The Hauntings : In Los Angeles, the world’s fantasy capital, tales of unexplained psychic phenomena have long fired the imagination, working their way into the imagination, working their way into literature and films. Here are some destinations off the beaten path.

1. PLUM CANYON

* Saugus

Plum Canyon, a long, narrow rock crevice in Saugus that runs from Vasquez Canyon to Bouquet Canyon Road, is reportedly where a small contingent of Spanish soldiers were ambushed and slain in 1821 by Native Americans during the war between Spain and Mexico. Repeated stories of Spanish ghosts and strange happenings in the canyon keep the tale alive.

Since the mid-19th Century, in a spot a little to the west, between Bouquet and Mint canyons, the quiet, unassuming ghost of a Spanish woman in a light satin dress and blue shawl has reportedly been spotted floating along the path.

2. THE COMEDY STORE

* 8433 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood

Ciro’s opened in 1939 and soon became the grandest nightspot in town. It was a place where a jokester dressed as an Arab sheik created a near-riot by dropping a bag of phony diamonds onto the floor. Today, in a locked and empty room of what is now the Comedy Store, it is said that the murmuring voices of people allegedly bumped off by mobsters can be heard.

3. HOLLYWOOD ROOSEVELT

HOTEL

* 7000 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood

The ghost of actor Montgomery Clift, who died of a heart attack in 1966, is said to roam the ninth floor of this refurbished hotel, built in 1927. Hotel records show that Clift rented Room 928 for about three months in 1952 while filming “From Here to Eternity.” Guests, maids and security guards have reported seeing or hearing Clift’s ghost playing his trumpet and reciting his lines while pacing the hallway.

Marilyn Monroe’s reflection has been reported to haunt a mirror that once hung in Suite 1200, which was often used by the star. The mirror now hangs in the manager’s office.

Others have reported seeing a sobbing little girl looking for her mother throughout the hotel, and a man wearing a white suit loitering in the Blossom Room, the ballroom where the first Academy Awards were held in 1929.

Some say they have even heard a voice calling them to the hotel’s roof and, once they got there, felt the presence of someone trying to pull them off the rooftop. In 1932, Harry Lee, an actor unable to find work, leaped to his death from the roof.

4. ALEXANDRIA HOTEL

* 501 S. Spring St., Los Angeles

On the outside, this eight-story, 1906 landmark hotel with its 12-story annex--once a showplace whose guests included U.S. presidents and Hollywood celebrities--struggles to fend off drug dealers and prostitutes. Inside, a ghost appearing to be in her late 30s, wearing the fashions of the era when the hotel was new and ritzy (a veiled cartwheel hat and a high-necked black dress with a bustle) is said to wander the hallways looking for a loved one.

5. BIG ROCK CANYON

* Eight miles southeast of Pearblossom

on Big Rock Canyon Road

The legend of Sasquatch, or Bigfoot, dates to Native American myths that linked it to “shiny silver moons,” which some Bigfoot fans believe means alien spaceships. Whether the creature is a visitor from another planet, a throwback to primitive man or a figment of modern imaginations, there have been a number of reported Bigfoot sightings in the Antelope Valley since the early 1970s.

In 1973, three young men said they saw an 11-foot, apelike creature jump out of the bushes near Sycamore Flats campground and chase them in their truck. They returned to the site after informing the sheriff’s office in Lancaster, and found hundreds of three-toed prints, some of which were preserved in plaster of Paris. Normal Bigfoot tracks are reputedly five-toed.

Six months later, something that appeared to have a 12-foot stride left what looked like 21-inch footprints at South Fork campground. More reports trickled in over the years, including a sighting by two girls on horseback of an “apelike monster” at Devil’s Punchbowl County Park, just west of Big Rock Canyon.

6. RANCHO LOS CERRITOS

* 4600 Virginia Road, Long Beach

This colonial two-story adobe, built in 1844, was once home to pioneer John Temple. The museum’s former curator, Keith Foster, remembers the night several years ago when a group of local curators held a seance at the adobe. The medium summoned up the spirit of Temple; it reportedly lifted a 200-pound library table about six inches off the floor and pinned Foster against the library’s glass doors. Foster believes Temple’s frustrated spirit assumed Foster knew where Temple had buried silver treasure on the grounds. No one has ever found the treasure.

7. CULVER STUDIOS

* 9336 Washington Blvd., Culver City

In 1924, pioneer filmmaker Thomas Ince died mysteriously while celebrating his 43rd birthday aboard William Randolph Hearst’s yacht. Legend has it that Hearst caught his mistress, Marion Davies, kissing Charlie Chaplin and shot at Chaplin, accidentally killing Ince.

Rumors of hauntings have persisted at this 76-year-old studio, built by Ince. They include a report in 1988 from two carpenters who said they saw a man in a bowler hat on a catwalk who told them, “I don’t like what you’re doing to my studio,” before disappearing through a wall.

Sources: “Hollywood Haunted: A Ghostly Tour of Filmland,” by Laurie Jacobson and Marc Wanamaker, and Times files.