Famous Sacramento Ghosts

Sacramento has its share of famous ghosts. The image of Governor Leland Stanford's dead son appeared to him in the mansion on the corner of 8th and M Streets and told him to build an educational institution: Stanford University.

The old Perrault house on 14th Avenue became notorious in the late 1950s for its widely-witnessed instances of light bulbs bursting in their socket, objects hanging in midair, and fires starting in the furniture.

In 1973, the Martinez home in East Sacramento gained national attention for its whole family of apparitions.

Other legendary spooks from River City include the phantom of a man in his twenties sighted on the beach at the American River Sailor's Bar (beneath the Sunrise Boulevard bridge) and the ghost of an old gold miner, who emerges from the weeds along Prospector Road in the foothills.