Patrolled
by police during the day and closed to the public at night, Scary Dairy is
about as haunted as anything can get in the golden hills of Camarillo, CA. Only
a splintered framework remains of the wooden farmhouse, but the graffiti-riddled
dairy itself is still largely intact. The farm, adjacent to the Camarillo State
Mental Hospital, was originally constructed as a means for the patients to
develop work experience and provide additional income for the hospital. While dark
rumors about the nature of the initial labor and the murderous patients
involved are common among highschoolers, much of the farm’s current notoriety stems
from its regular use as a hideout for gang activity.
Word
on the street is that the doctors’ treatment of the patients was largely
unethical, involving forced labor, lobotomies, electric shock therapy, and a
relative lack of confinement for murderous individuals while situated only miles
away from residential areas. The hospital was closed down due to controversy
over its methods and location, and after attempts to readapt the area into a
prison, then a school, the buildings were abandoned. Some claim that the Eagles’
“Hotel California” references Scary Dairy and the adjoining hospital, though
there’s no real evidence to support the notion. Paranormal occurrences reported
to have taken place involve the sensing of negative presences, the rapid
depletion of electronic batteries, and the sighting of purple plasma energies.
My
friends and I used to airsoft at Scary Dairy when I was in high school, and a
few of them were under the notion that the dairy had also served as a
slaughterhouse back in the day. I haven’t found any info that suggests that,
but I like the idea, fiction-wise, of so much blood, violence, and depravity
culminating in one place. Were I to incorporate it into a story, I think I’d
opt for the Shining/Hill House method of developing the location into an
antagonist. Something involving victims going insane and viewing the others
like cattle needing to be slaughtered. Or something to do with milk. There’s a
lot to work with.
I'm not a fan of mental institutions as points of interests for ghost explorations because there's way too much room for random events to occur. I also find them to be cliche and therefore they don't work in stories for me. What I think is interesting about Scary Dairy is that it's not the actual hospital considered to be the haunted spot, but an adjoining barn. The possibilities and ideas start to swirl through my mind, too, because this is more original than an institution.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point about the Eagles, but it's a shame there's nothing to back it up. Sometimes legends are more interesting than the truth. Not always, but sometimes.
The possibilities for vivisection comes to mind immediately. I thought of one of my favorite films, The Cell, and the vivisected horses. But with cows, and lots of milk mixed with blood. Yeah, sounds good.
ReplyDeletePurple energies? Sounds awfully pretty.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. I'm rather taken with the idea of having a higher ratio of ghostly milk than blood. But I love absurd things, and playing against the expected. Instead of going the more expected mental hospital route, I'd probably go with ghost cows, and the sudden abundance of curdled milk. Vengeful cows. I haven't seen anything in that direction before.
But there might be a reason for that.