Our friends at Oddity Odysseys have a special Halloween video about the very tragic & haunted Picnic Table #29 at Griffith Park in Los Angeles. There could be more than just ghosts haunting this spot. Check it out!

The Legend of Picnic Table #29 in Griffith Park

It was a tragic end to two high-school sweethearts. Rand, age 22 and a musician, and Nancy, age 20 and an actress, moved to Los Angeles to make their big break in the entertainment industry. On an ill-fated Halloween in 1976, a tree fell on them, crushing them. They died in each others’ arms.

Witnesses noted their ghosts began to manifest a week later on Nov. 7th. Since then, the ghosts seem to manifest every year on-or-around Halloween. However, you could capture evidence of the ghostly couple on other dates.

You can find the picnic table at the Mineral Wells Picnic Area in Griffith Park.

Ghostly Manifestations at Picnic Table #29

The most common ghostly activities at the site include:

• Nearby trees shake for no reason
• Phantom moaning carries on the wind
• Ghostly voices say “love you,” “leave us alone” and “don’t wanna die”
• Radios malfunction
• Batteries die in flashlights and other handheld electronics
• People get dragged by unseen forces toward the picnic table
• Two shadowy figures manifest and run into the woods
• Intense cold manifests
• People have been attacked and their energy drained (Note: It may seem like an old hag attack or heart attack.)
• It smells like someone opened a crypt

Ghostly Activities’ Assessment

It sounds like a bound spirit brood has manifested at the table throughout the years. Griffith Park had a curse placed on it as it transitioned from private property to a city park in the late 1800s. Curses tend to increase violent ghost attacks.

If the manifestation were just the couple, then it would likely rate as a Class 3 apparition, but there have been violent attacks and even a few unexplained deaths of innocent people passing by. We’d rate those (albeit rare) instances as Class 4 apparitions and specter attacks. As we read the evidence over again, a spirit brood may have pushed over the tree that killed Rand and Nancy. The weather was calm on that Halloween night in 1976. Sounds suspicious to us.

Ghost Hunting at Picnic Table #29

We’d recommend the following equipment:

Full-spectrum camcorder: To capture the shadowy figures and other spectral anomalies. You may want to bring a more powerful full spectrum light attachment to cover a larger area and get more light into the woods.

Infrared camera: Use it as a fallback to the camcorder. These ghosts drain batteries, so you need multiple cameras in case one fails.

EMF meter: To capture changes in the environment. No one has recorded evidence during these manifestations and it’s needed to document the ghosts and assign them to the correct class.

Temperature gauge: To record changes in the environment for the same reasons as listed under EMF meter.

Digital voice recorder: To get EVP from Rand or Nancy. Ghost hunters do have EVP from the site and it should be compared to earlier recordings to confirm other ghosts (or specters).

Don’t forget the extra batteries!

Special thanks to Oddity Odysseys. You can follow them on their YouTube channel, Facebook page and on Twitter.

Research sources:

Bates, N. (2006). Legend of the Haunted Griffith Park Picnic Table. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-haunted30oct30/.

Lockeretz, D. (2015). Haunted Table 29 (Griffith Park). Retrieved from https://nobodyhikesinla.com/2015/10/20/haunted-table-29-griffith-park/.

Griffith Park (n.d.). The Terrible Curse of Griffith Park. Weird California. Retrieved from http://www.weirdca.com/location.php?location=123.

Feature image source: www.californiacuriosities.com/haunted-picnic-table-29/

Last Updated on March 21, 2024 by Jacob Rice