About Haunted Orange County

The Story of Haunted Orange County

Haunted Orange began in 2009 as the brainchild of Ernie Alonzo, who created a simple website to document the haunted history of his hometown of Orange, CA in particular Old Town, the neighborhood where he grew up. On the site, he would post historic photographs, as well as ghost stories and accounts he had collected from personal interviews of shopkeepers and business owners in Old Town Orange. Later that year, he met Charles Spratley, a San Diego native, local historian and author who had recently relocated to Orange County from San Diego where he had previously operated a successful ghost tour company. Soon the two were brainstorming on how they would turn Ernie’s collection of historical data and ghostly tales into an Old Town Orange ghost tour with a heavy emphasis on local history. In September of 2010, the first Old Town Orange Haunted History Ghost walk debuted.

After a successful 4 years of the Old Town Orange tour, the pair decided to branch out into neighboring Santa Ana and in 2014 they launched the Downtown Santa Ana Ghost Walk with an opening gala at the Howe-Waffle Mansion attended by city officials, local media and invited guests. The same year a name change from Haunted Orange to Haunted Orange County was made in anticipation of additional expansion into other Orange County cities. In the fall of 2017 the Black Star Canyon Ghost Walk debuted and became the first county permitted tour to operate in Black Star Canyon. February 2019 marked the opening of our San Juan Capistrano ghost walk featuring various areas of the Los Rios neighborhood as well as daytime tours conducted inside the walls of the historic Capistrano mission property. Since then we have continued to bring new tour locations including the Kellogg House at Heritage Museum of Orange County, Downtown Fullerton as well as tours in San Diego at the historic Villa Montezuma and Los Angeles including, Pasadena, Hollywood and seasonal tours of the Walt Disney Mansion in Los Feliz.

Since 2010 we have produced a diverse offering of paranormal, haunted and horror themed special events including, haunted themed dinners, paranormal lecture series, sugar skull workshops, mask sculpting courses, UFO sky watches, Calico Ghost Town sleepovers, horror movie screenings, panels at halloween and paranormal conventions, guest speaking at colleges and universities, paranormal celebrity meet & greets, cemetery tours, theatrical seance recreations, psychic presentations, Bigfoot and cryptozoology lectures and much, much more! We have been contracted by various cities and historical societies to host presentations as well as co-produce special events including The City of Buena Park, Santa Ana Historical Society, Chapman University, Huntington Beach Surf Museum, Heritage Museum of Orange County, City of Tustin, City of Costa Mesa and many others we have been proud to partner with.

Haunted Orange County is currently owned and operated by Fandom Productions LLC, a fan-based entertainment and management company formed by Ernie Alonzo which also operates Bob Gurr’s Waltland Disney History Tours in Los Angeles. (not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company).

Learn About Our Orange County Haunted Tours

Haunted Orange County started out in 2009 as the brain child of Ernie Alonzo, a lifetime Old Town Orange resident who began a website to document the haunted history of his hometown. On the site, he would post historic photographs, as well as ghost stories and accounts he had collected from personal interviews of shopkeepers and business owners in Old Town Orange. Later that year, he met Charles Spratley, a San Diego native, local historian and author who had recently relocated to Orange County from San Diego and had formerly operated a successful ghost tour company there. Soon the two were brainstorming on how they would turn Ernie’s collection of historical data and ghostly tales into an Old Town Orange ghost tour with a heavy emphasis on local history. In September of 2010, with much local anticipation, the first Old Town Orange Haunted History Ghost walk was launched.

The summer of 2014 debuted the Downtown Santa Ana Ghost Walk with an opening gala at the Howe-Waffle Mansion attended by city officials, local media and invited guests. The same year a name change to Haunted Orange County was made in anticipation of more Orange County city locations being added to the company’s offerings. In the fall of 2017 the Black Star Canyon Ghost Walk debuted and we became the first professionally operating ghost tour company to run a county licensed and permitted tour in Black Star Canyon. On February 9, 2019 we launched our San Juan Capistrano ghost walk featuring various areas of the old town section as well as daytime tours conducted inside the walls of the historic Capistrano mission property. In March of 2020 our Fairhaven After-Dark Cemetery tour opens to the public in the historic Fairhaven Memorial Park and Mausoleum located in Santa Ana.

In addition, since 2010 we have produced a diverse offering of paranormal, haunted and horror themed special events including, haunted themed dinners, annual paranormal lecture series, sugar skull workshops, mask sculpting courses, UFO sky watches, Desert Ghost Town sleepovers, horror movie screenings, panels at halloween and paranormal conventions, guest speaking at colleges and universities, paranormal celebrity meet & greets, cemetery tours, theatrical seance recreations, psychic presentations, Bigfoot and cryptozoology lectures and much, much more! We have been called upon from various local cities and historical societies to make presentations as well as co-produce special events including The city of Buena Park, Santa Ana Historical Society, Chapman University, Huntington Beach Surf Museum, Heritage Museum of Orange County, City of Tustin, City of Costa Mesa and many others we have been proud to partner with.

From 2012 – 2014 we hosted the monthly Haunted OC Paranormal Podcast.

From 2012 – 2017 we conducted public paranormal investigation events all over Southern California as well as a handful out of state with some of the most recognized paranormal TV personalities and researchers in the world.

2019 Celebrated our 10-year anniversary with the launch of our San Juan Capistrano ghost walk along with our most extensive re-branding effort to date.

2020 All new website as well as the debut of two new tours including Fairhaven Cemetery in Santa Ana.

Haunted Orange County is owned and operated by Fandom Productions, a fan-based entertainment and management company which also operates Bob Gurr’s Waltland Disney History Tours in Los Angeles. (not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company).

Meet the Haunted OC Team

Haunted OC is proud to work with a seasoned staff who truly have a passion for history and all things paranormal. As the largest and oldest continually operating ghost tour company in Orange County, nearly half of our group has been with us since our inception. We are not a hobbyist ghost hunting team turned tour guides. Our docents are not volunteers. Our full-time creative director has a 20+ year professional background in event management and production. We’re constantly working to develop new and quality tours which are both historically accurate and thoroughly researched.

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