There are reports of paranormal activity stemming from an Indian massacre that occurred here in 1831. There are also many other urban legends surrounding this canyon. Some are not paranormal but involve things such as a homeless man who will chase you away with a gun, and cults that perform ceremonies here. Others say there is haunted farm equipment here, and a haunted school bus that was said to have been removed in 2012.
If you've had a paranormal experience here, or have any additional information about this location, please let us know!
Related Videos
Rate this Haunted Place
What do you think? Is this place really haunted? Voice your opinion here! Click "thumbs up" if you think its haunted, or "thumbs down" if you think its all just a tall tale.
Geographic Information
- Address:
- Black Star Canyon
Orange County, CA
United States
Get Directions » - GPS:
- 33.773351, -117.68227330000002
- County:
- Orange County, California
- Nearest Towns:
- Foothill Ranch, CA (6.1 mi.)
North Tustin, CA (6.4 mi.)
Portola Hills, CA (7.1 mi.)
Villa Park, CA (8.0 mi.)
Tustin, CA (8.5 mi.)
Lake Forest, CA (8.7 mi.)
Trabuco Canyon, CA (9.6 mi.)
Corona, CA (9.7 mi.)
Orange, CA (9.9 mi.)
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA (10.2 mi.)
Please note: It is your responsibility to acquire appropriate permissions before investigating any location listed on this site. Private property should be respected at all times, as should all posted signs concerning trespassing, hours of operation and other local regulations. Many "ghost hunters" have been arrested because they failed to contact property owners and/or local authorities ahead of time.
Share Your Experiences
Comments (22)
Share Your Comments
Disclaimer: The stories posted here are user-submitted and are, in the nature of "ghost stories," largely unverifiable. HauntedPlaces.org makes no claims that any of the statements posted here are factually accurate. The vast majority of information provided on this web site is anecdotal, and as such, should be viewed in the same light as local folklore and urban legends.
I grew up in this area and people tell stories about the canyon all the time. I’ve never been brave enough to go in. I did drive by once with a group of friends and we were terrified. It’s always interesting to hear all the haunting stories.
I’ve been here three times; 2 out of the 3 times I’ve experienced ungodly things. I hate it yet I’m drawn to it.
Each time was different, this place is beautiful it’s just at night things happen.
Dude take the trail down to the well, the wait by your self, the crap you’ll see is out of this world!
I grew up about 15 minutes from here. I’ve never experienced anything during the day- always at night. Before they took the school bus out, that seemed to be the center of the energy. There are many stick figurines around the area, flashlights completely go out when they have new batteries in them, and there always seems to be a heavy presence as you walk around the trails. We’ve seen groups of people chanting around an old oak half emerged in stream on more than one occasion, but never had the guts to approach them…
Well if any one go’s don’t take, Flash lights, Video Camera(photos are cool) or any weapons of any kind. Do this and you well be good to go, just don’t bring anything home with you from Blackstar. Just don’t… Oh and ask for the little boy to play with you, if you can ake it. 😉
I lived near black star( Silverado canyon) for 21 years. I wouldn’t advise going there. Especially not at night. Not the safest place to be. Some people that live there can be nasty. Some kids got raped and beaten up there years ago.
The only thing all of you experienced is fear of the
Normal natural nightly nature of the wildlife in the area.
All is funny reading your post.’ I am military and I saw
More overseas on night patrol that would make your
Teddy bear crap lumps of stuffing then I experienced
Their over a five day and four night sleep out by and around
Your little old well and dwelling remains in the area.
I even camped out by a old mine. And guess what lil kiddies,
Nothing their but what fear you all create in your sweet
Lil young heads. I went in completely alone the full time.
I did see a mountain lion tho quite a few times during my
Stay in the canyon. I hope you know how to deal with
Big pussy cats like that should you come across them
Alone, dumb if you don’t, perhaps graduating from teddy
To GI Joe will make you safe. Although I dought it if
That big cat is hungry enough. Remember kids, most
Things you fear are made up in your head. Be safe.
This place is dangerous. Found this article about it on Latimes.com
. http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jul/17/local/me-23198
Hell yeah ive been to blackstar many times… awesome stuff check out the crazy tuttles house but beware i tell you. I seen cool stuff like a huge spider,bones from an animal and other cool stuff i cant remember right now but anyways dont be shy check out an awesome experience at blackstar.
Haha… I grew up in Silverado also. I remember crazy Tuttle and his family and Blackstar bill. I never experienced any ghost activity but my brother his friend and myself were chased out of there by people in robes.
Is there an official record of this accident. I was in a similar Bus Crash in that same area around 1982. I happened to see a picture of the bus and brought back some memories.The stories say it happened in the late 70’s and some children died. In my accident I dont recall major injuries or fatalities, but then again I was 5-6 years old. If anyone has any info please share. I need to know if this was my bus
went there tonight and while my wife and sister and her boyfriend were walking through black star when ended up at a bridge. once we seem to have passed a bridge after edwards ranch entrance the temperature had dropped tremisely and as we turned back to our car on our walk back we witnessed movement in the trees and bushes and also while i looked back and a rope appeared to be hanging from the center on a tree which hovered over the path as if someone climg a latter to put it there to freak someone out but noone was in sight going in our out
A few people I know went 2 months ago at night and they didn’t say if they saw anything but their car was broken into along with others that were parked on the street. All the windows were broken.. I’ve read about other cars getting broken into to just be careful
I went in black star canyon in 2012 right before they removed the school bus. I went with just a group of three. On our way there our gps started acting up incredibly strange. We were about 5 minutes to the canyon and each and every one of our phones kept rerouting us as if it didn’t want us to go into the canyon.. anyways, we got there around 8pm and then sun had just gone down and anyone who had ever been in the canyon knows, it’s one way in, one way out. We parked our car by where everyone else had parked their car. So my group of three started walking along the trail and this group of 5 or 6 strange teenagers.. (probably around our age at the time) were behind us and so we let them go ahead. Awhile has passed and that group had been long gone from us and we hear rustling from the bushes next to us. But remember what I said, there’s only one way in and one way out… so there was absolutely no way it was the other group. I, being stupid looked around the bushes and to my expectation there was nothing that would make the bushes rustle, considering there were no winds at all and that black star canyon was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Our group was a little skeptical and probably thought it might have just been a random gush of wind till we all started hearing what appears to be bongo drums. Super natural or not, it was creepy and it got louder and louder as we walked farther into the canyon. We reached a two way path, one that led to the forest and one that led to where the school bus was.. our group took the forest way and honestly did not even make it half way. I kid you not, we dashed right out of there because once we were getting too deep into the forest, it got insanely cold and we started hearing sprinting footsteps from behind us. It lasted till we were almost back to our car. Every time I tried to record anything my phone froze and the flashlight on my phone would turn off every 30 or so seconds. The bongo drumming was the creepiest thing I’ve ever heard knowing the history of black star. In 2012, I think we brought something back with us. After visiting the canyon our dog at the time would bark and be troubled by something. He would bark at an empty space in the house as if there was something there. And it happened several times.. That dog has been gone and we got a new dog. This is dating from 2015 – 2016, we have a completely different dog. He too barks at random spaces in our house. The same ones that our old dog barked at. Mind that this would happen around 1am – 3am. I don’t know what’s really up in black star, but nothing good will ever come out of it.
Is anyone sure of children’s deaths at Black Star or O’Neil campgrounds (both nearby)??
I was camping there a couple years ago with my husband and friends and the strangest thing happened…
When we were waling around the O’Neil campgrounds to use the restrooms, we saw a group of teens playing with a Ouija board in the distance.
Later that night, our friends went to get their pillows and blankets from inside their locked brand new car and found the there were white little hand prints and a smiley face drawn on the black leather seats!
The car wouldn’t start either – battery on the new car was completely dead!
Anyone have a similar experience or have any proof of deceased children in that area?
OMG I grew up there…Cooks Corner.. Many nights I saw the white hand hands near my window..and the pink lady was frequent….
We went here thinking we would finally experience something. We walked over 10 miles following the trail all the way back and past the waterfall turn off.until we literally got to the top of the mountain…saw, felt, experienced nothing…
It is mentioned numerous times in comments above that activity is heavy at night, NOT during the day… So maybe take a night hike?
I actually had an experience here at the Indian Massacre site with my fiance. The first thing that happened was, as we were approaching the Indian Massacre site I saw like 3 people sitting on the rocks there from about 100 feet away and I said to my fiance that there was some people there. As anyone who knows this site, there is only one way to come in and out of it. When we actually entered the site, we found that no one was there and we were left alone. I didn’t think much of it at the time until later on after some thing else had happened on our visit here. We came here to take some pictures and video since we are int photography and exploring cool places. We didn’t come here to find any or ghosts or to have any kind of a supernatural experience. I personally do not follow after that kind of stuff. But after this visit to the Indian Massacre site, I definitely think there is something here at this location. The story goes as follows (this is a real story and not made up): As I was still taking pictures of the site, my fiance was wondering around on her own trying to get some video of the Indian Massacre site, we were separated a little distance at the site, but when came back to her she was kinda startled and said that something had thrown a rock at her purse. Again, I still didn’t think much of it, but I followed her to where it happened, and saw a large sized rock that must have hit her purse and i realized it happened right by the rocks where I thought I saw people at the site as we were coming there. Then suddenly, after she told me this, she said she got extremely cold and I felt her hands and they were frozen like she was holding onto ice cubes. No joke. I actually felt them and thought it was kind of strange because it wasn’t even cold it was pretty warm at the time. I knew something was going on, and decided it was time to leave. This happened around dusk. Later on I watched the video that she had taken, and I actually heard the rock hitting her, this definitely changed my mind about Black Star Canyon, specifically at The Indian Village Massacre Site. You can see some of the photos I took at this location on that day at https://picflixdigitalimages.wordpress.com and you can also watch my fiances video on You Tube where you can actually hear the rock hitting her at 2:31 (A Must See) https://youtu.be/X-FTCjIdY6w
Ive been 4 times during the day and drove near twice at night. The first time i went during the day I kept hear my name being whispered and after a few minutes of that I decided to turn around. I have this blue sweatshirt I really like and I wear it often. As I’m walking back I see a blue sweatshirt, like mine, out in the brush. At that point I was running. Now, I know it was probably coincidental but I wasn’t taking any chances. The last time I went during the day I waited a few minutes before entering. While I waited, all of a sudden, I saw a raven (yes a raven, not a crow) perched right next to me staring at me. I looked away, looked back, and it was gone. Then I decided to walk in. As soon as I walked in I got bad drift. After I turned around, I saw the raven once again perched by the entrance. The second time I drove by at night I saw the KKK in their white robes, circled around a bonfire. After that I haven’t had the courage to go back.
I normally drive through the canyon, daily. One day while driving during the day, I saw a school bus pulled over to the side of the road. Keep in mind it is a secluded highway with no one living before the canyon (if you start driving from Chapman Ave). It looked like a normal bus but when I got closer I saw children’s schoolwork and art posted on all the windows. On my way back, during the night, I saw the bus again except this time there was a bright white light inside it. Like I said before no one lives nearby. And there were no cars parked or pulled over to the side of the road. After that night I never saw the bus again.
Listen to my creepy experience I had in High School in Black Star Canyon. Cheers! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/13-strange-spooky-black-star-canyon-ghost-stories-woods/id1300449389?i=1000412111282&mt=2
I went to Black Star Canyon with 3 people very late at night. We saw a lady with really long gray hair and a very long black dress, She looked like she was from the 1800s walking almost completely in the middle of the road, as we drove by. Everybody frightened and did not to return.