Haunted Tales From San Juan Capistrano
Last Halloween, my friend Jenny and I headed to Mission San Fernando Rey in Mission Hills. We figured that although missions aren’t outwardly spooky they do have a disturbing history that includes colonization and genocide..what could be scarier than that?
Long story short, as this was in the midst of the pandemic, the missions, unbeknownst to us, were closed. Nearly a year later, Jenny and I finally got the chance to visit It was not San Fernando Rey though, it was Mission San Juan Capistrano in Orange County.
Most of Southern California’s homes and buildings are fairly new. Rarely does one encounter a home built before the 20th century. However, Mission San Juan Capistrano was established in 1776. The nearby Los Rios District is the oldest neighborhood in all of California. How cool is that?
That being said, let’s talk ghosts! Both the mission and the Los Rios District are, of course, said to be haunted. As this is a very old and historic area, this was a no-brainer to me. I had to do a little digging but I indeed found some stories to tell.
An LA Times article states that most of San Juan Capistrano’s alleged ghosts can be found at the mission. There are claims that a faceless monk roams the corridors at night (via San Juan Capistrano Net). The mission and the grounds are gorgeous during the day, but I can see how they could easily become eerie in the dark.
There is also said to be the ghost of a headless soldier and of a girl named Magdalena. She died during the earthquake of 1812 (it killed 42 Native Americans and also destroyed the mission’s church).
It’s said her face can sometimes be seen in the remaining window of the church’s ruins (pictured above). The sound of bells can sometimes be heard at night (wack!).
Let’s discuss the mission’s cemetery. 3,000 people are said to be buried on the grounds. Although there is a memorial and a gravestone for an early Spanish settler, which can be seen below, (*cough* colonizer), internments were moved in the 1860s, to an area east of the mission.
A smallpox epidemic overwhelmed the mission’s small grounds, thus burials were moved to a hill nearby that is now referred to as The Old Mission Cemetery.
Said to be haunted by the presence of a lady in white, we perhaps might never know. It’s closed to the public as it’s sacred to the Native American people.
One can only imagine the pain those souls went through, especially as the natives were exposed to diseases they had never encountered before. The mission’s own website states that the native population went from 300,000 to 30,000 due to smallpox, tuberculosis, measles, and more.
Nonetheless, there is great beauty to find at San Juan Capistrano. Whenever I visit, I make sure to pay my respect to the people who were forced to live and work there. May they find peace as they were the ones who suffered the most.
Although I spoke briefly about the mission’s hauntings, as I mentioned earlier, the Los Rios District is also said to be haunted by several resident ghosts as it is home to plenty of archaic buildings (including some that date to the late 1700s).
To learn more about these hauntings, you can take a ghost tour or a ghost walk of San Juan Capistrano.
Side note: I did do a ghost walk last week of Fullerton and found it to be entertaining although perhaps not worth the $25 I was charged. Would I do another one though? Absolutely.
To visit Mission San Juan Capistrano:
The address is 26801 Ortega Hwy, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
The mission is open Tuesday-Sunday
You can buy tickets online or at the mission
Tickets range from $9-$14
There is plenty of free and paid parking nearby
Click here to learn more and to buy tickets
