Did Someone Crawl Out of Their Grave?

I didn't expect to actually see anything that would creep me out when I decided to visit the old Imperial Historic Cemetery for Dia de Los Muertos, but I did.

I’ve been wanting to go film something at the Imperial Historic Cemetery for my Keggercast podcast for at least two years now. My original plan was to go to the cemetery with my buddy Wero at midnight on Halloween. Sadly, Wero was too busy settling his affairs before moving out of state.

The following year, I was hoping to invite my friend, Teejay Zeigler, who is a Norse witch, to have a conversation with me at the cemetery. Of course, we were in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic that Halloween season, so we had our conversation on Instagram Live instead.

This year, I decided to go there and stream an Instagram Live for Dia de Los Muertos (or Day of the Dead). I Googled “Pioneers’ Memorial Cemetery” (I mistakenly believed that was the name of the cemetery) and saw a video and read a few articles about it.

According to what I found, Imperial Historic Cemetery (aka Clark Road Cemetery) is found on Clark Road (duh) in Imperial, California on 80 acres of land that was donated by Anthony Heber in 1902 for a cemetery. The first recorded burial was in 1903 and the last in the 1940s. There were 205 recorded burials, although a local historian suspects there are more remains than the official records show. Some of the original burial markers were made of wood and no longer exist, but 30 markers are still visible.

The ground is high in alkali and is very loose. The cemetery is prone to flooding and the ground becomes marsh-like after rainstorms. It is dangerous to walk around the cemetery because of the possibility of graves collapsing. Workers digging a canal near the cemetery once found bones in the dirt. Forensic investigators determined they were from the cemetery.

Some people believe Imperial Historic Cemetery is one of the most haunted places, not only in the Imperial Valley but in the entire state of California. Self-described paranormal investigators say that their cameras turned off as soon as they start filming despite the cameras being fully charged. People claim that they’ve seen dark, cloaked figures that appear to be standing guard at the front gate. Others have seen red and blue balls of light and a dancing glowing light.

When I got to the cemetery, I found that my phone didn’t get strong enough service in the area to stream it live from there. I decided to just record myself and post it later. On my first attempt, as soon as I said, “Some people say that their cameras turn off…”, my phone’s camera turned off! That weirded me out, but when I tried to see what I had recorded before my camera turned off, I couldn’t find any recording. I concluded that the reason that happened was that I hadn’t actually pressed record on my phone. It was the only logical reason why that would happen. Right?

So, I opened the camera on my phone again and hit record (for the first time, I hoped), and started filming myself again. This time my phone didn’t turn off at all. Phew!

I started filming in front of the “No Tresspassing” sign and walked north. At first, I didn’t see, hear, or feel anything that felt paranormal or out of place. But, I saw something next to one marker that looked like tiny human bones to me at first. I zoomed in but couldn’t really make out what it actually was. I quickly zoomed out and decided to believe they were not human bones.

I then started walking south, back toward the sign. Just past the sign, a section of the chainlink fence surrounding the cemetery was bent inward and flat on the ground. A few feet from that downed section of fence I saw a dirty pair of sneakers. Why were those sneakers left there? Did the owners of the shoes get scared away so quickly they just left their shoes behind?

I continued walking toward the south end of the cemetery. Near the southside fence, I saw something that made the hairs all over my body stand up. I noticed a depression in the earth in the shape of a small casket! As I stared at the depression trying to determine how deep it might be, I noticed a set of footprints that connected the depression to the downed section of the fence, near the pair of sneakers!

Had someone knocked down that section of the fence, walked to that area, and created the depression as a prank? Or had someone (something?) crawled out of that depression, walked up to the fence, and pulled it down so it could walk out of the cemetery?

I am so glad that I decided to go out there when there was still sunlight because I think I might have had a heart attack if I had seen that at night...along with glowing, dancing balls of light and dark, hooded figures guarding the gate.

References

“Ghosts of Imperial Valley”, Halloween Horrors

“Imperial Historic Cemetery”, Internment.net

“Imperial Historic Cemetery”, Findagrave.com

“Imperial Historic Cemetery - Imperial, CA”, Waymarking.com

“Imperial Historic Cemetery – Imperial CA Ghost Haunt", San Diego Haunted Locations