The Lady of Stow Lake

Travel to San Francisco, California and there’s a good possibility you’ll hear the eerie tale of the Lady of Stow Lake. Ask any local and they’ll probably be familiar with the legend. It is, after all, one of San Francisco’s most popular and oldest ghost stories.

In the middle of the Golden State Park in San Francisco, there exists a man-made lake called Stow Lake. Many people go there, tourists and locals alike, to enjoy a day out paddle boating and strolling the walking trails. In the day, Stow Lake is peaceful but once night falls, an eerie presence falls upon Stow Lake.

Note: If you are ever interested or brave enough to visit Stow Lake, it’s name has been changed to Blue Heron Lake.

Legend has it that if you visit Stow Lake after dark on a foggy night, you might run into a woman dressed in a white dress (sound familiar?) and there are plenty of visitors that swore to have seen her for the last 100 years of her haunting the lake.

The “Lady of Stow Lake” originates back to the Victorian era.

What’s different about this “Lady in White” legend is that she will come up to witnesses asking where her baby is and the backstory behind this legend like all “Lady in White” legends is both tragic and heartbreaking.

What makes it especially tragic is a baby being involved and its unfortunate fate.

The backstory

Depending on who tells you the legend, there are multiple variations all leading to the same tragic end.

The most common version you’ll likely hear states that a young woman with a baby in a stroller ran into someone she knew. An old friend perhaps. The two got to talking catching up on life events while unknown to the mother, the baby’s stroller rolled away and into the lake where the baby tragically drowned.

The mother hysterical, searched all over the edge of the lake, crying out to anyone if they had seen her baby. She ran into the lake in a desperate hope to find her baby where she too had tragically drowned.

Devastated, she has been searching Stow Lake as a restless spirit ever since asking any unexpected passerby where her baby is.

Is this just another urban legend centered around the classic “Lady in White?”

Maybe.

However there is some historical proof that the legend of “The Lady of Stow Lake” might not be a complete myth after all.

Sightings

There have been multiple confirmed sighting of this “Lady in White”. The first recorded report occurred in 1908 in which a group of young adults ( a guy with several female companions that looked like they just came from a party) claimed to have had a terrifying encounter.

Their car was stopped by a police officer for speeding through the park. When confronted, the young man, Arthur Pigeon, gave a terrifying account of them all seeing a woman with long flowing hair in a long white dress that illuminated in the night. Her arms were spread out in a desperate attempt to get their attention and stop their car.

At first the officer thought this was a prank and jokingly asked where this so called ghost was.

Now a group full of young adults or teenagers coming from a party would be one of the last people to believe. But according to the police report, their terrified reactions of what they saw at Stow Lake were genuine and they swore never to go back to that lake after dark.

Was there ever a woman who drowned in the lake with her baby?

The incident happened just before the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquakes.

So many documents including police reports have been destroyed by the fires from the earthquake. Could that include the report of a baby and woman drowning at Stow Lake?

Maybe. Perhaps we will never know. Perhaps the tragic event has been lost in time.

If you ever find yourself at Stow Lake (now Blue Heron Lake) don’t be surprised if you come face to face with the “Lady of Stow Lake” in which she will ask in a hysterical cry:

“Have you seen my baby?”

Sources:

If you enjoyed learning about this urban legend, you might enjoy:

The Legend of La LLorona

Another "Lady in White" urban legend originating from Mexico.