Ghosts of Pleasanton's past line the downtown. Tales of underground tunnels, murders, speakeasies and brothels have haunted (and entertained) locals for years.

From the Gay '90s Pizza Company and its ghost of a brothel madam to the Pleasanton Hotel and its ghosts of gamblers and prostitutes past, ghost stories are part of the lore of more than a dozen buildings along Main Street.

Every October in recent years, people from all over the Bay Area have made the pilgrimage to Pleasanton to experience the city's paranormal atmosphere for themselves.

When the October 2008 tour rolls around, the ghost stories will have a measure of validation, backed by visual and audio evidence gathered this past summer by Gloria Young, a Northern California ghost hunter.

What started as a two-weekend project to hunt Pleasanton's ghosts blossomed into a five-weekend investigation, said Young, founder and director of the Santa Clara-based Ghost Trackers Paranormal Research Group.

"We kept finding things. We would hear some voices, or we would capture something on a picture," she said. "The activity there is just excellent."

Young, who founded Ghost Trackers in 1992, uses a diverse group of people to conduct field research and learn more about ghosts and other psychic phenomena.

The former emergency room nurse said there are plenty of urban legends and ghost stories around the Bay Area. She was amazed, however, to find such overwhelming evidence in Pleasanton.

very unusual," Young said. "Urban legends are usually just that -- urban legends."

After a visit to Gay '90s, Young was looking through still photographs and found a picture of an old mirror. It reflected an image of herself, a male team member and Ghost Walk coordinator Rebecca Bruner. What was surprising, however, was the image of a woman with camel-colored hair, also reflected back from the mirror. There was no one else with them that day who looked like that additional image.

Young also heard voices in the basement of Gay '90s, which occupies a structure built in 1864. Pleasanton historians note that Chinese laborers built a connection from that basement to the town's underground tunnels, which ran from that building to the current location of the Pleasanton Hotel on Main Street. Most of the tunnels collapsed in the 1920s when Main Street was paved.

"It's the real deal," said Charles Huff, local architect and town historian. "One of the comments I've heard is not which buildings on Main Street are haunted, but which ones are not."

Bruner, a local real estate agent and longtime Pleasanton resident, said she called Young in because of the local legends, ghost stories and unusual amount of paranormal activity downtown.

"We were hoping she would say (the stories) were true," Bruner said. "It was just huge to get confirmation."

Even before the evidence validating the city's ghostly past, Bruner said the ghost walks have always been a huge success. This year, over the course of the two-day sold-out event, she and her volunteers led more than 1,000 visitors, with many people being turned away. The walk raised $12,000 for the museum, which is run by the nonprofit Amador-Livermore Valley Historical Society.

"People come out because they like the stories," Bruner said. "We try to give them a bit of history and talk about why spirits are here."

Young, who filmed the Pleasanton investigation, will release a documentary titled "Ghosts of Pleasanton" in early 2008. She plans to donate the film to the museum.

"I've never had an experience like that before," Bruner said. "I do believe that people who have passed can still be in contact with us ... It makes you feel better to know they are still around."

Meera Pal covers Pleasanton. Reach her at 925-847-2120 or mpal@bayareanewsgroup.com

Ghost walking

Gloria Young of Ghost Trackers Paranormal Research Group will hold a public lecture 7 p.m., April 17 at The Museum on Main, 603 Main St., Pleasanton. Tickets for the October 2008 Ghost Walk go on sale in August. Contact the Museum on Main at 925-462-2766 or http://www.museumonmain.org