Marion Kimble
Tales of Halloween…
In the 19th century, towns sprung up around oil wells across the U.S. when ambitious young men went searching for, as an antiquated show once put it, “black gold” and “Texas tea.”
Many of these towns became dilapidated ghost towns once the natural resources in the area were exhausted.
Various tales of odd happenings have ensued since then, but Santa Clarita’s Mentryville, known for “Pico No. 4,” the first commercially successful and longest running oil well, brings tales of the unknown closer to home.
“Me and my friends were looking for a good place to go ghost hunting at night,” said Eric Oh, 19, a sophomore at CSUN. “Over there it’s pitch black at night, so we went in the morning to scope things out.”
“There were two paths,” continued Oh, “one leading to Mentryville and the other leading to an abandoned factory.”
Oh described his surroundings in Mentryville as “a ghost town, literally.”
“Apparently, someone was living there,” said Oh, “the water thing was running, but the houses had like broken windows and (stuff). There was seriously nothing inside of the houses; they looked like those crazy houses you see in movies.”
According to Oh, after seeing the town, they wanted to see the “abandoned factory,” which was probably Pico No. 4, the oil derrick the town was built around.
“When we took the other path,” said Oh, “there were closed factories with pentagrams and crap on them. Apparently it’s a good thing, since it has something to do with Pagans cleansing the land for some reason.”
Despite Oh’s allegations, the online sites advocating Mentryville don’t mention broken houses or pentagrams.
“We checked out the place because I got some tips from other people,” said Oh, “like people saying it was haunted at night and seeing a bloody towel in one of the houses.”
“It’s kind of a secret place,” continued Oh. “No one really says anything about it, which makes it more haunted.”
Most places with haunted reputations are usually exploited to attract tourists, so why not Mentryville?
Because no one makes it out alive, maybe?” Jokes Oh. “It’s kind of a high school thing. You know, kids talking about people being raped and killed and stuff, like in the movies.”
Can the events in Mentryville be attributed to ghosts or homicidal maniacs?
According to The Signal, a Santa Clarita Valley newspaper, there may be a more logical explanation.
In an article written by Josh Premako, senior staff writer for The Signal, Tim Miller, construction division chief for the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority said the town, or in particular the 13 room mansion used by the previous superintendents for Pico No. 4, know as “The Big House,” is “a prime filming location for several Hollywood productions.”
In the end, the only way to truly know what goes on in this abandoned mountain town may be to actually visit.
Directions to Mentryville can be found at http://www.lamountains.com/parks.asp?parkid=35, along with the park’s official hours of operation and a little bit of history.