White Lady of Stow Lake: The Lady Ghost of Golden Gate Park

ByJuan Carlos Guerrero Localish logo
Monday, October 21, 2019
The Lady Ghost of Golden Gate Park
Legend has it that if you walk around Stow Lake late at night, you will see a ghostly presence.A 100-year-old legend haunts one of the most popular destination in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Late-night visitors say they have been confronted by a ghostly presence in search of her dead baby. We tag along with a ghost hunter in search of the White Lady of Stow Lake.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The sun has set and nighttime has taken hold of Golden Gate Park. It has gotten so dark in the walking path around Stow Lake that it is hard to see anything just a few feet away.

That's when Tommy Netzband pulls out two handheld devices and begins speaking in a loud voice.

"Is there a woman of Stow Lake that wants to say something to us," Netzband says into the direction of the lake. He is holding a device that can supposedly translate environmental energy into words. Netzband, founder of the San Francisco Ghost Society and host of Haunted Haight Walking Tour, says he uses it to contact ghosts and today he is investigating one of the oldest documented hauntings in San Francisco.

For more than 100 years, visitors to Golden Gate Park have been telling of a woman who appears glowing in a white dress in search of her baby.

Legend has it that her baby disappeared either while she was out on a walk or while boating in the lake during the Victorian era and that she drowned while searching for the child. She has haunted the lake ever since.

Is the story real or imagined? We followed Netzband as he tried to communicate with the White Lady of Stow Lake.