DARE TO VISIT SOME OF AMERICA’S HAUNTED PLACES

Written by Donna Marie West

Investigators of paranormal activity believe hauntings occur when a place has experienced violence, trauma, or intense emotion. In residual hauntings, fragments of an event are imprinted on the psychic space of a place. Other hauntings come from restless spirits who remain trapped near the place where they died. Most hauntings involve noises (footsteps, thumps, whisperings, animal sounds), smells, cold breezes, feelings of being touched, or articles being moved. In some cases, witnesses observe ghostly re-enactments of past events.

Read on to discover some of the USA’s most notable—and frightening—haunted places.

Civil War Ghosts

The site of a bloody Civil War battle during which 50,000 soldiers died in three days in July 1863, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, has certainly experienced violence and intense emotion. Visitors report hearing gunfire, cannons, screams, drums, music, and horses. Some smell peppermint (used by women of the day to combat the odor of rotting corpses). Others see apparitions of wounded soldiers. One group of foreign tourists witnessed what they thought was the re-enactment of a battle at the summit of Little Round Top, only to learn that no such activity had taken place that day.

Haunted Gettysburg buildings include Rose Farm, Pennsylvania Hall, and Hummelbaugh House—where it’s said that Brigadier General William Barksdale of the Confederate Army and his loyal hunting dog died.

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Haunted Ocean Liner

The Queen Mary Hotel in Long Beach, California, is a reconditioned ocean liner that served as a troop ship during World War II. Sitting in a dry dock since 1967, it’s considered by some to be the most haunted hotel in America.

Visitors report sensing or seeing the ghost of a young crewman named John Pedder, who was crushed to death by watertight door number 13 in 1966. Other apparitions include a woman in a white evening gown, a gentleman in a 1930s suit, and two women in 1930s swimsuits who supposedly drowned in the now-drained, first-class swimming pool. A little girl named Jacqueline Torin, who may have drowned in the second-class swimming pool, was recorded on electronic voice phenomena (EVP) by paranormal investigators in 2006.

Inside the Queen Mary

Famous Movie Hotel

Author Stephen King was inspired to write his novel The Shining after experiencing a nightmare while staying at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, in 1974. King says on his website: “I dreamt of my three-year-old son running through the corridors, looking back over his shoulder, eyes wide, screaming. He was being chased by a fire hose. I woke up with a tremendous jerk, sweating all over, within an inch of falling out of bed. I got up, lit a cigarette, sat in the chair looking out the window at the Rockies, and by the time the cigarette was done, I had the bones of the book firmly set in my mind.”

The luxurious hotel opened in 1909 and had developed a reputation for being haunted by the 1970s. Lord Dunraven, the Irish earl who had sold the land on which the hotel was built, is said to haunt room 407. Lights go on and off, and visitors report seeing the man’s ghost. Ghosts of children run and play in the fourth-floor hallway. The man who built the hotel, one Freelan Oscar Stanley, has appeared to guests in the lobby, bar, and billiard room. A manor house, carriage house, and concert hall on the property have also experienced paranormal activity.

The Stanley Hotel

Another Haunted Colorado House

Highlands Ranch Mansion, located—where else?—in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, is a sprawling, castle-like house sitting on twenty-five acres of land. The stone house was built in 1891 by John W. Springer as part of the Springer Cross Country Horse and Cattle Ranch. The ranch subsequently went through a number of owners. Including Frank Kistler, who bought it in 1926 and sold it again in 1937.

Visitors report seeing the silhouette of a girl, possibly Frank Kistler’s daughter Julia, in an upstairs bedroom and hallway. Lights turn on and off on their own, voices and sobs are heard, and a clock in the great hall sometimes chimes despite its having been broken years ago. The mansion has been the subject of several paranormal investigations and numerous ghost tours. In fact, you can take an evening tour, attend an annual Halloween event, or even rent the house for a wedding, reception, or corporate party.

Highlands Ranch Mansion

Haunted Hospitals

Pennhurst State School and Hospital opened in 1908 in Spring City, Pennsylvania to house the mentally and physically handicapped, as well as orphans, criminals, and immigrants who had nowhere else to go. It soon became overcrowded and understaffed. And the thousands of patients over the years were subjected to unsanitary conditions and widespread abuse. Lack of funds, continued overcrowding, and decades of legal issues forced the hospital to close in 1987.

Given its history of violence, death, and human suffering, it’s not surprising that the buildings are haunted. Visitors have reported seeing the ghost of a nurse in an old-style uniform and shadow people. Unknown sounds, a child’s voice, and the sound of a toilet flushing in a building where there is no running water have been heard. Investigators have even been touched by an invisible entity. In 2017, Pennhurst was opened to the public for history tours and paranormal investigations. It has since become one of the premier haunted house sites in America.

Pennhurst State School and Asylum

The Waverly Hills Sanatorium opened in 1926 in Louisville, Kentucky, with the honorable goal of treating victims of tuberculosis. However, treatment often wasn’t successful, and tens of thousands of patients died there before the sanatorium closed in 1961. The building sat abandoned for years, until new owners renovated it and opened it to the public.

Visitors have reported food smells coming from the kitchen, the sound of slamming doors, screams, shapes passing in and out of doorways, the ghosts of children, and a man in a white coat. And an old woman with her wrists in chains screaming, “Help me, somebody save me!” Investigators including Troy Taylor of the American Ghost Society have recorded sudden changes of temperature, unusual fluctuations in EMF meter readings, and other paranormal activity.

Waverly Hills Sanitorium

You Can See For Yourself

These and many other haunted places offer visits or tours, as well as special Halloween and holiday activities. You can go ahead and experience them for yourself—if you dare!