Apparition in room 1, City Hotel, Columbia, CA

October 31, 4:10 PMNorthern California Community ExaminerSidney Drabkin

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Living in Northern California, you hear many stories about the California Gold Rush area. Many are true and many are....well, you know what I mean.

But, before I go on, to tell you this story, there is something you must understand: my wife and I are not ghost hunters or ghost busters.

In Columbia, CA, there is a hotel, City Hotel, that is supposed to have a ghost bed. When a picture of the bed was taken, there was a woman's face in the headboard.  One customer of the hotel, we were told, was asleep in the bed and late that night, when the town was quiet and tourist went home, felt something tapping him on his shoulder. When he woke up, he saw his wife fast asleep, but the feeling of someone tapping him on the shoulder was still there. Quickly, he turned around, expecting to fine someone standing next to his bed, but there wasn't anyone.

The man and his wife packed their belongings and left the hotel that night; after the toilet flushed and they heard, but could not see, someone walking across the floor. Many customers, who have heard this story, refuse to sleep in the room.

The hotel was built by a Mr. George Morgan, in 1856, and was known as the What Cheer House. The building, during Morgan's time, and today, is a two story brick structure that faces the main street of Columbia---the ghost room with the bed face main street too. Two years after the hotel's completion, a disastrous fire hit the hotel and it was guttered.

In 1871, the hotel was rebuilt and was given a new name, Morgan Hotel, and in 1874, the name Morgan Hotel was changed to City Hotel. The so called ghost bed was made for the new owner's wife, which she never slept in---she died before the bed was finished--was put in use in the hotel: the bed was in storage ever since it was made.

If you have nothing to do on a weekend, be brave, take a ride to Columbia, CA, and stay over in room 1 and sleep in the bed---it could be an experience that you would never forget.