The Springville Inn

The Springville Inn sits along California State Route 190 in the small foothill town of Springville, Tulare County, nestled against the western slope of the Sierra Nevada just minutes from the Giant Sequoia National Monument. The town has been here since 1849, when pioneers settled the area, and the inn has been at its center since 1911, when it was built as the Wilkinson Hotel to serve travelers arriving with the railroad. The original owners went broke during construction and were forced to sell before they ever saw it finished. A 1972 addition brought the motel rooms that extend behind the original structure, but the bones of the place—the restaurant on the ground floor, the bar and dance hall on the second—remain housed in the 1911 building. For over a century, the Springville Inn has served as the social hub of a town that goes quiet by six in the evening. It is also, by most accounts from those who have worked and stayed there, thoroughly haunted.

Four distinct entities have been identified by staff over the decades, each given a plainspoken name by employees who encountered them often enough to stop being surprised. The Old Man is the most frequently reported, an observant presence concentrated around the kitchen and the old dumbwaiter that connects the lower kitchen to the upper service area. Former employees describe him not as a passive residual haunting but as an active and hostile personality—hiding the lock to the walk-in cooler, shoving barstools, breaking glassware, knocking from inside the walk-in as though someone had been locked in, and on more than one occasion physically attempting to push workers down the stairs. The Young Man is said to be the ghost of a logger who was shot and carried into the inn to die. His energy is described as friendly, even charming—he frequents the bar area and has a reported affinity for female guests and staff.

The Little Girl, estimated by witnesses at seven or eight years old, appears in turn-of-the-century dress at various locations throughout the building, though sightings have grown less frequent in recent years. The Woman is the rarest and most unsettling of the four. She has been seen on the upstairs balcony in white, and one former restaurant employee described an encounter in which the figure appeared standing inverted on the ceiling of the dining room, staring down with a dark substance dripping from her mouth. That employee ran screaming into the kitchen.

The reports extend beyond the original building. Guests in the motel rooms have described cabinet doors swinging open on working hinges, unexplained sparkling lights on ceilings that persisted even after curtains were drawn, and personal belongings rearranged overnight—dress socks neatly folded into pant legs in ways the guest swore they never would have done. Staff members have reported whispers, physical touches on the staircase, and self-propelled kitchen utensils. One visitor captured a voice on a phone recording that appeared to say "help me" over background noise. A man from Sacramento who stayed at the inn for a work trip reportedly refused to return, driving an extra forty-five minutes to stay in Tulare on all subsequent visits rather than spend another night. Former employees note the activity is markedly stronger during mornings and afternoons than at night.