Zak Bagans, ghost hunter, is given a tour of Preston Castle's infirmary, where paranormal activity runs rampant in the abandoned building.

New episodes of Ghost Adventures begin Tonight at 9PM on Travel Channel! Ghost Adventures will be cast at Preston Castle.

High atop a hill lies the former Preston School of Industry - a reform school - known locally as Preston Castle.

Preston Castle was built in the late 1890's. Thousands of homeless, incorrigible and violent state "wards" learned trades like farming, carpentry and auto repair until the 1960's. Merle Haggard and 50's cowboy star Rory Calhoun once lived at Preston Castle.

Nothing was visibly amiss. The bright blue skies with puffy clouds under which the lush green hills of Amador County made for the kind of a perfect bucolic photo visitors bureaus place on brochure covers.

Stepping out of the car my eyes scanned across dark elongated windows some boarded others caged above and below towers and turrets. Despite the temperature being in the 90's a chill, and not the refreshing kind.

Under a massive arch my guide, Marie Nutting, smiled and took my initial outburst of "wow, this place is really creepy" in stride. As board president of the Preston Castle Foundation, a band of intrepid volunteers committed to saving the structure, my comment was not new to her.

Entering the facility at Preston Castle nothing supernatural hit me. No flying plasma or disembodied voices. The two front rooms were rather bland in fact except for a large steel safe, topped with a man' head and a unique drinking fountain.

Then a second set of doors slowly opened, and the chill returned. Not with icy fingers dancing lightly but handfuls of thrusting fear.

Looking beyond the obvious decay, and pushing aside my trepidation, people riding the water driven elevator and reading books where once 7,000 of them stood in the library.

The old infirmary of Preston Castle that certain feeling once again returned. It was hard to describe, as it was nothing violent, but rather a feeling of unseen vitality.

In 2008, during her organization's first outing to the Preston Castle, orbs of light made a sweeping clockwise motion across the heads of researchers.

Ghost Adventures - Preston Castle

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