Scaring up tourism dollars at the Harvey House

BARSTOW — If you take a moonlit walk around the Harvey House, you may catch a glimpse of “Rachel,” the spirit of a 1920s-era Harvey Girl.

At least, that’s what the 30-plus people who signed up for this weekend’s Haunted Barstow Ghost Tour at the Harvey House are hoping for.
Bill Cook, former tour guide of the Calico Ghost Walk at Calico Ghost Town, hopes that the Harvey House ghost tours may become a regular weekly event, drawing out-of-town spirit aficionados to Barstow.

The pilot ghost walks, scheduled for Friday and Saturday, were timed to coincide with the American Fastpitch Association softball tournament being held at the Robert A. Sessions Memorial Sportspark, said Barstow Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jeri Justus. A number of softball families signed up for the tour, but Cook said other out-of-towners made the trip to Barstow specifically for the Ghost Tour.

Justus and Cook believe that regular ghost walks could encourage more people to stop in Barstow for a night, pumping dollars into local hotels and restaurants.

“Not a single one (of the tour participants) is from anywhere around here, where they can just drive home,” Cook said. “They’re all staying the night.”

In the long term, Justus said she hopes to be able to offer accommodations at the Harvey House for Ghost Walk participants who want to spend the night communing with spirits.

 Cook and his crew of Southern California ghost hunters, working under the name Ghost University, have performed several investigations at the Harvey House and were floored by the volume of spiritual activity they picked up, he said. They took video with infrared cameras, measured electrical and magnetic fields, and used the old tell-tale physical signs like chills and clammy hands to gauge the level of other-wordly activity. Some participants saw human apparitions, including the woman the ghost-hunters dubbed “Rachel” and a man believed to be a former Harvey House manager, he said.

Chamber of Commerce Publicity Director Cory Baker said that when he tagged along on one of the investigations, his skepticism was shaken. Although Baker did not see any human figures, he was startled to see a little orb of light following the investigators through the building.

“I was always pretty skeptical about that kind of thing, but there was too much going on that night,” Baker said.

Apart from whether or not the Harvey House is really haunted, Baker said he sees the value of the ghost tours as a tourist attraction.

The proceeds of Friday and Saturday’s ghost walks go to fund the Discovery Trails program at the Desert Discovery Center. The Chamber is in the process of working out a contract with the city, which owns the Harvey House, hammering out the details of future ghost walks, Justus said.

For more information on future ghostly events in Barstow, see http://www.hauntedbarstow.com.

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