State file · CA
Haunted places in California
What are the most haunted places in California? The best-known are Winchester Mystery House, Alcatraz, RMS Queen Mary and Hotel del Coronado, among 6 on file.
California’s ghost stories track the state’s booms. Spanish missions and Mexican-era adobes give way to Gold Rush camps and ghost towns in the Sierra foothills, railroad-era resorts on the coast, Victorian mansions built on rifle and sugar fortunes, and the prisons, ships and hotels of the twentieth century. Many of the country’s most famous haunted places are here: Sarah Winchester’s labyrinthine house in San Jose, the island prison of Alcatraz, the retired liner Queen Mary at Long Beach, and the beach resort of the Hotel del Coronado, with its century-old mystery of a woman who checked in alone.
- 6 hauntings
- 12 recorded sightings
- 3 news stories
Haunted places in California
Winchester Mystery House
Sarah Winchester’s sprawling San Jose mansion, famous for stairs to nowhere and a ghost legend that historians say was largely invented after her death. Widely reported
Alcatraz
The island prison in San Francisco Bay that held the “worst of the worst” from 1934 to 1963, where visitors and rangers describe voices and clanging cells. Widely reported
RMS Queen Mary
The retired Cunard liner moored at Long Beach since 1967, now a hotel whose paranormal tours tell of a drowned girl, a crushed crewman and wartime dead. Widely reported
Hotel del Coronado
The great Victorian beach resort across the bay from San Diego, said to be haunted by Kate Morgan, a young woman who died there in 1892. Widely reported
Whaley House
San Diego’s 1857 brick home of the Whaley family – also a store, theatre and courthouse – often billed as one of America’s most haunted houses. Widely reported
La Llorona
The weeping woman who searches rivers and canals at night for the children she lost – the best-known ghost legend of Mexico and the Hispanic world. FolkloreThe ghost lore of California
The state is also where ghost tourism grew up alongside show business. The Winchester house was being marketed to tourists within a year of its owner’s death, Hollywood has retold California hauntings for a century, and paranormal television has filmed in the state more than anywhere else. That makes it all the more important to separate story from record: historians have shown that much of the Winchester legend was invented, and several famous ghost tales rest on real deaths – of prisoners, sailors, a grieving family’s daughter – that deserve to be remembered accurately.
California also carries the borderlands legend of La Llorona, the weeping woman of Mexican and Mexican-American folklore, told along rivers and arroyos from Los Angeles to the Central Valley. Ghost hunters gravitate to San Francisco and the Bay Area, Old Town San Diego, Hollywood’s old hotels and theatres, the Gold Country, and preserved ghost towns such as Bodie.
Ghost-hunting hotspots
- Old Town San Diego
The city’s original settlement, home to the Whaley House, El Campo Santo cemetery and nightly ghost-and-gravestone tours.
- San Francisco Bay
Alcatraz, the Presidio, old Barbary Coast saloons and the city’s Victorian neighbourhoods all feature in local ghost walks.
- Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles
Historic hotels, theatres and the stories of early film stars make Los Angeles a staple of paranormal TV.
- The Gold Country
Sierra foothill towns such as Nevada City, Jamestown and Sonora preserve Gold Rush hotels and saloons with long-standing ghost lore.
- Bodie State Historic Park
A preserved gold-mining ghost town in the eastern Sierra, known for a legend that taking souvenirs brings bad luck.
Timeline
- 11 June 1962Morris and the Anglins escape Alcatraz
Three prisoners left dummy heads in their beds and slipped into the bay on a raincoat raft. They were never found, and the case remains open.
- 21 March 1963The prison closes Alcatraz
Citing costs and structural decay, the Bureau of Prisons shut Alcatraz. Six years later the island was occupied by Native American activists.
- 1966Death of John Pedder RMS Queen Mary
An 18-year-old member of the engine-room crew was killed by a watertight door during a fire drill. He is the best known of the ship’s named ghosts.
- 9 December 1967Arrival at Long Beach RMS Queen Mary
After her final voyage around Cape Horn, the ship arrived at her permanent mooring, bought by the city for about $3.45 million.
- 8 May 1971Opened to tourists RMS Queen Mary
The converted ship opened as an attraction; the hotel followed in 1972, and ghost stories soon became part of its appeal.
- 1992Park staff on Sightings Alcatraz
In an episode of the paranormal series Sightings, several unnamed Park Service staff described unexplained crashes, cell doors closing and a constant feeling of being watched.
- 1992The hotel hires a parapsychologist Hotel del Coronado
Christopher Chacon carried out a confidential twelve-month investigation, monitoring rooms with instruments and interviewing about 1,100 guests, visitors and staff.
- 14 October 2011Ghost Adventures investigates Winchester Mystery House
The Travel Channel series broadcast an overnight investigation, returning for a second episode in 2016.
- 11 October 2013Ghost Adventures episode Alcatraz
The Travel Channel series broadcast an investigation of the cellhouse, one of several paranormal programmes to feature the island.
- 7 June 2014Ghost Adventures investigates Whaley House
The house was the main investigation of a Ghost Adventures episode; it was later featured on BuzzFeed Unsolved in 2017.
- 4 October 2014Ghost Adventures investigates RMS Queen Mary
The Travel Channel series broadcast an overnight investigation aboard, one of many paranormal shows to film on the ship.
- February 2018Hollywood retells the legend Winchester Mystery House
The horror film Winchester, starring Helen Mirren and partly filmed at the house, brought the haunted-widow story to cinemas worldwide.
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Videos
29:02
1963 KPIX Documentary: Mrs. Winchester’s House
19:07
The Final Voyage of the RMS Queen Mary – 1967
2:53
Queen Mary’s Most ‘Haunted’ Stateroom Available To Rent For First Time In 30 Years
6:10
Universal News, Volume 35, Release 49. June 14, 1962
2:30
Former Alcatraz Guard Calls Ghost Story a Myth
4:20