Starting in 1925, builders formed the legendary Route 66 from existing roads as an interregional link between Chicago and Los Angeles.

Here in the foothills, they simply connected sections of the most historic roads in California history: the El Camino Real, the Old Spanish Trail (itself an extension of the Santa Fe Trail), the Mojave Trail, the Mormon Road and others to build America’s Mother Road.

Paving over prehistoric paths to the Pa- ing ghost tales and hauntings from throughout the state’s history, replete with tales of shadowy cowboys and Indians wandering through modern buildings or darting into Other tales had neighborhoods disturbed by spectral horse-drawn carriages rattling down otherwise quiet residential streets on moonless nights.

Local stops along the way

In the days before interstates, travelers between San Bernardino and Los Angeles found Route 66 dotted with charming wine stores, fruit stands, family restaurants and gift shops.

One of the most famous of those was Claremont’s Griswold’s Smorgasbord Restaurant (today’s Buca de Beppo Restaurant).

According to freelance writer Karen Loparco, George Griswold founded the restaurant as a candied fruit and preserves stand in 1915. The business grew into a restaurant and soon anchored a center featuring a dinner theater in the old Claremont High School gymnasium, now called the Old School House Center.

Today, visitors report mysterious white ously open and close – often accompanied by the sound of children’s voices. The most frequently reported sensation is of being watched, which some credit to the spirit of George Griswold still on duty. Ghost hunters are warned to stay away from the corner that extends from Route 66 north to Base Line Road along Benson Avenue near the Upland/Claremont border, because in the 1980s thrill seekers sought a rumored mysterious “void” on the property that gradually enveloped people in total darkness and unearthly silence.

Some say the void was a gateway between dimensions or between the spirit and material worlds.

Until 1940, Pasadena’s Colorado Street Bridge (before Colorado became a boulevard) over the Arroyo Seco Stream was part of Route 66, and in its early years, was plagued by suicides until special barriers were installed to prevent jumpers from leaping to their deaths.

Startled drivers reported a woman in a long flowing robe leaping from the parapets and vanishing in midair. Another tale tells of a distraught young mother who jumped from the bridge holding her baby. The baby was saved by landing in the boughs of a tree, but the unlucky young mother’s spirit still haunts the bridge on lonely nights looking for her child.

Some say the bridge is cursed because during its construction in 1913, a worker tumbled over the bridge and was left to die in the quickdrying cement below.

It is said that his angry ghost summons those in crisis and lures them to the bridge once known as “Suicide Bridge.”