“The Mill” – Kea Milling

The Old Kea Mill in Murrieta, CA is thought to be haunted by a young girl wearing a light blue dress.  Her apparition has been said to appear in the second window and echoes of her cries are reported to come from the mills interior .  Legend tells a story of a family of four that lived and worked at the mill.  Supposedly, the father became less and less in tune with reality and spent more and more time locked away in his shop.  Eventually, it is believed that he went crazy.  His daughter entered his shop, never to be seen again.  The father was then thought to have hunted down his wife shooting & killing her.  Lastly, he proceeded to hang his son and himself.  Because there is no record of any deaths on this property, all left to speculation.

I’ve been to the mill many times and have never experienced any strange ghostly encounters, never the less, the building is a neat place to visit.  The Old Kea Mill was built in 1918 to hold grain for the local farmers before sending it off to different milling companies in Los Angeles.  It was used through the early 1970’s and finally boarded up for good in March of 1991 and has remained unchanged ever since.  In 2013 the property was gifted to the City of Murrieta and a plan was devised to incorporate the structure, along with a reproduction of the old railway that once ran across the street from the Mill into the future “Pioneer Park”.  There has been no sign of ground breaking of this park, but it sure would be neat to see the past highlighted in a beautiful park for the future.   Until then, a view from the other side of the fence will have to do.

Happy Exploring All!