San Diego's Haunted Cemetery - Old Town's El Campo Santo
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- El Campo Santo Cemetery in Old Town San Diego is the city's second oldest official cemetery, having opened in 1849. The cemetery was only in use for 31 years and saw approximately 450 burials before it began to fall into disrepair. By 1889, El Campo Santo was treated with such little regard that a street car line went through it. Two streets cut through the edges of the cemetery as well, covering a number of graves under the roads. On San Diego Ave. the locations of the grave sites (which were relocated with ground penetrating radar in the 1990s) are marked on the sidewalk and road. On the opposite side of the cemetery, Linwood St has a plaque with a map to the grave sites, but no markers.
The cemetery is the final resting place to some important and infamous early San Diegans. The first Alcalde (mayor) of San Diego is buried there, as is Yankee Jim, who is said to haunt the Whaley House just a couple blocks away. The cemetery was the site of several executions, and along with the Whaley House down the street it has been the subject of a number of books and TV shows dealing with paranormal activity.
In this video we explore the cemetery, which El Camino Real and Highway 101 once went through, and talk about its history and a few of the many people buried there.
This has been the most requested place to do a video on from the comments section on other videos. Thank you to everyone who have offered ideas for videos. We really appreciate all the comments.
El Campo Santo is located at 2410 San Diego Avenue, San Diego, California 92110.
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Back in the 80's they had a program where all the 4th graders would go to Old Town for a week and learn about local history. They'd even have you learn phrases in the Kumeyaay language. It was really cool. Don't think they do it anymore though.
nope state of California cut a lot of educational programs
I did that as a kid, but I think you are right that they don't do it anymore.
I remember doing that in fourth grade. I loved it! They had us walk and walk and sit in the little court room of the Whaley House. I fell in love with Old Town and have been in love with it ever since. Dang now I feel old!!! 😊
They did it through the 90s when i was in school!
They were still running it in the early 2000s. We even got to learn how to make tortillas outside
‘Eating on top of a grave site’ - morbidly funny!! Thanks for posting!!
Picnics in graveyards used to be a thing.
Everywhere we go we are walking on dead people who are underground.... People been walking around this planet for quite a while now. And for a long time no history was left behind. They find burial grounds all the time during construction of buildings, dams, and highways. Great tour. Thanks.
Riverside CA here Thank You for the good Ideas for my road trips
Our pleasure!
I visited the Whaley House and that cemetery in 1968 when I was 13. Those same stories struck me so deeply and personally that a sole specter haunted my dreams telling me that when someone dies unjustly and traumatically…their essence… their blood cries up from the ground to anyone moved by their stories. The shimmering specter took the form of an adorable young girl maybe 9 or 10. She was telling me all of this when a beautiful piece of music began playing in my dream like a soundtrack. Voices were singing, “ but I’d like to get to know you, if I could.” They sang this again and again and I woke up to my clock radio . The music was the ending of a song by 60s band Spanky and Our Gang. “I’d like to get to know you.” The dream was so surreal and the girl so tragic that this song ending is still very emotional to me at age 70. 57 years after my visit to Old Town.
one can really appreciate the work and respect the City put into restoring this cemetery... thank you for the tour, may they all rest in peace ❤️🕊️
You should do the Pioneer Cemetery in Julian. Lots of history there as well.
I never ever get tired of Old Town. It has just a lovely atmosphere and even the newer night life spots and trendy restaurants can't damper it.
Very informative and interesting look at San Diego's past. As for the Whaley House, it is well known that the Whaleys haunt the home, but it is also interesting to note that the house was likely also haunted when the Whaleys lived there! Very interesting history there!
Nice shirt! (We have one too. Such a fun place.!😄) You know... back before I moved out west, Glenn & I went to San Diego and I vaguely remember seeing those markers and being quite mystified as to why there were graves under the street and sidewalk. Now I know why! Thanks for the information and great video as always!
Thank you. Yes, even while filming this I kept seeing people doing a double take at the markers on the sidewalk.
That was cool thanks.
Spent hrs wandering around old Town as a kid in the 60s. We used to come down on Sunday morns to get churros.
It was a bit more rustic in those days as I remember it. My dad liked to visit often as he grew up a few blocks away.
Love your videos.
Old Town...my old stomping grounds. I remember when Carlos Murphy’s was there!
Wow Thats a blast from the past!!
You did a great job with this video. I was born and raised in San Diego, we moved out in 2005. I worked down the street on Harney and went by this place and the Whaley house probably a couple times a week. I never did go inside the house and wish I had. I had no idea so many were buried there. Thank you!!
Great tour! Appreciate all of the historical info about this interesting cemetery.
Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it
So sad. Interesting video. Thank you.
Grew up in SD. Been to Whaley House several times... never saw any ghosts, never felt anything strange. Guess I'm not spooky enough.
Same here. I guess the ghosts don't like us for some reason!
Back in 1970 our class went to the Whaley House… later that night my friend’s family woke up to someone noisily. Walking up the steps to thier house … the dad looked out the window & saw the Whaley that killed herself( my friend looked exactly like her)… true story
Been many times there, and still learn something new. Markers in the street, I will have to check out.
It's always so weird when we build on top of stuff like this, but I totally also understand it'd be almost impossible to upkeep all grave sites everywhere forever, and it would be inevitable before our expansive nature as a species built on top of these places.
The Trolley station is haunted by the living. Brrrrr.
They used to have a wooden tombstone for Bill Marshall and Juan Verdugo, indicating that Juan was buried on the other side of the wall. When I was the ghost tour guide there in the early 2000s, I unfortunately witnessed a bunch of kids kicking it down and vandalizing other graves in the cemetery.
You might have forgotten about the Cemetery on the Cata Rana Ranch in Wyona where my Great Great Grandmother(Susan Bailey) and family are buried for old cemeteries. Nice video on the El Camp Cemetery
You talk about haunted places in San Diego but the Whaley House is easily the most haunted building in town. Go there! I am a "sensitive" and Whaley House was off the hook! Voices in the former courtroom, people floating up and down the stairs, cigar smoke on the stairs. VERY haunted!
super great info! thanks
Glad you enjoyed it!
Yankee Jim really got a raw deal. Thanks for posting this video.
Interesting thank
If that place was here in Arizona, the city probably would have sold it to housing developers already
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and if there were any public outcry - it would "mysteriously" burn down in the middle of the night.
Let's go Brandon
Not under our watch. Descendants and history aficionados are still here and in roles to keep tourism alive!
Awesome, tnx something else for us to do when we pick up our son from Navy for X-mas. Visit old Town often and went to the Whaley house tour. Didn't know bout cemetery. 👍
This is right down the street from the Whaley House. Keep walking and you can't miss it.
We were there on Día de Muertos a couple of years ago when we stayed in Old Town. Beautiful location.
61 year old San Diego boy here, as a child I lived on the south side of that wall there was a duplex right next door. Late 60s early 70s. At that time there was actually grass and it was well-maintained, the wrought iron markers have always been there as well as the three tall wooden ones back by Lynnwood Street. Somewhere in the 70s they said that the original cemetery did not have grass so they let it die, and there was cactus (nopales) growing around the interior walls. As far as being haunted, my cousin's and I were sitting on the wall by the rear gate that opens to Lynnwood, when are we seeing an orb of bluish white light glide across the cemetery to the north, perhaps it was the ghost you spoke of heading to the Whaley House. As kids from the 60s and 70s we walked all over Old Town it was our playground, from the Mission in Presidio Park to the train tracks, the Whaley House etc no helicopter parents back then, you could roam for hours. A couple of fun facts the Old Town Mexican Cafe used to be a supermarket, across the street from the Whaley House on the North side was a Taco Bell ... I could go on for a hour. God bless the people of Old Town prayers
PS I enjoy your channel
The building in Presidio Park you may be thinking of is the Junipero Serra Museum, not Mission San Diego de Alcala. The mission is a few miles east across the San Diego River just east of Snapdragon Stadium. It's a common mistake, my wife and I joke about it often.
best time to go is during Dia De Los Muertas. the vibe you will feel and you can feel it too at the whaley house
I believe th tomb of revbel leader Antonio Garra is at the southern wall of the cemetery.
Chief Antonio Garra of San Diego County’s Cupeno Indians, Indian nations where told to pay taxes and that, along with other issues gave cause to Antonio Garra to spark sentiments against the Americanos, there was a revolt, led by Antonio.
On Nov. 11, 1851, a war party of Quechans and Cocopas was en route to Camp Independence when they happened upon white sheepherders. A small battle ensued. Five herdsmen and seven Indians were killed. From there, the tribes moved toward Camp Independence.
Under the pretext of wanting to trade horses, the Indians sought entry into the fort. Suspecting a trick, the camp commander refused entry to the Indians and ordered them to leave. When the Indians ignored his command, and the officer ordered that the camp’s 1-pound howitzer be aimed at the camp’s entrance. The Indians beat a hasty retreat.
From a safe distance, the Indians fired their arrows into Camp Independence, but to no effect. As the siege went on a dispute developed between the Quechans and Cocopas over how the sheep taken from the sheepherders would be divvied up. Dissolution set in and the Quechans (who were later to attack San Diego) abandoned the siege and headed home.
With the revolt crumbling, Garra traveled back home, where he learned that the Chuillas were about to assail Warner’s Ranch. Garra was unable to block the raid because he became ill.
In the subsequent attack on his ranch, John Warner managed to shoot his way through the attackers--killing two Indians--and led his wife to safety.
Garra’s son also headed a war party that attacked and killed invalids taking the waters at the nearby hot springs.
Things had gone too far not to press ahead with the revolt. Garra wrote a letter begging Chief Juan Antonio of the Chuillas to join in the war. Chief Antonio replied by requesting a face-to-face meeting with Garra. It was a trap.
Jealous of the esteem the Chuillas people held for Garra, Antonio had made a deal to capture his rival and turn him over to Gen. Joshua Bean.
Chief Garra and his son were taken to Old Town where they were tried for treason, murder and robbery. Garra’s defense attorney argued that his client couldn’t have committed treason since he never swore allegiance to the United States, and couldn’t be guilty of murder, since, as chief, he had the power to make war. Despite those arguments, Garra was convicted on all charges.
Before his execution by firing squad, Chief Antonio Garra addressed the crowd from Old Town: “Gentlemen, I ask your pardon for all my offenses and expect yours in return.”
Source: “Kit Carson’s Long Walk,” By Henry Schwartz: “The Handbook of North American Indians”
Good info sad to here though ,old graves all the families are gone probably, lost history for sure
I have several ancestors who are buried there and I never knew their markers don’t necessarily correlate to who’s actually buried beneath.
They tried to restore it as close as they could based on an early photograph and early descriptions. The San Diego History Center has a picture from 1914 on their archives and you can see the one fenced off grave and nothing else but tall grass. It really looked to be in bad shape by then.
So quiet down there when you were there!
I got there in the morning in hopes there wouldn't be any cars in front. A few hours later I'm sure it would have been crowded.
Thanks for the tour. I attended Mission Bay High School, just down the road from there and yet have never been there...isn't that they way it always is? Given the year (1849), the cementary was created after the US took over ownership of the area.
Was there at Whaley house in '97, and the only person with digital camera on tour. They asked me to take a photo at a particular spot and we'd see something or someone. Not sure what it was in the photo but it was totally there -- weird shadows, on old woman in a chair? Upon seeing it in the camera display, several people left the room!
Excellent!
I've been to the Old Towne but I didn't went to the cemetery but I did came to the front of the Whaley House.
The Ghost Adventures crew went to the Whaley House.
Yankee Jim Rd in Colfax, CA is named for him also. He would hide his stolen horses down by the American River on the road.
Gonna check this out Friday
Great video! Subbed!
Do you only tour and produce videos of the western states. Come to Ohio, we have some verrry cool things.
Thanks
Yes !!! Is very haunted?!!! I got really interesting experience there !!!
Hog wash
Buenas tardes, ese cementerio es elnque esta entre la 8 y el freeway 5?
Yes, south of the 8.
Not sure which is worse. This, where they just paved over the graves, or San Francisco, where they emptied the graves and sold the land to developers. And the expensive stone works were cut apart and used to shore up a section of shore.
😧😦
Here is a question for you, as you mentioned, Highway 1 runs right through this Hallowed Cemetery! Has anyone driving on that Highway Witnessed any Spirits, wondering around, wanting to inform anyone where they were laid to rest? I was Sincerely curious! I wish some of the San Diego's Government, would re-route Highway 1, and give some solace to the restless spirits, so they would Not be so Restless, therefore won't have to Scare Anyone No More!?!
In those days threatening another’s life could be used as self defense justification for later killing whoever threatened your life
Have you done pioneer Park in San Diego used to be a graveyard and some of the headstones are still there against the back wall
Yes. We have a video on it from last year. th-cam.com/video/EMvx-DSWdWg/w-d-xo.html
BTW, it's still a graveyard. There are people underneath that park. Ken Kramer did a sort of in depth visit (10 minutes) where he explained those headstones had been toppled and taken to the dump. They were found and returned. No markers in the park to place gravesites though.
I've been to the Waley House in 2013.
There is a lot of "They did what?!!? in this video! Starting with hanging a man for stealing a boat and owners of the boat were on his jury? Somehow that doesn't sound fair does it? Then running a streetcar through an old cemetery AND don't forget the roads, what the heck! Shooting an unarmed man in the back and getting away with it because the other guy threatened him?!!? I'm guessing it was because the shooter Couts had HIS friends on the jury as Mendoza worked for him and Couts was a big time rancher. 1865 San Diego had a different ethos, so you'd better not threaten your boss who had the money. At first I thought it was because Couts was white, but instead it was because he was rich. Wrong either way. Biggest surprise is the Whaley house being the most haunted house in America! News to me.
Forget that, the house is still haunted by the original owners. Saw her in 1989.
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It seems that San Diego, and the greater area, has a long, rich history of desecrating cemeteries.
Man imagine the person digging up the grounds when the area got Modernized back in the day then bumping into the old coffins etc...Creepy Ass!
Thats one of my nightmares any time I have to do any digging.
Would most people have been in old coffins/would the old coffins still be surviving? I'd think untreated wood in the ground would either rot or desiccate.
4 or 5 years ago my nephews and me were walking passed Whaley House back building and about 11pm when EVERYTHING was closed. We saw shadows in the second floor window. Thats all, just shadows. Go figure?
The idiot stealing a boat should've been charged with piracy.
We went to the cemetery my daughter is gifted and seen Yankee jim disappear behind a tree we didn't know nothing about him till a woman that works at the whaley house just with the description my daughter gave the woman said sounds like it was Yankee jim .
Looks like one of the cementerys of Tijuana o.O
How does a cemetery became in disrepair? A cemetery is not a build to become in disrepair
That lizard crack was 🤣🤣🤣🤣 funny!
Can you do normal heights next ?!?!?!
Naw too dangerous 😝
are they buried in boxes, or just in the ground
Most likely buried in coffins but after 150 years there probably isn't much left of the wood.
Walmart bags🤣
No wonder it's haunted. How pissed off would you be, if 100 years after being buried, some idiot decided just to pave a road over your grave, and stick a penny in the ground that says 'grave site', no name, no nothing, just junker cars rumbling over your grave, and idiots with their dogs walking over your spot? I swear, only in California.
But really, what a creepy place. Thanks for showing me. Now I don't need to see it. 🥺🥺🥺😁😁
Don't be afeard 😆
When you see St. Peter after you die and he asks how you died, you can say that you died twice. After the first death, your body was run over by a car for the 2nd death.
William Marshall has been called “the wickedest man in California.” Before his involvement in the Indian revolt for which he was hung, some believe he decided the fate of the 11 Californios tortured and executed by the Luiseno Indians at the Pauma Massacre after the Battle of San Pasquale.
How was this allowed?
Biden approved it😄
In California they destroy lakes, desecrate cemeteries and not are trying to destroy our country. 😵💫
Been to this cemetery on many a drunken nights always looking for ghosts but never seeing any lol
And still nobody feeds the poor old guy under the floor and his skin and bones poor fella 😁
that place is haunted i use to do a live stream on youtube there before youtube changed there policy on live streaming I ran into yankee jim pretty scary guy and edward likes whisky he said it during a live stream i don't do ghost adventures anymore and i don't live in san diego anymore ok take care and safe travels
Scaredy 🐈
Kind of spunky
Haha I just completed 1k
Wish they had relocated the graves that are on the street. Shame. RIP to all unknowns.
Nice that it hasn’t been vandalized.
It would seem to me the proper thing to do with all the unknown and out of place graves, try to find them and move them inside the cemetery. If there’s not enough room, if possible, enlarge the cemetery. Otherwise, find space elsewhere.
Awesome video! My brother was actually a supervisor at the Whaley house pre covid so i got to hang out around Old town quite a bit, particularly the cemetery. I'm not much a believer to paranormal things but he's told me a few things that have definitely racked my brain.
Sewer pipe running thru mine😂
We took a walking tour of the cemetery a few years ago at night. Tour is combined with Whaley House tour. Enjoyed it a lot.
cool video, I live in san diego and didn't know a lot of this info
Glad it was helpful!