During the Calico Day’s festival, we had disabled lady on one of the ghost walks that had a single seat, electric cart.  She did great driving up the street, but when we got to the schoolhouse, that's when the fun began. We all cross the bridge to go to the schoolhouse and had our normal ghost walk around the schoolhouse, but when it was time to come back across the bridge to the other side of the ravine, her electric cart showed the battery fully dead.  She called to her husband and other friends with her to help her. They fiddled with her cart for a minute. Then my wife who was on the ghost walk with us that evening walked over to see if she could offer assistance. Realizing what the problem was, she stated to the people that this was a common occurrence at the schoolhouse and that when she crossed back over the bridge to the other side of the ravine, power would be restored.  One skeptical man in the group said "I don't think so!" Her friends got together and pushed the electric cart back to the bridge and across the bridge. When arriving at the other side,  the ladies husband asked if it would be all right if we called for Ranger to come up with his pickup and give her right back to the parking lot with her cart.  As he finished asking this, the lady on the cart, said "Hey! My cart works fine! All the power is back!" The gentleman that was very skeptical before on the other side of the bridge took three steps back and said "No way!!!! You gotta be kidding." I know he now thinks twice before being so skeptical around spirits.

This sighting at Calico is very interesting, because I was waiting for this to finally be sited. Dorsey, the mail carrying dog (pictured above), has finally been spotted at Calico our last two festivals.  Three people at Calico Day’s told me they had seen him in the cemetery on the top of the hill as a shadow.  They said, the definition of Dorsey was very clear, but still a shadow.  During our Ghost Haunt, two different people told me they saw a dog in shadow form against the exterior wall of the Print Shop. They said it looked like the dog had small sacks on his back.  This location is where Joe's Saloon used to stand.  It fell down in our 1997 earthquake.  Joe's Saloon was the known location of the post office in Calico during Dorsey's mail carrying life.  It was later that it turned into Joe's Saloon.  As a mention of interest, Disney made a film about Dorsey called "Go West Young Dog". Sometimes this is aired on the Disney Channel.

This sighting occurred Friday, November 14, 2003 at about 8:30 p.m.  I was giving a ghost walk to a Boy Scout Troop of about 40 people and we were standing in front of the Park office, which is the oldest wooden structure in town (1884).  I was talking to the Scout Troop about the building and its surroundings. Eight Scouts and two adults were quite interested in something up the street behind me.  I continued talking about the Park office and the old miner’s tent in front of the office but kept noticing the attention of these 10 people being drawn up the street and not to me talking.  I finally asked them "What are you looking at?"  They were rather puzzled in answering my question.  They told me that they had seen a very old lady walking from in front of the Print Shop on the west side of the street and then she slowly walked across the street between the 1890s store and the Lucy Lane House and Museum, which is on the east side of the street.  She was then nowhere to be seen after that.  I asked them how she was dressed.  They told me that she was dressed in a black dress, which extended all the way down to her ankles.  I asked them, was it just a regular dress or anything special about it.  They told me that it was not real smooth dress but had some ripples on it, or some sort of texture.  I asked if it possibly could have been a lace dress, and they replied that it was possibly that.  They also told me she was carrying a basket in one hand with something sticking out of the basket, which they could not tell it was.

This account that they told me is a repeat of previous sightings of Lucy Lane (pictured above).  We even have several sightings from the Rangers on duty at night.  This account matches details of the previous accounts.  We know that Lucy Lane was buried in a black lace dress, which makes sense in the visual accounts.  We also know that she appreciated her privacy, and that a lot of times she would not enter her house through the front door, but through the back door.  This makes sense why she was seeing walking between the 1890s store and her house, only to go to the back door.

Well, this one really threw me for a loop since it was really an unexpected sighting……..of course what one isn’t? After one of the Ghost Walks, a young man named Jay came up to me with his mother and said that he had seen a misty smoke in the window of the Photo Shop (pictured above) as we passed ending the tour. I asked him if it was like a glare or………..? He said that it was definitely like a misty smoke. I asked Jay and his mother to accompany me back to the Photo Shop to check it out. (My one reasoning was to make sure the place wasn’t on fire. Lord help us!) As we looked at the windows from the outside, everything was clear and normal. I opened the door and we entered the darkened Photo Shop with only one dim light on. I stood and chatted with him mom for a few minutes while Jay cautiously looked around. After a few minutes Jay told me that it felt like somebody was “tapping” on his left arm. It continued for several minutes and then stopped. What I told Jay and his mother is what you will now read.

A few months ago, an employee of mine, who also works in the museum across the street, was sitting on the front porch of the museum during daylight hours, when he noticed what looked like a misty, smoke through the open front door of the Photo Shop. Curious, because you are not allowed to smoke in the buildings, he walked quickly across the street to see what this was. As he approached the door he saw the misty smoke move to the back room and disappear. This was the first visual sighting ever of anything at the Photo Shop. This is the exact description that Jay gave us. We have had bottles tip over and roll to the end of the bar without ever breaking, picture frames on our display cabinet tip over one at a time, flip, flip, flip, flip, without breaking ………well maybe one, the camera take pictures on it’s own, etc.

We have also had many people “sensitive to spirits” come into the shop as visiting guests and accurately describe a ghost that we have in the Photo Shop. The description is always the same. The ghost is a miner with a long with beard. He is a ladies man. He does like to drink at the other saloons in town, (we had 22) but this is the one he calls his home and drinks at the most. (The site of the Photo Shop was the Calico Saloon, also known as the Isaac Noel Saloon. It was the most popular saloon in Calico back in the 1800’s.) He likes to play jokes on people. He enjoys people calling him Joe or Jojo. (We gave him the name of Joe way back, years ago. Not many people ever knew this.)

Jay had told me that he was being “tapped” on the arm. This is the exact word always used by people that experience it. Well…………I will tell you that this is very common in the Photo Shop and we (employees) get it all the time. My wife Jill in particular is very sensitive to the “tapping”. She is comfortable knowing that it is Joe saying “hi”. If you ever come by the Photo Shop during the day, be sure to say “howdy” to Joe.