Disclaimer: This article is made for fun and neither confirms nor disproves the presence of ghosts. Reports of murder in these places are unfounded unless otherwise stated. Many of the places listed are places of business or private property. As such, if you want to visit them, be sure to check the opening hours or call and get permission from the owners.

Around Halloween, ghost stories and haunted house stories abound to the delight of those fascinated by the paranormal. Historic sites remain the subject of the most haunting stories, filled with rumors of long-gone residents who have outstayed their welcome.

Sonoma County has no shortage of historic sites, and some of them have embraced the ghost stories surrounding them.

The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa, founded in 1927, was recently named to Historic Hotels of America’s list of America’s most haunted hotels. right listsome employees and guests of the Sonoma Hotel reported seeing the ghost of a woman in period clothing walking the halls, as well as other unexplained phenomena such as flickering lights and slamming doors.

The inn accepted these ghostly claims, stating in a press release 2020: “Ghosts are said to haunt where they were happiest. Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa welcomes past and present guests and tells the stories of guests who never want to leave.”

The statement goes on to address a story about an alleged beheading in one of the alleged haunted rooms during the 1920s; however, no reports could be found to support this claim.

Petaluma’s popular teen hangout, the Phoenix Theater was the subject numerous ghost stories. Various psychics, ghost hunters and exorcists have visited the building, testifying that it is filled with a certain spiritual energy. Longtime theater manager Tom Gaffey shared personal stories of apparently haunted occurrences, such as calls from the screening booth where no one was found.

A famous theater ghost story involves a security guard for the heavy metal band GWAR. During a performance at the theater in the 1990s, the security guard had come down a ladder and asked, “Who’s that kid in the back at the exit?” When no one could find the child, the guard gave up. Gaffey also claimed to have seen the “little kid”, dressed in 1920s clothing, on separate occasions.

Reports of deaths or murders at the Phoenix Theater — including when it was known as the Hill Opera House, California Theater and Showcase Theater — could not be found.

A local ghost story involves a simple stretch of road in the Russian River area. A 2023 Sonoma County Gazette article told the legend of a ghost of a woman appearing on Mays Canyon Road in Guerneville as motorists drove by.

According to a July 20, 1995 article in The Press Democrat, a man walking in the area found a body on the side of Mays Canyon Road—so badly decomposed that an autopsy could not determine the cause of death or whether the body was male or female. Sheriff’s Lt. Mike Brown said a gun was found near the body. The body was never identified.

Click through the gallery above to see images of more allegedly haunted places in Sonoma County.