Haunted American History

31 Days of Halloween | Day 4: Black Shuck — The Devil's Hound

On August 4, 1577, a violent storm descended on the English countryside. Then something entered the church. Witnesses described an enormous black dog tearing through th

31 Days of Halloween | Day 3: Stingy Jack and the Jack-O'-Lantern

Before the jack-o'-lantern was a grinning pumpkin on an American porch, it was something else entirely. A light over a bog. For centuries, people in Ireland and Britain

31 Days of Halloween | Day 2: How America Invented Halloween

Before Halloween meant costumes, candy, and smiling jack-o'-lanterns, it meant something considerably more dangerous. When Irish and Scottish Halloween traditions crosse

31 Days of Halloween | Day 1: When the Gates Open — Samhain

Before Halloween had pumpkins, candy, costumes, or trick-or-treating, there was Samhain. At the edge of winter, the cattle came home, the fires burned, and old stories w

The Disappearance of the Sodder Children (West Virginia)

On Christmas Eve 1945, the Sodder family home in Fayetteville, West Virginia, burned to the ground. George and Jennie Sodder escaped with four of their children, but five

John Brown and the Ghosts of Harpers Ferry (West Virginia)

In October 1859, John Brown and eighteen men descended on Harpers Ferry with a plan to seize the federal arsenal, arm enslaved people, and ignite a war against slavery. T

The Mothman of Point Pleasant (West Virginia)

In November 1966, two young couples driving through an abandoned World War II explosives facility outside Point Pleasant, West Virginia, encountered something they couldn

The Haunted Amusement Park: Lake Shawnee (West Virginia)

Deep in Mercer County, West Virginia, the rusting remains of Lake Shawnee Amusement Park are slowly being reclaimed by the forest. Long before the rides arrived, the land

The Ghosts of Moundsville: West Virginia Penitentiary (West Virginia)

For more than a century, the West Virginia Penitentiary at Moundsville held thousands of prisoners behind the walls of a Gothic stone fortress. Ninety-four men were execu

The Mount Rainier Murders: The Tube Sock Killer (Washington)

In 1985, two couples were murdered months apart in the forests surrounding Mount Rainier. In both cases, a woman was found with a white athletic tube sock tied around her

The Winged Cryptid On The Wrong Mountain: Batsquatch (Washington)

In 1994, eighteen-year-old Brian Canfield was driving along a dark road in the foothills of Washington when his pickup suddenly died. Then something dropped out of the sk

The Castle of Invented Ghosts: Manresa Castle (Washington)

High above Port Townsend, Washington, stands Manresa Castle, a Victorian mansion with two famous ghosts. One is said to be a Jesuit priest who hanged himself in the attic

The Boy in the Wall: The Ghosts of Pike Place Market (Washington)

Pike Place Market is one of Seattle's most recognizable landmarks, but beneath the flying fish and crowded produce stalls is a maze of old corridors, sealed rooms, forgot

The Woman by the Fireplace: The Haunting of the Harvard Exit (Washington)

For nearly fifty years, Seattle's Harvard Exit Theatre carried a reputation for being haunted. Employees reported lights turning on by themselves, doors fighting back, st

Six Hours in a Cloud: The Macdona Train Disaster (Texas)

On June 28, 2004, two freight trains collided outside San Antonio, rupturing a tank car carrying roughly ninety tons of liquid chlorine. Just a hundred feet away, Wayne a

The Dyatlov Pass Incident (Russia)

In February 1959, nine experienced hikers vanished in the frozen wilderness of the Soviet Union. Weeks later, searchers found their tent abandoned on the side of Kholat S

The Missing Child of Rainbow Kids: Brittany Renee Williams (Virginia)

Brittany Renee Williams was seven years old when she disappeared from Henrico County, Virginia, in 2000. She was living with the woman who ran Rainbow Kids, a home for ch

The Stranger and Veiled Woman of Gadsby's Tavern (Virginia)

In 1816, a mysterious young woman arrived at Alexandria's finest hotel deathly ill, her face hidden behind a black veil. The man claiming to be her husband demanded absol

The Vampire of Hollywood Cemetery (Virginia)

Hollywood Cemetery is the final resting place of presidents, Confederate soldiers, Richmond's elite—and, according to local legend, a vampire. The story begins with the c

The Bones Beneath Jamestown Island (Virginia)

Jamestown is remembered as the first permanent English settlement in America. What's remembered less often is how close it came to becoming a mass grave. During the winte