Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainA San Joaquin Valley Cemetery With a Glowing Headstone
Del Rey, CA 93616
Research updated May 2026
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Cemetery History · San Joaquin Valley Settlement
Del Rey is a small agricultural community in Fresno County, situated in the San Joaquin Valley south of the city of Fresno. The area was developed for farming during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the local cemetery reflects this history — a community burial ground serving families who settled and farmed the surrounding raisin grape country.
The cemetery is administered by the Sanger/Del Rey Cemetery District, a public entity formed in 1991 when the Sanger Cemetery District annexed the Del Rey Cemetery District. The Sanger Cemetery itself dates to the mid-1850s, established near the historic town of Centerville when the San Joaquin Valley's early Euro-American settlement began in earnest.
Paranormal investigators have visited the Del Rey Cemetery on multiple occasions. None have reported finding evidence they considered conclusive, and at least one investigator offered a specific natural explanation for the most prominent anomaly: the third tomb in from the entrance appears to glow at night, likely because its stone contains reflective mineral content that picks up headlight beams from vehicles on the adjacent road.
Sources
The most visually striking claim at Del Rey Cemetery is the glowing third tomb. Visitors approaching the grounds at night have described the stone seeming to produce its own light — an unsettling effect in a rural cemetery with no artificial lighting nearby. The skeptical reading, offered by at least one paranormal investigator who examined the site, is straightforward: certain granites and polished stones contain feldspar or mica crystals that catch and reflect vehicle headlights from the road, producing a brief glow that appears luminescent from a distance.
The other reports are more conventionally atmospheric: cold spots that move through the cemetery grounds rather than sitting in fixed positions, shadowed figures seen among the markers at dusk or after dark, and moaning sounds from no identifiable source.
EMF detectors brought to the site have reportedly registered anomalous readings at the third tomb, the same marker associated with the illumination reports. The clustering of multiple anomalies at one specific location in a small cemetery is notable. Whether these readings reflect genuine electromagnetic variance or the cumulative effect of investigators expecting to find something is a question the available evidence cannot resolve.
The Kings River Life Magazine's coverage of ghost stories of the Sanger area contextualizes this as part of a broader regional tradition of paranormal folklore in the agricultural communities of southern Fresno County.
Del Rey Cemetery is a small rural cemetery in Fresno County. The third tomb in from the entrance is the focus of accounts describing an illuminated headstone visible at night, a phenomenon skeptics attribute to reflective stone catching distant headlights from passing vehicles on the adjacent road.
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