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The historic Brookdale Lodge sits along Hwy 9 in the Santa Cruz Mountains between Ben Lomand and Boulder Creek among massive Redwood trees. As a matter of fact many people pass the lodge on their way to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Mystery and intrigue have shrouded the lodge with whispers of ghosts, paranormal activity and strange happenings. Its rumored to be a hub for paranormal activity. But it’s been closed for years.
The motel recently reopened and renovation will soon get underway on the lodge built around the 1920s. When the lodge reopens Maryanne Porter will lead “ghost tours” as part of her business, Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters. She is also the author of Haunted, Santa Cruz, California. She plans on giving participants hands-on experience in paranormal investigation, like the tours she currently leads around San Lorenzo Valley.
In its heyday the Brookdale Lodge hosted the rich, famous, and infamous. It’s rumored gangsters used the lodge for illegal activity while other city dwellers came to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life. It’s the Brookroom that attracted the most attention, a dining hall with an actual creek running from outside the lodge to inside the hall and down the center of the dining area. You can just imagine what it was when tables lined the creekside with guests dining on elaborate meals and fancy coctails. That’s if you could be heard over the sound of the creeks rushing water.
It was a favorite spot for celebrities including Clark Gable and even a very young Shirley Temple.
Until renovation is complete the room remains, dark and dusty with a balcony in need of repair and stained glass windows that need repair. But it’s clear to see how this once was a grand dining area.
The lodge may also hold some secrets, and Maryanne says, she believes one guest never left, a young girl by the name of Sara Logan.
There are a couple versions of what happened to the young girl, Maryanne said, ” She had visited with her family and was running around the Brookroom area by the brook.” She said it’s believed the girl fell into the brook, hit her head and drowned. “I did find a death certificate of a Sara Logan who died in 1890 out of Alemeda.” Maryanne says there’s no way to know if it was the same 10-year-old but the Logan family did have ties to Alemeda.
Maryanne says she’s seen Sara Logan herself when she was visting the lodge with some friends yeas ago. She remembers sitting around a table when a young girl starting walking around to where her friends were. Maryanne said she couldn’t understand why peole were ignoring the child. When she asked the young girl if she was lost, the child got a terrifed look on her face and ran into the Brookroom. Maryanne alerted the lodge staff that a child was running around. But when they tried to get into the hall they found locked doors – inside and out.
Maryanne tells us more about paranormal activity at the Lodge and around Santa Cruz in the podcast.
If you’re heading to the Santa Cruz Mountains you may want to check out the Brookdale lodge. It’s expected to be renovated sometime next year, the hotel is open now for guests.