A Ghostly Good Time

Old City Park is a sprawling 9,000 square-foot park located at 62 Brewery Ave in the mountainous City of Bisbee, Arizona. The park boasts an amphitheater, bleachers, a Ramada, slides, a basketball hoop, concrete court, and activity center. In the daylight, the park looks colorful and inviting, and there are often music or theatrical events hosted here. In the evening, City Park is fairly well lit and, being close to Old Bisbee, it’s not a bad location to spend some time hanging out… unless one is familiar with the history of City Park and knows that City Park used to be the Bisbee Cemetery.

When it was first established as the Bisbee Cemetery, it was on the outskirts of town. Gradually, as the mining boom town grew, the cemetery was no longer on the edge of town. In the early 1900’s, due to water contamination concerns, the good people of Bisbee decided to relocate those who were interred here. Graves that were marked were carefully exhumed and their complete contents relocated to Evergreen Cemetery. As was the case with many mining boom towns, burial records weren’t consistently recorded so there are an estimated dozen or so graves that may still be located beneath City Park. Barring this, it’s no wonder that there are stories of ghosts in City Park.

One account, as recorded by Renee Gardner in her book Southern Arizona’s Most Haunted, tells the story of a father who took his daughter to play at City Park. After going down the slide, his daughter told him she was going to play with the children on the stairs. She ran to the stairs and began “playing” with the children, but the father couldn’t see any kids on the stairs. As he approached his daughter, she became upset and ran to meet her father. When he asked why she’d stopped playing, she replied, “You scared them all away. They all walked through the wall and are now hiding from you.”

Due to its location, City Park is not a good place to attempt to record any Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP). However, people visiting the park at night often feel clothing being pulled or they’re poked in the same manner as a child would do to get an adult’s attention. The ghost children are typically seen by other children, but occasionally they are rumored to show up in a photo or two. If you ever visit Bisbee and are seeking a ghostly good time, take a few moments to step back into your childhood and try playing with the ghost children who are rumored to linger in City Park.

Sources:
* Gardner, Renee. “Southern Arizona’s Most Haunted”. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffler Publishing Ltd., 2010. pp 105-108.
* https://sites.google.com/site/bisbeeparksandrecreation/Home/parks