COMMUNITY SPIRITS THRIVE? : HOUSE, SITE OF FUND-RAISER, IS POPULAR HAUNT FOR APPARITIONS, SAY GHOST BUFFS.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Depending on your perspective, the Newhall Ranch House is either an old, empty wooden structure or a haven for the ghosts of long-dead Santa Clarita Valley pioneers who, by all accounts, are friendly.

The spirits, according to a local psychic, are pleased that the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society has been restoring the two-story home, which was moved to Heritage Junction in William S. Hart Park from its original site several years ago.

On Nov. 1, the society will hold a fund-raiser at the ranch house; tickets are $50 for a murder mystery-style party or $100 for the event plus an overnight stay in the home.

Select participants will play the role of figures from local history, with the intent of determining who killed a cowboy believed to be named Rory McGregor.

Society member Pat Saletore is an organizer of the annual parties and sleep-overs. The idea for the ``ghostathons'' originated with some inexplicable occurrences after the house, donated by Newhall Land & Farming, was moved from its site in the parking lot of Six Flags Magic Mountain.

``We got these bizarre reports from people driving by on San Fernando Road,'' Saletore said. ``People driving by and hanging out in Newhall would look up (at the ranch house) and they thought they saw a woman in a blue dress at the window.''

The society sought the opinion of parapsychologist Rena Elliott, who provides aura balancing, past life regressions, psychic readings and paranormal investigations at her Santa Clarita business, Crystal Visions.

Elliott toured the ranch house, ``met'' the woman whom she said is named Martha and over the years has encountered several other resident spirits.

``They mostly hang out upstairs,'' Elliott said. ``They feel safe up there. It's comfortable and homey.''

One of the spirits is a man in a cowboy hat and boots who appears middle-aged and is ``very polite,'' Saletore said.

``The first time (Elliott) met him, he wouldn't tell her his name. The second time, he told her it was Rory McGregor,'' she said. The psychic believes Rory was shot to death; a society member found the ranch hand's name in an old story about the Castaic range wars, Saletore said.

Elliott moved to the Santa Clarita Valley in 1991. She first encountered Rory shortly afterward; she recalls he was sitting in a chair on the house's second floor.

``He took off his hat when he realized I could see him, and he said, `Pardon me, ma'am,' '' recalled Elliott, 53. In the years since, Rory has never asked the psychic to intervene with the living on his behalf, even though he apparently was murdered.

``He comes across as a spirit very much at peace,'' Elliott said.

In the murder mystery play, historical society members will portray town constable Ed Pardee, blacksmith Tom Frew, prohibitionist Henry Needham and Henry Gregory Newhall, who lived at the ranch house and was the oldest son of the community's namesake, Henry Mayo Newhall.

Saletore's fictional script is set exactly 100 years ago, during a party at the ranch house attended by cowboys, townspeople and local oil field workers. During the evening, Rory was found in the brush along the road to the ranch, shot dead with a Colt revolver, a common weapon during that era.

Saletore has become an amateur archivist in researching Rory McGregor. She has pored over newspaper clippings at the Los Angeles Central Library, 1870 and 1880 U.S. Census records from Soledad Township and the village of Newhall, and death certificates filed with the county clerk and hall of records in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

So far, she hasn't found any document that lists the man whose spirit might occupy the Newhall Ranch House.

``Rory is really under my skin,'' she confessed. ``If I could find proof that he existed, it would be much more satisfying.''

Paul Kreutzer, a second-grade teacher at Liggett Elementary in Panorama City, is executive director of Heritage Junction. For six years, he has been restoring the ranch house in his spare time.

Workers have stripped the interior down to its wooden framing, in order to bring the house up to modern building and electrical codes.

In the process, Kreutzer said, he has found many fascinating artifacts in the spaces between the walls and under the floorboards - including children's marbles, a 1905 Farmer's Almanac and a 1920s-era box that held bath soap.

Another find was an old photograph of a mustachioed cowboy standing beside a horse.

The first time Elliott described McGregor, Kreutzer recognized a resemblance. He retrieved the old photo and showed it to the psychic, who is convinced that cowboy is Rory.

Another resident spirit Elliott said she has met is Henry Mayo Newhall, for whom the ranch house was built in the 1860s. Apparently, he didn't spend much time there before his 1882 death from injuries suffered when he was thrown from his horse.

Elliott said Henry Mayo Newhall's spirit explained to her why he occupies the ranch house. ``All he said to me was: `I didn't get a chance to appreciate the house in life, so I come back now to enjoy it in death,' '' the psychic said.

In previous ghostathons, visitors have reported odd events for which there have been no logical explanation, Saletore said. Some have felt a hand on their shoulder, others have heard babies and the sound of Timothy, the spirit of an 8-year-old boy, bouncing a ball, Saletore and Elliott said.

One year, partygoers were awakened about 4 a.m. by an explosion that sounded like a sonic boom that, upon questioning neighbors the next morning, nobody else had heard, Elliott said. Another time, a woman went upstairs - normally off-limits during the sleep-overs - and reported seeing ``the image of a baby in a christening gown, kind of floating,'' the psychic said.

Elliott described the spirits as having a wispy appearance. ``Sometimes, it's just shimmering light; sometimes, it's smokey. They're transparent,'' she said. ``I've never seen a solid.''

Raised Jewish, Elliott has studied numerous religions in the 25 years since she discovered her psychic abilities, she said.

Although Kreutzer spends the most time in the 4,000-square-foot home, he said he hasn't encountered any of the ghosts - and Elliott has assured him there's no cause for worry anyway. ``I've been up there at midnight by myself,'' he said. ``The spirits like me a lot, because I'm the one fixing up the house.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1--ran in SAC edition only--color) ``All he said to me was: `I didn't get a chance to appreciate the house in life, so I come back now to enjoy it in death.'

- parapsychologist Rena Elliott

speaking of Rory McGregor's ghost

(2) The death of Rory McGregor, believed to be the man in the picture, is the theme of this year's ghostathon fund-raiser.

Terri Thuente/Daily News