Old Towne Orange Historic District · Royer Mansion, Old Towne Orange
Haunted Orange County began in 2009 as a website created by Ernie Alonzo to document the haunted history of his hometown of Orange, California, particularly the Old Towne neighborhood where he grew up, drawing on historic photographs and ghost stories collected from interviews with Old Towne shopkeepers and business owners. The first Old Town Orange Haunted History Ghost Walk debuted in September 2010.
Alonzo, the company's Creative Director and Owner, describes the tours as historically accurate retellings pulling from county archives, historical society resources, and library history centers. Old Towne Orange remains the company's most popular route, running two to three tours weekly and more often in October, with additional programs in downtown Santa Ana and Black Star Canyon. The Old Towne Orange tour meets at the historic Royer Mansion at 307 E. Chapman Ave.
Voice of OC, an Orange County nonprofit news organization, covered the company's Old Towne Orange ghost walks. Haunted OC is a locally based, single-region operator distinct from the multi-city US Ghost Adventures chain, which separately operates an Orange program.
Sources
- https://hauntedoc.com/about-us/
- https://voiceofoc.org/2022/11/oc-ghost-walks-fright-in-the-streets-of-old-towne-orange/
ApparitionsUnexplained SoundsFeelings of Being Watched
The operator's route material for Old Towne Orange covers antique stores and restaurants along the historic Plaza, including a business the operator says once served as the town's undertaker's parlor, framed as tied to reported unexplained activity. The operator states its stories draw on county archives, historical society resources, and interviews with longtime Old Towne shopkeepers and business owners, rather than invented ghost-story tropes.
All of this is the tour operator's own marketing and narrative material, not documented history independently verified for this listing; it is included here as a description of what the tour covers, not as an endorsement of any specific claim.
