Hayward Plunge

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According to reports, in the late 1960s a swimming coach led his students to the creek and later murdered them. Now, witnesses say they have felt cold spots and seen eerie shadows, and those who stop in a clearing will see children’s footsteps all around them and hear laughter, running, crying and pleas for help.

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Geographic Information

Address:
24176 Mission Blvd
Hayward, CA 94544
United States

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GPS:
37.66627439615721, -122.07553732390807
County:
Alameda County, California
Nearest Towns:
Hayward, CA (0.3 mi.)
Cherryland, CA (1.8 mi.)
Fairview, CA (1.8 mi.)
Castro Valley, CA (2.0 mi.)
San Lorenzo, CA (2.9 mi.)
Ashland, CA (2.9 mi.)
Union City, CA (5.8 mi.)
San Leandro, CA (6.0 mi.)
Dublin, CA (8.0 mi.)
Fremont, CA (9.4 mi.)

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Comments (21)

  1. the trails behind the Hayward plunge are definitely haunted but I have walked all through the Hayward hills and lived in them and there are very haunted places. when I was young we had to have our house blessed by nuns I was about 8 years old on Cotati street off Hayward boulevard. v

  2. Domine Umbram  |  

    The trails are obviously haunted. Been back there for investigation in late 2014. Tried an amateur EVP session with my phone and my iPod, got faint whispers.

  3. I worked at the Hayward plunge in the 1960’s and was on the swim team and nothing like that ever occurred. There were no hauntings, or ghost stories, or murders associated with the Hayward Plunge. I lived right up the street from it from the age 4-19 and there were no ghost stories, or kidnappings, or murders that happened. My whole child hood I went down the trail all the way to the waterfalls and the only thing going on was poison oak. Not a true story

  4. Something lives and creeps around in the hills of hayward humaniod type very fast mimics what you’ve said multiple accounts from different circles

  5. The Plunge is Full of Spirits, keep in mind the Abandoned Cemetery next to it with tombstones dating back to the early 1800’s.

    Pay attention to the Shape Shifters, there’s a man in a trench coat that hangs out there sometimes, well pay close attention to him. I was with a group of friends and he was running and in a blink of an eye he was a deer! ( Yes, a damn Bambi) I didn’t say anything until the next day and we all thought we were crazy, until other people and neighbors in the area told us we were right.

    There’s also another “Thing” at that park… I was really into the whole paranormal investigations and such, before that night… The night me and my old roommate saw Him/It… After the sun starts to set I always leave now. The cemetery and park would drain me so bad that my Family and spiritual cleansing lady told me to stay away from there at night.

    Be safe, there’s also a lot of Mountain Lions in the area!

  6. 2016 – I currently live in the Hayward Hills off Kelly Street. Myself and 2 other neighbors that I know about so far have seen a ghost of a man with long salt and pepper hair with a hat on that dates back to 1860’s. When I saw him one time from a side view I noticed his nose was very large. He seems to float around the land and at times enters our homes. In the past 6 years, I have only seen him twice but believe me that is enough:-)

  7. My friends and I went there at dusk and heard laughter and children talking, but there is an apartment complex very very nearby. figured the noise was just from that

  8. Joanna Lobato  |  

    Oh my God yes! It was here in Hayward California at this place called The Plunge on Mission Boulevard. It was a few years ago and I was with an ex-boyfriend of mine. We were about to leave so I started walking away and then I heard little pitter patter running towards me behind me and thinking it was him I turned around to look and he was still putting stuff in his backpack on the little wall at the park. Just recently found out that a group of kids were taken years years years ago by their swimming coach to the creek and he murdered them all

  9. The place is now a public swimming pool but theres a trail in the back and if you walk up back there you can start too feel things and hear things.

  10. Those bold enough to venture up the Memorial park trail after dark will indeed encounter strange things. Mostly due to the fact that many of Hayward’s psychotic homeless live there. They taunt and terrorize anyone even in broad daylight.

  11. I don’t want to go into details,but the murders are true.They were hushed up. I went out on the trail late one night to investigate the ghost story.What happened that night will haunt me until my dying day.People thought I was crazy when I told them.I was even put in a psych evaluation on a 51-50.72 hour hold.DO NOT GO THERE AT NIGHT.

  12. born and raised in hayward from 1960, second youngest of 7 kids. nobody my age group ever heard of this as fact. i have been up that trail a hundred times. it makes nosense that he would take a group of kids, leave them. return later and kill them. would the parents coming to pick them up not look around the park ? i call myth with zreo facts to support it .

  13. Been there at night, heard the voices, laughter, crying, screaming. Seen small land slides along the trail similar the that of someone trying to climb up the hill on the right. Whether the murders are true or not, still remember the day my friends dad came home from work (parks and rec) after a 50s model car was found with 2 bodies inside overgrown with ivy. There is definitely something in those hills and trails.

  14. I grew up in Fremont CA approximately 6-8 miles south, down Mission Boulevard from the Hayward Plunge. My grandma took my brother and I swimming there in the late 70’s- early 80’s. The place ALWAYS gave me the creeps. The restrooms and lockers were in a basement that kinda reminded me of the basement showers on Alcatraz. The main reason I am leaving this comment: because although I lived in Fremont from 1972 to 1992, I never heard this ghost story until 20 minutes ago (and 30 years later).

  15. I grew up in Hayward, and my grandfather helped build a lot of it
    Of City officials through the 60s and 70s and 80s never heard of any story not true!!! Plus all the nights that I slept out there hanging out with friends and slept in holy sepulchre overnight, the only thing I can find at the plunge now that’s scary is probably all the meth heads

  16. My family has lived here since the 40’s and this story is totally false. However, I have been going to these trails (among others) for many years and something is definitely off about them. I’ve had 3 strange encounters with people who seem… less than real.

  17. According to a June 21, 1945 article in Hayward Journal, an eight-year-old boy was found dead in the pool about 10 hours after fatally drowning. There were no witnesses to the struggle leaving the accident to remain unexplained. Yea, if anybody is haunting” the Plunge” it has to be the eight year old boy… since nobody else has been reported regarding the structure for almost 100 years… BUMMER

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Disclaimer: The stories posted here are user-submitted and are, in the nature of "ghost stories," largely unverifiable. HauntedPlaces.org makes no claims that any of the statements posted here are factually accurate. The vast majority of information provided on this web site is anecdotal, and as such, should be viewed in the same light as local folklore and urban legends.