As the weather turns chilly and leaves go golden, it’s that time of year when we start to think about the spectral presences that may be in the room with us, unseen. Our area offers some visitable haunted spaces for those who like the idea of stopping by to possibly commune with ghosts — and then safely return home.

But while some venues play up their haunted reputation and welcome the business that may arise from it, other proprietors would prefer to set those legends aside and make a fresh start that emphasizes the living. Jessica Olson, owner of the Hotel Léger in Mokelumne Hill, is one of those.

“It’s not like we’re saying the ghosts aren’t here. They are here,” says Olson, a Mokelumne Hill resident. “All the locals say that there are more dead people in this town than the living, so there are going to be ghosts. But we would like to respect their presence and let them live their loop while we live ours. So many great historical things happened in this town; I’d hate for all the attention to be paid to ghosts.”

With that in mind, here are a few purportedly haunted sites in the Capital Region. Make a day of it with an open mind — there may or may not be ghosts, but there are plenty of other things to build a fun day around.

Hotel Léger, Mokelumne Hill

If you’re unfamiliar with Mokelumne Hill, you can call it Moke Hill if you don’t want to attempt the full name, which is pronounced “Ma CALL um mee Hill.” Mokelumne means “people of the fishing nets” in Miwok, and the earliest people here were Miwok peoples who fished for salmon in the river. Later, Gold Rushers built a boom town of 15,000 people. Today, the population is about 800 (that’s not missing a zero). The hotel dates to 1851, although three fires in the 1800s have rendered it a different entity than its original single-story building. Today, it’s an 1871 rebuild that connects the hotel with the adjoining courthouse — and the courthouse’s hanging tree is part of the hotel’s haunted history.

As far as the hauntings go, people have felt activity in Room 7, where founder George Léger lived and died, including smelling the smoke of his cigar. The hotel has a website page devoted to its lore, stating, “There have been sightings of George Léger walking around, inspecting his hotel. There are stories of a woman in white in room 2. Children are heard playing in the rooms and halls of this grand old building.” The Hotel Léger was featured on the Travel Channel’s show “Ghost Adventures”with Zak Bagans in 2018, but according to owner Olson, viewers should take the episode with a large grain of salt.

“There aren’t demons. A ghost could easily be an old woman who used to clean the rooms and doesn’t want to leave. … There are Gold Rush descendants still raising kids here. That’s what I’d like our little town to be known for.” Olson points out that one of her current employees is such a descendant — her grandmother used to tend bar at the hotel. “It has a beautiful charm to it, which is why the paranormal leaves a bad taste in my mouth,” says Olson. “I’m not willing to trade the integrity of our hotel for a publicity stunt.”

Olson took ownership in May and prefers to focus on the hotel’s resilience and importance as a place where “miners’ families came through, took a nap, stocked up on goods. We’re running our business as the miners and ranchers did in the 1800s, putting our best foot forward and working hard.”

Preston Castle, Ione

When you conjure up the image of a 19th-century asylum, you’re picturing something like this building. The craggy structure of red stone sits on a hill with multiple towers and arches, perfectly Gothic. Built in 1894, this was the Preston School of Industry where boys came to live if they were delinquent or if they had no home. A famous resident here as a child: musician Merle Haggard.

It’s decrepit inside — just as it should be — and you’ll see shockers like an electroshock therapy machine and a (now empty) “plunge” reputedly filled with diluted lye (something similar to a sheep dip). New boys would have to dunk under the water of the plunge to delouse themselves, with someone wielding a stick to hold them under until they swam the length of it. Shudders.

Trained docents lead your way through the structure, although you can also elect to take a self-guided tour. Unfortunately, the castle is the site of a real-life, unsolved murder. Visitors are told two boys bludgeoned to death the head housekeeper Anna Corbin, pulling her backwards as she tried to ascend the kitchen stairs to the apartment above, then storing her body in a padlocked storeroom.

Double-checking these facts via Newspapers.com (with sources such as the Stockton Evening and Sunday Record) reveals that no one was ever convicted of her murder, although one boy stood trial three times. No weapon was found, but Corbin had been hit with a “tremendous blow” on the back of her head, and a rope was found knotted around her neck. It was thought two boys were involved because of the strength required to move her body to the storeroom.

When I visited a few years ago, I tried to photograph the staircase she was reputedly pulled from but couldn’t. My cell phone’s screen was black, and I thought for a second the phone had turned off. It hadn’t. I kept trying to get a picture of it, but blackness seemed to be seeping, exuding from the stairs. After the tour moved on, I remained, hoping for a photo now that no one was standing in front of the window blocking the light, but the staircase still remained black although I could photograph other parts of the room.

Angelica R. Jackson, author of a photographic book about Preston Castle called “Capturing the Castle,” confirms that she too has experienced equipment malfunctions with her camera and lenses. More chillingly, an entity spoke to her. She felt its presence and jokingly said, “Just let me get this photo and I’ll get out of your way.” A voice grated, “Who do you think you are?” Jackson quickly departed and says it was scary enough that she’ll never do an overnight event there.

But you can! There are also special paranormal investigation tours and events this time of year, such as “The Haunt.” Preston Castle was featured on “Ghost Adventures”in 2009 and the inaugural episode of actor Rob Lowe’s 2017 “The Lowe Files.”

Union Hotel, Benicia

Union Hotel has an impressive history and is lodged right in the middle of a charming retail district with boutiques and al fresco dining steps from the waterfront. The hotel dates to 1852 and was featured on “Ghost Adventures”in 2019. Guests report seeing ghosts here, including a 19th-century woman named Ann Marie who has been spotted peering out through the windows of rooms that are vacant. There are various stories about her fate; one story says she died by hanging herself, while another says she was strangled and pushed down the stairs. Attempts to track down this incident on Newspapers.com were unsuccessful.

Reputedly, the second-floor Victorian-style room hosts other spectral presences, while people have seen a man in a black suit wandering around upstairs late at night and a woman in a wedding dress in the downstairs restaurant. The entire city of Benicia is said to be haunted, says Visit Benicia on its website: “Some towns have whale watching in the autumn months. Some towns have butterflies. Benicia has ghosts.”

Whether or not spirits are on your itinerary, you’ll enjoy dining where author Jack London regularly ate, watching a theatrical performance in the historic 1915 Portuguese Benicia Divino Espirito Santo hall, and Instagramming Robert Arneson’s whimsical tongue-out self-portrait sculpture bench.

Placerville Hardware, Placerville

Billing itself as the oldest hardware store west of the Mississippi, Placerville Hardware dates to the mid-1850s. Embedded in its wooden counter are holes where gold dust used to be swept after a miner’s poke was weighed, every bit of it precious. Things that are still in place from the old days include hardwood floors kept in place with square nails, rolling ladders to reach high shelves, and brickwork walls. Today it’s fun to wander the aisles crowded with the typical hardware store offerings, plus souvenirs and, of course, a huge selection of gold panning equipment.

Interestingly, brass tacks are embedded in the floor at 1-, 5- and 25-foot increments to measure off rope; owner Albert Fausel believes the saying “get down to brass tacks” has to do with this measurement method. If you’re there in person and ask him about the store’s haunted history, you’re guaranteed to get a bit of a jump scare. He’s rigged up some moments to get a rise out of visiting schoolkids — and you.

Fausel says that in one area of the store, “there’s a lady spirit that supposedly unties ladies’ shoelaces. Nothing sells in that zone. I’ve tried so many different things there that sell well otherwise.” Conjecture lies in the fact that on the other side of the 3-foot wall, a building once burned down, and perhaps a spirit that died in the fire is playfully messing with shoes.

Upstairs, private ghost tours have captured spirit orbs on camera. “If you zoom in, it has all these faces. I’m not a total believer, but I can’t explain that.” When he’s upstairs in the dark, alone, he feels the hair stand up on his arm. “I just hope they (the spirits) dust the merchandise overnight,” he jokes.

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