Phantoms and Monsters

The Myers Inn, located on Avenue of the Giants in Myers Flat, is a tidy, 10-room bed and breakfast inn with an inviting atmosphere -- and, according to legend, a similarly gracious guardian keeping an eye on the place.

Innkeepers Luther and Lindy Wright welcome guests wholeheartedly, and the guests keep coming back. But it's not simply Luther Wright's delicious home cooking, or the fact that Lindy Wright makes one feel as if she is, and will be, your best friend forever.

Something more about this historic inn keeps guests coming back. According to the residents, a guardian angel is watching over things, a former owner by the name of Ulysses S. Grant Myers.

”He was the son of Elias Myers and he died in 1937,” Luther Wright said. “Elias named all his children after his personal heroes.”

The family's resting place is nearby on private property, and the senior Myers children are all there. His daughter's gravestone reads, “Vada C. Jennings,” but Vada was a nickname, as she was named after the state of Nevada. Her middle name was California, as she was born on California Admissions Day. One son, Lesser Roosevelt Myers, was named in honor of the famous former American president, Theodore Roosevelt.

Owner Rod Moschetti said he doesn't believe in ghosts, and refers to the late Ulysses Myers as an angel.

The innkeepers agree.

”He's benevolent,” Lindy Wright proclaimed. “No one has ever felt any bad feelings here. In fact, it's just the opposite. Everyone feels at home here.”

According to the inn's Web site, Elias Myers founded the town with his brother, Andrew. The pair bought the parcel -- which was known as Kunteltcobetlto by the Lolangkok Tribe during Gold Rush days -- for $1,000.

Elias' son, Ulysses S. Grant Myers, eventually took over the property, planting 700 apple trees, 300 pear trees, and vegetables. He began raising hogs and chickens and produced dairy products, garnering him a scroll in 1887 from the Mechanics Institute of San Francisco acknowledging the ranch's bountiful “Display of Fruitland Vegetables.”

By all appearances, Ulysses Myers created a thriving community that he just can't seem to leave behind.

Donna Roberts has been a housekeeper in the inn for more than a year now. She said the first time she saw Ulysses Myers, she thought he was a guest.

”There weren't any guests in the house at the time,” she said. “I saw him out of the corner of my eye coming down from the attic, and I thought to myself, 'I better get to work.' He was wearing a tattered shirt and suspenders. Then, when I turned to look at him again, he was gone and the cat was sitting there, looking at me. I'm not afraid of him, though. There's no bad feelings about him at all.”

”Mr. Kitty” is the black cat with the tattered ear that always seems to be around after a sighting. Lindy Wright said it's no coincidence.

”A guest came to stay just a few months ago and called him by name,” Lindy Wright said. “She was shocked to still see him, because she said the last time she was here was when she was a child -- that was 45 years ago.”

The first time Lindy Wright saw Ulysses, he was walking down the hallway upstairs.

”I felt someone wanting to pass me in the hallway,” she said. “So, I stepped aside to let them walk by me, but no one was there. No one told us about him. They didn't want to put thoughts in our heads. I was startled at first, but I know now he's a good soul. I've never felt afraid of him. Never.”

Lindy Wright said the new housekeeper, on the other hand, was terrified the first time she saw him.

”She was afraid of him at first,” Lindy Wright said. “But, then she had a dream that he took her and gave her to us. And I told her, 'That's good, he's welcoming you to the house.' And she's fine with him now.”

Room 8 is where Lindy Wright said she had her first experience with Ulysses.

”We don't know why, but room No. 8 is where everything happens,” she said. “All over the world, clothes hangers in hotel rooms are pushed flush to the left of the closet. So, one day I was cleaning up and moved all the hangers to the left just before I left the room. When I turned to leave, I heard the hangers rattling. Sure enough, when I looked, they were all messed up again.”

Another time, she was sitting on the edge of the bed and felt something beside her. When she looked down, she could see, quite plainly, the impression of a hand on the bed next to her.

”People feel him, but they don't feel afraid. He's our friend. He's here to watch over us,” Lindy Wright said.

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