Our Ghost

Do You Believe in Ghosts?

Spend some time at The Captains Anchorage Restaurant and Bar in Big Bear Lake, California and you just might. In the 'forties and 'fifties, illegal gambling was a popular pasttime, and it could be found here. Legend has it that the bookkeeper for the activity was a man named George. (A photograph of George and his friends is in the bar.) It is said that George was embezzling money. Here there are two theories: a despondent George either commited suicide in the upstairs office, now the Captain's Quarters, fearing the consequences of being caught, or he was murdered - by whom, no one knows.

As to the Famous Big Bear Restaurant and Bar being haunted, one opinion is that employees are making this up. However, a lot of these hauntings occur when customers are watching, such as the December night the Crown Royal bottle impolded, the night the Andy Devince Room sign in the bar began swinging, the times a beer bottle would fling out of the display, the heavy footfalls in an empty upstairs, and things that happened when Loren and Kathleen from the Big Bear Magazine would come in, arriving after hours to gather material for an article. The last time they were in they brought a psychic. This psychic said she felt four spirits, one of them a woman. Curiously, about twenty-five years ago, an employee, the first one in that day, experinced the same. She unlocked the door, turned off the alarm, went out to the bar to get a Coke, and was startled to see a woman seated at a table by the stairs. The expressionless woman gave no response to the employees query, "May I help you?". The employee ran out of the building, not to return until later when other employees arrived, by then the apparition had departed.

A few years ago, one of the girls who works here saw another apparition, this one a man, walking over by the porthole door. Most people would accept the story if they were here for an incident. Not all though. When the Crown Royal bottle blew up, two of the witnesses thouhgt it was rigged, to "prove" the place is haunted. People frequently take pictures here. Ribbon-like objects, orbs, even a raging fire have been manifested in these photos.

Draw your own conclusions. All though there are sometimes long spells without any hauntings, you just might be at the Captains Anchorage Restarant and Bar when "he's back!"