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First, let me quote the bronze plaque in front of the Banta Inn: “Originally built as a two storey saloon / sporting house in 1879 by Frank Gallegos, reputed former member of Joaquin Murrieta’s band, the inn has continued as a saloon to this day.”

“The Inn suffered a major fire in 1937 and was rebuilt retaining some of the original timbers. The Inn remained in the Gallegos family until 1981. It was then sold by the youngest daughter of Frank Gallegos, Jenny Gukan, when she was 92 years old.”

The information I (and TV shows I worked with in the 1980s and 90s, including news programs) gathered from the owner, a local historian, and through numerous interviews with locals, all supported this. [NOTE: I had nothing to do with the commission or dedication of the bronze plaque, which has been present since 1989, so if the history's bad, it's bad in bronze]

The Banta Inn may not have been called the “Banta Inn” before being rebuilt, but the building site – and an inn/saloon present there – goes back to the late 1800s. Restaurants and bars often go through name (and ownership) changes, though in most cases the buildings themselves are still the same.

Granted Frank Gallegos being “reputed” – or as one local historian told
me years ago “rumored” – to have been a former member of Murrieta’s outlaw band, that’s the rumor passed along (and on the bronze plaque). The “reputed” thing is always tough to go with.

As for the date of Tony Gukan’s death being 1968, if it was not that year, this is the first time anyone has stated that. My colleagues, students and I, along with numerous TV and print journalists, have interviewed local residents, most of whom were witnesses to the ghostly activities. Everyone, including several who stated knowing Tony Gukan during his life, stated he died of a heart attack in 1968. We had no reason to doubt this, and as we were most interested in the current (to the time we were doing investigations and observations) possible psychic/paranormal activity, we never thought to look for a death certificate. Personally, I’d love to know more about Tony.

The ghostly activities, which have included mainly unexplained physical activity, also included apparitional sightings of a man identified by locals who knew him as “Tony Gukan.” But beyond that, over the many visits over several years from the mid-80s to the mid-90s, witnesses and psychic practitioners who did not know Tony Gukan were able to pick out the apparition they saw from groups of photos – the figure they consistently pointed to in photos was, we were told, that of Tony Gukan.

The Banta Inn has always been one of the top of my “fun haunted places” to visit. The food on my visits was always great, the atmosphere friendly and light. The activity, both reported and what I personally witnessed, indicated an intelligence behind it that really seemed to want to entertain the patrons, and make the place as welcoming as possible.

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All of the information from these “stories” were sourced from websites, which are all linked to in the above sections. Admittedly, they are probably just that: stories. This is kind of the nature of ghost stories. This was meant as mostly entertainment.

The Banta Inn story came from Loyd Auerbach’s website (see the intro). Loyd is a highly respected paranormal investigator, however I obviously cannot personally vouch for the information on his website. I will forward your comments to him to see if he has a response.

We do care about the information we publish and do our best to make sure it’s accurate. Again, sorry if this has offended you. All the best.

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See:
http://www.staygettysburg.com/2009/10/11/haunted-gettysburg-10-spooky-ghost-sighting-videos-in-gettysburg/

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And yeah, Valerie… The Whaley House is CREEPY.

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