Ghosts & the Supernatural – Ronnie Sanders of Del Rey Oaks writes: “Paul, I don’t know if you have ever been to the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz, but if you have never been there, I suggest that you go. I want to tell you a story or an experience I once had there. I went there with my mother, I think it was in 1984. I was 14 years old at the time. I swear we saw what appeared to be something like a Doberman pincher. We watched this unusual dog for a good while.
The reason why my mother and I were watching is because the way it walked. It walked like a cat. You know like a cat on the prowl for a mouse. The animal looked at us and then jumped about 7 feet into a tree limb and went jumping from tree limb to tree limb until we couldn’t see it anymore. What do you think that could have been? I swear this thing was NOT a cat, it looked like a dog, like a Doberman pincher. I just don’t understand how it moved and acted like a cat. I have been to the Mystery Spot many times after that and never encountered this creature. I would like to know your thoughts……………..”
Paul’s Thoughts:
Wow! That must have been an experience! I really don’t know what you may have seen. The closest kind of creature to what you are talking about would be the Mitla of Bolivia. The Mitla of Bolivia is also called Fawcett’s Cat-Dog. Lt. Colonel Percy Fawcett spent time in Bolivia from 1906 to 1914 and claims to have encountered this cat / dog creature. His first sighting was in the rainforests of Bolivia and he makes a similar claim. He thought this creature looked like a dog, I believe something like a German shepherd, but it walked like a cat. Later it moved like a cat and jumped onto a limb with grace.
The Mitla of Bolivia is one of the strangest cryptids on record. I have been to the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz and perhaps this area is some kind or vortex or portal that can bring in interdimensional beings or creatures. Perhaps, the Mystery Spot is a mini-Skinwalker Ranch. It’s odd that The Feline Canine Beast of the Mystery Spot was seen by you and your mother. There are also stories that tell how birds and rodents do not frequent the Mystery Spot. They say dogs do not like to enter this area. How odd it is, that a feline/canine creature feels no effect from the Mystery Spot.
There is a lot of strangeness at the Mystery Spot. I remember seeing trees growing in diverse angles. Balls seem to roll up the hill. Compasses and GPS devices go awry.
Some people theorize that the Mystery Spot is a type of illusion, but even if it is an illusion, why do the illusions happen here? Could there be an interdimensional doorway that leads us from our reality to another reality? Santa Cruz is next to Monterey Bay and Monterey Bay is rumored to hide a UFO base under its waters.
I think it’s too much of a coincidence that the Mystery Spot and the strangeness of Monterey Bay is coincidental. There is more to the puzzle than we are seeing. The whole area of Santa Cruz is strange. Bigfoot has been seen in the Santa Cruz mountain ranges. There are many strange hauntings in that area, such as the Brookdale Lodge. UFOs and USOs are seen in Monterey Bay. Strange and unique people are attracted to the culture of Santa Cruz. Goth and vampires are attracted to Santa Cruz. Yep, Ronnie…you might be onto something…keep me posted!
Halo Paranormal Investigations sets its eyes on the very haunted Suicide Bridge – Foresthill Bridge. Here’s what I had to say to my investigators:
This coming spring, I want to bring a team of investigators to Foresthill Bridge aka Suicide Bridge. Some people have compared Foresthill Bridge as a mini-version of the Aokigahara Forest (Japan’s Suicide Forest).
I interviewed two people from my Facebook readers, here is what they had to say:
“Hi my name is David, please do not use my last name for this article. Hey..thanks for adding me as a friend. I used to belong to the now defunct Colfax Paranormal Commando Center. We did an investigation at Foresthill Bridge. We obtained 7 EVPs and we saw 2 full body apparitions. That place is very creepy late at night. One of the investigators was sitting on a log and then all of a sudden he received a 3 inch scratch on the back of his neck, he started screaming. That pretty much ended the investigation. Good luck investigating this area. You will find a lot of activity.”
“My name is John Hector from San Bruno. A couple of my friends were planning to do a sneak bungee jump from this bridge. Actually we did manage to do one jump and the police came. My friends and I saw a flying orb and it darted all around us and then flew into the sky. It was the weirdest damn thing I ever saw. 6 of us saw this flying orb!”
So from the statements above, I believe we are going to find all kinds of activity at Suicide Bridge. I placed one of my HPI Paranormal Investigators (Karen Stanley) on the case and this is what she found:
The bridge is 730 feet high and spans 2,428 feet long. The piers are only 16 feet shorter than those of the Golden Gate Bridge. It is the highest bridge in CA and the 4th highest in the U.S. The bridge was constructed as a replacement for the (previously) existing Auburn-Foresthill Bridge. The bridge opened for public use on Labor Day 1973.
It was built to span Auburn Lake, the reservoir that would have backed up into the North and Middle Fork canyons of the American River behind the Auburn Dam, if it had ever been built.
It was used in the movies “XXX” with Vin Diesel and “The Ugly Truth”.
The “unofficial” suicide count is currently at 62.
Deaths include:
July 2007: Thomas Moore, 53, is believed to be the first to hang himself from the bridge. October 2005: Bryon, 45, and Sallee Kincannon, 43, were believed to be the first couple to jump from the bridge. They also took their pet dog with them. The most recent were Steven Alexander 51 of Auburn – October 7,2011, Mark Hinkle 42 of Auburn – Sept 6, 2011 and Dustin Granville 31 of Chico – Sept 5, 2011-11-06
It seems just about everyone in Auburn knows someone who has committed suicide by jumping off the bridge. I personally know a Physical Therapist I used to work with that had severe depression and committed suicide at the bridge. I have been unable, as of yet, to find anyone who has heard the bridge is haunted or heard any stories of hauntings.
In the past the bridge has been a favorite “party spot” for the teenage crowd. The bridge is pretty well patrolled by law enforcement now, so I don’t think it is as much of a teenage hangout as it was once was.
Paul Dale Roberts, HPI Esoteric Detective
Halo Paranormal Investigations (HPI International)
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/HPIinternational/
