La Conchita

La Conchita is a small unincorporated community in western Ventura County, California, on U.S. Route 101 just southeast of the Santa Barbara county line.  On January 10th 2005 after quite a few days of rain, the hillside once again came down. This time claiming 10 lives, injuring 14. 15 homes were swallowed by the earth and another 16 were red tagged as uninhabitable.

We have passed La Conchita often in the years since this tradgedy and have been meaning to stop in. On the way home from a weekend away we finally did.

This sign is posted on the only road into the community

People still live here in houses like this right next door to destroyed homes or with the hillside in their backyard. 

La Conchita sits on the North side of the 101 freeway, the south is the ocean. It is a lovely quaint community, but so tragic.

Short video of the landslide actually occuring.

The village of La Conchita is along a portion of the coast prone to mudslides, and sits beneath a geologically unstable formation. In 1909, a devastating mudslide occurred approximately one-half mile north of the town, and in 2005 slides closed Highway 101 in both directions, trapping residents. 

Sandwiched between a steep, unstable hillside (with the La Conchita Ranch Company situated on the plateau directly over the community), and the Pacific Ocean, La Conchita has been the site of recent major mudslides: 

On March 4, 1995 at 2:03pm, a mudslide buried or damaged seven homes, injuring no one. After the main failure, the weather forecast predicted more rain for the following week. 

On March 10, 1995, a debris flow occurred in the canyon west of the March 4 slide, damaging four or five more residences and a banana plantation. 

On January 10, 2005 at 12:30pm, a massive mudslide buried four blocks of the town in over 30 feet (9 m) of earth. Ten people were killed by the slide and 14 were injured. Of the 166 homes in the community, fifteen were destroyed and sixteen more were tagged by the county as uninhabitable. 

La Conchita Ranch Co. was sued by those affected by the 2005 landslide. A settlement was reached, giving the plaintiffs the company's assets and $5 million dollars

Hatch 13 Ghost story

This is Hatch 13, site of one of the Queen Mary's most well known haunting's. The most documented is the ghost of eighteen-year-old crewman, John Pedder.  The story goes that Pedder was crushed to death while trying to slip through an automatically closing door in shaft alley during a watertight drill on July 10, 1966. The story is also told that the sailors played a sort of game of chicken with the closing hatches and well, John lost. It was hatchway door No. 13. Passengers and tour guides have seen a young bearded man in blue coveralls in this area. He is normally seen walking the length of shaft alley and disappears at door number 13. I spent a good 10 minutes alone standing right next to this hatch and taking photos of the hatch and all around it. Alas, I did not meet John.

Resurrection Cemetery and Chicago's most famous Ghost Story

Resurrection is a Catholic Cemetery established in 1904. This cemetery was our first destination, the morning after arriving late the night before to Midway Airport. It's located in Justice , Ill. So after securing a large steaming cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee we went right over. It was early morning and about 19 degrees out at the time. Gave the whole photographing of this cemetery a certain 'cold' look that hopefully came through in the photos. The grass was mostly dead in the cemetery and everything was covered with ice, no snow then as it had rained the day before.




Resurrection Mary is the Chicago area's best-known ghost story. Of the "vanishing hitchhiker" type, the story takes place outside Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, Illinois, a few miles southwest of Chicago.
Since the 1930s, several men driving northeast along Archer Avenue between the Willowbrook Ballroom and Resurrection Cemetery have reported picking up a young female hitchhiker. This young woman is dressed somewhat formally and said to have light blond hair, blue eyes, and wearing a white party dress. Some more attentive drivers would sometimes add that she wore a thin shawl, or dancing shoes, and that she had a small clutch purse, and is very quiet. When the driver nears the Resurrection Cemetery, the young woman asks to be let out, whereupon she disappears into the cemetery. According to the Chicago Tribune, "full-time ghost hunter" Richard Crowe claims to have collected "three dozen . . . substantiated" reports of Mary from the 1930s to the present.


The legend says that Mary had spent the evening dancing with a boyfriend at the Oh Henry Ballroom. At some point, they got into an argument and Mary stormed out. Even though it was a cold winter’s night, she thought she would rather face a cold walk home than spend another minute with her boorish boyfriend.
She left the ballroom and started walking up Archer Avenue. She had not gotten very far when she was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver, who fled the scene leaving Mary to die. Her parents found her and were grief-stricken at the sight of her dead body. They buried her in Resurrection Cemetery, wearing a beautiful white dancing dress and matching dancing shoes. The hit-and-run driver was never found.





Jerry Palus, a Chicago southsider, reported that in 1939 he met a person who he came to believe was Resurrection Mary at the Liberty Grove and Hall at 47th and Mozart (and not the Oh Henry/Willowbrook Ballroom). They danced and even kissed and she asked him to drive her home along Archer Avenue, of course exiting the car and disappearing in front of Resurrection Cemetery.
In 1973, Resurrection Mary was said to have shown up at Harlow's nightclub, on Cicero Avenue on Chicago's southwest side. That same year, a cab driver came into Chet's Melody Lounge, across the street from Resurrection Cemetery, to inquire about a young lady who had left without paying her fare.
There were said to be sightings in 1976, 1978, 1980, and 1989, which involved cars striking, or nearly striking, Mary outside Resurrection Cemetery.Mary disappears, however, by the time the motorist exits the car.
She also reportedly burned her handprints into the wrought iron fence around the cemetery, in August 1976,[8] although officials at the cemetery have stated that a truck had damaged the fence and that there is no evidence of a ghost.
In a January 31, 1979 article in the Suburban Trib, columnist Bill Geist detailed the story of a cab driver, Ralph, who picked up a young woman – "a looker. A blonde. . .she was young enough to be my daughter - 21 tops" – near a small shopping center on Archer Avenue.
"A couple miles up Archer there, she jumped with a start like a horse and said 'Here! Here!' I hit the brakes. I looked around and didn't see no kind of house. 'Where?' I said. And then she sticks out her arm and points across the road to my left and says 'There!'. And that's when it happened. I looked to my left, like this, at this little shack. And when I turned she was gone. Vanished! And the car door never opened. May the good Lord strike me dead, it never opened."
Geist described Ralph as "neither an idiot nor a maniac, but rather [in Ralph's own words] 'a typical 52-year-old working guy, a veteran, father, Little League baseball coach, churchgoer, the whole shot'. Geist goes on to say: "The simple explanation, Ralph, is that you picked up the Chicago area's preeminent ghost: Resurrection Mary."


Some researchers have even attempted to link Resurrection Mary to one of the many thousands of burials in Resurrection Cemetery. A particular focus of these efforts has been Mary Bregovy, who died in a 1934 auto accident in the Chicago Loop, as well as Anna "Marija" Norkus who died in a 1927 auto accident while on her way home from the Oh Henry Ballroom.


We found this sign posted at a smalll bar across from the cemetery.

Inez Clarke ~ Ghost story of Graceland Cemetery

The story as told at prairieghosts.com is "According to local legend, Inez died in 1880 at the tender age of only six. Tradition has it that she was killed during a lightning storm while on a family picnic. Her parents, stunned by the tragic loss, commissioned a life-size statue of the girl to be placed on her grave. It was completed a year later, and like many Chicago area grave sculptures, was placed in a glass box to protect it from the elements. The image remains in nearly perfect condition today. Even in death, Inez still manages to charm cemetery visitors, who discover the little girl perched on a small stool. The likeness was cast so that Inez is seen wearing her favorite dress and carrying a tiny parasol. The perfectly formed face was created with just the hint of a smile. It is not uncommon to come to the cemetery and find gifts of flowers and toys at the foot of her grave. The site has become one of the most popular places in the cemetery, for graveyard buffs and curiosity seekers alike.
The stories say that the area around Inez Clarke's resting place is haunted. Not only are their stories of strange sounds heard nearby, but some claim the statue of Inez actually moves under its own power. The most disconcerting stories may be those of the disembodied weeping that is heard nearby but the most famous tales are those of the statue itself. It is said that Inez will sometimes vanish from inside of the glass box. This is said to take place during violent thunderstorms. Many years ago, a night watchman for the Pinkerton agency allegedly stated that he was making his rounds one night during a storm and discovered that the box that holds Inez was empty. He left the cemetery that night, never to return. Other guards have also reported it missing, only to find it back in place when they pass by again, or the following morning.

There are other tales that claim visitors to Graceland spot a little girl playing in the cemetery. In other cases, children who accompany their parents to the burial ground have stated that they have met a little girl wearing old-fashioned clothes playing near the monument.

Of course, there is only one problem with these stories and accounts --- no one named Inez Clarke is even buried in Graceland Cemetery! According to cemetery expert Al Walavich (as reported in the Chicago Sun-Times), there might have never been an Inez Clarke at all! One thing that he can state for sure: "Based on cemetery records there's no such person buried in that grave". He has also looked up U.S. Census records from the time and has found no indication that the child even existed."

The statue of Inez remains a mystery, but I did make a point to see it anyway, and get out of the warm car to photograph it. It was about 19 degrees that day.