The small family had stopped at the sign near the Tachi Cemetery south of Lemoore last summer. A striking coldness swept into the car. From the back seat the 2-year old daughter said, “Mommy, mommy, La Niña [the little girl].”

The young mother turned to see her daughter staring at the empty space next to the front seat. As the woman watched, her daughter’s eyes followed the unseen from the front seat to a spot next to her in the back seat.

Again came the little girl’s cries.

“Mommy, Mommy, La Niña hurts.”

A chill ran through the mother’s spine and she sped away from the intersection.

Later, after relating the event to friends and family, the mother learned that earlier in the year a tragic accident had occurred at the intersection. A stop sign was unheeded, cars mangled and a child died.

The family now goes out of its way to avoid the intersection, positive it had been visited by the ghost of the dead child.

That was one of two new investigations Kings County Deputy District Attorney Mike Reinhart related to the Hanford Rotary on Thursday at their regular meeting in the Hanford Fraternal Hall.

Reinhart, along with his family, has been researching local and statewide  haunts for the past three years. Last year he reported on hauntings in Lemoore, the year before in Hanford. This year his only study of local paranormal events was the report near the cemetery. The bulk of his report was taken up with his journey to Jamestown and the National Hotel.

Jamestown was established during California’s turbulent Gold Rush Era and  remains a colorful tourist attraction. The National Hotel was one of the first permanent buildings in the city, built in 1859. Today it is still in business and is known not only for its fine dining, but for its resident ghost.

Reinhart’s story begins with the travels of a well-heeled New York woman known as Flo who dropped by for a stay at the hotel as she crossed the continent to meet friends and family in old San Francisco. She fell in love with a local man while in Jamestown. Her family did not agree with her choice of a future husband, but undaunted, she slipped back to Jamestown from San Francisco to prepare to marry. She had ordered her wedding dress and was awaiting her nuptials while staying in the National Hotel.

Tragedy struck when her young man was gunned down in the streets of Jamestown by a drunk. Flo took to her room, weeping and would not come out. After several days the weeping stopped. Hotel employees forced their way into the room to find Flo, in her wedding dress and sitting in a rocking chair near the front window, dead.

Since then there have been sightings of a young woman roaming the hotel’s lobby. Guests have reported clothing being moved, lights turning off and on and hearing the sounds of a woman laughing, and sometimes crying, in the night.

One guest, resting in the hotel’s spa, was disturbed by a scratching at the door. The guest tried to ignore it, but the scratching, described like a cat’s claws raking the door, continued. She opened the door to find nothing.

Icy drafts drift through the hotel even in the summer heat. And some guests have seen an apparition of a young woman in the hotel’s dining room.

“Flo can be neat and tidy at times,” Reinhart said.

Guests report clothes and papers being cleaned over night.

She can also be abrasive. Some guests have had their clothes dumped across their rooms. She also attacked one young woman, climbing on her face as the woman slept in her bed.

The hotel features cute teddy bears as part of each room’s decor. Placed on the beds’ pillows to welcome clients and give a feeling of coziness, guests often find the bears hanging upside down from the bedstead when they enter their rooms.

“The hotel employees do not hang them upside down,” Reinhart said.

After his presentation, several members of the club talked about their own brushes with the unknown, including unusual happenings at the old Lemon House in Hanford. Several members attested to the “spooky feeling about the old Lemon home.” One member said a real estate agent who has listed the house next to the Lemon house won’t enter the house to show it to prospective buyers.

Reinhart said he has not seen or experienced any paranormal events himself, and is hesitant to say whether he believes in these events or not. He hopes to continue his studies, with more local emphasis, this coming year.

Reinhart is always interested in any news of paranormal phenomena and may be reached at his office by calling 582-3211.

This reporter can be reached by calling 583-2458.

(Oct. 31, 2009)