GOLD RUSH GHOSTS INTERNATIONAL PARANORMAL INVESTIGATIONS was invited to have another exciting adventure in Mokelumne Hill recently, and it, as always, proved fruitful. As the Celebrities Psychic I was delighted to be invited back again to be on hand to lead the way, and I wanted to share it with you, take you back in time, and bring you up to the present. We have been exploring this haunted town for over twenty years. Ghosts that have been seen in town for years continue to remain, other rack up as time passes, and everything in this town clearly gears you toward spooky moments and goose-bumps. Even for us that have done this for many years.
If you are interested in visiting a small, unassuming, off the beaten path community of maybe 2,000 people pretty much untouched by time with ghosts a‘plenty, Mokelumne Hill is just what you are looking for. Nestled in what is considered the banana belt of the High Sierra, (citrus has the audacity of growing here all year round to the dismay of other Northern California towns) the village boasts of enchanting old homes and buildings that are colorful and well-kept, grounds of lush foliage and beautiful trees. The pioneer cemetery has many curious markers that make you more interested in the history of the town too, and contrary to what we know to be common that you will rarely have activity in a cemetery, our meters went off the charts at 5-21 EMF & while there! For seasoned investigators, this town offers you a lovely feeling of ghosts abounding in slow-paced reminiscence. A quiet day of ghost hunting once in a while that is accommodating and comfortable is not a bad thing.
Not that Mokelumne Hill hasn’t been plagued with its own history of intense violence and retaliation which makes it all the more intriguing. In one 17 weak stretch, “Moc” Hill averaged at least one killin’ a day during the Gold Rush days. The diggings were so rich that many claims were limited to 16 square feet. Tempers flared with suspected claim jumping continuous. Besides the other problems, the town had the distinction of being known to have endured two immigrant wars, the Chilean, and the French, just a few years later.
It seems that in a now-vanished camp called Chili Gulch, (town folk will tell you where it was) there lived an unscrupulous Dr. Concha, who had a nasty habit of registering claims in the names of his employees. These workers were slaving for him for less than meager earning. In 1849 the men got the courage to overthrow him, unfortunately, at the loss of many lives. Thus was the Chilean War.
Different circumstances perpetrated the French War of Mokelumne Hill. Our brothers from France , lucky in mining, were so delighted that they raised a French flag over their finds. The Americans, not quite as lucky or happy, had a few drinks and staggered up the hill and ran the hapless men from their claims. They later contended it was irresponsible for the French miners to raise their flag, as it befouled the American government. Some have said it was more likely an easy way to line their pockets. So much for miner’s justice!
Whatever it was, and still is, Mokelumne Hill and the ghosts that reside there remain a step back into yesterday and a step forward for the curious investigator. It is full of activity of the paranormal kind, one of which is the wine, women, and whoopee at the HOTEL LEGER!
Imagine ghostly parties that have gone on for over a century and today still offer activity of hoopin’ and hollerin’ way into the night. Think about transparent bizarre apparitions that loiter shamelessly in doorways and floating figures that wind their way through the hallways and down corridors, laughing and making merry. You might as well join the party, because I have been here numerous times and they are not going away. Welcome to the Hotel Leger!
In 1851, newcomer to the hamlet George Leger, from Hesse Castle , Germany , blew into town. An entrepreneur with cash in his pocket and a love of good times, he was immediately singled out as different from the often crass and always dirty miners. Through some dealings in the community, both shady and sane, he soon found himself tripling his investments and with enough cash to build a one-story hotel. True to his heritage, he named it the Hotel de L’ Europe (The European Hotel). Soon he added a second story to be used for room and board, and he converted the first floor into a general store. Never satisfied, he added a lavish dance floor for his parties. The hotel soon became an elegant place to entertain in this part of the country, as many of the elite and famous from the world of arts and government made their way through his oak, carved doors. George was happy here and partied as only he know how. Having an eye for the women, the beautiful and rich were his favorites. The best in alcohol and food was always on hand. He was in his element.
Unfortunately, in 1879, a portion of his hotel went up in flames. Undaunted, he rebuilt and renamed the place for good luck. “The new and better establishment shall be called the Hotel Leger,” he told his friends. He fashioned himself a pillar of society!
Women, women, women! He loved them all. Being married never seemed to interfere. His bride died two years after the nuptials, and it was probably a lucky break for her. Certainly vowing his everlasting love for his much younger wife at her funeral (she was 25, he was 42), he continued his lifestyle as he had before and during her time in his life. Women, women, women.
But were all his conquests interested in him? Of course! Why not? He was a dashing figure of a man, six-foot tall, dark hair and moustache, in his sexual prime, and wealthy. One of the women he pursued noted that he had ‘piercing eyes that beckoned for adventure.’ She was happy to provide some of that adventure for him.
Poor ole’ George had the time of his life until he managed to fool with the wrong gal. W.H.Adams, Leger’s friend and the owner of the stage company that had the Wells Fargo contract between Stockton and Sacramento , had a violent temper and he had his eyes set on a beautiful, cultured young damsel he had been dating for quite some time. He was tortured to hear that she had been with Leger during his absences. He also owed Leger money, and under the circumstances, thought better of repaying that dept. Over several bottles of whiskey, he made a fateful decision, and hired a hit man to kill Leger so he could regain his girl. A few months later, the lone gunman he had hired for the job climbed the stairs to the living quarters of the Hotel Leger. He knocked on Room 7 and as the door opened, he shot Leger. Point blank!
The man fell, mortally wounded, into the arms of Adams ’ paramour. The blamable man walked calmly down the stairs, passing those going up the other side to aid Leger. He crossed the street and was never seen again. A fitting augury to the story, it is believed Adams ’ lass took off with someone else anyway. Whether he had to repay the loan to Leger’s creditors or family is not known, but he was the first up the stairs that fateful day on Leger’s behalf, and as his friend was laid to rest, he led the crowd in tearful lament for his lost buddy. As a befitting omen, if you visit the pioneer cemetery today, you will see that Adams was interred right next to his ex-best friend, making one wonder if they are ever feuding or if all is forgiven as they continue to party together in the hereafter.
Speculation aside, soon after Leger’s death his spirit began showing up at the hotel. Still overseeing things, his friends in life started to feel uneasy, mostly and especially Adams , for the secret was his alone. No one but he was aware of his involvement in Leger’s demise until he “fessed” up years later. Maybe it was on his deathbed. Never mind. The Hotel was thought to be haunted by Leger as far back as those days. However, once Adams also made the transition to the other side, one must assume that there was no animosity among drinking buds, because many of the old crowd is still seen partying these days with Leger – Adams included.
But on to the more recent present, our first visit to the Leger was to visit our dear friend Ron Miller along with his wife Joyce when they purchased the hotel in June of 1987. He moved his kids into several upstairs rooms, knowing that his schoolteacher wife would join him later as school let out. He soon realized that he needed her help with the kids right away.
A few days after taking occupancy his kids came screaming from their upstairs bedroom. “Someone told us to be quiet” they told their Dad. Upon investigating, he could find no one there. Later that day they went to Room 7, George Leger’s bedroom, which is also the place he died. The kids came running to their father. “The man in that picture” they said, pointing to an old tintype “is the man that told us to be quiet.” The photo was of George Leger, and the children refused to go into that room again for the extent of their time at the Hotel. Room 7 is just on top of the stairs, and the children hated going up the stairs alone likely because of it. Ron, always one to wear a cowboy hat, was eager to take GOLD RUSH GHOSTS INTERNATIONAL PARANORMAL INVESTIGATIONS up the stairs to show us the room. On the stairs in a shadow on the wall was TWO cowboy hats heading up, not just the one on Millers head. Obviously Leger was enjoying our company. Miller remarked that he often saw two cowboy hats coming up or down the stairs in the shadow on the wall. One was his…
Over the years during Leger’s stint as proprietor of the hotel, it served as a brothel, saloon, dance hall, country store, and boardinghouse. Miller and his family and guests were kept up many a night with noises and apparitions. He told us at the time ‘The hotel proved to be more than I bargained for!” During renovations of the building and through several new owners the entities that inhabit the structure, including Leger, take most offense to any changes being made. Tricks are played and many annoying spirit games caused delays in the projects as only the lifeless can do. This is universally true in our research. They prefer the familiarity of the way things were, and as they knew them. A common theme from current owners, “Often our guests will complain about a man chasing women down the halls late at night”. We tell them, “It is George in a rambunctious mood.” Of course it does not stop there. There are things being moved around the building so commonplace it has become a joke. And George and his friends have no mercy on the cooking staff. “He moves things around in the kitchen and drops things all over the dining area. You never know where things are of when they are going to be missing. It’s crazy! “An employee told us.
More recently Mark and Nancy Jennings, also former owners of the Leger called us to investigate things going on that disturbed them. Upon arriving Mark took my arm and led me to the downstairs living room just behind the bar. It is a lovely area, and he asked “Can you tell me why we can’t keep candles on the candelabra?” Just as he said that one white candle leapt from the holder and was flung to the floor. I could easily see a party situation going on in the past, 12 spirits when I stopped counting, and they were all drinking and having fun. Some were dancing, while others were standing and conversing. A couple was sitting on the couch, kissing. Another man was making drinks, they all seemed quite inebriated, but the gayety was infectious in a commotion, laughter and rowdy sort of way. “Don’t ever light the candles” I told him as a warning.
But the party never stops! “The other night we had a very frightening experience” Nancy Jennings was to tell us. ‘For insurance purposes, we were asked to put a surveillance camera up in the downstairs bar area. It is hooked up to our bedroom where we can see what is going on after hours. About three in the morning, when the bar was closed and no one was left in the building except my husband and myself, I looked up to see smoke in the surveillance camera. I immediately alerted Mark. “I think we have a fire down there,” I told him, “And he immediately ran down to investigate and try and put it out, but when he got there, there was no smoke, no fire or smell of anything burning. Coming back upstairs, we sat in our bedroom and watched what seemed to be smoke on the camera until it slowly disappeared.” I assured her it was not smoke at all because the smoke detector did not acknowledge. “It is ectoplasm which is spirit essence” I told her. “It often looks like smoke depending on how many spirits are involved and around.”
On our last visit to the Leger a short while ago, we were in one of the bathrooms and the water turned itself on in a bathtub. When it stopped there was a red indent left in the bottom which had not been there before. We scooped some of it up to have our experts analyze as the staff said it had never happened before. Will get back to you about what they find. There was also an indent that strangely appeared on a newly made bed that was observed by our crew. It looked like the outline of a person lying on the bed. This was in Room 7. After Miller vacated the Leger, there still remained TWO cowboy hats going up and down the stairs, in the shadows on the wall.
In the basement a complaint had been brought to us about an obscure scent of burning wood-fire. On our investigation there was nothing there that could account for it. Nor would it be appropriate to burn in that setting. The meters registered at3-12 EMF with a temperature variance of 15 degrees and we were able to secure an EVP voice that said “welcome”! In another part of the hotel a handle on one of the doors dropped to the ground in front of us, and voices in the rooms were again picked up by EVP.
A guest told us that she saw a face that was not her own in the mirror when in Room 4. “The woman was prettier than I am,” she said disgustedly. “Besides frightening me, that was an annoying revelation.” She decided to take another room for the night.
On this most recent visit, we explored all the old haunts of the town, the cemetery, the streets so easily walked by the living and the dead, and of course the Hotel Leger. Times change most everywhere, but this town remains pretty much the same, a time-warp for the living and the deceased.
The Hotel Leger to me is one of the most fascinating studies in ghost and spirit activity that we have researched across the world. We suggest if you are in this part of the country that you take a trip off the given path, book a room, and see what happens. They boast a Room 13, full bar, and a lot of activity.
The Hotel Leger is located at 8304 Main Street in Mokelumne Hill , CA .
Another amazing ghost of Mokelumne Hill is the STREET WALKER GHOST OF MOC’ HILL, who is a window peeper from the past!
However, unlike the picture I just painted for you, the street walker ghost of Mokelumne Hill is NOT a woman of the oldest profession, although, that would be interesting. The street-walking ghost is, in actuality, a man in his later years, one with a long, black, leather-type coat, and a long salt-and-pepper beard. He likes to hang around the old buildings on Main Street , and he can often be seen in the fields at the end of the road. He mostly shows up late at night, although at times, in the early morning hours in the mist and dew, he can be found staring at the street. He looks in the windows of places he knew and appears rather lost, or he may just be meandering. He is certainly not in a hurry, so nothing is pressing with him as far as we are concerned, and he rather likes to startle people before he smiles and slowly disappears. Who he is, no one knows. Who he could be, history does not offer possible explanations. But he has been here many years, and he walks a wide path through the town.
It was not long ago we received an email from a woman who told this writer that she was told by someone in the community that she saw him quite frequently while hanging her laundry on the line in her back yard. Obviously it is a story from a second hand source. Still, it was intriguing enough to me to share it with you. As she told me, “The woman lives in a country setting with a lawn that backs up to an uncultured hill, and the street walker ghost likes to stand behind her and watch her work.” Apparently undaunted after years of seeing him, “She tolerates him” we are told. “He has never appeared inside her house; neither now or before her husband died. As long as he just likes her yard, she says he can stay. It’s not like he is always around – just on occasion.” The related story is that the women in the house also told her, “I can live with it!”
It is also noted that the walker likes the old pioneer part of the cemetery, where he walks among the grave markers. Again, you may encounter him looking into the windows of the shops of the town, most often the older ones on Main Street . He just puts his nose up to the panes and peers in. No one seems to want him to leave the community, and he does not seem to be in distress, so we did not bother to wait around for him to show up, or to take steps to try and contact him when we were there.
Walk on, our dear friend, and relish your life of a simpler time among the things you enjoyed. We hope you’re happy.
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GOLD RUSH GHOSTS
ROBERT REPPERT
ROBERT REPPERT, owner/founder of GOLD RUSH GHOSTS INTERNATIONAL PARANORMAL INVESTIGATIONS and the inspiration for the television show INVESTIGATING THE UNKNOWN (Channel 17 the 4th Wed. night of every month) has a motto he lives by, and it is “GOLD RUSH GHOSTS ~WHERE SCIENCE MEETS THE PARANORMAL.” Reppert has an extended history in research in all things paranormal which has extended for many years, starting in his teens.
I was 17 years of age and camping in the wood where a stream runs under a low small country bridge in the middle of a forest in California ” he told this reporter. My friend and I were just below the small bridge, which has just enough room for one car to pass. Camping that night we were, as all kids that age, looking for an adventure. This time we found one!
“The time was about 10:30 at night, and we were just getting comfortable laying out and hopping into our sleeping bags. We were just settling in, talking, telling tales and talking about girls as boys that age will do.
And then it happened.”
He stopped for a minute to recall in every detail of the events that followed. “It was not a well lit night, I can remember that, but there was enough of a moon that if you looked up you know what direction you were in. As we lay there talking my friend grabbed my arm and said ‘look…there!’ I am not certain if at that moment we were more curious, or frightened.
“Right before us coming directly upstream was a green ball about 2 feet in diameter. It came toward us slowly following the river’s path through the trees, inching its way in our direction from downstream. Without further conversation between us, we became still as lambs hoping it would not target or see us. As we watched, it made a slight turn for the right, and went slowly and directly under the bridge. Right in front of us and right after going under the bridge it quickly made a bee-line for the sky, going right overhead of us, faster than anything I had ever seen, and then it disappeared.”
The 17 year olds quickly packed up their gear and headed for home.
This was the incident however, to peak Reppert’s interest in all things strange and unknown. The next day he went back to that bridge to see if there was anything that would indicate what had happened the night before. All appeared to be normal. Over the years there have been several accounts such as his at this site. Recently, and once again, GRG/ITU investigated the same Bridge and forest area for our group and television show. The shots are there for you to see, activity was recorded, and yet the mystery remains.
Although the exact cause of this phenomena is still up for grabs Reppert knows he will solve this mystery, as well he has many others.
“I went into this business because it seemed that paranormal groups around here were looking for ghosts and goblins and werewolves and UFO’S and saying that everything they heard, explored or wrote about was phenomena. One group I can remember were media hounds, making a mockery of it all for the sake of publicity, giving falsified reports to television and radio stations, and an unsuspecting public. It really upset me, and I knew right then that there was a need for actuality in this business. It is certainly not a place for the novice, or person strictly looking for goose bumps out of boredom. There was a need for specifics and science to balance out the absurd. As we have now proven, the ratio is about one to every eight investigations that we go out on has a serious paranormal indication. The rest, through science and the best of all equipment we are able to assess as earthly explanation, and can put peoples minds to rest one way or the other. “
The bridge remains an enigma.
But being a paranormal investigator was not enough. Reppert had to have the BEST! He began investing in the finest paranormal equipment around, state-of-the-art, best in the world. Purchased equipment that proved to be bogus was quickly discarded. More was purchased. “I am always looking for the best there is” he told us. “I’m on a mission, and we are all about honesty.” Then a smile came over his face, “But don’t try and fool me with trying to sell faulty equipment” he said. “I clearly know the difference.” Today Reppert’s organization maintains over a million dollars (easy) of the finest equipment in the world, not to mention the equipment he himself has designed to hear, see and feel the spirits that are around. “If you have anything around you that is not of this living world” he said, “You can be certain we will find it.” Today Reppert and his organization can actually show you from your television screen where the ghosts and spirits are around you. He can show you with scientific equipment what EVP’s are actually from the other side, or which contain a different scenario of audio transference. “This phenomena, although I could go into a lot of theory” he said “Is where either the tape or digital recording transfers over to another place on the tape or digital file for just one explanation.” Another smile, “And then of course there are those that will say any noise is a “voice from the other side.”
Having a background in psychology, Reppert approaches the search with a logical point of view. “I have been researching the fields of Paranormal studies since before high school and have always been the one to look for the logical reasoning for what occurs in this world. I have also studied architecture, electricity, photography, building materials, and other things as a way of explaining some of the activity that may appear to be paranormal but has a logical explanation. Our group ONLY looks for and reports TRUTH. We are commissioned by government and private agencies to explore things that go bump in the night, as well as work with everyday folks in need of our services. In the world of paranormal groups on every site and street-corner, we stand out as reasonable, responsible, honest, and the oldest and largest paranormal group around.
Whether you see him in his “Ghost Mobile” Nissan truck, or the ‘Paddy car’, his 1951 Black Buick, Reppert can be an interesting person to be around. With a great sense of humor and excitement, he brings to the psychic/paranormal/ and still unknown world adventures of the spooky side. With one important bent… proving, TRUTH.
In PARANORMAL WORK with GOLD RUSH GHOSTS, that is a sure sign of FUN and ENLIGHTENMENT.
More about Robert Reppert and his tv shows are at: WWW.GOLDRUSHGHOSTS.COM
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