Haunted Holtville: The Scariest House in Town?

WORDS BY LUKE PHILLIPS

   When I was in my early twenties my family moved from our home of 17 years on Kamm Rd., about a half-mile outside of Holtville, to a new home on the edge of town.

   Across the street and slightly to the east of our new home was an older house surrounded by a fence made of railroad ties driven into the ground. Time had taken a toll on the wooden beams and the entire fence leaned slightly inward toward the house, giving it a very guarded feeling from the outside. The place gave off a weird vibe right from the get-go, but at that point we had no idea just how strange the place truly was.

    The house was empty when we moved into the neighborhood and remained that way for some time. A couple of different people moved into the house, but no one stayed for long. They mostly waited until their six-month lease was up and quickly moved out. One of those people later became a family friend and shared some truly creepy stories about their stay in the house, but they don't want to be identified in this story, so we'll just call her Mrs. Smith.

   Mrs. Smith moved into the house with her family and quickly discovered that it was not a fun place to live. She reported feeling something or someone sit down on the edge of her bed at night when she knew no one was there. She experienced strange sounds and touches. And most disturbing of all, she was once pinned to her bed by an unseen force, unable to move and heard a voice whisper in her ear "Tell them I love them."

   I had moved away and was living in Arizona when all this happened, but as soon as I moved back to Holtville in 2009 I had my own experience involving the house, the only experience that I've had in my life that I'm absolutely sure was supernatural.

   My wife Liz (then my fiancé) and I were looking for a place in town to rent and momentarily considered the creepy old house across from my parents. Keep in mind that this was before we heard the ghost stories from the previous tenants. We called the number on the rental sign out front and strangely enough, the realtor told us that they didn't know anything about the house and that they didn't even handle any homes in Holtville. We tried for about two weeks to find the actually management company or individual that was renting the house, but to no avail. It kind of felt like the house didn't want to be rented. As strange as that sounds, that's the feeling we both got.

   Since we couldn't find anybody to show us the house, and we knew it was empty at the time, we went over by ourselves one evening to have a look around the outside. The house seemed to be oddly laid-out and constructed and we discovered that there's actually a hidden garage door built into the side of the house. As we made our way around one particularly dark corner of the house, Liz and I both started feeling light-headed and dizzy and very, very unwelcome. We got out of there and decided we didn't want to rent the place after all.

   A few days later Liz and I were sitting in front of the fence of my parents' front lawn late at night, not far from the house across the street. We heard rustling sounds in the yard behind the railroad tie fence, coming from the same corner of the property that had given us the willies a few days earlier. My first thought was that a small animal of some sort was scuffling around, but then we heard a door slam loudly and an angry old woman's voice distinctly yell: "Get outta there!" Then in a split second everything fell silent.

   You might say what we heard could have been anything or anyone, and you may be right, but I'm certain enough in my own head that what we heard was a ghost.

   I knew I wanted to write a story about a haunted house in Holtville for Halloween this year and this was the only one I could think of, but I’m sure there are plenty more. Have you experienced a haunting or any other ghostly activity here in the Carrot Capital? Tell us about it in the comments section below!