Fresno Famous

Disclaimer: Please do not enter any of the locations mentioned in this article without permission from the owners. These places and those like them are considered private property and entering them without the owner's permission is trespassing. You will be arrested for this and will make it harder for serious investigators to do their job.

See this house? Would you believe me if I told you it was haunted? Why wouldn't you, look how creepy it is! And it's abandoned so it has to be haunted right?

Wrong.

The house in the photo is the Craycroft house located on Palm Avenue just south of Herndon. It was built in 1927 by Frank J. Craycroft who invented a brick that had great insulating properties that were perfect for the summers and winters here and he decided to build his home from this material. Unfortunately tragedy struck two years later when a disgruntled brick mason shot Craycroft, who then died from his injuries several months later. This part is known to be true as the story was retold in Valley's Legends and Legacies Vol. III.

My point in all this is you shouldn’t always believe what your told (I have a rule; don't believe what you are told, always double check). But that doesn't mean the story still shouldn't be told. Urban legends are part of this area's folklore and they should be shared (though one should keep an open mind when exploring these). And that's what I've been doing with Weird Fresno lately, telling the folklore and urban legends of the area. I'm not trying to prove anything (I'm not that arrogant to think I can where others haven't). I used to love the story but got so caught up in being an investigator and in trying to prove ghosts exist that I forgot what originally interested me in the paranormal. It was the stories.

So next time you hear a place is haunted or a monster had been seen in some trees behind the park or that a UFO landed in a pasture and killed a few cows, don't automatically assume it's true. Just take the story with a grain of salt and look into the story to see if the claims can be verified. And of course pass it on to me so I can add it to the ever growing list of stories in Fresno.