Weird California
Weird California
Weird California - By Joe Parzanese

Proctor Valley Road

Map Proctor Valley Road, Chula Vista, California 91914
(Between Chula Vista and Jamul)

Although civilization continues to move east encroaching upon what was once a whole lot of nothing, urban legends still run rampant on what remains of Proctor Valley Road. As you leave Chula Vista, taking the road east / northeast, where Proctor Valley Road shrinks down from multiple lanes to a mostly gravel covered street, allowing passage to Jamul in San Diego County, urban legend may just be reality. Driving the gravel road, you take your life into your hands, as you must brave ghosts, demon cars, a bakery massacre, and even a fearsome monster!

You've all heard the urban legend about the teenage couple parked somewhere remote like the woods, a lake, some isolated road. Well in California, that spot is Proctor Valley Road. The teenage couple goes and parks along Proctor Valley Road, but when it's time to return to civilization, the couple's car breaks down, either it has a flat tire or simply won't restart. The boy gets out to either investigate or go and get help . . . but he never returns. The girl stays inside the car, all night, terrified to get out because of the strange scratching noises she hears outside the car. The next day, luckily for her, police find her, still hiding within the car. But her boyfriend isn't so lucky. He's hanging from a nearby tree, dead, completely torn up and bloody, swaying back and forth in the wind, his hand causing the scratching noises on the car, a victim of the Proctor Valley Monster! You just need to give the monster a hook hand . . .

Of course, the urban legend has changed some over the years. Since probably the 1970s the Proctor Valley Monster has been described as an oddly built bovine, some sort of cow headed monster, seven feet tall, hairy and big foot like, perhaps a modern day Minotaur hiding on the edges of Chula Vista. Supposedly as early as at least the 1960s, he has been responsible for livestock mutilation that has occurred within the valley. And his giant footprints have even been discovered. There's even supposedly a cast of one of his strange footprints at the Bonita Museum in Chula Vista. The cast measures 18 inches long. Although there are some who claim that the cast is just Bigfoot's.

Not scary enough for you? Then, how about the tale of the Haven Bakery . . . formerly in Jamul, at the other end of Proctor Valley Road, but now long gone, the bakery was run by a father with a young daughter. One day, the father comes home to the bakery from a business trip and discovers his daughter hanging by her neck from the ceiling in the basement, dead. He snaps and goes completely insane, kills all of his workers in the restaurant, stacking their bodies in the restaurant bathroom, and then hangs himself as well. Before the place was torn down in 2008, it was rumored to have been extremely haunted, particularly the bathroom and basement. The basement was rumored to contain the ghost of the little girl. Regardless it was a popular place for high school students to go at night and graffiti. Supposedly the true story is simply that a poor girl fell down the basement stairs and died later at the hospital, but a bakery massacre is much more terrifying. It might now be a Walgreens in Jamul, although no clue if it's still haunted by the ghost of the young girl.

Need more evidence that the road and area is cursed? How about the demon car? It's said that while out in the middle of nowhere, alone in the dark on the dirt portion of Proctor Valley Road, drivers will see behind them a pair of headlights . . . gaining on them. No matter how fast you go, the headlights will continue to get closer, until finally they are right upon you, tailgating your car, chasing you mercilessly as you race through the darkness trying to get to safety from the demon lights behind you. But that's not the most terrifying thing. The lights appear to not be attached to anything. There's no car behind the headlights, just darkness, pitch black darkness, no car, no body, no windows, nothing. Just headlights and a solid black mass. The headlights will chase you until the dirt road ends and then they just stop right at the edge of the pavement. If you stick around to watch they will recede back down the dirt road, eventually disappearing back into the darkness.

And then there's the ghost of the woman. The story around her varies. Some say she is a hitchhiker in either a blue or white gown. Some stories say that if you pick her up, she will kill you before you get to the end of the road. Of course, other stories state that if you don't pick her up, she will kill you before you get to the end of the road. Kinda a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. The more common version of the story describes her as a girl who died in a car accident on prom night, now looking for a ride home, but other versions of the story have her getting raped and murdered, and now trying to find and get vengeance on her killers. Yet another version of the story refer to her as a prostitute, and still others as part of a cult that wears blue nightgowns (um? what? that's some stylish cult). She has been described as both a woman all in white with a horribly mutilated face and as a woman in blue lying huddled on the road who upon seeing the approaching car began waving her arms to flag down the driver (who drove out of there as fast as they could). Perhaps with so many versions, there's more than one ghost!

So if a cow monster, demon headlights, a ghost girl, and stories of a bakery massacre still aren't enough to keep you away from Proctor Valley Road, a whole host of other phenomenon have been said to occur out there. There's possibly a screaming banshee, the ghost of a homeless man, and a weird flying ball of fire about the size of a basketball. People have heard phantom screams of a woman, plus heard phantom footsteps off in the darkness. Even your car radio will conspire against you, as some travelers have had the radio station change and pick up weird transmissions, often in Spanish, and usually involving strange chase music. It's also said that if you turn your car off, and your car's lights, you will see a phantom ghost in a dress before you. More recently there have been tales of Chupacabra wandering the area.

In addition to all the strange and weird hazards on the road, there are also probably several more mundane ones including border patrol, police, and perhaps even smugglers all using the road. And, in a what sounds like a more eighties urban legend, there are also reports of cults and KKK members. Be careful if you drive Proctor Valley Road. It has everything but aliens.



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First Created: 2015-04-18
Last Edited: 2015-04-18


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