In a travel website, the Old Point Loma Lighthouse is listed as one of three on the California coast that are “supposedly haunted by their old keepers.”
The Star reports:
What is it about lighthouses that ghosts like so much?
Maybe it’s the mist that often seems to shroud their lonely towers. Maybe it’s their historic role as a beacon to keep sailors safe from shipwrecks.
Whatever it is, up and down the California coast you’ll find lighthouses supposedly haunted by their old keepers – and others on the opposite side of the veil.
Up for a dose of seaside spookiness? Here are three lighthouses supposedly dogged by spectral phenomena.
The Old Point Loma Lighthouse
When I think of Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego, I remember a dazzling golden hour spent exploring its tide pools, filled with anemones, sea stars, urchins and many other marine creatures.
But there’s a more foreboding side to the monument too.
The beacon of the Old Point Loma Lighthouse, part of the Cabrillo National Monument, was first illuminated Nov 15, 1855. Today, the interior resembles what it looked like in the 1880s – and is said to be home to a ghost or two.
“Visitors have reported hearing heavy footsteps, moaning and laboured breathing while exploring the space in addition to sporadic cold spots,” reported Zara Irshad in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
It’s unclear specifically which spirit is behind all the phenomena – some point to Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who arrived in what is now San Diego in 1542, while others think it’s the soul of the lighthouse’s last keeper, Captain Robert Israel, Irshad writes.
The scariest thing about the Old Point Loma Lighthouse? Perhaps it’s the fact that the lighthouse wasn’t particularly good at its job – according to the National Park Service, the beam was often difficult to see due to fog and low clouds. That’s why the lighthouse had a relatively short lifespan – in 1891, the keeper moved to a new lighthouse better positioned for guiding seafarers to San Diego Harbor.
The Cabrillo National Monument is open daily from 9am to 5pm.
The other two?
Point Sur Lightstation and Battery Point Lighthouse. Go here.
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