The Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is a 600,000 acre park located in Borrego Springs, California.
This large state park is one of the few in California that allow visitors to camp throughout the entire 600,000 acres.
Anza-Borrego also has 12 different campsites for those looking for basic camping amenities, which vary from site to site.
Photo credit: lookbeforeyoulive.com
Updated 2/10/2020 – Among these 12 campsites is the Yaqui Well, a primitive site with a spooky past.
Disturbing Times in Borrego Springs
The history of the Yaqui Well began as a muddy waterhole around 1857 when two Yaqui natives were instructed by W. H. Ball to make the water hole more accessible.
Which they did, they constructed a way to lift the water using buckets.
Ball was the owner of a mule freighter that ran supplies from San Bernardino into Arizona.
The goal was to safely get the supplies around without being attacked by the Apaches.
The well was used as a rest stop to water the mules and fill refill their water supplies.
Before it became a functional waterhole for the mule freight, a horrific event occurred.
The ghastly event that took place one hot summer has left many spooky tales of a troubled trio to be told by visitors of Borrego Springs.
The locals tell a tale of three immigrants traveling, and in search of a shorter route to California from Yuma.
The men happened to stumble across the waterhole, now known as the Yaqui Well.
Near death from starvation and thirst the men eagerly drank the water.
One of the men however drank so much water that he died a painful death later that night.
The other two men, in an attempt to move the body found a couple rocks in his pocket.
Upon closer inspection the men noticed that there was gold in the rocks, but were unaware of where their companion found them.
As fast as the excitement overcame the both of them, so did the greed and the distrust.
The two men fought until finally one of them was drowned in the muddy watering hole by the other.
The surviving immigrant was seen running off into the wild brush by a local Indian, yelling about gold.
He was never seen alive again.
Photo credit: imgur/JeanDeLeone
The Terrifying Trio Returns
it’s said that now, on hot summer nights, when the moon is full you can see the three immigrants return to dance around the well.
One ghost arises from the murky water he was drowned in while one arrives through the brush and the other comes in with a cool breeze from the wash.
The locals believe that they are dancing in celebration of the gold “they” found.
Witnesses claim to see the three white, almost grey, spooky manlike apparitions join hands and dance in circles, briefly, around the well.
The apparitions disappear just as quickly as the appear.
The people in Borrego Springs are all too familiar with the three immigrants ghosts and openly tell the spooky tale of the failed trip to California.
If you are lucky, on a hot summer night you may catch a quick glance of the creepy trio briefly celebrating their find around the sealed well.