Apple Valley Haunting: Reader submitted story
The following account was submitted to us by one of our readers. I’ll keep her name in anonymity and call her Mary.
Mary grew up in the California’s High Desert city of Apple Valley during the late 70s. When her parents acquired a new home in 1977, Mary would learn that other strange forces were already occupying the home.
Like most logical people, Mary knows that what she saw and experienced in that Apple Valley home was something outside the realm of “modern” thought. The belief in ghosts or the paranormal has always been taken lightly since the age of science. Most people prefer to not come forth with their stories due to the fear of ridicule, yet there are some, like Mary who believes that sharing her story will either help some people in need or give others courage to speak about their experiences and get them off their chest.
We here at GhostTheory receive countless emails of people who swear to us that they “are not crazy” and believe that they are experiencing something paranormal. Most Never really contact us again or refuse to let us publish their stories. Here we have Mary’s story. An ordeal of poltergeist activity, manifestations and classic haunting.
The house in Apple Valley is at 10788 Kiavan Road.It’s been a long time since we lived in that house in Apple Valley and so my memories are maybe not as individualized as they once were. By that I mean I can’t say, “on this date, this happened and then that.” Really tried not to think about it too much because my mom kept dragging me to the minister’s wife for “counseling” and that made me feel worse!
I’ve always been one of those people who get “feelings” and have strong reactions to certain people and places. I have always been able to give more information about both than I logistically should have been able. These kind of “abilities” push people away from you I think because they are afraid you might “read their mind” or something like that. When I was younger, I just accepted it but the older I get, I want to understand the WHY. As I’ve said in other posts, I’m not totally convinced this “ability” is so much a supernatural thing as much as it is for some reason certain brains picks up cues that other people just don’t see or chose to ignore. Someday I’d like to know if I did indeed see/hear/feel things on a supernatural level and if, did I influence or create them or did my marvy mind make it all up for some reason (??)
Anyway, on to the house…. I didn’t like it from the instant we first looked at it. There wasn’t anything that was outright “wrong” with it, it just creeped me out. The house had been empty for some time before we moved in. I’m not sure why but the realtor said it had been a model at one point that evolved into a rental unit. They had to do a bunch of repairs before we moved in but I don’t know what or why they were done. I remember chunks of white stuff on the carpet (long gawd awful orange/yellow long shag… you wouldn’t believe how ugly it was!) and that they didn’t replace that but anyway… moving along here….
We moved in the summer before fourth grade (1977 I think) and I don’t remember what happened first but things moved/disappeared/reappeared, there were dark “clouds” that darted from room to room, a woman in a long black nightgown sort of thing, my bed shook, I saw an arm come over the end of my bed and pinch my big toe (this incident is VERY clear), gosh, what else… my sister had a “man” who lived in her room and talked to her, my name was called often, the door handle rattled, etc and just never felt alone. This is going to sound crazy given the way things are today with kids being whisked from their homes, but I slept outside on the back patio in a sleeping bag most of my 5th grade year because I was too terrified to stay in my bedroom.
This house is empty again as far as I know. The people who bought it from us in 1981 or 82 reportedly abandoned it about six months after they moved in. It was a man who had a daughter about my age and I always wondered if maybe she had strange experiences and that maybe contributed to their quick move out. I think it’s empty this time because of the economy though…. Tried to contact the real estate agent to see if he could maybe pull up any history on the house but I think he thought I was a head case!
Oh well!
I STILL have nightmares about this house sometimes… it’s thirty years later for pete’s sake! We didn’t have a television growing up so I wasn’t really exposed to a lot of scary movies or anything like that but that makes me wonder if maybe my imagination was just running overtime out of boredom or something like that too.
I’d accept that overtime imagination explanation except that nine years ago when I lived with my mom during a divorce, there was something in her basement that kept pinching me, tugging on my clothes (I would think it was my little one but when I would look down/around no one was there and I wasn’t standing by anything that could have caught the edge of my shirt) and pushed me down the stairs as well. I didn’t think about this until later but my kids used to come up to me and say, “what momma?” claiming I had called them when I hadn’t.
There have been other experiences as well – lots of the odd, unusual and coincidental but these are the main two “haunting” type.
Anywhooooo…. it all really leaves me caught in the middle of wanting to believe there could be something “extra” and wanting to find something more concrete. It’s nice to be able to talk about it and speculate on causes/reasons/theory without being hauled off to the looney bin…. wink..
Thanks. Have enjoyed reading and posting tonight and I’ll check back every now and then.
****You are a GREAT writer BTW! Keep it up!!!****
Written by Javier Ortega - javier@ghosttheory.com
Get GhostTheory updates faster! sign up to our RSS Feeds or
add us on Twitter
I visited there often because I road my dirt bike out there. Plus, I had a sister that lived there so very often we would camp out at Big Bear and ride down the backside of the mountain on the trails to see my sister in Apple Valley. The paranormal appears to be commonplace with my sister as well as her next door neighbor. My sister lived on Yucca Rd. in the Marianas near Kiowa and had the presence of the woman in her home who previously owned it and died there. She personally knew the woman too.
My sister’s neighbor then died of lung cancer. She took care of him every day until he died. After he died the new homeowner became a close friend to my sister. Shortly after moving in the neighbor started complaining about seeing a man in the home and that probably still goes on today.
Now I have a not so funny story about Apple Valley.
In 1971 I raced my first desert race. Apple Valley sure isn’t today what it was yesterday either. Wow has it grown.
Anyway, I spent the next 20 years camping in the desert on most all weekends for each race. I am a multiple alien abductee and the desert was my downfall for such. My ‘last’ abduction was while camping in the high desert in Apple Valley, California on October 1988.
I stopped racing desert but dummy me moved to Apple Valley in 1995 from Huntington Beach and everything got worse.
I’ll trade you paranormal for aliens any day.
I left out an important point. Most abductions were at Soggy Dry Lake and one big one (the whole family) at El Mirage Dry Lake.
Atrueoriginall,
Thanks for your story.
Your story reminded me of one I read before about people reporting their dead neighbors roaming about their home. It would be interesting to hear if any of the new owners have any experiences.
Thanks for the comment, and good job with your site. I’ve read some of your articles before.
[...] Read the rest of the post here. [...]
I currently reside in Apple Valley and unfortunately my home is also haunted. My home is located on Red Feather Road. We purchased the house in May of 2001 as a HUD and immediately began to see “shadow people”. By this I am referring to the shadowy moment you see out of the corner of your eye, however when you look directly at the area in question, there is nothing there. My son was an infant at the time and over the first few months, he began to have night terrors. His room, especially his closet, was exceedly cold. I had a diamond ring disappear from my night stand, which resurfaced 2 yrs later in the middle of of walkin closet. The odd thing is that all furnishings had been removed and the carpeting had been restretched within the two yr time frame. My husband (a COMPLETE skeptic) had an incident where he was cleaning the kitchen very late one night when he saw an older heavy set Italian woman in the kitchen. He was terrified…the only time I have seen my husband frightened. We then had an instance where my mother, myself and my husband were talking and this shadowy figure (about 5 feet in height) walked between all of us! At this point, we called a pastor out and had the house annointed. All activity ceased for approximately 6 yrs. Then this last January, things have begun to reoccur. I have felt like I am being watched when I am home alone, the shadow people are back, the kids are complaining of shadows in their rooms at night and insist on sleeping together now. My 8 yr old son told me last week that when he was in the shower, there was someone (or something) breathing on his neck. I felt like I was being watched one evening a few weeks ago as I was removing my makeup in my bathroom. When I walked out into my bedroom, there was this pitch black silouette that stood over 6 ft tall at the foot of my bed, directly in front of me…I blinked and it was gone. The final kicker this time was last weekend. My husband was home alone in the late afternoon and feel asleep in the family room. He woke up to heavy breathing in his face, even though he was the only one home at the time. I am now having the house annointed again in the hopes of ridding this as it is frightening my family. I have also noted increased negativity in the house. My husband & I have had more heated arguments in the last few months than in our entire 15 yr marriage. Enough is enough!
Stacy,
For the most part, “shadow beings” are benign. They usually do not bring in any negative energy. Not to say that aren’t those cases where “shadow beings” are harmful or negative. I’ve read of a few cases like that, but usually there tends to be other spirits involved.
The fact that your husband witnessed a full-bodied apparition is a red flag for other spirits that are abound your home. Before you read any further, let’s remind ourselves that in most cases, Shadow people are separate/different than spirits or ghosts. From what is known, both usually do not share the same intentions.
It does not sound like these spirits in your home are evil or carry negative energy. Ghostly visions and feeling of someone breathing down your neck are not comforting feelings to have in your home, but they don’t necessarily mean it’s evil. This is what I would recommend:
Before you have your home anointed by a pastor, try the following:
Burn a small bundle of Sage and make sure you anoint every part (corners, closets..) of your home with the Sage smoke, while asking the spirits for peace and asking them politely to move on. That this is now your space and they are invading yours and your family’s space. Make sure you repeat something positive while walking around with the Sage. Something like “only light and positive energy can exist here…”
Then talk with your Husband and try to figure out the root of your problems. Blaming household arguments on a paranormal force usually is useless. It results in more negative energy and no real progress.
I always think logically and reasonable when reading/writing on the paranormal, but there are things that I feel that have worked for me in a spiritual level that does not really involve bringing in religion. The burning of Sage is an ancient ritual done by a myriad of cultures and has a deep-seated meaning.
Remember that you live in that house now, not them.
Good luck.
I also have experienced abnormal situations in the house I just purchased on Chinook. My daughters and myself have seen movement that can not be explained, My gas bill for one month was 385.00 and both my kids tell me they feel like they are being watched. I feel the same way. Apparently the orinal owner, who was a very high ranking officer in the airforce, died either in the house or in the front yard. Daytime is much less scary than the night and I don’t think that I have gotton more thatn 2-3 hours of sleep in one night since the date I moved in, Oct. 31, 2009 (halloween)
P.S. To add insult to injury it appears as if I am being followed all over town by people who would have no reason to follow me. Is this some sort of weird neighborhood watch? Alot of the people seem to be old enough to have known the original owner who had it cusom built in 1964.
If anyone can give me any info on either of these matters I would really appreciate it.
Stacy,
Javier makes some good points. I don’t know if you would be reading this since it’s a few months since your post but I figured why not.
It is important that you have your home “cleansed” at least once a year. It is said that entities can attach to people and then when they enter your house they can bring them in with them. I’m not sure if there are other ways for entry but I will tell you it’s better to be vigilant than have to deal with this stuff. I have my house “cleansed” every January when my mother visits. We are both Christians but I just have a personal preference that she do it. As Javier said, you can do it yourself but if you feel more comfortable having your Pastor handle it, then by all means.
I live in Apple Valley on Flathead Rd. Bought this house in 97, which was a HUD, built in 77. My ex-husband and I are both retired cops from LA, we moved here with our 1 yr old daughter to get away from smog due to her asthma. We noticed a “weird” feeling in the main hallway right away. The first 3 yrs we experienced things, sometimes together, sometime individually of doors opening by knob turning then closing quietly in the hours like between 1am & 4am. Sometimes, actually, often we’d feel a sensation on the bed as if someone either just sat or arose from a sit. Sometimes leaving a “butt” mark, sometimes not.
I thought we were just paranoid, as most cops are anyway, until I was getting my daughter ready for a ballet class when she was about 4 years old. She was looking down the hallway as I put her shoes on her, and she said “Mommy, I just saw an Angel in the hallway”. This was at around 3pm in the afternoon.
After that, we had a paranormal investigator team come out and use lots of strange equipment. They found unusual readings in our hallway, but did not have the time to spend the night to see the “real stuff”.
My husband and I divorced about 6 years ago, so it’s just me & my daughter here now. We have both seen the activity in the hallway, several time. It appears to be an Indian woman with a long braid in the back of her hair, her cloths appear to be whitish but resemble a smock. At first we thought it was a bathrobe, until we saw the little girl with her. Sometimes the woman would be alone, sometimes the little girl is alone. Calmly walking in the same direction and disappearing into the same door every time. We have seen them together often too, the little girl is dressed similar to the woman but has two long braids instead of one.
We have never felt threatened by these sightings, and we rarely say “oh I saw them again” unless it’s something out of the norm, like they are not together.
My daughter (now 15) has often told me that she has seen the girl in her bedroom and she seems to have a small animal with her or near her that looks like a cat or a small dog.
We do still get the occasional door opening or closing or weird light flicker, cold temps in one spot, or something like that. We just look at each other and jokingly say “Elvis is back”. LOL, since we don’t have names for the Indian woman and child. Oh, the child looks like she could be around 5 or 6 years old and the woman appears not young, but not old either, with a posture resembling a 30 to 40 year old woman perhaps.
There have been other things we’ve seen, most common at the old jailhouse in Victorville near the train tracks. But, seriously you take your life into your own hands going into that neighborhood after dark. Lots of drug violence and related type of crime neighborhood, if you know what I mean.
Contact me if you care to investigate. It’s cool. It’s not a nightly thing, but at least a few times a month, sometimes more often in the winter – can be every other night or nothing at all.
Smadsion42@yahoo.com
Dolly
That’s cool Dolly! I wish I lived nearby.
Dolly,
Thank you for sharing your story with us.
I’ve received several other emails from people around the High Desert in California who also say that they have experienced paranormal activities.
I don’t know the history of the area, but I do know that there were a lot of Native American settlements in the area. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the homes were built on top of their sacred grounds. Just a theory.
Although we here at GhostTheory don’t do any “ghost hunting” there are a lot of ghost hunting / paranormal teams that are daily readers. maybe some in your area. Hopefully someone can contact you.
Thanks for sharing your story.
-Javier