Bellemont – A Biker Friendly Ghost Town

Though Bellemont is pretty much a ghost town, it has recently seen a small revival as a “Biker Friendly Town.” Ironically, Bellemont was where part of the movie “Easy Rider” was filmed when outlaw bikers played by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper stopped in front of the Pine Breeze Motel. Trying to rent a room, a door is cracked, but when the proprietor spies their motorcycles, the glowing “NO VACANCY” sign begins to blink at the motel. The riders end up continuing down Route 66 and sleeping in the woods.

Not so today. Bellemont is home to the Grand Canyon Harley-Davidson dealership and the Route 66 Roadhouse Bar & Grill, where bikers are welcomed with enthusiasm. It is on the 2.5 acres where the Pine Breeze Motel resides, that the Bar & Grill was built.

Though the Pine Breeze Motel sits idle with peeling white paint and grass creeping at its sides, the land surrounding it invites bikers to camp upon the property and enjoy the hospitality of the Roadhouse. Ironically, the original “NO VACANCY” sign of the Pine Breeze Motel is proudly displayed hanging above the pool tables at the Bar & Grill.

Bellemont began its life as a stop along the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad in 1882, where natural springs of the area provided water to the thirsty steam engines. Named for Belle Smith, the daughter of the superintendent of the railroad, Bellemont soon became lumbering center, complete with its own sawmill. In 1887, its first post office was established.

When Route 66 originally came through it was first built north of where I-40 is today. Later it was changed in 1931, taking a more southerly course.

Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the government built the Navajo Army Depot at Bellemont, where ammunition and explosives were stored and shipped when needed. Still a very small community, the town had little more than a store and a couple of gas stations. Later the Whiting Brothers established a gas station and motel in east Bellemont, of which, little is left today but a pile of rubble.

In 1982, Camp Navajo was taken over by the Arizona National Guard and is still utilized as a training facility.

The old Pine Breeze Inn and the remains of the Whiting Brothers Service Station and motel are on the south frontage road one mile east of the Harley Davidson dealership, on a cracked and overgrown piece of pavement.

Beyond Bellemont are two old alignments of Route 66. One is almost completely gone, but the other, can still be traveled during good conditions. Caution is advised as the road is narrow, winding, and mostly dirt and gravel. To access this old road, enter the north frontage road of I-40 which will take you through Brannigan Park, the highest point of Route 66, at almost 7,500 feet above seal level.

The route through Brannigan Park is the oldest alignment of Route 66, which presented many hazards to early travelers as they tried to climb over the pass. When the road was moved south in 1941, all businesses along this stretch closed, but the area today is a beautiful drive with grassy meadows, historic homes, and tall stands of pine and aspen.
Parks - Where Pines General Store Predates the Mother Road

Next along your travels, at exit #178 from I-40, is the old town of Parks, Arizona Originally the town began as nothing more than a depot in an old boxcar in 1898.

The depot also served as the post office which went by the name of Rhodes. However, this was short lived when the word “Rhodes” was crossed out and replaced with the word “Maine.” Primarily catering to the area’s lumber industry, the town soon sported a sawmill. When the first highway came through the area, the town relocated two miles to the east. In 1907 a new store opened in the town, which also served as the post office. The mercantile was owned by a man named Parks so the town’s name changed again, in honor of the storekeeper.

When a new highway was built from Parks to the Grand Canyon in 1921, another store opened with a gas station at the intersection of what would later become Route 66 and Spring Valley Road. This old store, which predates the Mother Road is called the Pines General Store and continues to serve travelers today.

Just east of Parks is a walking trail that was once the 1931 alignment. Along this trail can be seen an old springhouse that provided water to a tourist camp located here several decades ago.

The next piece of original Route 66 is gravel so you might want to get back on I-40 until exit #171 where you can get off to see the Grand Canyon Deer Farm that has been in operation since 1969. Here, you can do more than just look at a fleeting deer running past the road, you can walk among them, touch them and feed them. More than just deer, you can also see peacocks, llamas, wallabies and a buffalo at the Deer Farm.

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Find Spooky Places Near Your Home

Ghosts and hauntings are popular topics today. Many people want to know how to find places where they can encounter ghosts, too.

It's best start ghost hunting near your own home. Here are ways to find local haunts:

Search online for your city, town, state, and region, using words such as "ghosts" and "haunted." Many websites list every location that is even rumored to be haunted. In our experience, only a small percentage of these will have ghosts. However, if the sites are near your home, it's worth checking every location.

Check recent news headlines for reports of hauntings. Some websites, including HollowHill.com, list the best regional news stories about ghosts.

Read books at the library. Most public libraries have a section about the paranormal. Also look among books describing your local area. Libraries usually have a section specifically about their town or city, and the region in general. While "ghost" books can be unreliable, they are a good place to start.

Ask people. You may be surprised by how many believe in ghosts, or at least know a few places with ghost stories. Generally, college, high-school and middle school students know rumors about local haunted places.

Check back issues of local newspapers. Most newspapers feature haunted sites in their issues the week before Halloween.

Ask the police. You may be surprised that the police are often the best resource for information about hauntings. Generally skeptics, the police know which places generate complaints about odd activity--noises, weird lights, and so on--but have no reasonable explanations.

Some of the classic clichés can help you to locate places that are haunted. Here are "tried and true" choices for ghost hunters:

Cemeteries are usually mildly haunted. Older cemeteries--from the 19th century and earlier--are more likely to have ghosts. Explore the oldest sections of cemeteries for the best results. However, many cemeteries are closed between dusk and dawn. Be sure to observe local laws whenever you go ghost hunting.

Abandoned building sites are often haunted. People don't usually walk away from a perfectly good house or building unless there is something significantly wrong with it. What's wrong may be a ghost.

Theaters--the kind that have a stage the people have performed on--are almost always haunted. Usually, these are fun ghosts. Look for ghosts around the stage, in the audience, backstage, and just outside the doors to the seating areas.

Most colleges and some schools usually have at least one poltergeist. However, you'll probably have to ask the students for help in finding them. An EMF meter can be especially useful for locating poltergeist activity.

Avoid investigating private homes when you are new to ghost hunting. In addition to issues of safety and the law, people who are troubled by ghosts--or proud of them--have expectations that you may not be able to meet.

These should be a enough ideas to get you started when you are new to ghost hunting or are looking for some good local haunts. However, also rely on your gut instinct. If a location looks haunted, it might be a good place to investigate.

Ghost hunting can be a fun hobby, and even more exciting than TV shows about hauntings. Almost every community has a ghost or two. Use common sense and observe local laws, and you may return home with ghost stories to impress friends and family.

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You May Be A Ghost-Host

Do you hear unexplained noises? Whether subtle or loud enough to wake the dead, if you hear the sound of footsteps, knocking, banging, rapping, scratching at the walls or floors, or the sound of some invisible something being dropped, you may be a ghost-host.

Do your doors, cabinets and cupboards seem to have a mind of their own? If you walk back into a room to find the door open when you know darn well that you closed it, or vice versa, you may be a ghost-host.

Does your furniture hop, skip and jump when you're gone? If your chairs, tables and lamps are in a different position when you come back into a room than they were when you went out of it, you may be a ghost-host.
Are you in and out of the light? If your electric lights are on when you know you switched them off, or are off when you know you left the light on, you may be a ghost-host.

Is your electronic equipment self-willed? If your television sets, radios, and computers go off and on, if the volume goes up and down, or if the channel changes with no help from you, you may be a ghost-host.

Do household items disappear, and reappear in the exact place you thought you'd left them in the first place? If something that you always keep in the same spot isn't there, and you search high and low and can't find it, and sometime later it shows up exactly where you thought you'd put it in the first place, you may be a ghost-host.

Are you living in the shadows? If you see unexplained fleeting shapes and shadows out of the corner of your eye (whether the shadows have vaguely human forms or not) you may be a ghost-host.

Do your animals sense something that you can't see? If your dog or cat behaves strangely (dogs barking at something that you can't see, cowering for no apparent reason, refusing to enter a room they're usually comfortable in, or cats appearing to be watching something across the room that you can't see) you may be a ghost-host.

Do you feel like someone is watching you? If you sense someone watching you when you're in a room alone, especially when you're in specific rooms at specific times, you may be a ghost-host.

All of these occurrences are fairly common, and happen all the time to ghost-hosts. Most people just learn to live with it. Sometimes, though, even stranger things can happen, things that made it even more probable that you're a ghost-host.

Do you see it with your own eyes? Finding a door open is one thing; actually seeing it open for no apparent reason is quite another. If you've witnessed the lights going on and off by themselves, the television and radio changing channels without benefit of the remote control, or watched window and door locks change position with no help from you, you can almost bet you're a ghost-host.

Have you experienced the touch? It's one thing to feel as though someone is watching you, but something else altogether when you feel like you're being touched and there's no one in the room but you. If you feel something brushing past you, something touching your hair or feel an invisible hand your shoulder, you can almost bet you're a ghost-host.
Are you hearing things? If you've listened to cries and whispers from unknown sources, muffled voices, your name being said, or music from some unknown source, you can almost bet you're a ghost-host.

Is the heat on? If you experience cold or hot spots in your house for no obvious reason, or the temperature changes with no apparent cause, you can almost bet you're a ghost-host.

Does the nose know? If unexplained smells (especially the distinct fragrance of a perfume you've never used or a foul odor with no discernable source) come and go without any apparent cause, you can almost bet you're a ghost-host.

All of these symptoms of ghost-hosting can be disconcerting, to say the least, but don't really put anyone in danger. Some hauntings, however, are much more serious in nature, and require the help of trained professionals to remove the offending ghost from the premises.

Do objects in your home move or levitate? If you've experienced dinner planes sliding across the table, or pictures flying off the walls, doors slamming shut with great force, or furniture sliding across the floor, you might want to call the ghost-busters.

Have you been physically assaulted? If you've experienced scratches, slaps and hard shoves from an invisible force (it's rare, but it happens!) you might want to call the ghost-busters.

Have you been given a message? If you've experienced unexplained writing on papers or on the walls, or see handprints and/or footprints that don't belong to anyone in the house, you might want to call the ghost-busters.

Are you seeing things? If you've seen an apparition (the physical manifestation of a spirit or entity), be it a human-shaped mist or transparent human forms that disappear quickly, or human forms that look as real and solid as any living person you've ever met but disappear before your very eyes), you might want to call the ghost-busters.

There are logical explanations for a lot that happens in our lives; don't jump to the conclusion that you're a ghost-host without checking out all of the 'rational' reasons things are happening the way they're happening. Make every possible effort to prove to yourself that your house is not haunted before you come to the conclusion that it is. And remember - the vast majority of houses are NOT haunted.

If you've ruled out any rational explanation for the phenomena you've experienced, and are absolutely convinced that your house is truly haunted, ask for help. There are hundreds of paranormal investigation organizations across the country; contact one in your area to help you discover what kind of ghost you've been hosting.

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Tommyknockers of the Western Mines

Mining is an ancient profession and along with the back breaking work and dangers of working in the dark underground, comes century old superstitions, the most notable being that of the Tommyknockers.

These impish, gnome-like men are the Cornish equivalent of Irish leprechauns and English brownies. Germans called them Berggeister or Bergmännlein, meaning “mountain ghosts” or “little miners.”

The Cornish believed these wee little men were the souls of the Jews who crucified Christ and were sent by the Romans to work as slaves in the tin mines. This belief was so strong that the Tommyknockers were allegedly never heard on Saturdays, nor at times of Jewish festivals.

Underground mining, courtesy Library of Congress.

About two feet tall, and often described as greenish in color, they look like men and are most often spied wearing a traditional miner’s outfit. Living beneath the ground, they have been “known” to have committed both good and bad deeds through the centuries, often playing practical jokes and committing random acts of mischief, such as stealing unattended tools and food.
The Tommyknockers were first heard of in the United States when Cornish miners worked in the western Pennsylvania coal mines in the 1820’s. When the California Gold Rush began, these experienced Cornish miners were welcomed and often sought after by the mine owners. Attempting to recruit more minders, managers often approached the immigrants, asking if they had any relatives back in England who might come to work the mines. The Cornish miners would reply something like this: "Well, me cousin Jack over in Cornwall wouldst come could ye pay ’is boat ride." Soon, these many immigrant miners took on the nickname Cousin Jacks, who formed the core of America’s early western mining workforce. As such, their superstition of the Tommyknocker thrived and spread throughout the mines of the west.

The name “knockers,” pronounced “knackers,” comes from the knocking on the mine walls that often happens just before cave-ins. Actually caused by the creaking of earth and timbers, some thought these sounds of “hammering” were malevolent, indicating certain death or injury, while others saw their “knocking” as well-meaning, warning the miners that a life-threatening collapse was imminent. Yet, others believed that the knocking sounds would lead them to a rich ore body and or signs of good luck.

When these grizzled little gnomes were good, they were thought to bring miners favors and wealth. But when they were bad, they were said to bring about misery, injury, and death to those who doubted their power or who did not believe in them.

These highly spirited characters were also known to perform many of the mining duties, working right along side the men, as well as being blamed for many a prank, and credited with saving the lives of many miners. If a hammer was missing, it was the Tommyknockers who had taken it, but if a miner escaped a collapse, the Tommyknockers were given credit.

Later, the legend of the Tommyknockers evolved into the idea that the knockings were caused by dead miners who were kind enough to give warnings of danger to the living. In praise of these kind gestures, the miners would leave offerings of food and other items in order to secure their good graces and protection.

In some mines, where the Tommyknockers’ presence was known to be overwhelmingly malevolent, the mines were forced to close because of the mens’ fear of the spirits. When the mines played out, the legend continued as many said the Tommyknockers found “work” in the homes surrounding the old mineshafts. Superstitions continued when many a family death or disaster was allegedly foretold by a knocking in the house.

Belief in these diminutive miners remained well into the 20th century until modern systems and education replaced these earlier superstitions. Though not much is heard of the Tommyknockers today, they will forever have a place in our history, legend and lore.

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