When it comes to the spookiest day of the year, few places in the Golden State have as close of a relation to the paranormal as the key city in the San Joaquin Valley, as Bakersfield has seen the most ghosts of any place in California over the years.
The city lovingly termed “Nashville West” isn’t just the home of legendary country singers like Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, though, as it is also home to an extraordinary number of ghosts, based on the number of sightings of the paranormal in the Central Valley metropolis.
Overall, the heart of Kern County reported 85 sightings in total, which was 11 more than Riverside County’s Hemet, which reported 74 sightings, while fellow San Joaquin Valley outpost Stockton was third, with 66 sightings.
Halloween is nearly here. In honor of spooky season, BetCalifornia.com took a beat from California sports betting to see what the top 10 most haunted California cities are. Using GhostsofAmerica.com, we ranked the cities based on the number of sightings.
Rank | City | Ghost Sighting |
1 | Bakersfield | 85 |
2 | Hemet | 74 |
3 | Stockton | 66 |
4 | Visalia | 63 |
5 | Modesto | 62 |
6 | Hanford | 74 |
7 | Temecula | 56 |
8 | Palmdale | 54 |
T9 | Port Costa | 53 |
T9 | Oxnard | 53 |
Across California, it seems that there’s an especially strong tie between the state’s central corridor and paranormal activity, as each of the top six cities in terms of the most ghost sightings statewide are located in Kings, Kern, Riverside, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tulare counties.
Outside of the top three mentioned above, Visalia (63 sightings), Modesto (62 sightings), Hanford (74 sightings), Temecula (56 sightings), Palmdale (54 sightings), Port Costa and Oxnard (53 sightings each) rounded out the California top 10 when it came to ghost sightings, illustrating how strong of a connection the state has with paranormal activity.
Still, nowhere else in the most populous state in America has seen more ghosts than the city of Bakersfield, with the city of 403,455 residents ranking atop the California ghost sighting leaderboard in 2024.
USA Today photo by Kris Craig.
Author
Christopher Boan is the lead writer at BetCalifornia.com, specializing in sports betting issues in the western United States. He's covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
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