This Issue's Featured Story
Off the Coast of San Diego
I.
I was only a boy, the summer before my eighth birthday. My family wasn’t really the vacationing type. It had nothing to do with distaste for each others’ company or anything like that. It was more about the price tag. Frugality was among the most prized virtues in our household, but everyone needed a break now and then, and even my parents understood that. San Diego, California seemed like enough of a destination, it was in another state, with a beach and we were oblivious to cartel related activities in the area. Despite being part Mexican, we were rather out of touch with he comings and going for the Mexican criminal underworld. Yes, I would argue almost nothing could disrupt my first world upbringing on that trip.
I awoke from a nap because the batteries in my gameboy died. We had arrived in the parking lot and I can’t for the life of me tell you the name of the hotel we ended up staying in. What I can tell you, is about the documentary I saw that night(.1). It was about a different hotel not too far from where we were. It was rumored and still is that the ghost of a young woman walked around the halls. The room that was the most haunted was still available to be rented out. While everyone around me was busy talking and planning for tomorrow, I was sucked into what I thought was one of the most fascinating story I had heard in my childhood.
Kate Morgan, guest of the hotel in 1892 (Article, 12.19.13) is supposed to have committed suicide. Estranged from her husband, it is also suspected that she went to the hotel to meet with another lover. Shortly after the incident typical haunting behavior began to occur both in the room and surrounding areas. These happenings include flickering lights, odd sounds and seeing the ghost of young Kate.
This quickly sparked an interest not only in me, but my family as a whole. I failed to notice that they stopped talking, unpacking and planning to watch the same documentary. Needless to say your plans can change on a dime, and we’re no different. I was surprised to see how much of the Hotel del Coronado was actually dedicated to this idea. Just another small child in a toy store, I wandered the aisles of the gift shop in awe. I wanted to buy the whole store and indulge in it all. With my gameboy long forgotten I had a new story to soak in.
I walked out of the shop with a book. Couldn’t tell you the name of it. But I remember the pictures of the old hotel better than anything from that trip, spent hours just looking at them. Barely reading any of the text I flipped both backwards and forwards still just staring at the pictures. I was completely entranced by the look of California at that time. It was quaint. And that is what made this story more interesting to me. Physical reference only bolstered my curiosity.
II.
Fast forward to me being a teenager, the summer before my fourteenth birthday. Why teenagers want nothing to do with their parents is still a mystery to me. The last thing I wanted to do was be stuck on vacation with my parents, but my mom had a chance to stay at the Hotel del Coronado. If you’ve been paying attention you’d know I couldn’t really resist. A few hours of driving later and I was there. It’s worth mentioning that we were staying in a newer part of the hotel. To my knowledge they expanded the property but the old building with Morgan’s room is untouched for the most part. While the room we stayed in was beautiful and we could see the beach right from our window, I didn’t care. I wanted to stay were the action was. I sat in bed like a child staying up past their bedtime.
My mom watched TV and flipped frequently. I imagined seeing monsters, tall, lanky ghosts peering in the darkness of a shadowy corner. Watching us watch television. The thought spooked me but excited me. I actually shook from the excitement if I’m being entirely honest. Having dreams of a ghost standing behind me as I look into the mirror. Its dead grey eyes peering into the distance, seeing all but searching for nothing. What if, I think to myself, there could be one under my bed? Imagining the pale skin and frosty demeanor, I sat in bed frightened but alive. But soon enough my eyes opened and it was morning.
We walked around the hotel and beach, ate lunch and dinner without coming back to the room. A part of me wondered if something could be happening while we’re gone. No, they come out at night, I tell myself. Yet another night passed without any real activity. The dreams my mind produced were wholesome and light. It’d be my duty to report that nothing weird happened to me but who really knows, I’m a heavy sleeper(.2).
Nonetheless this story has always stuck with me, and I find that there is something mysterious and vague, yet simple and familiar. Like that movie you’ve seen a hundred times but is still funny. A quick search on an engine will show numerous stories claiming to see activity, and maybe something was watching me sleep from the corner of the room and we forgot the camera at home. Regardless, I can agree that this is a good story with longevity.
Notes/Further Reading
Article from 12.19.13
Found on Hotel del Coronado’s website
Nonfiction book
Beautiful Stranger: The Ghost of Kate Morgan and the Hotel del Coronado
1. While there was at least a couple of documentaries that explored this when I was a kid, I haven’t seen many about this in quite some time although I also haven’t researched this topic in depth in the last half decade. It is also possible that TV ratings make it so there’s always a new story or maybe it’s not that well known beyond our region.
2.So while I’m not actually that heavy of a sleeper, I didn’t actually experience anything on that trip. It is true that I stayed in a newer subsection of the hotel, but nothing wild happened.
Extra Stories
On Salem: an OP-ED
and, A Sense of Wonder: On the Monolith
Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials. What would cause people to run away with an idea so shocking and horrifying that they would actually condemn their neighbors and friends, even in some cases their family. Needless to say as a child I typically had a child’s view of it. Burning people at the stake like this was wrong. But it wouldn’t be until I was an adult that it occurred to me that as a child it is typical that we do what our parents say to a large extent. Even in my instructing days, I noticed that the less behaved children would still listen to their parents a great deal of the time. Well that can explain much of the children’s behavior on the periphery of events, but what about the children making the accusations? Or their parents and adult peers?
Personally I’ve never subscribed to the idea that accusers simply made it up. I don’t doubt that 1690’s were very rough times for women, but that thereby reinforces the idea if the girls were caught, how much worse would their punishment have been? To thereby avoid punishment, it would be implied that the children’s parents would have to be in on it too. Frankly, in all my life, I have never heard any evidence that directly links the adults and children in some mass conspiracy.
So what could it be then? Well sorry to sound like a broken record to historians, but the Ergot theory. This is a semi-plausible idea that has stuck around since at least the 1970’s. This compound can, in theory, created a hallucination in the same way that LSD can. If something like this actually got into the food supply in 1690’s New England, I would probably think it was the devil too. There would be no real scientific basis to compare notes to. While Newton was alive and working during this time, and his influences preceded him, the scientific community was widely discouraged at best to many Christians. The mythology brought to the new world by many of the settlers was almost universally built by the church in some cases.
Another plausible idea to me is that both sides of the question could be right. What if the girls really believed they saw something while others saw nothing? I don’t mean this in a supernatural way, but rather a trick of the mind. Any quick search through scientific journals or search engines could explain the impact of placebos. A sugar pill that provides no real medicinal value but the mind still can perceive that it is being healed. In fact for many ailments, a sugar pill and right settings alone can be enough to turn the tide. So from a psychological stand point it could be reasoned that they though they saw things, and as their fears took over, the situation escalated naturally. Or to take it a step further, they also were poisoned by something like bad ergot.
For the sake of full honesty, I would love to find out that all of it was real and there was some sort of Hollywood movie in the making. Let’s just say that they were possessed or saw spirits and demons and all those people were practicing witchcraft. Well it’d probably shake up history as we know it. But obviously it doesn’t always happen like the movies. Truth is, we’ll probably never know what happened back then or why the children said what they did. Therefore I really think it doesn’t matter what my hypothesis is. It’s one of the greatest mystery stories of all time. While there is tragedy, there is also strength and inspiration. I like to think I would have done what Giles Corey did and simply ask for more weight (note). Honestly though I don’t know if I would be that strong in my convictions.
While we might never know all the answers, I think that this story serves to teach us more about ourselves. More than anything, this story can show us many lessons, and each generation trying to answer the riddle will still lead to knowledge. Maybe not in this arena but in others. To me that is what makes events like this great. Not as in goodness, but as in grandeur or like an epic. Poetry derived from real life.
One night I was sitting at home watching the various news clips from the previous night’s news. When one from the Late Show with Stephen Colbert came on. He was talking about a large metal Monolith that landed in the middle of the Utah desert. Now this is just the sort of thing I would love to investigate. But for some reason I didn’t. I admit I was entirely interested, excited, even a little frightened, like the feeling from a good horror film, but for some reason I didn’t get into it. Now looking back I think I have the answer.
When I am asked to explained what I enjoy about a film or novel, I would have to say the first thing is ‘did it make me good: yeah what if?’ And if it didn’t make me ask that? Then maybe it made me say to myself ‘I never thought of it like that.’ In the more recent years I have noticed a trend in some of the programming dedicated to the questioning and answering that science and history demand. As a child I watched lot of television about all the things I have been writing about in these publications, and remember a wide range of voices being expressed. Now I would say that I see it far less. All those voices are still out there and easier than ever to find, so I want to stress this isn’t about tearing down my peers, I would even applaud them from continuing to cover it at all. But my point is that this Monolith story reminded me that these things aren’t always meant to be answered right away, and some would argue that many things can never be answered. I enjoy talking about these things we can paranormal or extraterrestrial because I’m just curious as to what is in the world.
Sometimes programs and publications can feel one sided and clearly trying to either drive ratings or something of the like. But I would like to say that all this talk is just that, talk. This is a fun conversation about the possibilities life has to offer. Personally I don’t care whether Bigfoot is ever found, nor if the video from decades ago was faked after all. What I care about is the freedom to ask what if?
All things considered, these are just stories. I understand some people might think that these are more than that, but I urge people to remember that this is more about discovery. Yes, there are gorillas in Africa that remained unnoticed until recently, but that is the mystery of science, and to me, the appeal. I am of the school of thought that if we knew all the answers to life that wouldn’t solve anything. A new problem would arise. The problem of no longer being surprised. If we knew everything that was going to happen to us at each moment, we could never experience the joy of someone spontaneously giving us a gift, or a surprise party thrown by friends.
Circling back, this odd Monolith brought this sense of wonder and joy to me, much like a great surprise. But despite all this I knew that for one reason or another it may as well stay a surprise. That’s not to say that if one day I’m watching something on the paranormal or extraterrestrials, and there is a segment about this Monolith that I would turn off the TV. On the contrary, because that’s the beauty of surprises. Asking ‘what if’ allows me to be surprised and enjoy the various stories of this vocation.