Mendocino County’s ghosts, and the people who tell their stories

MENDOCINO CO., 10/25/26 — On the last night of their stay at the Mendocino Hotel, a man got out of bed for a glass of water and found a woman standing in the room. She was tall, she wore a pale nightgown, and she was facing the bed. Then she was gone. He said he felt “a cold energy rush through him and out through the balcony door.”

The couple told the story to Rob Hawthorn, who leads the Kelley House Museum’s Haunted Mendocino walking tours and writes about the town’s ghosts for the museum. A year after that night, Hawthorn wrote in 2024, they were back at the hotel with motion sensors and infrared cameras. While they were at dinner, the man’s phone flagged movement in their room. The camera showed two pale orbs that floated in, hovered and left by the balcony door. The app labeled them “PERSON.”