Ghost Map

EN PL

Country

United States

cases
72
years
1629–2026

Unexplained: 2 Disputed: 10 Legend: 47 Explained: 8 Hoax: 5

  1. 17th century

    1. 1629 Ghosts of historical figures · Legend Lady in Blue – the Nun Who Converted Native Americans from Spain Isleta, New Mexico In 1629 Jumano people asked the Franciscans for missionaries because, they said, a “woman in blue” had taught them. A Spanish nun later claimed it was her.
    2. 1692–1693 Witches and witch trials · Explained The Salem Witch Trials Salem Witch Trials Memorial, Salem, Massachusetts The strange fits of two girls in a Puritan village unleashed America's most famous witch hunt: more than 200 accused and 20 people executed.
    3. c. 1698 Witches and witch trials · Legend Moll Dyer, the Witch of Leonardtown Leonardtown, Maryland A solitary herbalist accused of witchcraft was driven from her burning cabin on a freezing night. She was found frozen to a rock that still bears her handprint.

  2. 18th century

    1. 1738 Ghost ships · Legend The Burning Ghost Ship of Block Island Sandy Point, Block Island, Rhode Island Off Block Island people reported a sailing ship in flames – the ghost of an emigrant ship that ran aground there in 1738.
    2. c. 1748–present Forests, islands and abandoned places · Legend Dudleytown – Connecticut’s “Cursed” Village Dark Entry Forest, Cornwall, Connecticut An abandoned settlement in the Connecticut woods was supposedly doomed by a curse on the Dudley family – madness, suicide and death by lightning.
    3. 1783–present Forests, islands and abandoned places · Legend The Abandoned Lake Shawnee Amusement Park Lake Shawnee near Princeton, Mercer County, West Virginia An amusement park built where a settler’s children were killed in 1783 was said to be cursed. Its rusting swing ride still stands.

  3. 19th century

    1. 1802–present Prisons, hospitals and asylums · Legend The Old Charleston Jail 21 Magazine Street, Charleston, South Carolina For 137 years it held robbers, pirates and alleged slave rebels. Legend says Lavinia Fisher, “America’s first female serial killer,” never left her cell.
    2. 1811 Tomb and family curses · Legend The Curse of Tippecanoe Tippecanoe Battlefield, Battle Ground, Indiana Legend says the Prophet Tenskwatawa, defeated by Harrison, cursed US presidents – so that every one elected in a year ending in zero would die in office.
    3. 1817–1821 Poltergeists · Legend The Bell Witch of Tennessee John Bell’s farm on the Red River near Adams, Tennessee An invisible “Kate” tormented farmer John Bell’s family for four years – she talked, sang, slapped and, legend says, killed the head of the family.
    4. 1820 Headless riders and wild hunts · Legend The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, New York The ghost of a Hessian trooper whose head was shot off by a cannonball chases night travelers in a Hudson Valley hollow – a legend set down by Washington Irving.
    5. c. 1823–present Haunted houses and manors · Legend Myrtles Plantation and the Legend of Chloe Myrtles Plantation, St. Francisville, Louisiana A former Louisiana plantation advertises itself as “one of America's most haunted homes,” but its most famous ghost probably never existed.
    6. 1829–present Prisons, hospitals and asylums · Legend Eastern State Penitentiary – a Prison of Solitude Eastern State Penitentiary, Fairmount, Philadelphia The world's first prison built around total isolation now stands in ruins – and guards and visitors hear whispers and footsteps in its empty cellblocks.
    7. 1834–present Haunted houses and manors · Legend The LaLaurie Mansion in New Orleans 1140 Royal Street, French Quarter, New Orleans An 1834 fire at Delphine LaLaurie's mansion exposed her cruelty to enslaved people – ever since, the house has been called the most haunted in the city.
    8. 1848 Séances and mediums · Hoax The Fox Sisters and the Hydesville Rappings The Fox cottage in Hydesville (Arcadia), New York Two girls “talked” by rapping with the ghost of a murdered peddler – Spiritualism was born, and 40 years later came a confession of fraud.
    9. 1854 Séances and mediums · Hoax The Davenport Brothers’ Spirit Cabinet Buffalo, New York Tied up inside a wooden cabinet, two brothers “summoned spirits” that played instruments – magicians soon showed how it was done.
    10. 1857–present Haunted houses and manors · Legend The Whaley House in San Diego 2476 San Diego Avenue, Old Town, San Diego, California Built where a gallows once stood, this house is billed as America’s most haunted. Its first occupants heard the hanged man’s footsteps as early as the 1850s.
    11. 1860–present Haunted houses and manors · Legend The Sorrel-Weed House in Savannah Madison Square, Savannah, Georgia Savannah’s most “investigated” haunted house. A historian has shown that its famous tale of an enslaved woman named Molly has no basis in the records.
    12. 1863–present Phantom armies and battles · Legend The Ghosts of the Gettysburg Battlefield Gettysburg, Pennsylvania On the field of the Civil War’s bloodiest battle, visitors report soldiers in 160-year-old uniforms – yet most of these stories are surprisingly young.
    13. 1864–present Prisons, hospitals and asylums · Legend The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston Weston, West Virginia A giant stone mental hospital built for 250 patients once held more than 2,400. Today night-time tours search its wards for the ghosts of patients.
    14. 1873–present Haunted houses and manors · Legend The St. Augustine Lighthouse and the Pittee Girls Anastasia Island, St. Augustine, Florida Three girls drowned while the lighthouse was being built in 1873. Keepers and visitors still hear a child’s laughter on the stairs.
    15. 1881–present Cemeteries, crypts and ossuaries · Legend The Tomb of Marie Laveau, New Orleans’ Voodoo Queen St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans, Louisiana People still come to the tomb of America’s most famous Voodoo priestess with their requests. On St. John’s Eve, they say, she is seen in the cemetery.
    16. 1881–present Hotels and inns · Legend The Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone 535 East Allen Street, Tombstone, Arizona A theatre, saloon and gambling hall from the days of Wyatt Earp, its walls riddled with bullet holes. Guides say its old customers never left.
    17. 1883–present Forests, islands and abandoned places · Disputed The Marfa Lights of the West Texas Desert Mitchell Flat between Marfa and Paisano Pass, Presidio County, Texas Since 1883 flickering lights have appeared at night on the desert plain near Marfa. A cowhand took them for an Apache campfire; others for the ghosts of conquistadors.
    18. 1886–1922 Haunted houses and manors · Explained The Winchester Mystery House – a Maze for Ghosts Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, California The widow of a rifle magnate supposedly built nonstop to confuse the ghosts of those killed by Winchester guns – a legend that turned out to be greatly exaggerated.
    19. 1892 Vampires and strigoi · Explained Mercy Brown – New England's Last “Vampire” Chestnut Hill Cemetery by the Baptist Church, Exeter, Rhode Island To save her brother dying of tuberculosis, people in Exeter exhumed 19-year-old Mercy Brown, burned her heart and made him drink the ashes.
    20. 1892–present Haunted houses and manors · Legend The Lizzie Borden House in Fall River Fall River, Massachusetts The house where Andrew and Abby Borden were hacked to death in 1892 is now a bed and breakfast where guests come to spend the night with the ghosts.
    21. 1892–present Hotels and inns · Legend Kate Morgan, the “Beautiful Stranger” of the Hotel del Coronado Hotel del Coronado, Coronado near San Diego, California A young woman who checked in under a false name in 1892 and died on the steps above the beach is said to haunt the Victorian resort to this day.
    22. 1893–present Cemeteries, crypts and ossuaries · Legend Cheesman Park – Denver’s Park on an Old Cemetery Cheesman Park, Denver, Colorado An elegant Denver park was laid out on a cemetery whose bodies were scandalously removed in 1893. Thousands of them are said to still lie under the grass.
    23. 1896–present Hotels and inns · Legend Bobby Mackey’s – the Country Bar on the “Gateway to Hell” Wilder, Kentucky A country music bar in a former slaughterhouse on the Licking River is said to be haunted by the headless victim of a notorious 1896 murder and a dancer named Johanna.
    24. 1896–present Prisons, hospitals and asylums · Legend The Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield Mansfield, Ohio The castle-like prison made famous by “The Shawshank Redemption” operated for almost a century. Night tours hunt for the ghosts of inmates and a warden’s wife.
    25. 1897 White ladies · Disputed The Greenbrier Ghost – the Spirit Who Named Her Killer Greenbrier County, West Virginia Zona Shue died suddenly in 1897. Her mother claimed her daughter’s ghost described the murder – after an exhumation, Zona’s husband went to prison.

  4. 1900–1909

    1. c. 1900–present Spectral creatures and night demons · Legend Kushtaka – the Land-Otter People of Thomas Bay Thomas Bay near Petersburg, Alaska The Tlingit tell of half-human, half-otter beings that lure the shipwrecked with the voices of loved ones. Prospectors at Thomas Bay claimed to have met “devils.”
    2. c. 1904–present Cursed objects · Legend Robert the Doll of Key West Fort East Martello Museum, Key West, Florida A doll in a sailor suit said to giggle and change its expression. Visitors to the Key West museum write it letters of apology.
    3. 1904–present Haunted houses and manors · Legend The Lemp Mansion – Home of St. Louis’s Brewing Dynasty 3322 DeMenil Place, St. Louis, Missouri Three members of a St. Louis beer dynasty took their own lives in this house. The restaurant and inn in the mansion are famous for the Lemp family ghosts.
    4. c. 1909–present Forests, islands and abandoned places · Disputed The Mysterious Brown Mountain Lights Brown Mountain, Burke County, North Carolina For more than a century balls of light have been seen rising at night over an Appalachian ridge. Geologists, physicists and balladeers have all studied them.
    5. 1909 Spectral creatures and night demons · Disputed The Jersey Devil – a Week of Panic in 1909 Pine Barrens and Delaware Valley (Leeds Point – birthplace of the legend), New Jersey In January 1909 hundreds of people reported a winged creature with a horse's head and hooves – schools closed and police fired at the “devil.”

  5. 1910–1919

    1. 1911 Cursed objects · Legend The Hope Diamond National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian), Washington, D.C. A blue diamond that passed through the hands of Louis XIV, bankers and millionaires is said to be cursed. The curse story, however, was mostly a sales pitch.
    2. 1912–present Haunted houses and manors · Legend The Villisca Axe Murder House 508 East 2nd Street, Villisca, Iowa In June 1912 someone axed to death the six Moores and two little girls staying the night. The killer was never caught – and today you can sleep in the house.
    3. c. 1913 Spectral creatures and night demons · Legend The “Devil Baby” of Hull-House Hull-House, 800 South Halsted Street, Chicago, Illinois For six weeks crowds of immigrants besieged Jane Addams’s famous Chicago settlement house to see a baby with horns and a tail that was supposedly hidden there.

  6. 1920–1929

    1. 1920–2004 Tomb and family curses · Legend The Curse of the Bambino Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts The Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees – and did not win the World Series for 86 years. Fans were sure a curse hung over them.
    2. 1921 Ghost ships · Unexplained The Carroll A. Deering on Diamond Shoals Diamond Shoals off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina A five-masted schooner ran aground off Cape Hatteras with her sails set and a meal prepared – and her crew vanished forever.
    3. 1924 Séances and mediums · Hoax “Margery” versus Houdini The Crandon home, 10 Lime Street, Beacon Hill, Boston A Boston society lady “spoke” in her dead brother’s voice and rang bells in the dark – Houdini built a box for her and accused her of fraud.
    4. 1926–present Prisons, hospitals and asylums · Legend Waverly Hills Sanatorium and the “Death Tunnel” Waverly Hills Sanatorium, Louisville, Kentucky A former tuberculosis hospital in Kentucky, with a tunnel once used to remove the bodies of the dead, is considered one of America's most haunted buildings.
    5. 1927–present Ghosts of historical figures · Legend Abraham Lincoln's Ghost in the White House The White House, Washington, D.C. First Lady Grace Coolidge, Queen Wilhelmina and – reportedly – Winston Churchill all claimed to have met the murdered president's ghost in the White House.
    6. 1927–present Hotels and inns · Legend The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and Marilyn Monroe’s Mirror 7000 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California At the hotel that hosted the first Oscars, Montgomery Clift is said to still practise his bugle, and Marilyn Monroe’s reflection has been seen in her old mirror.
    7. 1928 Possessions and exorcisms · Disputed The Earling Exorcism Franciscan convent by St Joseph’s Church, Earling, Iowa In a small Iowa town a Capuchin friar exorcised a woman for four months – the pamphlet “Begone Satan!” made the case famous worldwide.
    8. 1928 Witches and witch trials · Explained The Hex Murder at Rehmeyer’s Hollow Rehmeyer’s Hollow, York County, Pennsylvania In 1928 three men killed a farmer they believed was a witch – they wanted to break the hex he had supposedly put on them.

  7. 1930–1939

    1. 1931–1969 Ghost ships · Explained SS Baychimo – the Ghost Ship of the Arctic Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska, near Wainwright and Point Barrow Abandoned in the ice in 1931, the cargo steamer drifted around the Arctic for 38 years – sighted by Inuit hunters, explorers and the crews of other ships.
    2. 1934–present Prisons, hospitals and asylums · Legend Alcatraz – the Ghosts of the Prison on the Rock Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay, California In America's most famous prison guards reportedly heard Al Capone's banjo, and tales circulate of a creature with glowing eyes in Cell 14D of D-Block.
    3. c. 1936–present Hotels and inns · Legend The “Princess” of the Mount Washington Hotel Bretton Woods, New Hampshire The widow of the hotel’s builder, who married a French prince, is said to still sit on the edge of her bed in Room 314.
    4. 1936 Séances and mediums · Explained The Final Houdini Séance Rooftop of the Knickerbocker Hotel, Hollywood, Los Angeles On the tenth anniversary of Houdini’s death his widow and friends waited on a Hollywood hotel roof for a sign from the magician – the world listened on the radio.
    5. 1938–present Hotels and inns · Legend The Crescent Hotel and Norman Baker’s Quack Hospital Eureka Springs, Arkansas From 1938 to 1940 this Victorian hotel in the Ozarks was the “hospital” of a con man who promised to cure cancer. Today it bills itself as America’s most haunted hotel.
    6. 1939–present Roadside and bridge ghosts · Legend Resurrection Mary of Archer Avenue Resurrection Cemetery, Archer Avenue, Justice near Chicago, Illinois A fair-haired girl in a white dress asks drivers for a ride home from a dance hall – and vanishes at the gates of Resurrection Cemetery.

  8. 1940–1949

    1. c. 1940–present Phantom armies and battles · Legend Huakaʻi pō – the Night Marchers of Hawaiʻi Oʻahu, Hawaii On certain nights the ghosts of ancient warriors march with torches to sacred places. Anyone in their path must lie face down on the ground.
    2. 1940 Forests, islands and abandoned places · Explained Lake Crescent and the “Lady of the Lake” Lake Crescent, Olympic National Park, Washington People said the icy lake never gave up its dead. In 1940 the body of a woman turned to something like soap floated to the surface – and gave away her killer.
    3. 1943–present Ghost ships · Legend USS Hornet – a Haunted Museum Ship Alameda, San Francisco Bay, California The aircraft carrier that fought in the Pacific and recovered the Apollo 11 astronauts is now a museum. Volunteers say its old crew are still standing watch.
    4. 1949 Possessions and exorcisms · Disputed The Exorcism of “Roland Doe” – the Real-Life Exorcist Alexian Brothers Hospital, South Broadway, St. Louis, Missouri The exorcism of a teenage boy from Maryland, carried out by Jesuits in St. Louis, inspired the novel and film “The Exorcist”.

  9. 1950–1959

    1. c. 1950–present Tomb and family curses · Legend Pele's Curse Kīlauea Visitor Center, Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park Take a lava rock from Hawaiʻi and you bring the volcano goddess's wrath upon yourself. Tourists still mail back the rocks they took – with letters of apology.
    2. 1958 Poltergeists · Disputed The Seaford Poltergeist – the “Popping Bottles” Case The Herrmann family home, Redwood Path, Seaford, Long Island, New York On Long Island bottles uncapped themselves, figurines flew and furniture toppled – for five weeks a detective and Duke parapsychologists investigated.

  10. 1960–1969

    1. c. 1960–present Cemeteries, crypts and ossuaries · Legend Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery near Chicago Rubio Woods, Midlothian near Chicago, Illinois A small, vandalized pioneer cemetery in the woods outside Chicago is famous for the “Madonna of Bachelor’s Grove” – a photo of a translucent woman on a gravestone.
    2. 1966–1967 Spectral creatures and night demons · Disputed The Mothman of Point Pleasant The “TNT area” – former munitions works near Point Pleasant, West Virginia Two couples told police a red-eyed winged creature chased their car – for a year residents kept seeing the “Mothman.”
    3. 1966–1967 Poltergeists · Disputed The Miami Souvenir Warehouse Poltergeist Tropication Arts warehouse, NE 54th Street, Miami, Florida In a Florida souvenir warehouse beer mugs and alligator ashtrays fell off the shelves by themselves – the activity centred on a 19-year-old shipping clerk.
    4. 1967–present Hotels and inns · Legend RMS Queen Mary – a Hotel on a Haunted Liner RMS Queen Mary, Port of Long Beach, California The legendary ocean liner, a hotel moored in Long Beach since 1967, is said to have more ghosts than any other ship – in the engine room, the pool and the cabins.

  11. 1970–1979

    1. c. 1970 Cursed objects · Legend Annabelle the Doll Former Warrens' Occult Museum, Monroe, Connecticut An ordinary Raggedy Ann rag doll that the Warrens locked in a case marked “Do not open.” Today it is the world's most famous “possessed” doll.
    2. 1974–present Hotels and inns · Legend The Stanley Hotel – the Inspiration for “The Shining” The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado A night in an almost empty Rocky Mountain hotel gave Stephen King the idea for “The Shining” – and staff still tell stories about the founders' ghosts.
    3. 1975–1976 Haunted houses and manors · Hoax Amityville – the House at 112 Ocean Avenue 112 Ocean Avenue (now 108), Amityville, New York The Lutz family fled after 28 days from a house where a crime had taken place a year earlier – their story became a bestseller and a horror film franchise.

  12. 1980–1989

    1. 1981 Possessions and exorcisms · Disputed “The Devil Made Me Do It” – the Arne Johnson Case Brookfield, Connecticut The first US trial in which the defence sought to argue that a man accused of killing was possessed by a demon – the court refused to allow it.
    2. c. 1988–present Spectral creatures and night demons · Legend The Pope Lick Monster – the Goat-Man of the Trestle Railroad trestle over Pope Lick Creek, Louisville, Kentucky A half-man, half-goat is said to lure people onto a high railroad trestle outside Louisville. The legend is made up – but the train deaths are real.
    3. c. 1989–present Werewolves · Unexplained The Beast of Bray Road Bray Road near Elkhorn, Walworth County, Wisconsin Drivers on a rural Wisconsin road described a tall, hairy creature with a wolf's head that ran on two legs and lunged at their cars.

  13. 1990–1999

    1. 1990 Vampires and strigoi · Explained JB55 – the “Vampire” of Griswold, Connecticut Former Walton family cemetery near Jewett City, Griswold, Connecticut Children playing in a gravel pit found skulls, and archaeologists found a grave in which the bones had been rearranged into a skull and crossbones.

  14. 2000–2009

    1. 2000 Cursed objects · Legend “The Hands Resist Him” – the eBay Haunted Painting Grand Rapids, Michigan The eBay sellers warned that the figures in the painting left the frame at night. Tens of thousands viewed the auction, and the painting became an internet legend.
    2. 2003 Cursed objects · Hoax The Dybbuk Box Zak Bagans' The Haunted Museum, Las Vegas, Nevada A wine cabinet sold on eBay, said to trap a malicious spirit from Jewish folklore. Its creator admitted that he made the whole thing up.