You probably think of Southwest County as a relatively new place, too young to be home to strange phenomenon, ghost-like apparitions and haunted houses.

Oh, but there are stories here of long ago —— and not so long ago —— of unexplained things that go bump in the night.

There are numerous places in Southwest County where the unexplained ——- at least to us mere mortals —— occur.

For instance, The Chimes building in Lake Elsinore is said to be haunted by the victim of a tragic death. Opened as the Crescent Bath House in 1887 in an area rich with mineral hot springs, some say a young boy who drowned in the pool there in 1939 still wanders the building's halls.

Murrieta old-timers will tell you that on moonlit nights at the old grain elevator on B Street, you can see a young girl, wearing a light blue dress sitting on a window ledge.

On Juniper Street in Murrieta, there's a two-story house that was said to be haunted, recalled Donna Lent, who grew up in town and now runs Murrieta's Laurel Cemetery.

"The Hendersons used to live there long ago," Lent said. "I'm not sure anyone lives there now."

Lent remembered the distinct smell of jasmine near the house when the strange noises were heard.

"As a kid, it was quite a dare to ride your bike down the alley by the house," Lent said.

The oldest of the spooky tales doesn't involve a ghost, but a monster who has inhabited Lake Elsinore for centuries.

In modern times, a monster sighting was reported in 1884 and again in just about every decade since.

In the summer of 1932, swimmers were scared off by what proved to be a baby sea lion that had been put in the murky water as a prank.

Monster believers had to take a step back in the 1950s when the lake went dry. Some said the monster —— dubbed Elsie by the townsfolk —— had crawled out of the lake and was waiting in a cave for the water to return.

And return it did, according to a family that was boating on the lake in 1967.

"I know it sounds incredible," the father told The High Country magazine. "But whatever it was, it rolled by us making dark, high humps in the water for four or five hundred yards."

The last spate of monster sightings came in the rainy year of 1992, said Lake Elsinore city spokesman Mark Dennis.

"There were numerous reports of something in the lake that year," Dennis said.

Was it the monster? Was it, as some feared, a pet alligator that had grown too large?

Some thought it might have been a couple of tires that had found their way into the waterway, Dennis said.

In recent years, few if any monster sightings have been reported.

"But you never know," laughed Dennis. "The lake's a lot deeper now than it's been in recent years. We may not know what's lurking in the depths of Lake Elsinore today."

Contact columnist John Hunneman at (915) 676-4315, Ext. 2603, or hunneman@californian.com.