Old Stage Road is the center of a local legend about a woman who was walking along the road and was raped and decapitated by a man who stopped to offer her a ride. Her apparition is said to walk along the road holding her head.
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Geographic Information
- Address:
- Old Stage Road
Salinas, CA
United States
Get Directions » - GPS:
- 36.686397, -121.5639572
- County:
- Monterey County, California
- Nearest Towns:
- Salinas, CA (5.1 mi.)
Boronda, CA (6.2 mi.)
Spreckels, CA (6.4 mi.)
Chualar, CA (8.4 mi.)
Prunedale, CA (8.5 mi.)
San Juan Bautista, CA (11.1 mi.)
Castroville, CA (12.1 mi.)
Marina, CA (13.2 mi.)
Elkhorn, CA (13.7 mi.)
Ridgemark, CA (14.0 mi.)
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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 do not know about Old Stage Road but I know Homestead Ave in the old part of town in Salinas is pretty huanted. I grew up there and there was some pretty strange stuff going on there while I was growing up. It is the area just past Hartnell College and Central Park.
I live con archer st in salinas ca bit what adress
Your right plus im using my moms phone I was by oldstage cuz I went to my cousin s house we were going bk home and we went through old stage and guess WHAT we saw a ghost o.o
I always heard it was haunted by a police car that would turn it lights on and attempt to pull you over…but would vanish into thin air soon after you pulled over?
I’m interested in which part of Homestead this is about… I knew up on Homestead Ave
*Grew
Me, my mom, and my older sister will be going today at night I hope I see a ghost to see if it is real
My uncle owned several houses on Homestead and alexander in Salinas . The Alexander house was definably haunted.
Yes… the back part of Homestead. I would always here what sou ded like a muffled scream. My ex husbands family lived towards the of the street.
Yes Old stage and chualar rd are pretty close to each other, a lot of people have died in these roads, my uncle was driving by chualar rd. and experienced something creepy, there was a woman walking on the side of the road asking for a ride in her night gown he pulled over to open the door for her and she was gone out of no where.
o.o really plus dat ghost I saw screams and my family screamed too and my dad drove.off
Back in 98′ 4 of us were driving back from salinas form a party and we werw Going back to chualar. We had booze in the car and I was under 21 and driving so we took old stage to avoid the police. one of the guys was wasted while another had a couple of drinks in his system. The other two of us were sober. Between esperanza and chualar rd. We noticed a woman with flowing black hair dressed in white willing down the road.my friends told me to slow down as we approached her. I slowed down to like15mph as we passed her.Thinking nothing about a ghost. The passenger rolled the window down we passed her we noticed She had a very pale face and sunken eyes. And she just looked at us. We were frozen until one of the guys told me to speed up. I floored the gas pedal. I could see her in my side mirror but she disspeared in my rear view Mirror. I tapped the brakes to illuminate the area but she was not there.
I live right off old stage and she is still there waiting to get picked up, she doesn’t stay on the road walking anymore. She now shows up in the back of people’s back seat. I officially don’t drive on old stage at night
I’ve driven through Old Stage Rd countless times very late at night. I’ve even been out there with my mountain bike during late evening hours (I stick to dirt roads, not the main road). The only things I’ve seen at night have been suspicious looking vehicles parked on private property to stay out of sight, and people driving with their headlights off in the dark.
Lmfao. Thats true. But hey besides the FACT that the bk roads are known for finding dead bodies me and my husband a while bk wen we wer just bf and gf we saw a ufo. It followed us till we got to town then it was gone just like that
When I learned how to drive, my friends and I used to take Old Stage Road a lot, either to pass time or for frights. Usually, nothing occurred out of the ordinary. There has been times though, we’ve felt a presence or saw something. On one occasion, I have felt the seatbelt on me tighten but I am willing to disregard it because seat belts are retractable and move along with the wearer. My friend next to me felt something holding her arm/hand. On another occasion I was driving with my cousin, and two of our friends. Two events happened that night- we were being followed by a large truck with what appeared to be high beams on- we sped ahead and turned on another road and waited for the truck to pass by; it never did. We drove back to town and we switched drivers because I wanted to drink and we took another drive back to Old Stage. I forgot what part we drove and stopped at but my friend turned off the car and turned off the headlights. Well, during that second (literally, it was the second the headlights turned off) after I heard a scream, it wasn’t loud but I could barely hear it. Nobody said nothing until I spoke up, “I’m trippin’ but did you hear that?”, “the scream?” my cousin answered and we all freaked out and turned the car on again and drove off. On a third occasion I drove by myself to my friend’s house- I felt pressure on my feet as I was driving. Again, I can disregard it based on my shoewear but at that time I wore mostly sandals.
I’ve lived on Old Stage Road about a mile south of Natividad Boys Ranch (now Rancho Cielo) my entire life and have never seen, heard or felt anything. I’m 43 now so it’s been YEARS.
I grew in Salinas, so I’m familiar with this local legend. Friends and I have driven down this road a few times for little scare thrills. I have never seen the woman myself, though we have tried, but there is definitely something “off” about this particular road. While back roads are always a little creepy late at night, this one is just wrong in a lot of ways. We’ve seen marks left in the road, articles of clothing on the side that weren’t there when we went one way or we hadn’t noticed until coming back. The strangest and creepiest thing we encountered was when we got out of the car one particular night and were standing around the car we heard a faint and far away scream (or what sounded like one). There are houses nearby, so it could have been people messing around, but it always makes me feel a little uneasy to thing about.
One warning I do want anyone to heed though if you plan to do a little thrill chasing with people or alone on Old Stage is to just be very careful and aware of any other cars that come around. Local gangs have been known to dump bodies out on this road, possibly even do some of their killings there, so just be cautious of that fact.
I hate to say this but I have encountered this image several times about 1 am thru 3 am. Every time I see her, I pray out loud and this demon disappears.
Me and afreind go out on old stage for frights one time not too long ago we were driving along the radio was staticy he was adjusting it then the radio changed out of nowhere and we heard screams like people being torchered and the energy felt heavy i felt uneasy and sick to my stomach there’s something evil out there we got out of there so fast old stage has a high spiritual presence and not the freindly kind
Not related to old Stage Rd Legend. But bk in 1993..A friend was driving to Marina on Blanco Rd. She saw a man walkin along..uncommon of her, she pulled over and asked if he needed a ride. He thanked her and got into the car. A conversation started and the man started to tell her that the end of world was comin in some detail…she laughed in disbelief of what he was saying…turning her head towards him to agrue her position…and He WAS Gone!…She freaked out and swirved her car…a police car who had been behind her turn his sirens on to pull her over. Thinking she was a drunk driver.
She could barely talk..He interrupted her sayin ” okay, okay so you picked up a hitch hiker and he vanished after tellin you that Jesus was comin soon, right?”….Its been happening All Day!”
I was born and raised in Salinas Ca., although I have never seen anything paranormal on Old Stage road I have had a disturbing experience while living at a residence located at 158 Central Ave. Salinas Ca. While renting a studio apartment upstairs at this location from 2011-2013, I would continually see an apparition of a woman dressed in black with a veil over her face with clothing from the early 1900’s. She would stare down the street towards the Steinbeck house as if she was waiting for someone. I would see dark figures at night in the kitchen area and would hear voices coming from the attic. I later learned that this house was built during the late 1800’s as a sanitarium but it burned down and was later rebuilt and made into a private doctors residence. Even later is was used as a brothel. There is a story that goes a prostitute was killed there but I am not to sure on the details.
I always heard it was haunted by a police car that would turn it lights on and attempt to pull you over…but would vanish into thin air soon after you pulled over?
I was born and raised in Salinas Ca., although I have never seen anything paranormal on Old Stage road I have had a disturbing experience while living at a residence located at 157 Central Ave. Salinas Ca. While renting a studio apartment upstairs at this location from 2011-2013, I would continually see an apparition of a woman dressed in black with a veil over her face with clothing from the early 1900’s. She would stare down the street towards the Steinbeck house as if she was waiting for someone. I would see dark figures at night in the kitchen area and would hear voices coming from the attic. I later learned that this house was built during the late 1800’s as a sanitarium but it burned down and was later rebuilt and made into a private doctors residence. Even later is was used as a brothel. There is a story that goes a prostitute was killed there but I am not to sure on the details.
Ok so the following happened in mid June 2000. I was told about Old Stage Road from this girl I had just become friends with. She told me about the burned out cars at the bottom of the hill so we decided to go check it out. We went, smoked a couple joints and found the cars that had crashed and burned. We hung out a bit looking at the different cars from all era’s 40’s, 50’s… then walked back. Absolutely nothing happened; but it was fun so I told my two best friends about it and we decided to go but this time it would be a completely different experience.
As I’m writing this I have goosebumps just even remembering that day. So my two best friends and I go to Old Stage Road and again park, get out and start walking. This time we bring joints and Smirnoff Ices (I know… we were teens) that we enjoy on the way and have a blast laughing and joking on our hike. Again we find the cars, hang out looking at the different makes and styles. But instead of walking back like last time we decide to keep going. This was later going to be a huge mistake. So we walk and walk all while we each had 2 Smirnoffs and kept smoking joints,getting all buzzed and lit. We are in our own little bubble laughing and having a great time we don’t realize it’s getting late and the suns going down. It finally hits us when we come upon a dark tree and I think it was me that said: that’s a perfect tree to hang someone on or something to that effect when we snap out our weed and alcohol induced bubble and realize it’s now dark and we are in the middle of who knows where. My friend kind of reassured us all was fine and we start walking back when it happened. All three of us start hearing voices coming from the side of the trail. Like whispers we could hear them saying: look at them they’re drinking; they’re smoking; laughing at us. We also saw faint shadows where these whispers were coming from. Our buzz we were enjoying immediately disappeared and we were terrified. My friend who was the most into ghosts tried to keep us from just dropping on the floor and crying but as we were running my friend got literally pushed in front of me, then something completely wrapped around my ankle. At that moment I looked down but saw nothing. By this time we are running and crying hysterically. My friend stopped telling us it was ok and just yelled to keep running. We could still hear the whispers laughing at us. We kept running until we didn’t hear the whispers anymore. Finally after what seemed like forever we saw the car jumped in and drove away trying to process everything that just happened because I didn’t / don’t believe in ghosts. I don’t know exactly what we encountered that night but it still terrifies me just remembering it. Years later, the three of us moved away but every time we all get together, without fail, the first thing we say is: remember that night at Old Stage Road!
It was like 3am and I was driving through the back roads aka old stage..to take my husband lunch.he worked grave yard at a vegetable packing company back in 2003 ish 2004..ish….somewhere in between there and headed back home was a boy on a scooter in old fashioned clothes ..like 11 or 12 yrs old just “foot in” it..in the dark…n I didn’t think shit besides like..oh shit Hes going back home..probly does it all the time…looked like he knew where he was going….I was solo tired…and untill I took a sec to process it all ..I looked in my review and realized that there wasn’t not even one light let alone house or street or sign on that particular street that I saw him…I was driving back home towards Williams rd about a couple miles before the elementary school I think n it was like the last lil hill that you have to drive over and threw before you actually see the towns lights…I say this because as I aproached this tiny hill I told myself to stay awake and keep my eyes open no matter what don’t blink ..!..i was half asleep I think, 9mos pregnant….and I remember Cleary the little headlight that was dim yet still visible Caught my full attention ..slowly getting closer as we were about to pass each other(going in opposite directions).then I was like wait hold up ..where da he’ll is his house cause he gots a long ways home from here..I never saw shit again after he faded outta my rearview….
A cousin of mine has since .séen the same boy confirming by description his clothes and with exact matching detail!
Ive lived and grew up in Salinas. My Dad let me drive on Old Stage, San Juan grade, Fremont Peak alot. He would tell me tails of things that happened out there from when he was a teenager growing up in Alisal. Beware of the Green Weenie, and his demenon of Creeps… Wobble… Wobble…
I don’t really believe in the paranormal, but let me share this little Old Stage Rd story. This was back in 2006. My brother in law used to live out there near Old Stage Rd. We were out there in the middle of day in broad daylight standing by a creek. We were just talking when we heard footsteps right behind us. We heard the dirt and rocks crunch just like when someone steps over dirt with a pair of boots. It sounded like they were maybe 3 feet away. When we turned, no one was there. My bro in law and I just glanced over at each other, and we decided to check things out. Nothing turned up. There’s really no place to hide in that area. We were not drinking or doing anything irresponsible like that. I still don’t really believe in the paranormal, but that experience made me question certain things. Since I couldn’t debunk it at the time and the fact that we both heard the exact same thing, it did shake me up a bit.
I grew up in Salinas and lived in Alisal in the 70’s-90’s. Old Stage Rd has been known for folk lure and real life events over the years clear back to the early 1800’s. One story that most people never hear about anymore has two twists to it. Have searched it out on both sides and haven’t found any record of either happening.
But have heard it from others outside family friends and family that have lived there for years.
Here is the in counters that have been told and location if you dare see for yourself.
If you go to the end of Williams Rd and turn right onto Old Stage Rd, drive to the first bend of Old Stage Rd (about a 1/4 mile ) you will find a creek, a tree, and a rock formations wall behind the tree.
Here are the in counters that has been said to have happened and the story behind both.
Stories of acurrannce; it has been said that a gf and bf were killed here in both stories. It is said that they had died to different ways one by hanging, the other by getting crushed by a farmers truck.
Story goes , that the couple were young kids around the late 50’s. The boy 18, the girl 17 and pregnant. One night after many warnings from her father that if he caught them together he would do away with them both. The farmer that owned this property at the time, was not happy with the situations and followed them as he seen his daughter going down the dirt road to meet her Bo. They met at the curve to decide whether to leave the area or stay to deal with the wrath of the farmer. Well it is said, that the farmer took his truck and ran them both down pinning both kids between his truck and the tree. Killing both kids and their unborn child.
The other story starts the same as the first only difference is that instead running down the kids, the farmer parked his truck at the end of the dirt road and got out walking quietly up upon the kids and the farmer drew a pistol and shot the bf dead and knocked the daughter out with the butt of the pistol. The farmer returned to the truck got a rope and hung the couple from the tree next to each other.
It is said that the daughter was awake when her father hung her and then stabbed her in the stomach to also kill the unborn child.
Sad stories still the same either way it supposedly went.
Now for the venture that has been told to have happened over the last half of the century. It is said, If you go there between 2 am and 3 am to this location and park on the same side of the Rd where the tree is and flash your head lights five times and leave the lights on at the last flash you will see the girl at the base of where the tree stands you will see the farmers daughter bent down crying out loud from the loss of her Bo and unborn child.
Have tried this several times over the years and have seen the ghost of a girl of approximately the age of her late to mid teens twice.
Beware of this trip as it has been passed down through the years, that the ones that did go there was chased by what appears to be an old farmers truck down the road for a 1/4 mile down Old Stage Rd going towards Chular. Only for it to just vanish after it flashes it’s lights.
Many stories and folk lure has been tried to be debunked about this Rd. But with this said, you must take a warning, Old Stage Rd is not a play ground as it is in the history of the Salinas newspaper, that lots of bad situations have happened and are for the weary. From abduction, to gang affiliate murders and murders of people only to be found in the fields or bodies to be found off to the side of Old Stage Rd unexplained still to this day of what happened to these people. So be very careful in your ventures of trying to find a thrill on this road.
I have a Salinas story and Alicel part of Salinas story been born and raised here my whole life and grew up mostly on the John Street area…well a little part of my life I lived at my Gma’s house just off John St. My gpa and her bought it in the early 50’s.( we r here still to this day) My gpa built the backyard fence from scratch by hand, and a back patio off the garage going into the backyard. He definitely was the man of the house and nobody word was as good as he is as far as rules of the house and the way he wanted things he definitely has a presence here. And a few years ago I had the privilege of witnessing his presence. About four or five years ago on Fourth of July our cat had a litter of kittens. So my mom and I were in the garage where she set up a little place for the mama and the babies to be undisturbed by the other animals, and she wanted me to take a few pictures of the babies and post them on Facebook and get advice or opinions on what we should name all seven of the babies that we had and we wanted them to be Independence Day related names. So my mother and I in the garage in this new spot for the kittens and the mom was actually the exact spot that my grandpa had his workbench where he put bikes together and sold them that was his corner of the garage his workbench which is now isn’t there. But anyways that’s where I looked over my mother shoulder where she had in her arms the baby kittens on a cow print blanket and I took three pictures. So we went along with our day. And about three hours four hours later my mom tells me I didn’t see the pictures of the kittens on Facebook did you upload them to Facebook yet? And I said oh I forgot let me do that right now. So I go to my phone and I look at my phone to my recent pictures because those were the last pictures that I took and I only got one picture out of all three and you really can’t see the kittens they are very overshadowed by what I caught on my camera. It was a picture of my grandpa in his military days he loved Fourth of July and it shows him looking at the kittens in my mothers arms and you can see his finger shaking back-and-forth as if he saying sshhh, shhh, shhh And in the photo I caught his finger in motion you can see the blur from it and to me I see a woman in the background behind him. It’s such a blessing it’s so wonderful we were just well needless to say I never posted the photo of the kittens because I got a better photo instead and we went ahead and named him my grandpa gave us inspiration and we named them all what we thought they should be named and not one of them had a name that had to do with Independence Day… his presence is very strong here … this is his house and I feel so very blessed I love you grandpa thank you for trusting me to come through for me when I least expect it, and my mother just jaw dropped kind of speechless for a few minutes we were trying to wrap our heads around what we were seeing because we were together when I took the pictures. I am no longer afraid of death I know that there is another side and that the people that I love are there or they are still coming through here and protecting us and watching us watching over us and being a part of the memorial parts of our lives. That proves there is life after death …it’s a fact!