Joaquin Miller Park

Posted: 02.25.2025 | Updated: 02.25.2025

A classic ghost story lingers among Oakland’s Joaquin Miller Park’s beautiful forest and flora. Known as the “jewel in the redwoods,” this massive 500-acre expanse harbors many mysteries between its stone monuments and century-old trees.

Its official website may acclaim its hiking trails, bike paths, and verdant foliage, but behind these superficial draws, stranger elements lurk. 

To find haunted places in the Bay Area, you often have to step outside the confines of the city. However, if you’d like to stay closer to the safety of cosmopolitan San Fran, you can always book a San Francisco ghost tour with SF Ghosts. 

Who Is the Mystery Woman of Joaquin Miller Park? 

A somber figure haunts within the dark canopy of trees that distinguishes Joaquin Miller Park. This female apparition appears only in fog and darkness, roaming the park mysteriously. 

Although her identity remains unknown, it is said she died in a nearby roadside accident on an especially foggy evening. As a result, her spirit continues to haunt the trees and forest on nights choked with fog. 

Joaquin Miller and “The Hights”

The intriguing history of Joaquin Miller Park begins with one man: Cincinnatus Hiner Miller. Cincinnatus had many titles lent to him throughout his life: writer, poet, lawyer, teacher, pony-express rider, and frontiersman. Born in 1837 and originally from Indiana, he changed his name to Joaquin around 1870, after the California outlaw Joaquin Murieta. 

Joaquin lived in many locations before settling in Oakland, eventually becoming known as the Poet of the Sierras. In 1886, he purchased some 70 acres in the hills above Oakland. He intended this newly acquired space to be a retreat for artists and writers, so he turned his attention to the land.

Entitling his new refuge, “The Hights,” he orchestrated the planting of several tree species, planting 75,000 trees. Among them were eucalyptus, olive trees, Monterey pine, and Monterey cypress. Joaquin also constructed buildings for his mother and daughter, among other monuments on the land.

Joaquin died in 1913 in his home in the Hights. The Oakland Parks Department bought 68 acres from the family in 1919 yet continued to allow his wife and daughter to live on the terrain in their homes. 

In 1929, neighboring redwood groves were bought to protect them from nearby developers and later obtained by the city. In 2004, the city of Oakland acquired another eight acres when it procured Castle Canyon. 

Today, these areas make up the 500-plus acres that makeup Joaquin Miller Park. The space is a refuge from the city and a haven for local wildlife. Amongst the trees that Joaquin planted more than 100 years ago, there are over 200 species of native plants, including rare specimens like the Oakland star tulip.

Apparitions in the Fog

Even during the light of day, Joaquin Miller Park carries an odd ambiance. The massive trees envelop many parts in the shade, lending the grounds a somber and spooky aura. A strange figure is said to haunt this vast and wondrous open space in the Oakland hills. Here, a woman appears after dark, only ever seen on nights cloaked in fog. 

As the story goes, she died in a car accident nearby, likely caused by the thick, bayside fog creeping over the hills. As a result, her spirit remains trapped in the park, wandering the trails and hills. What she remains in search of, no one knows.

Perhaps she is simply lost — confused after her accident and unaware that she’s dead. She is seemingly caught between worlds, forever wandering in a perpetual fog. 

According to urban legend, some say that a hut was built on the property somewhere to house her spirit, but no one can ever locate it. Just who created this hut is another mystery. Some say she built it herself before her death, perhaps as an encampment due to homelessness.  

Others say the forest created it for her as if welcoming her to the serene estate. Or might another spirit remain responsible? Joaquin Miller was known for building all sorts of structures on this land. Perhaps he decided to add another one in the ghostly realm for his newfound guest. 

Additionally, several untimely deaths have occurred in and around this eerie park. In 2015, a man who suffered a fatal gunshot was discovered on the outskirts of the park, while in 2016, a suicide unfolded within the park. In 2024, a woman died on Joaquin Miller Road in a head-on collision. 

One can’t help but wonder if that night had been foggy. 

Joaquin’s Funeral Pyre

Not only did Joaquin Miller die on this land within his 1886-era home. After his death, his ashes were scattered on the Hights. These were not Joaquin’s original wishes, however. 

Among Joaquin Miller’s garden of monuments sits a stone platform — a platform Joaquin intended to be where his funeral pyre would smolder. Yet, after his death in 1913, these final wishes were bypassed, and his body was cremated in a more conventional manner. 

Still, members of his fellow Bohemian Club set his urn ablaze atop the stone pyre at the top of the property a few weeks later. The ceremony his former club members held was clamorous. According to accounts, hundreds turned up, counting both actors and writers among the attendees. 

A band played while Ina Coolbrith, California’s first poet laureate, recited an ode to her deceased friend. Miller’s wife, Abigail, saw the scene unfold, declaring how her husband would have enjoyed the flames. Meanwhile, several individuals attempted to purloin handfuls of the frontiersman’s ashes, and the chaotic event became a topic of gossip. 

Despite this, some say Joaquin’s spirit still haunts the Hights, even if only out of fondness for his artistic retreat. Still, strange events have continued to occur on the site of the funeral pyre. Although Joaquin’s body never burned atop this pyre, another man’s did nearly 100 years later. 

In 2016, police found a burnt body atop the pyre. Later ruled to be a suicide, the man was identified to be in his 30s.

Joaquin’s funeral pyre is far from the only strange marker standing on the Hights. An unmarked stone pyramid overlooks a breathtaking view below, designed as a monument to Moses. In addition, Miller erected monuments for Robert and Elizabeth Barret Browning as well as the explorer General John C. Frémont. 

Haunted San Francisco

When seeking out haunted places in San Francisco, Oakland may not garner much attention. Yet many lesser-known haunts reside far from the hum of the Golden Gate City. Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland is just one such otherworldly location, inundated by odd legends. 

The park is open daily from dusk till dawn. After dark, you cannot enter, although you can still drive by. However, if the night is thick with fog, even most skeptics would recommend you take a different route so that history is not tempted to repeat itself. 

Head over to our blog to immerse yourself in more spectral tales of San Francisco and the surrounding area, and be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok. Bold enough to hear more accounts of the haunted Bay Area in person? Book a bone-chilling San Francisco ghost tour with SF Ghosts!

Sources:

• https://www.weekendsherpa.com/stories/haunted-hike-at-joaquin-miller-park-in-oakland
• https://www.fojmp.org/history/
• https://www.oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/joaquin-miller-poet-laureate-of-oregon
• https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/ListedResources/Detail/107
• https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/joaquin-miller-park
• https://www.ktvu.com/news/man-shot-and-killed-near-joaquin-miller-park-in-oakland
• https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/1-woman-dead-after-fatal-head-on-collision-in-oakland
• https://www.sfgate.com/obscuresf/article/Oakland-Joaquin-Miller-historic-park-cabin-16927402.php
• https://www.ktvu.com/news/police-find-burning-body-at-19th-century-funeral-pyre-in-oakland