The Lost Souls of Rancho Los Amigos

Heed this advice if you care about your physical, mental, and spiritual, well-being.

Rancho Los Amigos Hospital in Downey California might appear like another regular rehabilitation hospital.

It is friendly enough looking, palm trees swaying in the foreground; very inviting.

Rancho Los Amigos, which is Spanish for “Friends Ranch,” was even ranked as one of the country’s best hospitals in 2011.

It is also ranked as one of California’s hotspots for hauntings and paranormal activity.

Rancho Los Amigos Hospital

Photo credit: flickr/jessicaannsawyer

Rancho Los Amigos Haunted Beginnings

Updated 2/10/2020 – The mysterious activity involving the hospital starts from the year 1888, when the Southern Campus was converted into an insane asylum.

It was built to house all of the undesirables in the Los Angeles area; the mentally insane, homeless, handicapped and elderly.

Here the undesirables worked on a farm that supplied the entire dietary needs of the hospital.

The residents performed the physical labor in exchange for board and Medicare from the hospital.

Bodies of unclaimed residents who died at the farm were buried at a Potter’s field.

The field has since been relocated after a terrible flood washed away some of the caskets in 1914.

Today the hospital still runs, but the insane asylum is abandoned and empty; much like the souls of its past workers perhaps.

Paranormal Activity at the Abandoned Hospital

Rancho Los Amigos Abandoned Hospital in Downey 2

Photo credit: flickr/donbrr

Visitors of the hospital have been reported as seeing strange activity around the abandoned Southern Campus.

Some locals have stated that they have seen faces and figures from the rundown windows of the asylum.

Others have said that the lights will mysteriously flick on and off during the late hours of the night.

When walking or driving by the building, many say they can’t help but feel a force watching them.

A force making them look in the direction of the barren condemned asylum.

Some who have even dared to journey inside have witnessed the strange activity first hand.

Locals have stated that they have seen a dark figure in the shape of a man looking out one of the hospital’s windows.

He is said to be an elderly man that hung himself while staying at the hospital.

The Watchers

Rancho Los Amigos Abandoned Hospital in Downey 3

Photo credit: flickr/dyingindowney

Others have been said to have seen a ghostly couple in one of the uninhibited rooms.

The couple are said to just be standing completely still, looking over any stranger in their tomb in a creepy and stalking fashion.

Many psychics in California believe that they are souls of a couple that fell in love at the hospital, but both died shortly after due to the outbreak of polio.

Most of the ghosts have been said to just be looking; peering out of windows, or staring at trespassers who venture into the building.

Perhaps they are looking for someone to accept them.

Locals have often theorized that these spirits and hauntings are the result of the undesirables’ corpses being washed away in that tragic flood.

Whatever the case, it is clear that these ghosts cannot let go of the hospital.

It could be that they feel they are owed restitution, or perhaps it is because they have never felt quite at home anywhere else but the tragic asylum.

Directions to Rancho Los Amigos

Think you’re brave enough to visit Rancho Los Amigos?

If so, Click Here To Get The Directions To The Rancho Los Amigos Hospital. 

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