Haunted Old Town San Diego CA

The Haunted Old Town Cemetery 'El Campo Santo' is one of Old Town San Diego's most haunted locations. This is part 2 of our series on Hauntings & Ghosts of Haunted Old Town San Diego.

Ghosts of Haunted Old Town San Diego Cemetery 

Tales of restless spirits wandering among the graves & haunting the local residents houses.

Cars parked in front of the cemetery (on top of many graves) may suddenly have trouble starting. Unseen hands may set off a wave of car alarms. Surrounding businesses and homes have experienced unexplained problems with lighting, electrical power, appliances and alarm systems.

Native American and Hispanic apparitions have also been known to appear within the graveyard and in the surrounding area, sometimes even fooling the living into thinking they are one of the Old Town employees who dress up in period costumes.

People who leave their cars  parked in front of the cemetery (on top of the many graves) often find them hard to start afterwards. Car alarms can often be heard from cars parked here, set off by unseen hands.

People visiting the cemetery report feeling an icy chill when they walk through some spots.

Some describe the chill as if walking through a freezing, unknown presence.

In the evenings, what looks like an Hispanic or Native American can be seen floating just above the ground.

A misty, glowing figure can sometimes also be seen drifting along the sidewalk, just outside the cemetery wall.

Figures that are seen here are often mistaken for park employees that dress up in period costume.

These ghostly  figures however, quickly vanish without a trace, unlike their living counterparts.

A woman in a white Victorian costume appears, then disappears along the south wall.

Some figures that glide through here are only partially visible. It is not unusual to hear someone report seeing only the upper torso of a man or woman.

History of the Haunted El Campo Santo Cemetery

El Campo Santo Cemetery is San Diego's second oldest cemetery, and dates back to 1849 with the burial of its first resident, Juan Adams. Burials in this Catholic Cemetery continued through 1880, welcoming San Diego dead of all different backgrounds, including Yankee Jim Robinson who was hung at the site of the Whaley House. Located in Old Town, the residents of El Campo Santo have been repeatedly disturbed as the growing city moved the graves to make room for the living. In 1889, the community built a horse-drawn street car line through the cemetery, right over 18 existing graves. This line eventually became a road, San Diego Blvd, and, in 1942, was paved and turned into a modern street.

That first street car line was emblematic of the cemetery’s history. At least thirty graves linger beneath the streets and sidewalks of San Diego Blvd and Lindwood Street. In 1933 the San Diego Historical Society restored El Campo Santo as accurately as possible based on early photographs and descriptions. Now, the cemetery includes an adobe wall, reset markets, rebuilt paling enclosures and a plain white cross in the center of the plot.

Despite the historical society’s goodwill gesture, many believe the ghosts of El Campo Santo were not appeased.

Our next post will be about San Diego's Haunted Cosmopolitan Hotel!