Mark O'Brien

A FEST-LESS BUT STILL FUN OCTOBER

The Harvest Moon on the first ushers in the beauty of October. Santa Ana winds typically produce spectacular sunsets and comfortably warm weather. 

Covid protocols continue to limit the typically full calender of fun events Coronado holds this month but again residents are finding ways to enjoy smaller scale Oktoberfest celebrations and plan to get creative with Halloween traditions.

Local restaurants, like Leroy’s Kitchen+Lounge are offering specials to get you in the right mood with themed menu items like a Schnitzel plate and special craft beer.

Since trick-or-treating may be extra-tricky this year, local children are adapting by participating in ding-dong-ditch-style shenanigans where they drop “Boo Bags” full of candy at their friends and neighbors homes. They drop the treat bag on the door step, ring the bell and run away! What a fun way to still get their candy fix while staying safe.

If you’re truly daring, you can go spend the night with Kate Morgan, a young woman who checked into the Hotel del Coronado in 1892 and never checked out. Her gentle spirit remain as the resort’s resident ghost.

Only 24 years old, Kate Morgan checked into the hotel on Thanksgiving day and five days later sadly took her own life after a gentleman she was waiting for never joined her.

The Hotel Del website describes Kate’s journey and her legend well…

“At the time of her death, police could find nothing to positively identify her, so a description of Kate was telegraphed to police agencies around the country. As a result, newspapers began to refer to Kate as the “beautiful stranger.” After Kate Morgan’s identity was confirmed – she was married but estranged from her husband – it was surmised that she had arrived at The Del hoping to rendezvous with a lover.

Kate had been employed as a domestic in a wealthy Los Angeles household. From there, she traveled by train to the hotel, where fellow passengers reported that a woman matching Kate’s description had argued with a male companion, who then deserted her en route. During her stay, Kate was described as sickly and sorrowful, venturing into San Diego to buy a handgun, and the San Diego coroner later confirmed that Kate had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The Ghost of Kate Morgan

According to the hotel’s book, Beautiful Stranger: The Ghost of Kate Morgan and the Hotel del Coronado, since that time, guests and employees have attested to ghostly goings-on. Most have to do with Kate’s original third-floor guestroom, where visitors have experienced flickering lights, a television that turns itself on and off, breezes coming from nowhere, inexplicable scents and sounds, items moving of their own accord, doors that randomly open and close, abrupt changes in room temperature, and unexplained footsteps and voices. The story of Kate Morgan continues to intrigue hotel visitors, and the room in which she stayed is the most requested guestroom at the hotel.

Independent paranormal researchers, in turn, have documented supernatural activity in Kate’s room using high-tech gadgetry, including infrared cameras, night vision goggles, radiation sensors, toxic-chemical indicators, microwave imaging systems, and high-frequency sound detectors.

There have also been Kate sightings in hotel hallways and along the seashore. Another very “active” area is the resort’s gift shop, Est. 1888, where visitors and employees routinely witness giftware mysteriously flying off shelves, oftentimes falling upright and always unbroken.”

Coronado is a perfect destination to get into the Halloween mood even if you can’t participate in the typical traditions.

Visit coronadoiscalling.com every day for new posts on what makes the beach community of Coronado Island so unique and special.