For most people, the trouble about ghosts, spirts, and everything surrounding the paranormal is the lack of hard, verifiable evidence. Along these lines, many “paranormal” locations have a variety of conflicting stories that have no basis in fact or history and are easily debunked. With this as a baseline, the Whaley House stands out as a location that possibly provides solid evidence of paranormal activity, and has a primary goal of preserving San Diego’s history. Recently, I had an opportunity to tour the Whaley House with Jokie Tolentino, the Director of Museum Services for the Save our Heritage Organization (“SOHO”), the organization that manages and mantains the location. While I did not experience anything paranormal (that I noticed during) our walk, talk, and tour, I did leave the Whaley House with a greater appreciation for the location.
Haunted San Diego
San Diego is best known for being “America’s Finest City”, but like most locations, it also has a stranger, darker side, built on speculation, myths, rumors, and legends. With Halloween just around the corner, along with the shorter days and cooler nights of fall, now is a great time to explore these thirteen locations to search for monsters, ghosts, aliens, and whatever else may be out there. I’ve compiled this list from my experience and from what “evidence” is present in the public domain about these spots. I’ve subjectively ranked the spots from “most active” to “least active”, or for the skeptical readers out there, from “most credible” to “least credible”. Irrespective of how you feel about the supernatural, this is a great list of San Diego locations that add historic flavor to a fine city that are worth a visit.
All-Star Adventure Guide to San Diego
San Diego is a destination that is well-known for its fantastic weather, beautiful beaches, Comic-Con, and for being the home of Ron Burgundy in Anchorman. In addition to all of these things, San Diego is America’s Finest City and is the host city of the 2016 Major League Baseball All Star game. While Petco Park, the Convention Center, and the Gaslamp District are great spots in the city core of San Diego, the city, and the county as a whole have innumerable spots for visitors who have the time to explore, or who want to get away from the downtown crowds. Whether you are a first time visitor to San Diego, or a long-time fan of the city, check out the below destinations this weekend that prove that the city’s nickname is more than hype.
The "Haunted" Mission Inn
And yet, Riverside is indeed home to one of the strangest buildings in California (second only to the Winchester Mystery House): the Mission Inn. The Mission Inn began as a normal hotel under the ownership of Christopher Miller; but in 1902, ownership passed to his son, Frank Augustus Miller, who changed the name to the “Mission Inn”, and began adding on to the hotel in a variety of design styles until his death in 1935
Jamul Kiln
Although it was discovered by Juan Cabrillo in 1542 when looking for the mythical Strait of Anian, San Diego is a young city. To this day, like many other West Coast locations it is considered bereft of “historic” locations; even though Native Americans had lived in its environs and other areas for thousands of years prior to Cabrillo’s arrival. Perhaps this bias springs from the fact that not many people know much about San Diego other than what they learned in Anchorman; or perhaps this bias springs from the fact that while San Diego has historic sites, most of them are not common knowledge. In any event, San Diego is a city with ancient historic sites; and more modern historic sites. It is even a city with lost historic sites. While I’m sure there are plenty of semi-lost; partially-lost, and actually-lost sites out there that I don’t even know about, the best almost-actually lost site I’ve come across and found is this one – the ruin of the Jamul Kiln, or if we’re being technically accurate, the Jamul Cement Works.
Whaley House, San Diego, California
The Whaley House. I’m not sure if there’s anything I can say about this location that hasn’t been said before. (Don’t believe me? Click here, here, here, or here for a sample of these reviews). This destination is regularly listed as one of the Top Five “Must Visit” places in San Diego. If that wasn’t strange enough, the Whaley House has received international notoriety as one of the “most haunted” locations not just in California, not just in the United States and North America, but as one of the most haunted spots in the world. That’s right: in the world! (Don’t believe me? The website for the Whaley House discusses its “haunted nature”, and solicits ghost photos! But for more info, click here, here, or here). If all of that wasn’t enough, the Whaley House has its own B-Grade horror movie! (Don’t worry, for research purposes, I watched it, and…..it was truly bad).