But for those who see and feel the presence of Kern County's ghosts, haunted spots are not just Halloween tales. You may believe some of these stories. You may reject them all as bunk and nonsense. Some of these local legends are subtle, more of a feeling or memory of an event that happened long ago. Others are outrageous, suggesting the spirits of those who died were not ready to leave this world.
Ghosts are, by most commonly accepted definitions, unsettled beings.
But few people believe they are inherently evil. Some people, in fact, feel a sense of protection from a guardian soul that has stayed behind to make sure everything goes well in that earthly place it once loved. These tales are a sampling of Kern County ghost stories, some stretching back to Bakersfield's earliest years. The ghosts of Bakersfield Some believe certain spirits were people who were wrongfully killed. One example is the lady with the flowing robe seen wafting along the canal in Central Park at dawn, just east of the intersection between 21st and R Streets.