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SURF, SAND, SUNSHINE AND SPIRITS

When most people think about the City of San Diego, they think of surfing, beaches, Sea World or the world-famous zoo. Others think of the city’s Gaslamp District and its vibrant nightlife or the international cruise port. Still others might dwell on San Diego’s history as California’s birthplace, now preserved at Old Town State Historic Park, or reminisce about their time in this quintessential navy town. What most people don’t think about is the fact that San Diego may be one of the most haunted places in the western United States or perhaps in the country as a whole. I mean, after all, it is the only city in the country that has a house reportedly designated by the Congress of the United States as The Most Haunted House in America.

There are so many haunted places in this city that it is hard to figure out where to begin and where to end—if indeed there is an end to the haunted locations that seem to pop up each year as the city gets older and people become more aware of what they are looking at, thanks to media and television’s obsession with the paranormal. There is also a culture within the city itself that embraces its past with a passion for preservation; this passion extends to protecting and preserving its historic spirits.

There are many ghost tours throughout San Diego. From Old Town to every part of the city, one can hop on a bus or tram or walk to the many haunted locations and listen to the tales told by the knowledgeable guides. Everyone who takes these tours hopes for the same things. It is the same as going to a horror movie. People want a good, fun scare, that feeling of impending doom, being brought to the edge and then pulled back with a laugh just before the true fright. Unlike the movies, however, there is one more aspect to the ghost tours of San Diego that people want, whether they admit it to themselves or not. Every man, woman and child who takes theses tours wants to catch a glimpse of an actual ghost.

Although Belmont Park represents all the fun San Diego has to offer, it belies the haunted nature of the city of San Diego.

The City of San Diego has it all. Haunted sailing ships, a steam ferry and even a haunted aircraft carrier. There are haunted restaurants, hotels and tourist attractions, and many of them offer tours. There is even a public street, replete with shops, eateries and novelties, that you can walk down that was built over part of an old cemetery. One thing you must remember when in this section of old San Diego, however: most of the bodies buried in the old graveyard were never moved.

San Diego was the birthplace of California. As such, like any infant finding its way in life, strife and adversity can and will creep in. This city was no exception. Fights over land ownership, business and love have all been fought here. Lawmen and outlaws have walked the once dusty streets, and hangings for petty crimes have left their indelible mark in many places. Even the famed lawman Wyatt Earp is said to haunt a hotel in the heart of downtown San Diego. Lighthouses, cemeteries, state parks and missions, all historical and all haunted, can be found in this city known for its beaches, food and fun.

So, continue reading and let us take you on a haunted tour of this town that perfectly blends Old-World charm with modern, cosmopolitan amenities. This is a city that expertly combines its historic preservation efforts with its link to the city’s past by way of welcoming its long-dead founders and citizens—keeping them alive, in a sense, to help teach visitors and residents alike all that this wonderful city on the bay has to offer.

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THE BIRTH OF CALIFORNIA

As is the case with almost all of the discoveries regarding California, when Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailed into San Diego Bay, the area was already inhabited by Native American tribes.

The Kumeyaay Tribe had lived in the area of present-day San Diego and San Diego County for perhaps as long as twelve thousand years before Europeans arrived. The Kumeyaay ranged along the Pacific Ocean from today’s Oceanside south to Ensenada and east all the way to the Colorado River. This area includes the popular Torrey Pines State Nature Preserve.

To the Kumeyaay people, the lands around present-day Point Loma, Torrey Pines and other areas rich in natural resources near the ocean were considered common ground. Any Sh’mulq (Clan) could come to these areas from any village and fish, hunt game, gather shells that could be traded with other Sh’mulqs and gather needed foodstuffs. The Point Loma area was covered with oak trees and pine, including torrey pines, and under these trees grew native grains. Unfortunately, most if not all of these grains are now extinct.

Shellfish and various plants were taken from the mudflats that were in the area of what is today Midway and Sports Arena Boulevards. Mission Bay was at that time a very shallow marshland where the Kumeyaay would pole their boats through the thick reeds to hunt birds and gather small, wormlike creatures they would fry and eat. There is no mention of what type of animal or insect this was, only that it was very tasty.

The Presidio at San Diego overlooks the entire area and became the focal point for the pueblo of San Diego.

Deer, rabbit, foxes, badgers and even chipmunks were hunted here. Sh’mulqs from far and wide came to this area for food for their clans and shells to trade, as well as for tribal rituals that were held for all of the Sh’mulqs. All of that changed with the coming of the Spaniards.

When Cabrillo landed at what is today Point Loma, he found a group of Kumeyaay waiting for him; the rest of the tribe fled in fear. At first, the Kumeyaay attacked the newcomers, and several of Cabrillo’s crew were injured. Finally, the two sides stopped fighting and made an uneasy peace. After establishing communication, Cabrillo realized that the Kumeyaay were telling him about another group of Europeans who had acted aggressively toward the Native peoples, and this is why the tribe acted the way it had. It is assumed that the Kumeyaay were referring to the Alarcon expedition that had traveled up the Colorado River and made contact with the tribes two years prior. After an exhaustive round of signed communication, both Cabrillo and the Kumeyaay leader managed to get it across to each other that neither wanted to act with violence. By evening, those members of the tribe had returned to their homes, and by the time Cabrillo set sail, life had returned to relative normalcy for both parties. Cabrillo named the bay San Miguel and declared it a possession of the king of Spain. Cabrillo would die just four months later off the coast of Santa Barbara, near the Channel Islands.

It would be another sixty years before the Spaniards reappeared on the shores of Kumeyaay territory. It was here, in 1602, that San Diego got its name when explorer Sebastían Vizcaíno sailed into the harbor and renamed the bay in honor of the Spanish Catholic saint San Diego de Acalá. When Vizcaino and his crew came ashore, they, too, were met by a group of Kumeyaay tribesmen. Although not hostile, the Kumeyaay, remembering the Alarcon expedition, kept their weapons with them at all times. Once again, the Spanish came, looked around and parlayed with the Native tribe, then set sail. It would be more than 150 years before the Spanish began their conquest of California and its indigenous people.

In 1769, the Spanish began to look north into California. They set out with two expeditions, one traveling by sea, the other on foot. The ship San Antonio anchored just off Ballast Point on April 11, 1769, and two weeks later, its sister ship, San Carlos, arrived after having been held up by heavy winds and bad weather. By the time the first land party arrived on May 14, the group of soldiers and Franciscan brothers found twenty-one sailors and their guards dead, with many more severely ill from scurvy. A new camp was set up on what is today Presidio Hill, very near a Kumeyaay village. It was here on July 16, 1769, that the first of twenty-one missions, stretching from San Diego to just north of San Francisco, was established by Father Junípero Serra. Serra had been part of the second land party, which had been led by Gaspar de Portolá.

The Kumeyaay were not happy about the Spaniards setting up a camp and trying to control their lands. With the Spanish being sick and exhausted from their long trek, the Native people found it easy to take a lot of what the interlopers brought with them. They cut sections of their ship sails for the cloth, took many of the ropes and raided the camps for whatever they could find. The one thing the Kumeyaay did not take was the food. The Kumeyaay believed that the food was one of the reasons the Spanish were so ill and figured it was best to leave it. In August, two battles were joined in which the Kumeyaay sought to drive the Spanish away, but the Europeans proved stronger than the Natives realized. After the skirmishes were over, the Kumeyaay people took a more tolerant attitude toward the Spanish.

There was an uneasy truce between the Kumeyaay and the foreigners until a group of Spanish soldiers attacked the wife of a Kwai-pai (chief). The Kumeyaay had become irritated by the constant demand to give up their own religion in favor of Christianity, and the attack on the Kwai-pai’s wife became the catalyst for revolt. The Kwai-pai ordered an attack on Spanish troops; the mission was destroyed and several rancherias were ransacked. The Kumeyaay continued to fight the Spanish, Mexicans and Americans until reservations were finally set up, giving the Kumeyaay the ability to self-govern. Even today, however, many of the Kumeyaay are bitter—rightly so—about how they were treated.

The Kumeyaay people, like most Native tribes, revere their history and attempt to keep it alive and as complete as possible. One can find a wealth of insight into the lives of Native people by reading their history. Here is just a tiny part of the Kumeyaay history, with a couple of their ghost stories handed down.

My Grandmother told me several stories about people who died and then came back. I can only remember two of them because I found them most interesting.

I can remember my grandma sitting on her rocking chair smoking. She would smoke and tell me stories as she rocked back and forth. She would tell me stories from long ago and from more recent times. One was about a man who people thought was dead. He woke up after a few hours and told this story.

He found himself traveling down a road and came to a great gathering of tribes. At that time, they were called fiestas. He saw many people there. Some he knew and some he didn’t know. He tried to talk to them but no one would answer him. It was as if [though] he was not there. Frustrated he walked to the edge of the gathering where the animals were kept. A pig looked at him and said, Go on back, go on back. So, he traveled back down the road and woke up and told the people what happened.

My Grandmother stopped smoking for a few moments, looked skyward and told me another story.

This one was from more contemporary times. Again, she said a man had died and the people begin [sic] to prepare him for burial. They went so far as to dress him up and place him in a coffin. The people began to cry and mourn for his loss and he suddenly woke up. He then told his story.

He said that he had died and was floating over a great lake of fire. He looked down and saw people he knew and people he didn’t know. The bad thing was that flames would come up and lick his feet and it hurt. People are not buried with shoes. He told the people that when he died again to please bury him with shoes on so his feet would not be hurt.

My Grandmother stopped to light up another cigarette with a friction match. I was so curious that I asked her When he died again did they put shoes on? She stopped her match in midair and looked at me quizzically like old people do when they think you should know something. She said, No, no one ever comes back twice.

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OLD TOWN SAN DIEGO

The state we call California had a rocky start. There was a war with the Native Kumeyaay and a revolution by the Mexican people against Spain. The signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War, and California finally became a state of the United States of America.

San Diego had its humble beginnings at the base of what became known as Presidio Hill. As early as 1769, when the first Spaniards established the Presidio and original mission, huts and crude dwellings were built to house those missionaries and acolytes who came to the settlement. It wasn’t until the 1820s, however, that an actual town