Beware the restless spirits and evil forces that occupy these eerie places. Their stories alone are the stuff nightmares are made of. Experience the spookiness of each for yourself through the books and movies that they inspired.
Whether you’re a horror fanatic or a hardened skeptic, it’s hard to resist a good fright fest—and it turns out you don’t have to go very far to find one. The U.S. was built on a pretty macabre foundation and is home to hundreds of the most chilling places on Earth. We picked a dozen destinations that will give you goosebumps, from demonic dungeons and mansions of murder to haunted hotels and a forest believed to be inhabited by the devil himself. Many of these sites have been immortalized in books and movies (listed here, too), and their stories are bound to send shivers up your spine.
Savannah has a reputation as one of the spookiest cities in the South. Among its most chilling landmarks is the Hamilton-Turner Inn, which was built in 1873 and still accepts guests. Originally a private residence, it was the site of several eerie deaths, including that of a little girl who fell down a staircase while playing near the pool table. Guests insist they’ve heard billiard balls rolling across the floor and sensed people sneaking up on them. Parties at this storied mansion were depicted in the bestselling novel “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”, and the hit movie of the same name starring John Cusack.
Staircases that lead to the ceiling, a door to nowhere, and a cabinet that extends through 30 rooms are just some of the oddities you’ll find in the 7-story, 160-room Winchester Mystery House in San José. It was commissioned in 1886 by grieving widow and rifle heiress Sarah Winchester, who may have been haunted by the spirits of people killed by her company’s firearms. Sightings of the friendly “wheelbarrow ghost” and other apparitions have been reported ever since. Helen Mirren played the eccentric heiress in the big-screen adaptation “Winchester”, but if you really want to learn all about the estate’s chilling lore, pick up a copy of “Captive of the Labyrinth”.
The center of the pine woods in Chatham County may not be a place you’d want to set up camp, but those who have claim they’ve heard footsteps and seen red, glowing eyes in the darkness. The perfectly round, completely barren clearing has baffled scientists and spooked humans and dogs alike. It’s said to be The Devil’s Tramping Ground, where the devil dances at night, plotting our demise and using his cloven hooves to kill anything that dares to grow there. Is the tale true or just an ominous urban legend? Read the southern spook fest “The Devil’s Tramping Ground and Other North Carolina Mystery Stories”, then judge for yourself.
Paranormal investigators have a field day at Fort Delaware State Park, the former site of a particularly horrific Civil War prison camp where Confederate soldiers were trapped in utter squalor. Inside the fort itself is a network of creepy dungeons, where ghost hunters have captured apparitions through thermal imagery. Visitors to the fort have heard disembodied voices and witnessed moving shadows—and one person was even caught on video being pulled backwards by an invisible force. Too scared to book a tour of this historically haunted landmark? Read a collection of first-hand testimonies in “Civil War Ghosts at Fort Delaware”.
In 19th-century Weston, West Virginia it didn’t take much to be admitted to the psychiatric ward. “Conditions” like menopause, seduction, domestic trouble, and even indigestion or laziness could have landed you in the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, where patients experienced severe abuse and unlivable conditions, sometimes for their entire lives. Visitors can still hear tortured screams and slamming doors as they explore the now-vacant rooms and isolation cells. “The Haunted History of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum” recounts the murders, suicides, and barbaric medical treatments, like ice-pick lobotomies, that occurred there before the hospital shut its doors for good in 1994.
The Virginia/D.C. area has its share of spooky sites, and one of the most notorious is the Old Post Chapel adjacent to the revered Arlington National Cemetery. Apparitions have been spotted everywhere, including the bridal room (formerly the mourning room) and around the Robert E. Lee Memorial (legend suggests it’s his wife standing guard). Soldiers have reported unexplained footsteps, organ playing, and opened cabinets. Then, there’s the lady in red who paces the graves at night. “Where Valor Rests” provides a detailed, illustrated history of the cemetery, where 40,000 military veterans have been laid to rest, including JFK, the Tuskegee Airmen, and the Space Shuttle Challenger astronauts.
From haunted houses and hotels to ghoulish graveyards and ghost towns, some of the most paranormal places in the world are right here in the U.S.A.—and you can visit almost all of them or experience them right from your couch.
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(For the source of this, and other intriguing articles, please visit: https://www.greatbigstory.com/guides/most-haunted-places-in-america?xrs=CNNOUTBRAIN&hpt=ob_blogfooterold/)