Griffith Park: The Cursed Heart of Los Angeles

The Land and Its Origins

The land now known as Griffith Park was originally part of Rancho Los Feliz, a Spanish land grant in the foothills above what is now East Hollywood and Los Feliz. The 4,300-acre property was home to Don Antonio Feliz, a prominent landowner who died in 1863. Rather than leaving his estate to his family — including his teenage blind niece Doña Petranilla — Feliz left everything to Don Antonio Coronel, his friend and advisor. The disinherited Petranilla is said to have stood at the bedside of the dying Feliz and cursed the land, declaring that misfortune would follow any owner who tried to profit from it. Whether legend or history, the curse became a persistent part of Los Feliz's oral tradition and has been covered in depth by both KCRW and LAist.

The Ghost of Don Antonio Feliz

Within years of the land transfer, stories began circulating of an apparition matching Don Antonio Feliz appearing during storms near what is now the Old Zoo area of the park. At the public ceremony in 1882 when Griffith J. Griffith — a Welsh immigrant who purchased the land and eventually donated it to the City of Los Angeles — took possession of the property, a guest reportedly witnessed an apparition at the gathering who announced an ominous warning before vanishing. Griffith himself was later convicted of shooting and nearly killing his wife at the Arcadia Hotel in Santa Monica in 1903, lending further credence, in local legend, to the idea that the land brought ruin to its owners.

Peg Entwistle and the Hollywood Sign (1932)

On September 18, 1932, Peg Entwistle, a 24-year-old British actress who had recently moved to Hollywood hoping to break into film, climbed to the top of the "H" in the original HOLLYWOODLAND sign — then a real estate advertisement for a housing development in the hills — and jumped to her death. She had recently been cut from her one Hollywood film role and was deeply depressed. Her body was found by a hiker two days later. Entwistle's death is thoroughly documented in contemporaneous Los Angeles Times coverage and coroner records. Today, hikers in Beachwood Canyon below the Hollywood Sign have reported smelling a strong scent of gardenias — said to have been Entwistle's signature perfume — with no apparent source.

The 1933 Wildfire and the Deaths of Over 30 Workers

During the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps employed workers throughout Griffith Park to build trails, bridges, and infrastructure. On October 3, 1933, a carelessly discarded cigarette ignited a brush fire that swept through the park at terrifying speed, trapping hundreds of workers. Over 30 men died in the blaze, with dozens more badly burned. The Los Angeles Times covered the disaster extensively at the time. Many investigators and historians point to this mass casualty event as a source of residual energy in the park, and park workers have reported strange sounds and figures in the areas where the most deaths occurred — particularly near the old ranger headquarters and along the lower trails.

The Old Zoo and Picnic Table 29

In 1966, the city opened a new, modern zoo facility, leaving the original Griffith Park Zoo — opened in 1912 — abandoned. The old enclosures were converted into picnic areas, but the site has generated persistent reports of unexplained animal sounds, shadows moving through the empty cages, and feelings of unease after dark. Separately, Picnic Table 29 near the park's lower trails has its own local legend: in 1976, two visitors allegedly died when a tree limb collapsed on them, and subsequent attempts to remove the tree have reportedly been met with equipment failures and accidents. Whether legend or fact, the location draws frequent visitors seeking paranormal activity.

Ongoing Reports

Park rangers and visitors have documented consistent phenomena across the park for decades: unexplained figures near the Crystal Springs Ranger Station, the apparition of a woman in white on horseback near the old zoo, and ghostly activity around the park's historic carousel (where the spirit of Walt Disney — who brought his daughters to ride it while dreaming of Disneyland — has reportedly been glimpsed). The LAist, KCRW, and multiple academic historical resources have covered the park's layered history of tragedy and folklore.