a free evening of entertainment for all ages celebrating the snow and the magic of winter."

Originating nearly two decades ago, Night of Lights began as an annual celebration of winter in Mammoth Lakes.

Below is the Schedule of events

Saturday, December 20, 2008

All Day – Family Events/Activities (Village at Mammoth)

5pm – Festivities and food concessions open (Canyon Lodge)

Live music by Runner Runner

Red Bull Air Force

Torchlight Parade

Fireworks

Live music by Pinback

10pm – Last gondola down to the Village

All Events are subject to change due to snow and raod conditions.

THE LOST GHOST SHIP OF THE DESERT STILL SAILS THE SANDS THE SALTON BASIN

Ghostpainter — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:28:20 -0700

Somewhere in the great Salton Basin, or the Laguna Salada or the delta of the Colorado River, lie the bones of an ancient ship stranded hundreds of years ago. seen now and again by desert wanderers or by Indians. That is one of the most persistent legends of the far Southwest. and there is every reason to believe that such a ship does or could exist.

Even my dad and uncles would talk about the lost gold ship of the lower deserts. Of course one would wonder how a ship could ever be in a place such as a dry wind swept desert. Many people believe that as little as 400 years ago it was possible to sail up the Sea Of Cortez into the Mouth of the Colorado Flood basin and sail north. The Spanish always swore that they did. No one believed them. Perhaps they should have.

That is not to say that the ship, be it Viking, or Spanish, or Chinese, or Russian, or even from Mu, sailed into what is now desert when the great California Gulf was open all the way to the slopes of San Gorgonio Pass. Neither does it follow, necessarily, that scientific doctrine is right, and that the Gulf and the Basin have not been joined by navigable water for numberless thousands of years.

During the centuries since man has been navigating the oceans of the world, the course of the mighty Colorado River has changed countless times. The great sink, whose lower levels are now occupied by the Salton Sea, forty-odd miles long and up to 12 miles wide, probably was filled and evaporated away and was refilled many and many a time.

A huge fresh-waer lake called both Lake Cahuilla and Blake Sea, is believed to have occupied a great part of the sink, including present El Centro and many towns and rich farms of the Imperial Valley, the lower portions of Coachella Valley, and other parts of the Colorado Desert.

There is no question that even in the early years of this century, a fairly large ship could have navigated the channel of Hardy's Colorado, at high tide, to the point where the tide and river current battled, then have gone with the river into Laguna Salada. As for the delta, many ships might have been carried well into its flats by the great tidal bore which, in the spring, sluices up the channels at the head of the Gulf. Difference beween high and low tide in this area has been recorded at more than 37 feet, and rises of up to 50 feet have been reported. During the days when there was heavy shipping on the Colorado, this rise and fall was used to drydock ships in a tidal basin at Puerta Isabel, once a shipyard.

And there is something else. The low hills that mark the boundary between the US and Mexico are only 300 to 400 feet high. So the flooding of the Salton Basin from the Colorado river to the Imperial Valley is quite possible.

With these conditions, why doubt that more than one ship was trapped in some areas of this strange old-sea-bed world? Starting in the middle 1500s, Spanish adventurers, explorers, missionaries, pearlers and smugglers dared the exceedingly frequent dreadful storms and the violent tides of the great Gulf. There was also a time when English and Dutch pirates harried the shipping even within the Gulf. Many ships disappeared. Some were destroyed by storms, driven hundreds of miles off their courses, beached and sunk. Some were captured by the pirates. The crews of some fell victims to savage natives when they landed.

Mutinous crews sailed others away. Between the years of 1712 and 1717, the Jesuits alone lost a ship a year to storms. In the autumn of 1717, a tremendous three-day hurricane accompanied by continuous rain swept the peninsula of Lower California, destroying much of the work of the Jesuits. During it, two small pearling ships disappeared from La Paz and were never seen again.

The Lost Ship of the Desert might have been one of these. It might have been one of the ships of the pearl smugglers, who operated secretly after Viceroy Enriquez, about 1702, prohibited pearl fishing without a special licence from him. The next year, a terrible storm destroyed one smuggler ship, while the other two of the fleet which had been pearling among the islands of the Gulf, were beached at Loreto. If might even have been one of the pirate ships. According to the chronicles of Hakluyt, the Content, one of Thomas Cavendish's ships, loaded with gold and silver and silks and perfumes from captured Spanish galleons, was last seen by her companion ships in the mouth of the Gulf near Cape San Lucas. The other ship reach England safely. The Content was never heard from again, and Philip A. Bailey, who has a section on the Lost Ship in his book Golden Mirages, speculates that her captain might have thought that the Gulf was the long sought Straights of Anian, and attempted a short cut to the Atlantic.

But my choice for the Lost Ship is that it is a Spanish friget or small sloope, both would have no trouble of making the trip or being swept up the colorado. In his account of the conquest of Mexico, Captain Bernal Diaz del Castillo, bold companion of Cortez, relates: "In the month of May, 1532, the Marquis del Valle (Cortez) sent two ships from the port of Acapulco, to make discoveries in the South Seas. They were commanded by a captain named Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, who, without going far to sea, or doing anything worthy of relating, had the misfortune of a mutiny among the troops, in consequence whereof, one ship, of which the mutineers took possession, returned to New Spain to the great disappointment of Cortez. As for Hurtado, neigher he nor his vessel were ever more heard of."

If mutineers took over Mendoza's ship, the Iqueque, the Gulf would have been a logical hiding place for them. It was the spot that the mutineer Jiminez head for, a short time later, when he took over a ship which Cortez sent out to search for Mendoza. Jiminez was the first known to have discovered and landed on the peninsula of Lower California, and he and hiscompanions were killed by the natives there. The expedition of Francisco de Ulloa, which went to the head of the Gulf, was also searching for Mendoza, as well as exploring.

Did Vikings visit the Gulf which has been suggested as a possible source of the missing ship. The Seri Indians of Tiburon have legends and songs of these early white giants, who came in a long boat driven by sweeps, who were whalers living in big houses by the sea, in their own land. Whose weapons were the bow and arrow and spear. With them, said the Seris, was a redhaired woman, wife fo the captain, who wore her in big braids down her back and was even fairer than the men, who dressed in heavy clothes and had a big cloak or mantle. Freydis, daughter of Eric the Red, was in command of a Viking ship to the east coast of North America, in 1014, so Viking women did sail.

The blonde strangers stayed on Tiburon Island a year and four months, and then they sailed away with four families of Seri, promising to bring them back when they returned. But they never did return to Tiburon. Perhaps their long boat was grounded and abandoned somewhere in the Salton Sink and they walked out, either to Arizona where there was an early legend of blonde and redheaded Indians, or even as far as the Mayo River.

Probably there are ships of a later date in the desert. When the excitement about reported discovery of the Lost Ship was high in 1870, a Los Aneles newspaper explained that the ship undoubtedly was a 23-foot sloop, built in Los Angeles in 1862, for use on the Colorado River. Attempts had been made, for some reason, to transport the boat overland, and it had been abandoned in the desert when the mule-power broke down. Part of theis account was a tongue-in-cheek yarn by Major Horace Bell. Bell in his Reminiscences of a Ranger stated that the ship had been discovered by the great explorer Joshua Talbot. Talbot, was an editor of the San Bernadino Guardian, and he did go on an expedition to locate the ship, but he never found it and gave up the search.

Gary Hall the ghostpainter

New reports of Haunting's In Rialto and Riverside.

Ghostpainter — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:44:22 -0700

At the Blockbuster Vide0 in Rialto during the After hours, the power has reportly gone out in the store while neighboring businesses remain unaffected. Drop box doors have swung open by themselves and the sound of someone walking has been heard when no one is around. In the mornings sometimes stacks of disks can be seen in the middle of the isles, something the workers and staff would make sure was cleaned up before the store was closed for the night. The specter even leaves footprints.

Don't go swimming at the Rialto Public Pool alone at night. An older man and a young pregnant woman in 20's era clothing wanders the office area and pool deck. They have been known to walk straight across the pool (right above the water) and fling papers and chairs around in the office area. Many of the lifeguards and faculty refuse to be there alone after dark.

At Rialto's high school, The story is that a boy who had shot himself on campus because of depression and died before graduation is seen wandering around the C,E, and G buildings late at night. You can hear footsteps going up the stairs to the top of the halls. Janitors and faculty members have also said that when the school is closed at night and they are working late you can see an image of a boy walking around looking lost. it is also said that the C building, where the theater is located, is usually the coldest building and where unexpected things take place such as flickering lights, cold spots and more footsteps.

At Riverside's Castle Park, Many employees have reported seeing a lady in a white in the park as well as one employee being physically pushed inside the Big Top restaurant. Sightings also include a spirit standing on the balcony above the Plaza Cafe. This spirit reportedly flew across to the trees when the employee looked up at it. The last experience was inside the arcade after hours. Reportedly an unseen spirit opened and closed the door by prize counter several times when there was no one around. This incident was heard and not seen. Strangely enough all sightings and experiences are by males and the spirits are reportedly female. No actual harm was done by the spirits.

This area of land from the Tyler Mall to La Sierra Blvd was an old Indian Burial Ground. In addition to what you already know about the park, a former employee also had an experience in the railroad tracks tunnel in the park. After hours when all the guests are gone and the cafe closed, when any of the employees would be sent to toss away the trash in the far end of the parking lot, they have to go in pairs.

Reason being is because when you cross the tracks near the cafe you can see the silhouettes of Indian women walking around sometimes leading the ghostly images of horses or mules. Sometimes you can also see what appears to be a fire burning in the far corner, but when you go to check it out it dims away.

Remind me not to work at Castle Park as part of the clean up crew.

Gary Hall, the ghostpainter

WHEN THE SANTA ANA'S BLOW, SO DO OUR SINUSES.....

Ghostpainter — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 21:14:44 -0700

For those of you new to the IE and have never experienced the Santa Ana's you might be wondering what the hell is going on. I mean it doesn't make since to many people from back east for winds to be blowing 100 mph and it is crystal clear.

Of course that is not always true. On more than one occasion has moisture rotated in from the cold great basin area and we will have some of the lowest snowfalls occur, especially in the IE foothills and in fact, communities like Rancho Cucamonga, Upland, The Moreno Valley, Hemet and even Palm springs will receive snow as the cold air sinks down with the wind.

The last time this occurred was in 1992, previous to that date, 1977 was a banner year because we received 6 inches of snow along route 66. The greatest snowfall event with a Santa Ana wind was in 1938 when 18 inches of snow fell in the Cucamonga area, and in fact it snowed at the USC Medical center in east LA, where the now 10 freeway meets the 5 just past the center.

What are the Santa Ana winds?

The Santa Ana winds (also known as Santana winds) are strong, extremely dry offshore winds that characteristically sweep through in Southern California and northern Baja California in late fall into winter. They can range from hot to cold, depending on the prevailing temperatures in the source regions, the Great Basin and upper Mojave Desert. However, the winds are remembered most for the hot dry weather that they bring in the fall.

Santa Ana's are a type of drainage wind, an offshore wind that results from the buildup of air pressure in the high-altitude Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. When upper level winds are favorable, this high altitude air mass spills out of the Great Basin and is propelled gravitationally towards the southern California coastline, generally as a northeasterly wind.

It is often said that the air is heated and dried as it passes through the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, but according to meteorologists this is a popular misconception. The Santa Ana winds usually form during autumn and early spring when the surface air in the elevated regions of the Great Basin and Mojave Desert becomes cool or even cold, although they may form at virtually any time of year. The air heats up due to adiabatic heating during its descent, which means that the air rubs against the atmosphere and warms up.

While the air has already been dried by orographic lift before reaching the Great Basin as well as by subsidence from the upper atmosphere, the relative humidity of the air is further decreased as it descends from the high desert toward the coast, often falling below 10 percent.

The air from the high desert is initially relatively dense owing to its coolness and aridity, and thus tends to channel down the valleys and canyons in gusts which can attain hurricane force at times. As it descends, the air not only becomes drier, but also warms adiabatically by compression. The southern California coastal region gets some of its hottest weather of the year during autumn while Santa Ana winds are blowing. During Santa Ana conditions it is typically hotter along the coast than in the deserts

In the Los Angeles Basin, the winds are often credited with the extremely high visibility experienced in the area during the winter, in contrast to the hazy, smoggy summers.

The adverse pulmonary health impacts have been understood by local doctors for decades; the winds pick up and transmit grit, dust, pollens, mold spores and other irritants and allergens for considerable distances.

Residents regularly notice a build-up of dust in their homes and grit on their properties during these periods, which are frequent during the winter.

Gary Hall, the ghostpainter

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Ghostpainter — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:26:19 -0700

Okay I admit it I am a fan but I have never been to one of the shows. But for those of you who are avid fans of the rocky Horror Picture Show, and have been to the shows like my niece, here are a few pointers about the film you might or might not know. We all know the stars, or should if you are a fan, but I will list those on the bottom of this piece.

But perhaps there are a few things you didn't know about the show. Like for instance, when was it supposedly took place, what era of time did this take place or does it really matter. I will leave that to you the reader to decide.

LATE NOVEMBER EVENING?

The Criminologist (I thought he was Professor) says that this all occurs on a late November evening, yet Richard Nixon's resignation speech is on the radio in the car. Nixon resigned in August. So what's the deal? Was the radio doing a re-broadcast? Did Brad and Janet go through a Time Warp? If it was Nixon's original speech, why were Brad and Janet talking, rather than listening to it like good clean-cut American citizens? And what's with the copy of The Plain Dealer? Its date doesn't seem to match anything. Many explanations could be theorized about, and any number of arguments could be made, but my personal opinion is that nobody really cared.

WHAT TIME OF THE NIGHT?

This is often-times a much debated topic, yet the explanation seems simple. The concern is mainly that according to the clock during The Time Warp, it was midnight when Brad and Janet arrived, yet they had dinner a few hours later, and when they left, it was Still dark out. This is compounded by the fact that the clock chimes more than twelve times. Many various explanations have been given. Some claim that they arrived earlier than midnight, others say that time had no meaning in the castle. Nobody seems to be able to accept the idea that perhaps Transylvanian's don't keep the same dinner schedules as Earthlings. Well, here's the chronology for you, so Shut up about it already.

The wedding was in the late afternoon. By the time Brad and Janet stopped dancing and Singing, and got around to changing clothes, getting a bite to eat (White Castle perhaps?), and heading off to see Dr. Scott, it was well into the evening, perhaps around 10:00 or so. When the car broke down around 11:00, they had to walk back several miles in the dark and the rain, so it took a good hour for them to arrive at the castle. Everything between their arrival to the end of the Creation Scene is in "real-time and so Rocky ends up being born between midnight and 12.30. After a bit of sleep, Frank seduces both Brad and Janet. Since Frank is the wonderful lover that he is, this takes up a bit of time, putting Janet's seduction of Rocky well past 3:30. Dinner happens around 4:00, after which the Cast is Medusaed (?), and Frank prepares for the floor show. The floor show begins at around 7:30, making Rocky seven hours old, and by the time the castle blasts off, it's just around dusk. This makes it November in Midwest America and it takes a while for daylight to happen.

So there you have it. It all fits, and it all makes sense, so don't try to tell me anything different. Unless, of course, this is all flooey and then its the who cares bit again. Or perhaps another theory is put forth.

WHAT, EXACTLY, IS THE FLOORPLAN OF THE CASTLE?

There isn't one. Why do you need one when you are from a different Planet. The castle, as it's portrayed in the movie doesn't exist. It is absolutely impossible for the elevator to be where it is in the lab, and for the hole in the wall to be where it is. You'll also note that there are no doors into the lab. So how do the Transylvanian's get there before Brad and Janet? Perhaps they all made a quick trip in the elevator, perhaps they all teleported up there, (Frankie, Beam Me Up) or perhaps they used Riff and Magenta's secret entrance that was originally supposed to be there. This also was supposed to be the way in which Dr. Scott entered the lab, but nobody really noticed that they forgot to remedy this until it was being filmed. Richard O'Brien asked production designer Brian Thomson how Dr. Scott was going to enter, and Brian answered, as a joke, "We'll just push him through the wall."

The Cast

Dr. Frank-N-Furter (a scientist)

Tim Curry Transported Transylvania Fruit Loop.

Janet Weiss (a heroine)

Susan Sarandon

Brad Majors (a hero)

Barry Bostwick

Riff Raff (a handyman)

Richard O'Brien

Magenta (a domestic)

Patricia Quinn

Columbia (a groupie)

Little Nell

Dr. Everett V. Scott (a rival scientist)

Jonathan Adams

Rocky Horror (a creation)

Peter Hinwood

Eddie (ex delivery boy)

Meat Loaf

The Criminologist (an expert)

Charles Gray

MTV Plans Rocky Horror Remake Wed Jul 30 2008. According to a Variety article posted on July 23rd, MTV is planning to remake The Rocky Horror Picture Show for television.

You can attend the Rocky Horror Picture Show in the Inland Empire at the following location.

Claremont, CA (909) 621-5500 Bi-Weekly 1st, 3rd Sat: 12:00 Mid Creatures of the Night

Price: $10.00

This showing is actually down along the 5 freeway on the way to San Diego but Hey what the heck, if you are down that way, you might want to stop by for the fun.

Encinitas, La Paloma Theatre (760) 436-7469 Weekly Fri: 12:00 Mid Crazed Imaginations

Price: $8.00

CASTLE PARK TRANSFORMS ITSELF INTO CASTLE DARK AND BECOMES ONE OF THE SCARIEST HALLOWEEN AMUSMENT PARKS IN THE INLAND EMPIRE.

Ghostpainter — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:25:02 -0700

Halloween is bigger and better than ever at Castle Park!

Every weekend beginning Friday, October 3rd, Castle Park transforms into Castle Dark! The only place in the Inland Empire that is fun by day and fright by night! Just watch out for the road kill on the way out there. It just might be someone you know heh! heh! heh!

Be one of the first to witness the twisted and sinister inner workings of The Facility of Screams, a bio-weapons lab where unspeakable experiments with viruses and poisons have gone wrong. Then hop aboard Terror on the Tracks for a thrilling spectacle of circus clowns gone awry.

It's the newest ride at Castle Park. The screamin demon; a 35-ft high spinning coaster that will send you for a loop and a twist and then another loop! We've added a few spooks and spirits of our own to make it the perfect way to add a little adrenaline to your Halloween festivities. Screamin' Demon Sneak Peek to begin on October 10th.

The Log Ride; has been transformed into the Bog Eide with additional fog, lightning, sound effects, and a few spooky surprises to make this family favorite a Halloween classic.

They have added some thing new to the Bump Ride, but they will never tell till the very first Bump. Be very afraid because the "person" bumping into your car may not be who you think it is....

Take a ride through out the spooky town on the back of a buck board drawn by several horses, or was it mules. No matter, the fog machines keep it dark and moody and things that go bump in the night, actually appear out of now where. where its always foggy and mystical things seem to appear and disappear!

There are several more rides and attractions all set up to give you and your kids the best Halloween experience possible. After you enter the park you will be issued a wristband which you will be required to wear while you are in the park to get on the rides.

In addition there are pumpkin carving contest which cost an additional $4 to $5 to purchase the pumpkin and if your kids are to young you need to supervise there use of cutting tools. Check the park for times and dates.

There is also a Costume Contest for the best, scariest, or most unique Halloween costume. Come and have some fun showing it off during our Costume Contest. If the judges agree, you win a prize! The contest will be held on Halloween and Saturday only at 4:PM.

And then they have the Halloween freak show that has all sorts of weird and unusual quirks of nature that you wont find anywhere else. They change $1 additional to wander around this Museum of Curiosity.

Gary Hall the ghostpainter

The strange but true story of Fearplex at Pomona.

Ghostpainter — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:48:40 -0700

Today a Haunted tour takes place at the FearPlex, and if you want to learn about some of the real horrid and horrific crimes of the past in the Inland Empire this is the place to do it. What you are about to read is real, it is true, and to most of the public it is unknown. Get ready for an assault on the senses.

In 1915 the California Legislature called for a comprehensive study of the problem of feeble mindedness or the crazies that lived amongst the general population. As a result of this study, the Legislature recognized the need for an institution in Southern California and approved $250,000 on July 17, 1917, for the Pacific Colony. The original site was in Walnut. The area now known as Spadra located in the hills just to the east of the old General Dynamics plant on Mission.

On March 20, 1921, the first patients were admitted to Pacific Colony with an expected capacity of 50 patients. However, it soon became evident that the site was inappropriate (lack of water, limited access) and the facility closed its doors on January 23, 1923. It took another four years until the new Pacific Colony opened at its location in Pomona (Spadra and welcomed its first 27 residents, or inmates, as they were most often referred to.

In 1920 director Patrick Haggard, deemed a second, more remote location for inmates considered "potentially violent towards themselves or others" was needed. He opened Pomona's California Colony on the current site of the Fairplex in the Winter of 1920. This facility handled the criminally insane and was originally designed as a measure of restraint and isolation from the rest of society.

However the CRIPA, Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, investigated the asylum in early 1921 and reports were filed with the State of California about inappropriate care, accidents, unexplained deaths of inmates and staff members, and inefficient medication use.

The most horrifying incident in recent years occurred on May 4, 1920, when an inmate died from multiple blunt force trauma after being stomped repeatedly in his bedroom at California Colony. There were two suspects in the investigation-- the victim's roommate and a facility Psychiatric Technician. Although there was evidence pointing to both suspects, the investigator concluded that the roommate had committed the crime, but was too mentally impaired to face any charges.

An internal investigation confirmed abuse after concluding that a staff person had punitively tied the hands of an inmate behind his back on two separate occasions and bound her mouth. One of these times, the staff person had placed a chair on top of her and sat on the chair while she lay on the floor with her hands bound.

It is difficult to determine the exact number of choking incidents leading to inmate and staff member death due to the facilities inconsistent methodology for reporting and categorizing these often serious events .Sometimes choking incidents are categorized as .injuries,. and at other times they are categorized as .endangering health and safety.. This ambiguity creates a risk that significant instances of choking will not be recognized as such and investigated properly. Staff often do not report accidental deaths and other significant events in a timely manner.

The final straw came when a mass murderer committed another Massacre in December 1921 at the facility. Mark A. Mangler was an inmate diagnosed as Criminally Insane after the murder of 17 co-workers at a Riverside shoe manufacturing plant. He was sent to the California Colony for restraint and seclusion to protect society. Just a month after his residency at the California Colony, on May 16th he and other inmates went on a killing spree. Using a show of strength the inmates attacked the staff with everything from surgical knives and medical instruments to wrapped up bed sheets used as methods of strangulation. In all 23 staff members and 4 inmates were killed that evening and there were 45 inmates reported as missing and were assumed to have escaped that very evening. Mr. Mangler was never found.

This Mass murderer makes today's Splashers movies tame in comparison. It was reported by local authorities that many of the bodies were in such terrible conditions that the exact nature of their deaths could never be released.

After the incident the complex was almost immediately shut down permanently and boarded up. For a few months the site sat in abandonment.

In 1922, the L. A. County Fairgrounds was Born on the Site. The City of Pomona agreed to purchase the 43-acre complex field from the Ricardo Vejer estate for use as a fairground. Research revealed that the name "Los Angeles County Fair" was not registered. Ground was broken and access roads were built. A half-mile race track and a grandstand seating 4,000 were constructed.

During some underground earthquake checks in 2006, construction workers discovered, after 80 years a major discovery was made by construction workers in 2006 of boarded up tunnels that led to a still intact portion of the old California Colony. What they found is now a part of today's Halloween Fearplex festivities.

Flash forward to today's Halloween Fearplex

Today you can take a tour starting at the vault and leading to the asylum and explore the depths of hell in which patients were brutally tortured and visit the actual padded cells, operating rooms, hospital inmate rooms and bathing areas where high pressure hoses were used to spray inmates as a form of punishment. Discover for yourself the fear that remains trapped inside these areas or drive yourself INSANE trying to figure out the mystery of Mangler's Haunted Asylum.

You will visit the haunted manor residence and roam the 25 rooms that house the insanity. Discover the secret chambers and passages, a morgue, and the evil undead that are everywhere. Warning: Very frightening and intense.

You will soon feel the presence of the now deceased Mr Lanterman who dies in 1981. Since running the Pacific Colony and making the Developmental Center his extensive residence, it is said his ghost still lives seeking more souls to punish. It is also said that many who took the 2006 Halloween tour that they could feel the souls of Mr Lanterman and hundreds of wrongly killed and tortured Inmates of the old Spadra.

THE FEARPLEX IS OPEN;

Open Oct 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, Oct. 28 through Nov. 2 Friday and Saturday from 7:00pm to Midnight (last ticket sold), Sundays & Weekdays 7:00pm to10pm (last ticket sold) Less Scary family time Sunday Oct. 12 and Oct 19 7:00pm to 8:00pm

Devil Worshippers and Ghost Hunters; Redlands Is a Wealth of Hauntings.

Ghostpainter — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:10:45 -0700

But then, when is a ghost not wanting to haunt you one might ask. The Redlands area is one of those still small communities that seem to hold that small town charm except when it comes to being haunted. In that respect, the community is over populated.

Among the more famous Haunted homes is the Barton Road Mansion. A sinister looking place with a sinister prescience, usually on the third and fourth floors seems to be where most activity occurs. Closet doors push open, cold temps wash over you, and when exiting the Mansion, a figure can be seen watching you walk down stairs from the third floor. Some visitors have witnessed a demonic face watching them and can be seen coming from a closet that suddenly open's. At certain points in mansion you feel watched, and not welcome and you feel most relieved to leave.

According to some, the Fox Theatre is very haunted. The presence that resides there is re portly a very violent one. The building has been boarded up for about 10 years and now it's being renovated. The building it's connected to was once an opera house when Redlands was first founded. Maybe one of the jealous actresses is still wandering about? Perhaps a jilted lover?

Harris department store? Yes, even Harris is reportedly haunted. In the women’s dressing room, it is said that patrons while changing cloths have heard women talking and late at night just as the store is closing, heavy footsteps can be heard on the roof. Reportedly, a security guard was sent up to the roof to check for peepers, but found nothing.

At the Hillside Cemetery, which is the oldest cemetery in the area with interments dating back to the mid late 1800's. Many people have reported strange happenings such as car horns honking by themselves, lights blinking and even balls being thrown back over the walls after somebody has thrown them in. You have to be brave to do that. At least I would.

There is a home in Redlands called the House of 1,000 Stairs. It is a large house with 100 stairs`outside and 900 stairs inside. it is said nuns haunt the place, as it was once a convent. A new family has moved in after remodeling and I guess they have felt or heard anything unusual in the house. Of course after walking up all of those stairs I would be to tired to care if I heard anything or not.

At Mariposa Elementary school in the late 50's or early 60's, a little boy named Billy was hit by a school bus. He was immediately taken to the nurse's office where he died. As he was dying, he expressed his desire to get back to school. Legend says that if you knock on the nurse's door, he will knock back or you will hear him walking in the room. Sometimes he will want you to play with him on the playground, but if you refuse, he will pick on you.

Morey Mansion: This lovely mansion was once a bed and breakfast, but it is now under private ownership. Apparently for good reason as many of the visitors to the Bed and Bread complained to the then owners of several apparitions including a little girl, an old man, who was once a caretaker for the mansion, and a young boy has been seen. and although Most sightings seemed friendly in nature they still scarred off most of the clientele.

At Prospect Park on the outskirts of Redlands is reputed to be haunted by several different ghosts. Many people have sighted ghostly figures up on the stage and behind the stage area. Years ago, a teenage girl that performed in one of the plays, was raped & murdered after theater hours in the exact place that her appreration is reportly seen.

Redlands, is considered by many to be the Ultimate Modern Ghost Town. The majority of the houses are very old and Victorian, especially on the far South side. There are many stories of haunted houses and ghost there. Redlands is also supposed to be one of the highest ranking cities for devil worshippers. Just what we need. Devil Worshippers and Ghost Hunters all in one small community. I hope they are never the twain to meet.

Gary Hall the ghostpainter

Joseph Filippi, some say, haunts his winnery

Ghostpainter — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:37:01 -0700

Does Joseph Filippi still try to go to work even after he has been dead over 30 years. It seems so. The winery is supposed to be haunted by the patriarch even to this day according to several visitors and workers of the winery.

In the tasting room visitors have heard what they describe as eerie laughter and the sound of glass breaking. Perhaps the sipping of free wine samples is what leads many a visitor to believe he is being watched, especially in the souvenir shop, where one can sometimes late at night hear the sounds of a piano playing. Only there is not a piano in the shop.

But the feeling of being watched is what apparently drove one worker to the hospital. She said that often times she could hear the cash register opening and closing and shelves dores don't the same.

Apparently sometime in the mid 1980's all of these apparent apperations drove this poor lady to the brink of insanity. She was eventually committed to the watchful care of one our local hospitals.

Another worker claims that late at night, the lights will turn themselves off and on, and he too hears doors close and sometimes he can hear the pouring of wine from the bottle into the glass, and some one relaxing with a sigh as he sips his port.

And of course The Sycamore Inn. I've mentioned the sycamore inn before and its history with the Raines house and the murders that have taken place there. Now a great steak house along the old route 66, it was established in 1848 as a stage stop for over night travelers between San Bernardino and LA.

The original inn burned down some say by the widow of Raines and was built across the street at Bear Gulch, and then rebuilt once again on its current site.

Visitors have reported a man and woman dressed in late 1880's Spanish style dress walking through the main restaurant, or even on some occasions a mans body laying on the steps leading to the basement.

I have been to the Sycamore Inn several times and although I have never witnessed any sightings, I am the first to admit that on some nights, in a certain corner a cold chill will sweep across the tables.

Perhaps it is Charles Raines himself trying to get our attention. Have you ever felt anything?

Gary Hall, the ghostpainter

THE GOLD RUSH; MORE SUFFERING FOR THE INDIANS

Ghostpainter — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:29:49 -0700

The discovery of gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada by Indian Agent Johann Sutter, ushered in one of the darkest episodes of dispossession widespread sexual assault and mass murder against the native people of California. Sutter negotiated a treaty with the chief of the Coloma Nisenan Tribe which would have given a three year lease to lands surrounding the gold discovery site.

During those negotiations, the chief warned Sutter that the yellow metal he so eagerly sought was, very bad medicine. It belonged to a demon who devoured all who searched for it. How prophetic. Eventually the military governor refused to endorse Sutter's claims and the rest is as they say History.

Within a year, hoards of Gold Seekers from all over the world descended upon the gold fields with only one thing on there collective minds. Gold! the Indians were about to experience more murder and mayhem. The entire state was scoured by gold seekers.

Once gold was found in the upper Santa Ana river and the San Gabriel the Indians in the Inland Empire suffered once more, this time at the hoards of deserting soldiers, white and Mexican hustlers, Mormons and others desperate to find the gold at the end of there collective rainbows. The Military Governor and local Land owners sat back and did nothing except to guard their own precious holdings.

A virtual reign of terror descended upon on the tribesmen who lived around or on the mining camps. wholesale murder and violence against Indians resisting the miners developed into a deadly pattern. One Oustemah Nisenan female later recalled the horror she had witnessed and lived through.

My life of ease and peace just recently won from the oppressive Spanish Missionaries was once more interrupted by the arrival of the white men.Each day the population of the white man increased and each day our lives were changed. As gold fever increased, we were moved again and again, each time without notice. Sometimes they came in the night, kilking many while they slept. The Indians soon learned that those of the Americanos who were not white, but yet were Black, had more freedoms than they could ever imagine, soon learned that if they covered their faces in the blacken earth, their children nor themselves would be bothered by anyone.

Numerous vigilante type paramilitary troops were established, whose sole purpose for existence seems to have been to kill Indians and kidnap their children. Groups such as the Humbolt Home Guard, the Eel River Minutemen and the Placer Blades among others terrorized local Indians. No one cared. As long as the gold flowed out of the ground of California, these groups could get away with murder and they did. The handiwork of these well armed death squads combined with the widespread wanton random killing of Indians by miners resulted in the death of an estimated 100,000 Indians in the first two years of the gold rush. A staggering loss of two thirds of the population. Nothing in American Indian history is even remotely comparable to this massive orgy of theft and mass murder. Stunned survivors now perhaps numbering fewer than 70,000 teetered near the brink of total annihilation.

The newcomers sometimes met organized Indian resistance. In 1850 a Cupeno chief named Antonio Garra Sr. organized local Southern California Indians to resist an illegal tax imposed upon San Diego Indians by the county sheriff. Sporadic attacks upon both Americans and some Mexicans by Garra's followers resulted in a massive crackdown on Indian communities.

Soon a rival Cahuilla chief captured Garra and turned him over to the authorities who promptly hung him and several of his followers. In 1851 several mountain Miwok tribes offered armed resistance to the hoard of miners overrunning their territory. When one tribe destroyed a trading post owned by an American who kept at least 12 Indian wives a militia was formed and aggressively attacked Indians throughout the southern mines area which ranged from San Jacinto to Baja. In reality these Indian campaigns were motivated b

y the greed of the miners to gain Indian lands and provide political capitol for ambitious office seekers. Sadly both the state and federal government eventually reimbursed the vast majority of these paramilitary forays for expenses incurred. There is a rummer that is how the practice of scalping began. These groups were paid by how many scalps they brought in. Somewhat akin to our Military forces in Vietnam and the Philippines, paying for Heads of the Communist enemy by the number of heads they brought into the bases. Seems something's never change do they.

Gary Hall the ghostpainter.

THE COMING OF THE AMERICANS TO THE INLAND EMPIRE

Ghostpainter — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 10:54:09 -0700

Mexican forced labor and violence at the hands of the militia and paramilitary slave hunting parties account for a significant amount of the population decline suffered by California Indians. On the eve of the American take-over the Indian population of approximately 310,000 had been reduced to about 150,000.

This gut wrenching 50% decline had occurred in just 77 years. The implications for the survivors was largely a tale of suffering and grieving over the loss of a stunning number of children, parents and elders. What came next was worse still.

Alta California, which also included Arizona, Nevada, southern parts of Utah and New Mexico and the northern part of Baja California and north into Oregon, was poorly managed and its citizens badly neglected by Mexico City. The entire area was rapidly overwhelmed by a combination of aggressive Indian raids and the arrival of United States Army, Navy and Marine forces in the summer of 1846. Despite a seemingly irrational murderous attack on Sacramento River Maidu Indian villages by U.S. Army forces under the command of John C. Fremont, the majority of California Indians

chose to change sides and join with the Americans and became scouts, warrior-soldiers and wranglers in the fight to wrest California from Mexico's control.

When Mexican resistance collapsed in January of 1847, Indian Affair were administered by a succession of both American military governors and Mexican landowners. Stock raiding Indians in southern California interior valleys, namely the Inland Empire mountains and deserts started raiding and killing when they learned that Indian slavers such as Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and Johann A. Sutter had been appointed as Indian sub-agents.

The Military governments policy was to suppress stock raiding and furthermore imposed severe restrictions on the free movement of the Indians.

Almost all Indians were required to carry special id identifying them as free Indians and entitled to work and travel. In some regards it can be said that many Indians lives improved with the arrival of the Americans. but there was still trouble ahead.

Gary Hall the ghostpainter

INDIANS AND THE NEW MEXICAN REPUBLIC

Ghostpainter — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 08:39:12 -0700

In 1823 the Spanish Flag was replaced by that of the Mexican Republic after Mexico rid itself of the French. Little immediate change in personal or Indian policy occurred. However, the independence government was decidedly anti-church and had no love for the Franciscan owned Missions. The growing body of Mexican leaders deeply resented the monopoly of Indian lands and the unpaid Indian labor enjoyed by the Franciscans.

While no land grants to the colonists had occurred under Spanish rule, some 25 grazing permits or concessions had been issued to Spanish and Mexican colonial citizens. This was the beginning of the dispossession of tribal lands by colonial authorities. The vast plantation like missions claimed about 1/6 of the present territory of the state. But legal title to these lands were assigned to the Spanish crown.

The missions were only suppose to last 10 years, after which the developed estates were to be distributed to surviving mission Indians. It was assumed that the Indians would evolve into hardworking, tax paying citizens of Mexico. But the Missionaries declared to the state that they would never give up there Missions, there slaves nor there land and crops. Mexico City was becoming increasingly upset with the situation and eventually would take action against the Missionaries.

In 1824, the Mexican Republic's newly drawn up constitution declared Indians to be citizens with rights to both vote and hold public office. Despite this liberal declaration from the crown, Indians throughout the southwest and Mexico continued to be treated as slaves.

ELIMINATION OF THE MISSION SYSTEM

In actual practice, the new government in Mexico city gave 51 land grants to its Spanish and Mexican citizens between 1824 and 1834. These lands actually belonged to various tribes then enslaved in the nearby missions, various estates and forts built by the Missionaries, These land grants just increased the lust for more Indian lands by a growing body of colonial ranchers.

The Land grants in the Inland Empire, such as the Cucamonga, Guasti and Redlands were created this way. In the Early part of the 20 century, the Irvine company was able to buy huge parcels of Orange county lands while the Lewis company bought thousands of acres of land out in the Inland Empire. In fact, your home is probably built on old Spanish Land Grants deeded to the Missionaries over 300 years ago by the royal crown in Spain.

There followed a growing chorus of demands that the missionaries surrender their monopoly on Indian labor and "free" the Indians. Free the Indians to whom would be a better way to put it. The power of this colonial class prevailed and between 1834-36 the government revoked the power of the Franciscans to extract labor from the Indians and inaugurated a plan to distribute mission lands.

Local Mexican officials who were in charge of freeing the slaves and distributing the land usually gave or granted the lands to their own families or in many cases to themselves. So in a since, nothing really changed for the Indians. The secularization processes, it was called, was so restrictive that few ex-mission Indians or the tribes could come up with the money to buy there freedom much less the land which they had lived on for hundreds of years. Another Problem, the remaining Indians were for the most part not even native to where the missionaries had placed them. Most surviving Indians were for the most part still slaves, and had been captured and relocated by the Missionaries and the Conquistadors.

But once more conservative and gracious landowners settled in the Indians were allowed to leave and go back to there tribal homes, if they still existed. Many Indians once seeing that they were better off living and working for the new Mexican Landowners chose to stay. .