Photo: PEOPLE.com Illustration By Debra Cartwright
As Halloween approaches, we were swapping ghost stories around the ol’ PEOPLE offices. Though we’re based in New York, staffers here come from all over, and so it got us thinking about what we like to call the Haunted States of America: What “ghost story” defines your state?
Alabama
Alaska
West High Schoolin Anchorage: Students report seeing amysterious woman in white, and strange noises plague other parts of the school – all the creepy ones, like the basement.
Arizona
27 people have died atthe Bird Cage Theater in Tombstone, resulting in multiple ghost sightings daily.
Arkansas
California
Kate Morgan hauntsthe Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego. Morgan traveled with her husband as a con artist and card shark. She was found dead in the Coronado, and she apparently continues to haunt the hotel.
Colorado
The Stanley Hotel, which inspired Stephen King to writeThe Shining, has been called “The Most Haunted Place in America” – its quartz foundation attracts elecro-magnetic fields and ghosts.
Connecticut
A favorite of Ed and Lorraine Warren (of the New England Society for Psychic Research),Union Cemeteryis home to a spirit named “Red Eyes,” purportedlya pair of red eyes glowing in the darkness, as well as the White Lady, who was captured on video and stills.
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
The 17 Hundred 90 Inn & Tavern in Savannahisthe oldest hotelin Savannah, Georgia, and guests staying in room 204 are required to sign a waiver that they will not ask for their money back if they run into the ghost of Anne Powell, a girl who fell to her death from the room.
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
The University of Iowa‘sCurrier Hallis supposedly home to three females ghosts, the spirits of a trio of roommates who all fell in love with the same man and despondently killed themselves in their dorm. Whenever roommates begin to fight in the Hall, the ghosts apparently step in and promote “friendship and harmony.”
Kansas
Elizabeth Polly walksSentinel Hill in Hays, Kansas; she was anurse at Fort Haysduring the cholera epidemic in the 1860s. She became sick, and requested that she be buried on the top of the Hill. But the ground was too rocky, and she was buried at the bottom of the hill. Her ghost, dressed in blue, makes the walk from her grave to the top of the hill.
Kentucky
Waverly Hill Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Louisvillehoused patients during the tuberculosis outbreak in 1912: Thousands died there and were removed through the use of a “body chute” so that patients didn’t have to see how many were dying. Visitors report all kinds of sounds, smells and odd visions.
Louisiana
The nearly 100-year-oldArnaud’s Restaurantis home to the ghost of Count Arnaud himself, who occasionally presides over the main dining roomclad in a tuxedo, as well as a well-dressed woman who crosses the dining room and heads through a wall, in search of a now-walled-over staircase.
Maine
Loon Pond, in Acton, Maine, is said to be home to a ghostly,three-legged “Husky-type” dogwith a phosphorescent glow, who appears around midnight.
Maryland
Dr. Samuel A. Mudd treated John Wilkes Booth for a broken leg after he assassinated Lincoln. Mudd was later jailed for conspiracy, but was eventually pardoned.The bed in Mudd’s Waldorf, Maryland, homewhere Booth lay repeatedly shows the impression of a man’s body, even after the staff remakes it.
Massachusetts
Boston’s largest haunted house is actually the U.S.S.Salem, anaval vesselthat once served as a hospital following an earthquake in 1953 – former crew members and earthquake victims still walk the ship, apparently.
Michigan
The Whitney Restaurant in Detroitwas the formermansionof one of the area’s wealthiest lumber barons. He and his wife both passed away on the premises; investigators have recorded unexplained voices, the sound of a piano and rapping on the walls.
Minnesota
The Greyhound Bus MuseuminHibbing, Minnesota, sits on land that was once a quarantine camp during a 1918 outbreak of yellow fever, and is adjacent to Hibbing’s oldest cemetery, which is why it’s unsurprising that museum employees have reported strange shadows on the“Nine bus”and the voice of a little girl ringing out at night.
Mississippi
The Lyric Theatrein Tupelo, Mississippi, was temporarily converted into a hospital following a 1936 tornado, the fourth-deadliest in the history of the U.S. Consequently, it’s home to a spirit the staff has named “Antoine,” whose offenses are mostly minor: He steals keys, likes to hum to himself and moves things around late at night.
Missouri
Montana
Residents near the site ofLittle Bighorn Battlefield in Montanareport hearing and seeing ghostly Native Americans around the site, includingthe images of the spirits of departed Native Americanscounting coup on battlefield workers as they sleep.
Nebraska
Nevada
No less an authority than Johnny Depp reported seeing a little girl dressed in all white when he stayed atthe Mackay Mansion in Virginia City, while filming Jim Jarmusch’sDead Man.
New Hampshire
Whimsically nicknamed “Blood Cemetery” because of Abel and Betsy Blood’s tombstones,Pine Hill Cemeteryin Hollis, New Hampshire, is home to one unusually specific phenomenon, among the other run-of-the-mill ghost stuff like floating orbs: There’s a hand carved into Abel’s headstone, its index finger pointing to heaven. At night, the headstone apparently changes color and the index finger points down.
New Jersey
Just an hour and a half from New York City,Clinton Roadis home to tales about everything from the Jersey Devil and Satanism to theClinton Road Bridge Boy, who supposedly drowned there and whose ghost will return coins tossed into the waters.
New Mexico
New York
Peter Stuyvesant was the leader of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam before it became New York, and huge swaths of the city still bear his name. He helped establish the original church that stands at 10th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan. It’s nowSt. Mark’s Church, but that hasn’t stopped Stuyvesant – people reportthe sound of a peg legechoing through the church.
North Carolina
Asheville’s Omni Grove Park Innis home to the “Pink Lady,” who apparently inhabits room 545 after having fallen to her death in the Palm Court atrium around 1920. After dozens of sightings, she’s become one of the city’s most famous residents.
North Dakota
Ohio
Akron’s Civic Theatreisa majestic theatrehome to not one, but at least three reported ghosts: Fred the janitor, who supposedly died during one of his shifts and still shows up for work; a well-dressed man who’s still occupying his balcony seat, and a girl who can be heard crying and sobbing as she walks along the canal that runs behind the theater.
Oklahoma
Nothing likean abandoned circusto stir up ghost stories.Gandini’s Circuscame toEdmond, Oklahoma, around 1910, but has since become a wonderfully creepy desolate field of rusting cages and dilapidated, burned-down buildings. There are no recurring ghost stories about the place, just a whole lot of creepy feelings.
Oregon
Pennsylvania
The Philadelphia Zoo(America’s oldest) is said to be home to a few different full-body apparitions, including a female ghost in a long white dress who stands at the top of the staircase inthe John Penn House. Sadly, no ghost animals.
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
NearDeadwood, theMount Moriah Cemeteryis the resting place of classic Old West characters like “Wild Bill” Hickok and “Calamity” Jane Canary, as well as home to a mass grave containing 11 victims of a boarding-house fire. People have reported the feeling of being watched in thecemetery.
Tennessee
Texas
Charlie Wunsche, the original owner of theWunsche Brothers Cafe and SalooninSpring, Texas, apparently never left. He likes to lock doors, hide things, and mess with electronics.
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
St. Mark’s Episcopal ChurchinCheyennewas opened in 1888, though itsbell towerwasn’t completed until 1924. However, one of the Swedish masons fell to his death while working – years later, the other, claiming he feared he’d be deported over the accident, said he entombed the dead man’s remains in the tower wall, which is perhaps why people hear the sound of hammering and whispers coming from the building’s walls.
Washington, D.C.
source: people.com
