Brookdale Lodge

A century-old lodge tucked in the redwood-forested Santa Cruz Mountains. Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Herbert Hoover all stayed here. The Brook Room restaurant has a real creek running through it. Ghost Adventures filmed an episode here, and the place has one of the stronger haunted reputations in California.

The Brookdale Lodge's dark history begins with its most famous ghost: a young blonde girl in a blue and white Sunday dress known as Sarah Logan. She was supposedly the niece of Judge James Harvey Logan, who purchased the property in 1900 and converted it from the Grover Lumber Mill into a resort. Sarah allegedly drowned in Clear Creek around the early 1900s, and her spirit has been encountered throughout the lodge ever since. Guests consistently describe her the same way -- blonde curly hair, white or blue dress -- and she's been seen sitting on the fireplace in the lobby, running through the Fireside Room, and dashing along balconies. Most notably, she approaches guests asking for help finding her nanny before vanishing into thin air. However, skeptics note that no death record for Sarah Logan has ever been found, and the famous creek running through the dining room wasn't installed until Dr. F.K. Camp built the Brook Room in the 1920s.

The lodge's second major tragedy occurred in 1972 when a thirteen-year-old girl drowned in the indoor swimming pool, leading to the permanent closure of the Mermaid Room. The pool was drained, but the ghost of the unnamed teenager lingers. Guests have reported seeing her floating above where the water once was, her long brown hair flowing. Wet footprints appear around the bone-dry pool, and visitors feel sudden icy drafts and the sensation of being touched by unseen hands. The jukebox in the shuttered Mermaid Room turns itself on and off, and soft voices and clinking glasses echo from the empty space.

But Sarah and the pool girl are far from alone. In 1991, psychics told the owners that 49 spirits resided on the property. When renowned psychic Sylvia Browne visited, she identified more than sixty trapped souls. One spirit, known as George, is believed to be a lumberjack from the mill's early days -- he's been encountered in the second-floor conference room and behind the lodge, slamming doors and stomping through empty halls.

The most intensely haunted location may be Room 46 (now numbered 2209 or 123, depending on renovations). A murder allegedly occurred in this motel wing room, and residents have reported extreme poltergeist activity: objects flying across the room at night, ghostly ballroom dancers swirling and leering, and disturbing figures including a young boy, a man with a dangling eye, and someone with a knife wound across his face. One occupant felt someone sit on her bed and stroke her arm in the darkness.

The lodge's Prohibition-era past adds another layer of darkness. During the 1920s through 1940s, the secluded mountain resort became a haven for organized crime. Al Capone was reportedly a periodic visitor before his 1931 imprisonment at Alcatraz. Gangsters hid bootleg alcohol, drugs, money, and people on the property. A tunnel ran beneath Highway 9 connecting the lodge to wood cabins that served as a brothel. According to rumors, a secret room nicknamed the "Meat Locker" was built underground where victims could be murdered without their screams being heard. Bodies are supposedly buried beneath the floorboards of the Brook Room -- cement cylinders found under the dining room were allegedly used for bottle storage, but some believe they concealed darker secrets.

Activity runs through the whole property. In the Brook Room, visitors witness a ghostly woman walking across the creek as if supported by a bridge that was removed decades ago. Voices, clinking glasses, and the sounds of a dinner party come from the empty dining hall at night. A strong gardenia scent fills rooms despite no flowers being present. Guests staying in the main building report footsteps above their top-floor rooms and figures walking on elevated walkways that no longer exist. The drained pool has been seen full of water with a young girl swimming -- only for the illusion to vanish moments later. Faint big band music plays in the Fireside Room late at night.

Ghost Adventures filmed here in 2012, and the lodge was featured in a 2003 TV special titled "America's Most Haunted" featuring Sylvia Browne. Current owner Pravin Patel, who acquired the property in 2013, has heard the sounds of a little girl laughing and playing with other voices from empty rooms. When asked about performing an exorcism, he declined -- the spirits have been here for over a century, and he believes nothing truly threatening haunts the lodge. The ghosts, it seems, are permanent residents.