Santa Teresa County Park

This park contains the natural freshwater spring on the old Bernal family ranch. An Ohlone folktale tells of a mysterious woman in flowing black robes who touched a rock, causing water to pour out - those who drank were cured of illness. When Jose Joaquin Bernal heard this story, he believed the vision was of Santa Teresa, a noted healer, and named the spring accordingly.

Santa Teresa County Park, located on the former Rancho Santa Teresa in San Jose, contains one of the Bay Area's most mysterious paranormal locations: a small natural spring known as Dottie's Pond. The legend stretches back through multiple cultures and centuries, from Ohlone folklore to Spanish ranchers to campfire stories told by generations of local teenagers.

The Ohlone people told of a mysterious woman in flowing black robes who touched a rock at this site, causing water to pour forth. Those who drank from this miraculous spring were cured of their illnesses. When Jose Joaquin Bernal acquired the land, he believed the vision in the Ohlone tale was Santa Teresa herself, a noted healer, and named his ranch accordingly.

The darker legend involves a young woman named Dottie, said to be a member of the Bernal family in the 1800s. Multiple versions of the story exist, but all end the same way: Dottie fell in love with the wrong man, her family forbade the marriage, and when she tried to run away, violence ensued. A giant hand reached up from the pond and pulled her beneath the water. She was never seen alive again.

Today, Dottie's ghost is said to pick berries by the pond, forever trapped between this world and the next. The demonic hands that dragged her under are believed to still lurk beneath the water's surface, waiting for anyone foolish enough to approach the edge.

In 1972, the supernatural history of the site gained archaeological support when developers unearthed a prehistoric Ohlone burial ground near Santa Teresa Spring. Research conducted in 2015 indicates some skeletal remains date as early as 500-200 BC. The spirits lingering at Dottie's Pond may have been here far longer than any Bernal family member.

A Bernal Family genealogical chart on file at San Jose's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library lists a Dolores Bernal born in 1827, with only two cryptic words accompanying her name: "No data." Whether this is Dottie or whether Dottie is purely legend remains unknown. What is certain is that visitors to Santa Teresa County Park are warned to avoid the water's edge—or risk those ghostly hands pulling them in.