Unworldly apparitions, logic-defying orbs, strange electronic malfunctions and peculiar physical sensations: all of these and innumerably more incidents make up the North American canon of the paranormal. These sensory manifestations of an embodied fear of the past haunt us, putting us in a perpetual state of anxious unease when consuming the past. Alive in Riverside just as it is across the United States, this phobia invades Riverside’s civic relics, imbuing these monuments to the sinful fathers of Riverside with the spirits of those damned in their erection of this city. If you dare to pursue this specter, the most haunted locations in Riverside are to be visited: The Evergreen Memorial Historic Cemetery, The Mission Inn and Castle Park. Will you open yourself to the traumas, abuses and simple antiquities of the past to catch these poltergeists?
A permanent resting place for many of these key individuals in the growth of Riverside, including John North, Eliza Tibbets, Frank Miller and Raymond Best, the Evergreen Memorial Historic Cemetery is often reported online to be haunted, with the spirits of those who succumbed to The Great Flu of 1918 roaming its cursed grounds. Additionally, many more esoteric sightings have been published online, such as a ghostly skeletal horse, spooky orbs caught on camera, strange voices, crashes and strange, cold drafts in the Mausoleum and abnormal reactions from dogs while walking in the cemetery. Even greater than the demonic presence in the park, though, is the historic value of the cemetery to the city; the celebrity figures in the cemetery are valuable, but just as importantly, tens of thousands of passed residents of Riverside reside in the cemetery.
Stories are drawn from these grave markers, with the movements of the city reflected in the diverse stones that populate Evergreen: Freemasons lie adjacent to their wives, interlocking Masonic symbols adorning their graves; victims of the Spanish flu are visible in whole families buried together, decimated by the cataclysmic virus; American indigenous, African-American, notable early feminine organizers and Chinese residents of Riverside rest in the cemetery, their names for the most part forgotten to history, only preserved where their bodies lie and many more which have yet to be restored or even looked upon for decades. Although the spirits of the dead who remain here may or may not wander these grounds, they remain here in a sort of afterlife, projecting the legacies they or their families left at their final resting place.
Legacy appears to be a trope of these haunted locations — the Mission Inn is the standing physical legacy of owner Frank Miller and architect Arthur Benton, imposing over Riverside still, in the same manner they did in their heyday; this imposition may still also exist spiritually, with many online attesting to supernatural presences that still remain. Over 150 years old, the building has seen many visitors come and go, including presidents, actors, singers and many more — possibly a few who returned after their passing. Purported to house a range of spirits from family members of the Miller family to an assortment of restless guests who seek to remain in the former opulence of Riverside, or even a ghost named Henry, the inn seems to create paranormal experiences for many of the guests who attend.
Whether paranormal or not, a certain kind of ghost certainly resides in the Mission Inn, the grandeur of the specter of Riverside embodied in this strange eclectic monument; the fantastic wealth and tourism that priorly occupied this city seen in every Spanish or Eastern or Turkish extravagant, gilded display of the Raincross. Momentously pushed into luxury and simply paused in time, this hotel stands as a legacy of Riverside’s once culturally affluent influence, an influence deflated by the tides of time washing Riverside’s industry into the wider expanse of California and America.
A cornucopia of nostalgia for almost all residents of Riverside born in the past four decades, long following the city’s state of significant affluence, Castle Park serves as a low cost local alternative to higher-cost amusement parks; much less aged than the historic locations discussed, the internet still attests to a paranormal presence in the park, with this location having the heaviest online documentation of the supernatural. An unworldly woman in white staying in the shadows of the park, strange bloody-mouthed poltergeists, a haunted railroad track: these accounts and innumerably more that have been spread off the internet pose a poignant question, what haunts this park?
