Stow Lake | Golden Gate Park’s Haunted Lake

Posted: 06.22.2021 | Updated: 02.19.2025

Stow Lake is a manmade lake inside of Golden Gate Park with a rich history. The lake has provided countless San Franciscans with an excellent outdoor escape for over a century as they flocked to the city’s scenery and allure. The park offers hiking and biking trails, paddle boats, picnicking, and wildlife observation. Even ghost hunting has gained a reputation at Stow Lake throughout the years.

Take those paddle boats to far out from the Stow Lake boathouse and you may just meet the infamous Lady of Stow Lake. This murky and murderous spirit has been spotted on the edges of the idyllic Golden Gate Park lake amognst the fog on many occassions.

Her tale is just one of many hidden in the City by the Bay. Take a San Francisco ghost tour with SF ghosts to discover what other horrors await you!

Who Is Golden Gate Park’s Lady of Stow Lake?

Stow Lake is a noted hotspot of spiritual activity in Golden Gate Park. The Lady of the Lake is perhaps one of the most famous ghost stories in San Francisco and one of the most chilling. While the stories differ, the general story claims that she was a Victorian woman whos infant drowned in the lake.

Full of dispair, she followed suit. Her mournful spirit now walks the edge of the lake, striking fear in the hearts of all who see her.

History of Golden Gate Park

Golden Gate Park was originally created on 1,013 acres of windswept and wild sand dunes in an unincorporated area of the Peninsula, known as the ‘Outside Lands.’ Starting in 1870, surveyor William Hammond Hall started the park, which now boasts over 1,017 beautiful acres.

Today, Golden Gate Park hosts many fairs and events and is a popular spot for locals and visitors to lay out a blanket and hang out for the day. The park was first introduced to the public in 1800s when it hosted the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894.

It was the first world’s fair held in the United States west of the Mississippi and offered over two million visitors a glimpse of things to come. The footprint of this fair is today’s Music Concourse.

Golden Gate Park also played a critical role after the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fire that shook the streets of Northern California. Two hundred thousand homeless residents used the vast park as a camp, surviving in crude shelters and later temporary wood barracks while homes and streets were rebuilt.

Chillingly, the history of the hauntings here dates back to before the ground shook.

The Lady of Stow Lake is one of the oldest documented hauntings in San Francisco. Two different versions of this harrowing tale exist. However, regardless of the events, the end result remains the same.

The Lady of Stow Lake

In the years before the 1906 earthquake, a young woman lived in San Francisco with her infant child. The woman decided to take her baby for a walk one day around Stow Lake. The fresh air and scenery of the beautiful park was delightful for both mother and child.

While on their walk, the woman saw a friend, and the two sat down on a bench to gossip. However, after a few minutes of chatting, the woman turned to check on her baby. To her despair, the stroller was no longer beside her; her baby had vanished into thin air.

Panicking, she ran around the lake, screaming for her child. She was horrified and believed someone must have taken her baby!

The last anyone saw of her was a moment of horrid realization when she ran into the lake. Yet it was too late, her child lay at the bottom of Stow Lake. She quickly followed her offspring to its watery grave, drowning herself in despair.

Another version of the story tells that in the Victorian era, a woman went boating on the lake with her baby, and when her baby got a bit too close to the edge of the boat and fell in, she went in after trying to rescue her child, but they both drowned in the process.

For a century it has been said that you can see a distressed woman in a white gown walking around the rim of Stow Lake on particularly foggy nights. Some even report that she approaches visitors, begging them to help find her baby.

Others only report hearing moans echoing across the lake. In fact, the story has become so famous that the official website of Golden Gate Park even dedicated a page to the legend.

Sightings of The Lady of Stow Lake

Avid ghost hunters have flocked to the park for decades, hoping to catch proof of the phantom on film. Tommy Netzband, founder of the San Francisco Ghost Society in San Francisco, went to Stow Lake with a member of ABC 7 News to see for himself.

Clutching an EMF device in one hand, he spoke loudly across the lake “is there a woman here at Stow Lake that wants to say something to us?”

Netzband believes that the woman of Stow Lake is not, in fact, an intelligent, spiritual haunting, but a residual one. A residual haunting is an energetic imprint left behind from some sort of tragic or traumatic event, replaying over and over throughout history. Perhaps this is why she wasn’t willing to communicate with him that evening.

History corroborates this legend, as an article published in 1908 in the San Francisco Chronicle that tells of two couples in the park pulled over by a horse-mounted police officer.

They were frantic, sweating, and afraid. When the officer finally got them to calm down, they claimed to have seen the woman of Stow Lake. The couple described a woman floating out of the water in a long white dress, long hair, with a bluish glow surrounding her entire body.

Local legend states that if you drive your car into the park near the lake, it will stall. Another story goes that if you say ‘woman of Stow Lake, I have your baby’ three times, she will appear to you.

Other Hauntings of Golden Gate Park

 Not only is there a lady of the lake at Golden Gate Park, but there is a haunted statue as well. The Pioneer Mother statue at Stow Lake has been reported to move her head as if looking for something on the ground.

Other stories of the statue state that it has been oddly damaged in ways that suggest paranormal activity. Cracks have appeared on the statue’s head, unlike your everyday run-of-the-mill vandalism.

Unexplained voices and footsteps are also reported around the vicinity of the statue. It seems a strange coincidence that a statue of a mother is haunted at a lake where a woman lost her child.

There’s also talk of a ghostly police officer who roams Golden Gate Park.

Drivers have been pulled over by a man who they say “looks sick.” When they go to pay their issued tickets, there is no record of one existing.

They often quickly find out that the officer in question has been dead for over a decade! What’s worse than getting pulled over and written a speeding ticket? Receiving a speeding ticket from a cop in the afterlife!

 Haunted San Francisco

Golden Gate Park holds many mysteries and tales inside of its borders, from disappearances to unsolved murders. If you visit Golden Gate Park, don’t forget to take in all that the park has to offer. Consider renting a paddle boat perhaps. Stunning scenery, public attractions, and even a floating ghost-woman at Stow Lake await you!

Intersted in more of San Francisco’s most haunted places? Join SF Ghosts on a San Francisco ghost tour for the inside scoop on what awaits you in the fog!

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Sources Cited:

• https://sfrecpark.org/1119/History-of-Golden-Gate-Park
• https://goldengatepark.com/stow-lake.html
• https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/san-francisco-ghost-stories-white-lady-stow-lake-12247189.php
• https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/northern-california/san-francisco/sinister-popular-san-francisco-park