Haunted San Francisco - Scary Stories of Golden Gate Park's Haunted Stow Lake - National Budget Living

Stow Lake, one of San Francisco's most Haunted places

San Francisco is full of it's haunted houses and spooky folklore, but no area is as full of random ghost stories as San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. With Halloween around the corner and everyone looking for wasy to scare themselves, a visit to Golden Gate Park's Stowe Lake to tell ghost stories is in order.

According to Wikipedia, Golden Gate Park is the most visited city park in the US. The park, modeled after Central Park, and built during the same time hosts 1,017 acres of public ground.

Many of it's highlights include the DeYoung Museum, the Japanese Tea Gardens, The Conservatory of Flowers, The Beach Chalet, Sprekels Park and a few resident ghosts. Yes, I said ghosts! One of the most popular legends of Haunted San Francisco is Golden Gate park's Stowe Lake ghost stories.

There is a famous urban legend in this park that has been going on for almost 100 years and the tale still remains as spine tingling and strange as ever. The earliest record of the legend was printed in the San Francisco Chronicle on Jan. 6, 1908. The Chronicle reported a mysterious figure blocking a car on its way out of the park. Police later pulled over the owner of the car, Arthur Pigeon, for speeding. “It was a thin, tall figure in white,” Pigeon told the Chronicle. “And it seemed to shine. It had long, fair hair and was barefooted. I did not notice the face. I was too frightened and anxious to get away from the place.”

Ghost of Stow Lake

The story, very much an urban myth is said to have various points of referance: some say a mother of three children lost one of her children, one version says that someone took her child and the child drowned and it is said that a young woman was boating on this lake with her young toddler sometime in the late 1800’s and the toddler accidentally fell into the lake; the young mother in panic, jumped into the water to rescue her baby, both her and the young child drowned in the lake. It has also been said that in the 1920's or 30's a woman became pregnant and hid the pregnancy from her family. She disposed of the child and killed her self in the Lake.

Over the years, many people claim to see this woman late at night searching for her baby around Stow Lake, haunting her only home, a tourist lake in Golden Gate Park. She is often described the same way every time. The woman is seen wearing a dirty white dress, in some accounts she is soaking wet. In all accounts, she has long dark hair. She often has an anxious look on her face and wanders the lake’s edge. She is also seen at times on a hill adjacent to the lake, known as Strawberry Hill. Countless witnesses have seen this ghostly woman and their accounts always describe her the same way she’s been seen in Golden Gate Park for over 100 years. Another hot-spot at Stow Lake is the Pioneer Woman Statue.

The Statue

I did a little rearch about the statue. The Statue is called the Pioneer Woman and Children. It is located adjacent to a log cabin style building that houses the California Women's Pioneer Assosciation. The statue, meant to honor this woman and children is known to move and change positions as a ghost haunts the lake.

It is rumored that if someone goes near the pioneer lady statue near Stow Lake at night, weird occurrences will take place. In some accounts, the lady then comes up from the lake; in others the statue near the lake comes to life or it's face changes shape, sometimes it has no legs or no head; other people report electrical issues.

Many have documented that if they drive near the statue or lake with their friends in a lot of cars, all their cars will stall at the same time. Some people say they saw the lady coming up from the lake and going towards them. Another rumor is said that, if someone says “White lady, white lady, I have your baby” three times, the lady will appear right in front of them. She’ll ask you, “Have you seen my baby?” If you say yes, she’ll haunt you and if you say no, she’ll kill you (although, no documented occurances of that have actually occured.)

Haunted Accounts of Stow Lake

"My Grand Father Died in Stow Lake in the 1960s. He lived in Golden gate park when he was a boy, after his home was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. He always had a special attachment to the park as do I. He would go there in the middle of the night sometimes. He was very ill the last time he went there. He had a siezure, fell in the lake and drowned. I don't know of any other deaths in or around the lake. I am sure there must have been one or two others. The lake is named for William Stow. HE was the director of the park at one time. He is buried in Mountian VIew Cemetary in Oakland California. "

"I RECENTLY WENT TO THAT LAKE AND STATUE..IT GIVES ME THE CREEPS.. I BET IT REALLY IS HAUNTED.. BUT I WANT TO KNOW THE REAL STORY THAT GOES BEHIND THAT STATUE..MY FRIEND SAID HE SAW THE STATUE CHANGE POSITIONS..WHEN COMMING BACK..AND WE HEARD WIERD NOISES COMMING FROM THE LAKE..THEN ALL THE SUDDEN ..IN THE DEAD SILENCE.. RIGHT BEFORE WE GET IN THE CAR.. A BIG SPLASH ..THEN BURN RUBBER AND EXIT THE PARK AS FAST AS WE COULD.. ANYONE ELSE WITH PAST EXPERIANCES PLZ LET ME KNOW"

i went to the lake last night thinking the story was fake, we parked next to the 2nd bridge and turned the truck off. in the silence we heard someone humming. so my boyfriend and i got out of the truck while our friend,Jeff, stayed in the truck. i put my hands on the bridge and my boyfriend said that i started to hum a song and froze for about 2 minutes. while i was standing there Jeff and Paul were yelling my name, i didn't even hear them, i was fixed on something in the lake that caught my eye, it looked like a little girl dressed all in white reaching for me to help her out of the water. i couldn't even walk away from the bridge because i had forgotten how to walk. then i ran to get in the truck and we left and drove around again and got out of the truck again, this time at the first bridge. i put my hands on the bridge and the humming got louder then we saw a cloud of smoke approach the bridge so we took off. then on the way out we slowly pulled up to the second bridge we stopped for a second and we saw a cloud of smoke come in front of the truck and went back and forth in front of the truck and the humming began to start again. we got out of there so fast that i don't think i ever want to go back there again.i belive the story now.

Man, I was there on Halloween too! Just a couple hours ago actually... I must say.. I didn't experience anything that you guys did, but that place scared the life out of me and my friends. We couldn't find that bridge, but we went to the side of the lake and walked around. It was rather weird.. like you just get this weird feeling. Then we left... Then we went to the statue... we actually walked around it... and was messing with it but tot ell you the truth, i felt the most chilling feeling on my spine, no joke. Man, i must say that that place is weird. The statue didn't move.. and I didn't want it to but yeah... It's a scary place.

I went to the lake about 3 or 4 years ago with my ex-boyfriend David and his friend named david S. I was very skeptical but at the the sametime intrigued and curious about the legend i was told. I was told that the woman drowned her two kids in the lake and in her despair, grief, and guilt is doomed to wander the stow lake site for the rest of eternity in search of her children murdered at her own hand. I was told if you go to the lake with no more than 3 people after 12:00am she will come to you and ask you if you know where her children are if you say you know where they are she will drown you in the lake if you say you do not know where her children are she will pass you by. On this particular night all three of us were looking for a rush. Armed with a baseball bat in the trunk of Davids car. We stood before the statue laughing and cracking jokes. After about 3-5 minutes of doing this David S said "hey shhh you guys i think i hear a baby crying!" David and i laughed and called david a wimp amongst other names. However david and i got quiet for 30 seconds and heard a baby's cry coming from inside the statue! we got scared and ran back to davids car. Later that same night we went back with two other friends and nothing happened. Perhaps because we had too many people with us the ghostly being was too shy to come out. It is true that you hear the baby's cry theres no mistakening that when three different people hear it all at the same time.

Yelp's Thread about Stow Lake Haunting

Article Resources:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0055OY

http://www.hauntedamericatours.com/ghoststories/hauntedhaight/

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Comments

Debi, Movie Locations Travel Examiner 2 years ago

Aloha Carol! I just stumbled in here and am very pleased to find some fun info. I subscribed, so you'll probably hear from me now and again. It's nice to make your acquaintance!
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marcus huiseman 2 years ago

I was in this park not too far away from golden gate park and even though i didn't see anything, I could feel ghosts from all different generations, 1000's of ghosts, i wanted to go all the way
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Anonymous 7 months ago

We were there last night and took pictures. One picture that we took is a face of child with a sad face. So clear and the whole face is noticeable on the picture.
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