Santa Barbara’s
Spooky Local Legends
Reveal the Region’s
Haunted History
Can ghost stories do more than just curdle the blood and quicken the heart? For those who research paranormal experiences firsthand, the stories behind these ghostly apparitions can reveal deeper truths about our county’s history and offer a glimpse into the lives of all of those who lived on the Central Coast for generations before us.
“These stories really help preserve the history of the city,” said Julie Ann Brown, founder of Santa Barbara Ghost Tours. “Researching ghost stories is a way of tying us to the past — it’s history and tradition.”
Brown is a Santa Barbara City College professor, storyteller, and ghost tour guide who started sharing her paranormal experiences with the public seven years ago. Her walking tour is a quick trip through Santa Barbara’s complicated history, filled with ghost stories from Chumash to Spanish to Mexican to modern-day California.
She says Santa Barbara is the “city of happy ghosts,” and a paradise that souls love to visit in this life and the next. But her stories also dig into the region’s darker history of oppression, excess, gambling, and greed…