urban legends ✓

the ghost of stow lake ☹

Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California is pretty well-known for its paranormal stories. If you believe locals, it is so full of spirits that you run the risk of crashing straight into one while jogging. They might as well rename it "No One Is Alive Here Park." But one ghost story has been the most popular and circulated, ever since it appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on January 6, 1908. That's the story of the Ghost of Stow Lake.

The newspaper piece starts with a man named Arthur Pigeon. He was going just a bit too fast in his car when he was pulled over by police. But he told the officers it wasn't his fault, as he was trying to get away! He claimed to have seen the ghost of a woman at Stow Lake. She had "long, fair hair and was barefooted."

The legends always claim this woman was a mother who lost a child, or else killed her child and then herself. America seems to be full of women offing themselves and their offspring.