Audio Story: Haunted History Halloween Hike

You can find the whole radio show on North Gate Radio's archive

https://soundcloud.com/j-school-talks/haunted-hike

If you happened to have walked past the Point Richmond Market & Deli this past Saturday afternoon, you might have heard a woman in a lavender, vintage dress and silk ribbon bonnet crying hysterically. Don’t panic, you didn’t step through a time machine. This was a character in the Halloween Haunted History Hike led by Karen Buchanan.

Buchanan is the founder of Urban History Hikes, and she has led the Halloween Haunted History Hike in Point Richmond for the last five years. Each year, the hike starts from Point Richmond History Museum (139 1/2 Washington Ave, CA), wanders through the surrounding neighborhood, and ends at an elaborately decorated house on Buena Vista Avenue.

(the beginning and the end of the tour, photo by Olivia Zhao)

Growing up in San Francisco, Buchanan said her tour guide career started when she was nine, leading lost tourists to their intended destinations. She moved to Point Richmond in 2015, where she was welcomed by the local Women’s Westside Improvement Club (WWIC) and later raised money for the club through her history hikes.

Buchanan said she does not necessarily believe in ghosts, “but they make really great stories, for sure.”

Along the hike, ghost characters pop up in unexpected places, adding twists and turns to the spooky hike.

Alexis Lane Jensen is one of the actresses who answered Buchanan’s casting call to play a ghost. She played Kate Riordan, a young female Irish Immigrant who built Hotel Mac in Point Richmond in 1911. Jensen regaled the audience with Point Richmond’s famous ghost story: the tale of the Bathing Lady. The story is about a heartbroken wife who drowned in Riordan’s hotel after hearing about her husband’s death.

Today, Hotel Mac is a landmark three-story brick building in Point Richmond, but few know about the chilling tale of the Bathing Lady.

Thirty-one adults, six kids, and five dogs joined the Haunted Halloween History Hike on Saturday, Oct 30, including Buchanan’s dog Max.

People wore their Halloween costume to the event: one kid donned a grey shark costume, a pair of mother and daughter were cat and mouse, and a couple appeared in matching dark blue overalls with the woman being Rosie the Riveter, the iconic figure in the City of Richmond, California. Buchanan herself was dressed up as Mary Staireley, who was said to haunt the Staireley House.

Hans Schmid drove all the way across the bridge from Marin County to join the hike.The German immigrant has lived in Marin County for more than 50 years, and has visited Point Richmond before. “But never like this, someone explaining the history along the way,” Schmid said. “Very informative and very enjoyable.”

Even the locals learned something new.

“It was great,” Anke Hemmerling said. “We live in Point Richmond, and it was really nice to learn more about the town. I knew a few stories, but not all of them, so this is a lot of new information.”

At the end of the hike, Buchanan thanked everyone for coming amids cheers and applause. “I’ve been doing this since 2010 and I just love it,” Buchanan said. “It combines my three passions: history, hiking, and people.”