El Capitan

Ghost town · San Diego County, California

Elcajon quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1893, 1:62,500) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

El Capitan is a ghost town in San Diego County, California. It is one of 19 former communities in San Diego County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 12th among the 58 California counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists El Capitan as a historical populated place on the El Cajon Mountain topographic quadrangle: the name is no longer in official use for a community, whether the settlement was abandoned, absorbed into a neighbouring town or renamed. The recorded location is 32.9348° N, 116.7736° W.

Key facts

USGS quadrangle	El Cajon Mountain
Elevation	693 ft
Nearest living town	San Diego Country Estates, CA
Distance to it	5.2 miles
GNIS feature ID	1666237
Coordinates	32.93477, -116.77363

Open the location on a map

What's there now

El Capitan is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is San Diego Country Estates, CA (population 10,142), about 5.2 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 693 feet above sea level. Much of the land around former townsites is private; check access before you visit.

Nearby places

Mussey Grove
ghost town · San Diego County · 7.7 mi
Rock Haven
ghost town · San Diego County · 12.1 mi
Cuyamaca
ghost town · San Diego County · 12.3 mi
Coleman City
ghost town · San Diego County · 12.9 mi
Branson City
ghost town · San Diego County · 13.4 mi
Branson
ghost town · San Diego County · 13.4 mi
Eastwood
ghost town · San Diego County · 14.2 mi
San Pasqual
ghost town · San Diego County · 16 mi
Alta
ghost town · San Diego County · 16.5 mi
Poway Grove
ghost town · San Diego County · 16.9 mi
Linda Vista
ghost town · San Diego County · 23.6 mi
Selwyn
ghost town · San Diego County · 24.8 mi

Questions

Where is El Capitan?

El Capitan is in San Diego County, California, at 32.9348, -116.7736.

How many ghost towns are in San Diego County?

San Diego County, California has 19 ghost towns on record at Wayfarrow.

Sources and licences

USGS Geographic Names Information System (Domestic Names) — GNIS Domestic Names, feature record (public-domain)
U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line and ACS — Census Gazetteer + ACS 5-year population (public-domain)

Facts marked "approximately" carry an uncertain date in the source. Text on this page is generated from the sources above; no encyclopedia prose is copied. Last updated 2026-11-05.