About Us
Welcome to Weird California also known as WeirdCA.com! We here at Weird California invite you to join us on the strange path through California visiting haunted houses, large roadside attractions, and just plain weird stuff.
My name is Joe Parzanese and along with my 8 year old daughter, Tiffany, and 2 year old dog, Bella, we travel around California taking in strange and odd sights! Although Tiffany was born here, I am originally from New Jersey.
Before you ask, no, I did not write some book. The book you are probably thinking about is Weird California written by Greg Bishop, Joe Oesterle, and Mike Marinacci. I'm not that Joe. Nor do I have any connection to these three gentlemen. In fact until late March 2007, years after I began scouting out strange sites, I didn't even own the book.
Additionally, although I am originally from New Jersey, I do NOT have any connection to the Weird NJ guys. I have read several of their magazines and I do in fact also own the book Weird NJ (a gift from my mother). Also my dear grandmother lived in Bloomfield where they are based.
I acquired this domain, weirdca.com, several several years ago. At least a few years, in fact, before the aforementioned Weird California book, and also before the Weird US book was published (and maybe even before the Weird NJ book was published). Regardless, you should go check out their works, I know the "Weird NJ" magazines and books are a very fun and entertaining read. The Weird California book by them is also a fun and entertaining read containing dozens of strange locals. It is a valuable addition to your Weird library and I encourage everyone to pick up their works and in full disclosure, I own several.
Visiting the Sites
So you want to visit one of the locations covered here on this website? Many of the sites are actually open to the public. These often have set hours and admission fees. However, some sites covered on this website are on private property. Please obtain permission to visit them before doing so. Weird California does not endorse trespassing and does not condone any illegal or destructive behavior while visiting any of these sites, public or private. Additionally, Weird California does not take any responsibility if you get injured or thrown in jail or for any other unfortunate event (including spiritual possession or monster attack ) that may occur to you while visiting any of the sites detailed here. Additionally, site status, hours, prices and pretty much any other detail could change without notice. Always contact the site ahead of time, if possible. Adventure please at your own risk.
Missing Counties
So I am just one guy, and Tiffany only writes at a 3rd grade level, and I have an actual job, which means I haven't been everywhere and due to time and money, may not have visited your county or city. I sadly can't spend all our time visiting all 58 (yes 58!) counties in California.
That's not to say there's nothing weird going on in that county. In fact I'm sure there is. It's just that we only have so much time on my hands. One day we hope to find, visit, and research weird locations and stories in every county in California. But for now, our time is limited, and sometimes we can only get so far from our home and place of work.
If a county is missing, and you know of a weird location or story in it, please let me know about it. If I can, I'll try and look into it and maybe one day have a full article on it here on the website.
Other Odds and Ends
Unless other credit is given, usually in the form of a watermark on the picture (clearly shown in one of the corners of the picture), all the pictures were taken by me with the only other exception being pictures or scans of drawings, post cards or brochures. Obviously I didn't take those. Watermarks on the pictures will usually give credit for where the picture originated from. Pictures taken by myself (or others part of the weirdca group) are generally marked with "WeirdCA.com" or "Weird California". Non watermarked pictures are generally public domain.
So you commented on an article and it hasn't shown up yet? Well, all comments must first be approved by the administrators - basically me. This is to stop inappropriate comments, disruptive HTML, or spam from appearing on the web site. This will usually take less than 48 hours unless I'm on vacation or otherwise indisposed. We've gotten a lot of Spam comments, and the approval process keeps these from cluttering up the site. Spammers should note that adding a comment to a page will prove useless as the comment and their spam will NEVER appear for others to see.
Almost all articles have outside references listed. These are books, journals, magazines, other website, etc that talk about the subject matter. They may or may not have been consulted when writing the topic they are listed on. The appropriate page number for the topic is included for ease of lookup. All books referenced in these sections, and many more are also listed in the Books section. The Bibliography section lists all sites and locations within this website that are referenced in outside books. This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive bibliography for this website. Information on this site could additionally have come from years of resource gathering, including personal accounts, urban legends, folklore, internet sources, newspapers, magazines, etc.
If you see an article listed as an "Unfinished Topic", this is a topic or location that is planned for potential future investigation or write up. Some will have pictures, links, and references attached to them. Some will even have a little information. They are not reachable from the main page and can only be found through the search form or county listing. I give no promise on when or even if they will ever be finished. If you have more information about these unfinished topics, again I would love to hear from you!
Where to go from here?
- Contact Weird California!
- Pictures we are specifically looking for!
- Donate to Weird California!
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- See our collection of Weird Books!
- See which books were used for which article!
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First Created: 2011-08-13
Last Edited: 2016-03-21
