Elfin Forest is a un-incorporated rural community of San Diego County, located in the foothills of the Santa Rosa Mountains. The geography is southwest of Escondido with the township of Harmony Grove to the northeast, San Marcos to the north and west, Olivenhain to the southwest, and Rancho Santa Fe to the south.
While the name may conjure visions of a J.R. Tolken novel, there are in fact no elves, sprites, fairies or other woodland magical creatures lurking in the near 700 acres of forests and hills of Harmony Grove- Elfin Forest. [A] Prominent Dentist and businessman Harvey Urban co-purchased a 20 acre lot south of San Marcos in 1959, for vacationing family and friends. Urban’s patients, the wise-crackers among them, quickly dubbed the area “Tooth Acres.” [B] In 1966, The Urban family renamed the area Elfin Forest, after a book by Francis Marion Fultz titled, “The Elfin Forest of California.” [C] The area is home to native endangered chaparral and coastal sage scrub also, many unique bird species, reptiles and amphibians. The overall beauty of the area is undeniable, and draws in hikers, campers, and the curious year after year.
[D] Urban legend has indelibly linked the Elfin Forest and ‘QuestHaven’ together. Many internet sources make claim that QuestHaven was a mental hospital and the “ghosts”, of those that died there still haunt the area. [E] QuestHaven was founded by Flower and Lawrence Newhouse and has always been a non-denominational religious retreat and never a hospital of any kind. The 655 acres of QuestHaven retreat are private property and trespassers are not welcome.
Another common story is that Gypsies once lived in the area of SpooksCanyon (inside Elfin Forest), there they would practice the occult. This story is true. [E] The community of Harmony Grove Spiritualists- Palm Readers, psychic artists, and seance mediums lived on 12.3 acres of land and previously practiced their arts of contacting the dead. “Rituals would take place on Sunday mornings where the women would dress in long flowing gowns”, according to the San Diego Union article. [F] Corrinne Pleasant (1897-1984), was a spiritualist and resident of Harmony Grove, she recalled stories of trying to contact the spirits of rumored, slaughtered Indian children, who were buried upright in the hills above Elfin Forest. Pleaseant said the Indian Childrens ghosts could be seen on a clear night playing and running. She also made claims that her group of spiritualists were visited by the “Ghost” of an Englishman wearing an old stove hat and carrying a swinging lantern.
[E2] The ghost of the lady in white has long been rumored to haunt the area known as Elfin Forest. Pleasant claimed to have seen the woman floating without feet down a grassy path just outside her home. Legend has it that the woman was left on the East coast, while her husband and son sought out land in San Diego. For some unknown reason both men were killed. The ghost of the lady in white has been blamed for multiple car crashes along Quest Haven Road. Bil Barker, Former Volunteer fire chief for Elfin forest, recounted 16-20 car crashes were reported each year and more times than not they were blamed on the lady in white.
San Diego Haunted took a long time to review this specific haunting mainly due to it’s blown out of proportion claims. We wanted to make sure we got the history right. Elfin Forest is a beautiful place, full of rich history, unique residents, and maybe a few spirits.
[A] San Diego Union March 1, 1972
[B] San Diego Union May 25, 1966
[C] Wikipedia . com
[D] Shadowlands . net
[E] San Diego Union May 24, 1959
[E2] San Diego Union Oct 31, 1983
[F] Find a grave . com
This is weird I know, but my elementary school aged kid has two spirit guides with which she converses freely in front of me, and she tells me she sees ‘shades’ of dead people walking around like they are in a daze when she does the ‘adjust’ to her vision. So, we went to the Elfin Forest today and as soon as we got out the car in the parking lot she says ‘why are these Mexican child ghosts all over the place? Its kind of creepy even to ME!’. I said they are rumored to be Indian children and other psychics have seen them. The mystery is why are they all children and no adults? I asked her if she sees any adult ghosts, she says no, I asked her if she had ever seen a lot of child ghosts in one place, and she said no. She said they were angry. Some were in shock, dazed. Some were both confused and enraged. She asked one if she remembered how she died? Her name? Her parents name? Where she was from? /blank from the ghost child. Then we tried ‘what was your favorite food?” and my kid says ‘fruit things’ for her and then I say ask her about meat, what kind she ate, and my kid says ‘cow’ and ‘pig’. Other than that, no ghost had much to say.
YES I am prompting her and yes I believe her, so I am not at all testing her in this story. Anyway I said well, if the children were massacred by white settlers, why no adults? And why are they on hillsides up high (she sees them on the mountain face there too, up high on rocks)? Why didn’t they go to the afterlife, why are they earthbound? She says hmmmm I don’t know but its weird. They are from different times. Me: they are ? how? do you see clothes? She says I can’t explain how I know its different times. Then, using her normal smart kid mind not her psychic insight, she says “I bet they were human sacrifices. And that God was dead by then so it didn’t work. A sky God. Not there. So they are stuck”. I said, can’t we help them? Can’tyou just tell them somewhere to go? She shrugged and said “Like its that easy Mom. Like I can do that. Please.” I said I found it very distressing that children were sad and lost in an angry ghost world and maybe someone else could do it. She shrugged: oh mom, whatever, kids die all the time. what are you going to find every ghost kid? its silly. At least they don’t get bored. Now that would be bad’
So I am adding this story, and also asking if anyone has heard any further legends about the ghost children of Elfin Forest, and how they died, and why they are still there.
Thanks for sharing great insight
I rather doubt the natives in the area ate “cow and pig” or were sacrificed. I think your kid has an overactive imagination…
I’ve lived in and near Elfin Forest for 44 years. My kids went to San Dieguito High School in Encinitas. Before we moved to Elfin Forest their high school friends used to scare each other about tales of Elfin Forest (which was not far away). It’s much the urban legend. The kids heard there was an old “insane asylum” there, which is untrue. They used to drive out to “the forest” to drink, party and scare each other. Later, we actually moved to Elfin Forest, which is bucolic and peaceful. Never saw anything ghostly or unusual. There is an old Spiritualist Church nearby in Harmony Grove, where people congregated on Sundays to honor the spirits of loved ones. I actually visited the center once. The sermon spoke of a benevolent creator; the congregants hoped to intuit loving messages from friends and family who’ve passed, but that’s hardly evil. Recently the area has been paved over for suburbia.
Never ran into Native American ghost children or ladies in white floating around. But then again, I’m not a medium.
There is the spiritual place that is talked about on this article still standing and you are not allowed to drive in. It’s a dirt road covered by a mountain I use to live on Wilgen Rd when there was no housing communities like there is now.. Those people are weird I can tell you that. I use to see from my window lights brightened that mountain late in the wee hours only like a fire burning but it was them doing there cult thing.. I grew up around there as a child. Scary stories
The children would not surprise me, thank you for sharing. The missionaries did awful things to Native children if they didn’t “comply” (after having been stolen from their villages no less) with being indoctrinated and human blood sacrifice is something still practiced by cult groups in Spain and Mexico. Thus no adults. The only adults would have been the perpetrators walking away alive. Missionaries all over the West Coast also were notorious for taking specifically infants, toddlers and the youngest children as well because it was easier to convert them as they had not learned their Native cultures yet. Thus no God of any kind is a concept to them. There may have been some that were empathic enough to know intuitively something was wrong pre-ego building phase of life and thus why they ended up as a “sacrifice”. As far as clothing. Why would a Missionary kill a child and let them wear those clothes to die in when clothing was a valuable resource and they had hundreds of children to clothe and “civilize” at a time when resources were scarce or limited. Missionaries herded cattle and pigs and even goats. Huge animal pens/stables/barns can be found at many of our missions across the state. After visiting half the missions across the State you learn what really happened between Missionaries and the thousands of tribes statewide. It something every school age child was required to do in the 1980s was to learn California History. Its appalling. Their lower self energies are lost, disconnected and in such a low vibrational space. I am not surprised all types of what is now known as lightworkers have been there (ahem occult, spiritualists, psychics, gypsies, whatever its all the same labels of folks who work with all spirit energy) trying to unf%%k what the Missionaries did. Im sure those energies are attractive to others who died in the near vicinity. Low frequency is like quicksand. Just look at hate and war for thousands of year, prime examples of low vibration energy that breeds itself.
Interesting!
Thank you for making perfect sense of the little girl’s interpretation of the ghost children. We should all keep an open mind as to the history of our humanisms! People kill more people than anything else on planet earth. Our prisons are overflowing with evil humans that prey on good humans especially children. How savage all humans can be!
Fascinating and informative input. Thank you all for your insights.