THE STORY
Reported Haunting
San Francisco's historic Hotaling Place is associated with the bizarre legend of a phantom cattle stampede echoing through the alley from the chaos of the 1906 earthquake.
Hotaling Place is a narrow historic alley near Jackson Square that follows part of San Francisco's original shoreline. During the destruction following the 1906 earthquake, livestock escaped from areas around the city and reportedly ran through the ruins. A later local ghost tradition developed in which the sound and forms of a phantom herd can still be experienced rushing through Hotaling Place in foggy conditions. Another story associates the spirit of whiskey merchant Anson Parsons Hotaling with the area. The cattle stampede haunting remains urban folklore, though contemporary newspaper records confirm that loose livestock were indeed part of the chaos following the earthquake.