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    Ghosts of Santa Barbara and the Ojai Valley
    Ghosts of Santa Barbara and the Ojai Valley
    Ghosts of Santa Barbara and the Ojai Valley
    Ebook181 pages1 hour

    Ghosts of Santa Barbara and the Ojai Valley

    By Evie Ybarra

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    About this ebook

    Stories of spirits, séances, and strange events in Southern California history—photos included!
     
    From the Chumash legends of the Dolphins and the Whispering Tree to the ghostly sightings at Sedgwick Reserve, hauntings abound here. In beautiful La Conchita, nightfall reveals dark secrets to anyone who will listen. Sightings of mysterious apparitions are common along Creek Road, considered one of the most haunted highways in California. In the 1800s, Summerland was home to spiritualists who held séances in the Big Yellow House. The Santa Barbara Mission is home to many specters, including the famous Franciscan monk said to roam the cemetery and gardens. Discover these stories and more with author Evie Ybarra as she explores the haunted side of history.
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateOct 2, 2017
    ISBN9781439662786
    Ghosts of Santa Barbara and the Ojai Valley
    Author

    Evie Ybarra

    Evie Ybarra is an author, educator and former radio show host with a passion for researching and sharing local stories. She published her first book, Legendary Locals of Fillmore, with Arcadia Publishing in 2015, and has returned to share the region's spooky tales and folklore in her second book, Ghosts of Ventura County's Heritage Valley.

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      Book preview

      Ghosts of Santa Barbara and the Ojai Valley - Evie Ybarra

      INTRODUCTION

      Ghosts are real. Shadow people are real. This book affirms these beliefs because it validates the sightings and the stories people have shared over the years. If you have never seen a ghost or apparition or noticed dark shadows moving about in your home or elsewhere, this book will inform you about these unknown entities through stories others have shared. Manifestations go beyond the limits that our physics and science can understand. Walk through the pages and experience what others have without any fear or doubts. An open mind will relax your inner spirit and expand your mind as you try and understand what others have experienced. The Ojai Valley is very spiritual, and the Native American Chumash people who lived along this California coast knew and understood this before us. This extends into La Conchita, Carpinteria, Santa Barbara, Goleta, Santa Ynez and beyond. The Channel Islands National Park has more information about the influences the Chumash people left behind and more details about Chumash life as it existed on the Channel Islands, Mescaltitlan and throughout the Central Coast of California.

      There are still the unsolved beach murders and other killings that occurred in Southern California as a result of the East Area Rapist, who began his rampage in Northern California. Modern science now has DNA, although there is not yet a match. Investigators and prosecutors continue trying to uncover his identity. The FBI has joined in trying to find this most notorious killer and rapist.

      Imagination is more important than knowledge, as Albert Einstein stated many times. One may see or hear the unexplained, so let it be—c’est la vie!

      CHAPTER

      1

      THE OJAI VALLEY

      Why, then, make so great ado about the Roman and Greek, and neglect the Indian? We [need] not wander off with boys in our imagination to Juan Fernandez, to wonder at footprints in the sand there. Here is a print still more significant at our doors, the print of a race that has preceded us, and this is the little symbol that Nature has transmitted to us. Yes, this arrowheaded character is probably more ancient than any other, and to my mind it has not been deciphered. Man should not go to New Zealand to write or think of Greece and Rome, nor more to New England. New earths, new themes expect us. Celebrate not the Garden of Eden, but your own.

      —Henry David Thoreau, Journals, 1852

      T

      HE

      C

      HUMASH

      L

      EGEND OF THE

      W

      IND

      S

      YCAMORE

      Originally, the Whispering Tree was part of a sacred site following Highway 33 north toward the Ojai Valley from Ventura. In the area where the road turned off toward Foster Park and Ojai was a group of sycamore trees known as Khsho, meaning The Sycamore. The revered tree was known as the Wind Sycamore. The Chumash people believed that if you made a wish while standing under the tree, the wish would come true. Lovers would go to the tree and share a kiss; the tree was also known as the Kissing Tree or the Wishing Tree. Relics would be placed on the tree or inside of its trunk. The Chumash people revered the trees in the area. To this day, Ojai has numerous sycamore and oak trees within its city limits and beyond.

      Sycamore tree in the approximate location where the Wind Sycamore once stood. Robert G Jr.

      The recent discovery of the Chumash Ja’rborglyph in San Luis Obispo County illustrates the importance of trees to the Chumash people. The Spanish missionaries, recognizing the importance of this sacred site to the Chumash, located a satellite mission to the San Buenaventura called Santa Gertrudis close to the spot where the Wind Sycamore stood. The former site of Santa Gertrudis is recognized as archaeological site VEN-166. Many stories evolved around the Whispering Tree or Wishing Tree. The Chumash would make a wish and leave a relic inside of the trunk. The Chumash would hang their offerings of feathers, bright cloth and skins of wild animals. A strong belief held that a wish breathed beneath the leaves of the sacred tree would come true. When later generations of lovers came to whisper their promises to each another, it became known as the Kissing Tree.

      Also hung within the hollow of the tree was a replica of a god with arms and legs. It was stated that when the people wished someone bad luck, they would turn a leg or an arm on the god in the belief that this would create a corresponding affliction on their enemy. Others named the tree Aliso del Viento, which means Wind Sycamore (aliso means sycamore in Spanish). Many young girls were afraid when they passed a certain tree. It was said that there was always a wind near the tree and the leaves were always rustling. If one listened intently beneath the talking tree, the voices of ancestors could be heard. Most of the Chumash people settled within proximity to the Chapel of Santa Gertrudis. The large number of their little willow-thatched houses gave the name Casitas (Little Houses) to the entire region. Today, there is still Casitas Springs and Lake Casitas.

      After the earthquake of 1812, the entire population of San Buenaventura mission relocated to Santa Gertrudis, which was utilized as a church until 1868, when it fell into disrepair. Today, when people search for the sacred site, they travel up Highway 33 and turn left toward Casitas Vista Road, which is where part of Foster Park stood. One can see the empty land and visit lush Foster Park, which is located at 438 Casitas Vista Road in Ventura, California. The Ventura River flows through this park. Voices and apparitions have been heard and seen here late at night. This area belonged to the Chumash people until they were removed and taken to the mission lands, where they were converted to Christianity.

      Another example of the sycamore in the Ojai Valley. Robert G Jr.

      J

      OHNNY

      C

      ASH AND

      C

      ASITAS

      S

      PRINGS

      Johnny Cash moved his family to Casitas Springs in the outskirts of the Ojai Valley. He had a five-thousand-square-foot house built on a hillside overlooking the community of Casitas Springs. He planted juniper trees in his front yard, and they are still there to this day. Some have claimed that Johnny still wanders his favorite haunts in the area, for his guitar music and singing is heard in the stillness of the night. He frequented Okies Tavern in Foster Park every Saturday night when he was home and not traveling. Many do not know that Johnny moved his offices from Encino to Ventura when he made the move to Casitas Springs. He had an office in the Zander Building on Main Street in Ventura and would go there often to arrange his tours and to conduct his music business.

      Johnny’s four daughters, Roseanne, Kathy, Cindy and Tara, attended St. Catherine’s by the Sea, and they each graduated from St. Bonaventure High School in Ventura. Their mother, Vivian Cash, provided a stable home for the girls as Johnny was traveling and recording music in the 1960s. Johnny, a man of faith, attended Avenue Community Church at 767 North Ventura Avenue in Ventura. He became good friends with Pastor Floyd Gressett. Johnny found solace there.

      Vivian wrote a memoir, I Walked the Line: My Life with Johnny. In the book, she shares her joy and heartbreak at losing Johnny to June Carter. She tells her story in her own words.

      Vivian filed for divorce in 1966, and the divorce was granted in 1967. Vivian remarried in 1968 to a Ventura Police Department officer, Dick Distin. After completing her book, Vivian passed away in May 2005.

      June Carter Cash died in 2003 following complications from surgery, and Johnny Cash passed away four months later, in September 2003, from complications of diabetes.

      Johnny often took his daughters to Lake Casitas or to Foster Park for picnics, or to Oak View to visit their grandparents, who were now residents of Oak View and managed the Johnny Cash Trailer Rancho, which Johnny had purchased for them.

      A view of Johnny Cash’s former hillside home he had built in Casitas Springs. The juniper trees he planted are still growing in the front yard. Robert G Jr.

      A vintage view of Ventura looking downtown toward the direction of the Zander Building. Museum of Ventura County Post Card.

      Another vintage view of downtown Ventura, which beckoned many to open their businesses here, including Johnny Cash. Museum of Ventura County Post Card.

      A popular motorcycle shop where enthusiasts gathered from nearby Ojai and Ventura. Museum of Ventura County Post Card.

      Johnny lived in Casitas Springs

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