The Presidio

This sprawling 1,500-acre park served as a military installation for over 200 years under Spanish, Mexican, and American flags. Founded in 1776, it was the northernmost outpost of the Spanish Empire in the New World. The Presidio was significant in six wars, from the Civil War through Vietnam. During WWI alone, over 18,000 soldiers were treated at Letterman Hospital. The Ohlone people were largely buried in unmarked graves here, laying an early foundation for its haunted reputation.

Founded in 1776 as the northernmost outpost of the Spanish Empire, the Presidio served as a military fortress for 218 years under three nations—Spain, Mexico, and the United States—before becoming a national park in 1994. The 1,500-acre installation witnessed centuries of death: Ohlone people buried in unmarked graves under Spanish colonial rule, soldiers killed in six wars from the Civil War through Vietnam, and thousands of troops who perished in the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic that overwhelmed Letterman Hospital. In 1922, workers unearthed 38 bodies believed to be early Spanish conquistadores.

The San Francisco National Cemetery, containing over 30,000 remains, is one of the most active paranormal sites. Visitors see uniformed figures walking among the white headstones, and the mournful sound of taps echoes when no bugler is present. The cemetery's most famous ghost is Pauline Cushman, a Union spy and actress who gathered intelligence for the Union Army while performing in Confederate territory. Nearly executed before being rescued, she later toured with P.T. Barnum as the "Spy of the Cumberland." Her theatrical ghost walks the cemetery at night in the costumes she wore during her espionage missions.

The Presidio Officers' Club, built on the foundations of the original Spanish adobe garrison, harbors the "Lady in Black"—a shadowy figure in a flowing gown who dances alone in the ballroom. In 2007, the TAPS team from Ghost Hunters investigated, led by fort historian Dr. Thomas Smith. They captured footage of a dark female figure moving through the banquet room and recorded an unexplained third voice during a conversation in the smoking lounge. Investigator Kris Williams experienced her leg going suddenly cold from knee to ankle while sitting on a couch.

Other spirits include the Spanish Sentry—a colonial soldier in 18th-century leather armor who dissolves into mist when approached, leaving the smell of gunpowder—and the Lady of the Officers' Quarters, a Victorian woman eternally watching for a husband who died in the Apache campaigns. Phantom cavalrymen in various-era uniforms ride silently through the fog, their horses' hooves making no sound.

Letterman General Hospital, built in 1899 and demolished in 2002, was declared haunted in a 1992 Army inspection report by staff described as "sane and sober." Youth who broke into the abandoned facility heard patients shuffling down halls and voices calling from behind closed doors. A Muni bus driver on late-night service reported a uniformed soldier who boarded near the Presidio and vanished before the bus left the grounds. When LucasFilm built the Letterman Digital Arts Center on the site, they reused 50% of the old hospital's concrete—and employees report the hauntings have continued, with shadowy figures and disembodied voices persisting in the new buildings.