Santa Barbara, CA
The Mission Santa Barbara has existed in some form since 1786, founded for the purpose of converting the local Chumash-Barbareño population to Catholicism. The land surrounding the main mission chapel is littered with ruins of different buildings that were built by the enslaved Chumash, mostly in order to continue converting or imprisoning the same. The mission is said to be haunted by a few Spanish Franciscan monks and considerably more Chumash souls.
The meticulously kept rose garden laid out at the base of the mission was built directly on the burial site of hundreds of Chumash, for instance, and is said to be the source of regular restless spirit activity. About 300 yards away from the mission, the foundations of the old jail still stand. These ruins are said to be haunted by a woman who died there falsely accused and now returns in the form of a rather sad black mist. We walked over to the jail and Danny even climbed all over it, despite my urgent assurances that this is the easiest way to ensure a quick vengeful death-by-ghost. Although no mist came out to claim his soul for this trespass, I will say that the shadows inside the jail did feel a bit darker than expected. My eye kept being drawn to the single “window” in the place, an extremely narrow aperture, too small to reach a hand through and stretching about 8 inches to the air outside. I felt crushed just looking at it.
Rating: 4/5 dickish monks
Prognosis: If bad vibes count as ghosts, this place is haunted as hell. There are reminders everywhere of the treatment the native tribes likely suffered to bring the mission into existence, and the crumbling ruins seem to radiate this. We didn’t see any sentient mists though.
The Ghost Hole 