Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainThe Alkaline Ground Where 175 Markers Vanished
Clark Road, Imperial, CA 92251
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
No admission fee. Chain-link fencing surrounds the property; verify current access conditions before visiting.
Access
Limited Access
Unpaved, uneven ground with poor drainage; becomes marsh-like after rain. Desert climate with extreme heat in summer.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1903 · Imperial Valley Settlement History · Early California Desert Community
The City of Imperial received 80 acres for the cemetery from Anthony Heber, a developer who platted the town of Imperial in the early twentieth century. The first recorded burial dates to 1903, coinciding with the city's earliest years as an agricultural settlement in the Imperial Valley.
The cemetery served the community through 1949, accumulating 205 documented burials before closing. What followed is the particular tragedy of desert soil: the Imperial Valley's highly alkaline, corrosive ground chemistry attacked the buried structures. Most concrete markers cracked and became illegible. All wooden markers disappeared entirely. Vaults were not used for the burials, and many gravesites have collapsed.
Thirty markers remain, most partially legible. The remaining 175 grave locations are unmarked — their occupants known only through the cemetery's burial records. The gap between the documented 205 burials and the 30 visible markers defines the site's character as much as any ghost story.
Sources
The battery drain phenomenon is the most consistently reported anomaly at Imperial Historic Cemetery, and it arrives quickly. Paranormal research groups have documented cameras and recording equipment losing full charges within 45 seconds of passing through the gate — a timeline specific enough to appear repeatedly in accounts from different visiting parties.
At the rear of the cemetery, near a stand of salt cedar trees, multiple visitors have reported cloaked dark figures — described as hooded, static, and simply observing. The figures stand near the tree line rather than among the markers.
The light phenomena are the most visually specific: floating orbs described as ranging in color from greenish-blue to fire-red, moving horizontally across the cemetery. A flamescent mist, described as rising from the surface of grave sites and then descending back into the ground, appears in separate accounts.
Local researcher Steve Paul Johnson has offered an explanation for some of the glow phenomena: a light mounted on a nearby water tower reflects off a black marble tombstone, producing an unusual illumination effect visible from certain angles. This accounts for some reported glowing, though investigators note the colored floating lights do not match that description.
Local researcher Stacy Vellas dismisses all the accounts. The division of opinion is itself documented in available sources, which makes Imperial Historic Cemetery a useful example of a site where natural and paranormal explanations coexist without resolution.
An inactive cemetery in the Imperial Valley desert, operational from 1903 to 1949. Only 30 of the original 205 grave markers remain — the highly alkaline desert soil dissolved most concrete markers and consumed all wooden ones. The chain-link fence and surviving markers are the primary features. Best visited at dusk or dawn to avoid extreme heat.
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