First annual “Ghosts Along the Coast” opens at Elings Park

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – A new annual Halloween celebration is coming to Santa Barbara. "Ghosts Along the Coast," a new "spine-tingling" storytelling experience opens on Thursday night at Elings Park.

"A female bootlegger from prohibition, a depression-era hobo living near the railroad tracks, a survivor of an 1853 shipwreck, a Japanese “picture bride” from the 1920s, a longtime lady lighthouse keeper, and a newspaper editor murdered in 1880 – six real or inspired by real figures from Santa Barbara history return from the spirit world to tell their stories," said Julia McHugh, a representative for the spooky event.

Ghosts Along the Coast will be held outdoors on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday in the park's Godric Grove and attendees can watch the six different performances during a roughly 90-minute self-guided walking tour held every half hour.

Each tour makes six stops to visit the costumed characters who may – or may not – have been actual figures in Santa Barbara's history.

“These theatrical portrayals are based on true events, but definitely are not ‘living history’ – they’re more like ‘deceased history,’” said Dean Noble, Elings Park executive director. “You’ll get a feeling for life in Santa Barbara in different eras as you listen to the stories, some scary, some humorous, and all entertaining.”

The self-guided tour path is short, but the pathways are not well lit so guests are urged tp bring flashlights or cell phones to help light up the path.

Space is limited and organizers recommend buying tickets in advance. Tickets must be purchased for a specific tour date and time. Click here to purchase tickets.

Tickets will be sold at the door if space allows. For more information about the event, click here.

The six characters and actors include:

• Yuko (Deborah Cristobal): this “picture bride” arrived in Santa Barbara from Japan in the 1920s to marry a man she’d never met. She searches for him in the afterlife after a horrible fishing accident.
• Julia Williams (Karen Dalton): her lazy husband couldn’t handle his job as keeper of the lighthouse on the Mesa, so this mother of five took over – for forty years. Her ghost is ready for a deserved rest.
• Sally Stanford (Nicole Iaquinto): the spirit of this female bootlegger is still distressed about a big delivery of Prohibition hootch that was interrupted by the opening of duck hunting season.
• The Bookman (Kirk Martin): all this Depression-era hobo (and his pets) needed was a fine roof and their shack would have been the best in “Jungleland.” But living so near the train tracks proved fatal.
• Theodore M. Glancy (Alfred Smith): the Santa Barbara Morning Press editor was gunned down in 1880 by a District Attorney nominee who was livid over a negative editorial. Is there no justice?
• F. S. Crane (Patrick Turner): he made his fortune in the Gold Rush and survived the 1853 shipwreck of steamer Winfield Scott on Anacapa Island. His ghost just wants to find his lost gold.