Ten Little-Known American Haunts Far off the Beaten Path

There’s no shortage of haunted places in the United States—and across the world. Entire cities down south, like Charleston and Savannah, put on ghost tours year-round. From across the globe, tourists show up to those sleepy southern towns and have their fears realized as they are taken from ghost story to ghost story. So many spirits are said to roam around those cities that it seems like you’d never feel lonely, no matter how alone you may seem or how late at night it may be. Creepy! But also… fun.

However, Charleston and Savannah are far from the only haunted spots across America. In fact, some of the most fascinating ghost stories are those that haven’t been endlessly mined by sketchy paranormal investigators, bawdy tourists, or nosy reality TV producers! In this list, we’ll take a look at ten haunted American spots that are off the beaten path. You may not have heard of many (or any) of these before. But you’re sure to want to visit at least a few of ’em after we get done telling these terrifying tales!

Related: 10 Haunting Castles of Medieval Europe and Their Dark Tales

10 The Red Onion Saloon (Alaska)

You’d be forgiven if you think that Alaska’s Red Onion Saloon is just another bar. It certainly looks that way! Based in the city of Skagway, it’s got a bunch of alcohol on hand for you to paint the town, well, red. But it actually is so much more than that. For one, it has stayed true to an Old West theme that harkens back to its days as a watering hole first built during a gold rush in 1897. All the decor is aged and themed, and it really feels like you’re stepping into a time machine. Cool!

But the story here is so much creepier once you start uncovering the layers beyond the Red Onion’s outward appearance. See, back in its early days, right at the turn of the 20th century, it was the most popular brothel in Skagway. On the second floor above the bar, working girls would take clients to have fun. And the bar staff got involved, too. Staffers would place large dolls behind the bar. Each doll represented one of the girls. When the doll was upright, that meant the woman was available. When the doll was placed lying down, that meant that the woman was, uh, lying down, too. You know what we mean.

Anyway, at the time, a sex worker named Lydia was the most popular draw in town. And it’s her ghost that still haunts the Red Onion Saloon to this day! As the legend goes, employees regularly hear her footsteps shuffling about on the second floor. Cold spots drift in and out of the bedrooms, too, with no rhyme or reason. And the creepiest part by far is the fact that the scent of her century-old perfume still wafts around the bar!

Bartenders, through the years, have gone on to claim that Lydia still tends to the plants that can be found throughout the establishment. They aren’t watering the plants, but she is, the story goes. And some saloon visitors have even claimed to have watched a ghost that resembles her walking into what would have been her old room! The cool part is that Lydia’s spirit doesn’t appear to be malevolent in any way. She just likes to hang out and haunt the place that she called home during her mortal life!^[1]

9 The Sloss Furnace (Alabama)

The Sloss Furnaces of Birmingham, Alabama, helped power the city for about a century before they were shut down for good in the 1970s. And while the means of energy production moved on to more modern technology, the furnaces were a massive reason why Birmingham became a major southern population hub. Even now, the city still honors the men who worked the furnaces and powered the city way back when. But amid all that pride in the city’s history also sits one of the most disturbing ghost stories we’ve ever heard.

In the early 20th century, the Sloss Furnaces had a very difficult foreman named James “Slag” Wormwood. He ran the furnace’s graveyard shift, and he was incredibly cruel. He would always work with a skeleton crew, considering the time of day that he managed the output. He had extremely harsh work standards, and he demanded that the crew pump out at a brutal pace to ensure the city was powered through the night. During his time as the graveyard shift foreman, Wormwood was said to have presided over the on-the-job deaths of at least 47 workers. But it wouldn’t be long before Slag himself met his demise. And now, he haunts the place that claimed his life.

In 1906, Wormwood accidentally slipped and fell into the site’s largest furnace, which was known at the time as “Big Alice.” In an instant, he melted to death in the white-hot molten ore. Considering his reputation while alive, some people have wondered whether his death was truly accidental or not. But regardless, not long after he perished, workers at Sloss began reporting that they felt a “demonic” presence among the furnaces. It got so creepy for a while that many workers refused to take gigs on the graveyard shift.

For years after Wormwood’s grisly demise, workers claimed that the Sloss spirit would push them to work harder and faster. Some employees even asserted that the spirit would physically assault them—literally shoving them in the back if they didn’t move fast enough. It sounds wild, but over the next couple of decades, there were more than one hundred reports filed of strange work happenings attributed to some kind of paranormal entity. Now, the hair is standing up on the backs of our necks just thinking about this!^[2]

8 The Jerome Grand Hotel (Arizona)

The Jerome Grand Hotel in Arizona was originally a hospital before it offered rooms for travelers and tourists. Way back in 1927, construction crews built the hospital in the tiny town of Jerome. Over the next couple of decades, it came to be known as United Verde Hospital. Then, in 1950, it shut down. For the next half-century, the property sat completely unused. Finally, in 1996, developers purchased it and opted to turn the place into a hotel. Seems like a no-brainer, right? It’s in a beautiful part of Arizona, after all. But unfortunately for them, that’s when things started getting really, really creepy.

For one, historians estimate that nearly 10,000 people died in the hospital during its prior three decades of use. That’s pretty typical for a massive hospital complex, of course—people tend to die in those places! But the sheer number of deceased souls means that a few ghosts are going to hang around. And that’s exactly what has happened ever since the Jerome Grand became a hotel. Guests in the modern era contend that they often see hospital gurneys floating through the hallways. Others claim to have heard disembodied voices wailing from empty rooms.

The hotel’s third floor is specifically the center of ghost activity. That’s where the hospital’s operating room once stood, and now, guests say that apparitions can still be seen all over the place. Some swear they can hear the sounds of gurney wheels rolling down the hall. Others swear that they can feel the ghosts of cats and other animals jumping on their beds in the middle of the night.

The most haunted room of them all—room 32—is said to be possessed by the ghost of a maintenance man who was crushed by a runaway elevator back in 1935. The craziest part? So many ghost stories have been reported that the hotel’s manager now keeps a journal to log events—to the tune of hundreds of pages every year.^[3]

7 The Whaley House (California)

The entirety of California seems to be haunted, with a million ghost stories up and down the Golden State. But San Diego’s Whaley House may be the most haunted place of them all. Back in 1856, a man named Thomas Whaley settled in what is now San Diego and built a house there. He wanted it to be the most elegant home in the entire state of California. And he had a lot of property to work with, too. In addition to the house itself, he also built a courthouse, a general store, and even a theater on his land. Today, that entire area has been preserved as a tourist location. You can visit it (Old Town San Diego) and see Whaley’s property for what it was back then.

But inside the actual Whaley House, things aren’t nearly as sweet as you would be led to believe. Four years before he constructed his home, in 1852, a horse thief named Yankee Jim Robinson was executed on the land. Ever since, locals claimed that his spirit still haunted the region. And after Whaley’s house first went up, it was very clear that something was horribly wrong. Just after the family moved in, a newborn Whaley son died suddenly of scarlet fever. A few years after that, Thomas’ daughter Victoria committed suicide in the house. The place has been haunted ever since—whether by Yankee Jim, Victoria, or a combination of the above.

Today, visitors are certain that the entire family still possesses the house as spirits left behind from the undead world. Inexplicably, Thomas’ cigar smoke is said to linger in the halls. And his wife’s perfume is known to tickle the noses of tourists who come through. Even Victoria is around—still supposedly puttering about in an upstairs room. And the creepiest part of it all is that the baby’s giggles can still be heard throughout the house. In time, the Whaley House has become so notorious that paranormal investigators regularly descend on it to experience these scary situations for themselves.^[4]

6 Mackinac Island (Michigan)

Mackinac Island is one of northern Michigan’s foremost tourist destinations. In the summer, it is one of the most beautiful places in the entire country. The weather is perfect, the sunlight stays in the sky seemingly forever, and visitors flock to the small community to enjoy the local shops, historic buildings, great restaurants, lovely downtown, and incredible outdoor activities. Oh, and cars are completely banned on the island, too—so it’s a famous place when it comes to traveling by foot and horseback. Seems fun, right? But as cool as Mackinac Island may be, it also hosts quite a dark side.

The island was originally home to the Odawa tribe of indigenous people. Sadly, in the 17th and 18th centuries, they were brutally wiped out as the British turned the island into a fur trading center. Then, the British military really took things to another level with the War of 1812. To this day, tourists claim to see the ghosts of long-dead soldiers still roaming the island. It’s not uncommon for visitors to report seeing severed limbs, ghosts without heads and arms, and more.

The epicenter of hauntings on Mackinac Island is the Grand Hotel. Some claim that it’s haunted by the ghosts of men who were killed while constructing it back in the late 1880s. Others swear that a phantom with glowing red eyes on some Satanic level is the keeper of the place. Still more people claim there’s a ghost named Harvey who haunts that hotel and the rest of the downtown area. He was said to have shot himself decades ago following a heartbreak—or maybe he was actually murdered by a spurned lover, other locals claim—and has been haunting the area ever since. Regardless, he’s one of many spirits who have been said to be using Mackinac Island as their eternal home.^[5]

5 The Wabasha Street Caves (Minnesota)

The Wabasha Street Caves are a man-made tunnel system in Saint Paul, Minnesota. First dug in the middle of the 19th century, they were initially created to mine silica. Local glass-blowing firms would use the silica for their products. But eventually, the glassmaking industry moved along. The caves and tunnels remained intact, though, and other locals quickly moved in to use them. First, the area turned into a mushroom farm. (Yes, really.) But then, in the early part of the 20th century, the tunnels really saw their true purpose after Prohibition took hold. During that era, the Wabasha Street Caves became an underground speakeasy and nightclub.

Soon enough, the caves’ purpose became notorious all across the Midwest. Gangsters from several states around would show up at Wabasha Street to take part in some underground drinking and partying—literally. All kinds of infamous thugs, including Baby Face Nelson and John Dillinger, were known to drink there. And with men like that came wanton violence, aggressive assaults, and even a series of murders that occurred throughout the deep, dark, and dank tunnels over the years.

Today, locals say that whatever the gangsters did down there has stuck around. For those who are brave enough to venture deep into the caves, hauntings are a daily occurrence. Tourists show up and go as deep as they can, often being spooked before getting to the good stuff. But local tour guides and other residents regularly see it all—from strange footsteps to flickering chandelier lights to supposed apparitions said to be wafting through the halls. The hauntings have gotten so bad that historians now wonder whether some of the bodies of slain gangsters were actually buried within the tunnel’s walls!^[6]

4 The McRaven House (Mississippi)

In the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, sits the most haunted place in that entire state: the McRaven House. The house was built in the Mississippi River-set city just before 1800. And like many old antebellum homes, it has no shortage of creepy ghost stories. For one, the home’s builder and original owner, Andrew Glass, has a terrifying backstory. As he was constructing the house, he was known to be a feared highwayman in the region. He would rob unsuspecting travelers who were coming across the Natchez Trace through Mississippi and out to the West, and sometimes, he would murder them. Then, he’d return to the McRaven House and stash all of his ill-gotten loot.

That worked for a while for him, and then he sold the mansion and ditched town. Fortunately for ghost enthusiasts, its new owner only added to the lore. That man had a 15-year-old wife (yikes) named Elizabeth Howard. Sadly, she died during childbirth in one of the home’s bedrooms. To this day, her spirit is said to haunt the place, considering she was never able to live to see adulthood—or to see her unfortunate orphaned child grow up without its mother.

The ghost stories don’t end there, either. During the Civil War, the house was used as a field hospital to treat Confederate troops. But that ended when the home’s owner—a man named John Bobb—was murdered by invading Union soldiers. As the story goes, his spirit still haunts the house, too.

And then, almost at the turn of the 20th century, the Murray family moved in. Throughout the years, at least four Murray family members died inside the home. Descendants of the Murray clan were able to keep the home in their name all the way through the 1960s, but then it fell into disrepair. New owners purchased it, and almost immediately, they began dropping the dime on ghost sightings. As the legend goes, multiple spirits from the Murray family were seen turning lights on and off at night; one strange ghost repeatedly appears at the top of the staircase; Bobb’s ghost is said to still prowl the home’s porch and balcony; Howard’s ghost has never left that one bedroom; and the spirit of none other than Glass himself has even returned to haunt the halls.^[7]

3 The Old Montana Prison (Montana)

Built in 1871, the Old Montana Prison was the state’s largest penitentiary for a full century. The area where it was built, near the city of Deer Lodge, is one of the most gorgeous places on earth. But the prison itself was hellish right from the very start. And over the years, things got so bad—with so many prisoners dying of awful circumstances—that the hauntings simply can’t be ignored or avoided. While the prison closed for good in 1979, ghosts still roam the property.

Many of the spirits stuck there are likely those from the prison’s most horrific moment, which was a 1959 riot. Inmates managed to take control of the entire complex for more than 36 hours that year. They imprisoned guards and killed a deputy warden. Then, they held the lead warden hostage for the entire time and demanded better conditions. State officials eventually had to send in the National Guard to battle the prisoners. In the end, multiple prisoners were murdered, and several of the riot’s ringleaders committed suicide to avoid further punishment.

Today, the Old Montana Prison is a museum. However, visitors will be quick to note that many strange happenings keep occurring inside the walls. Some cells are inexplicably cold, while others give off eerie mists. Strange figures can be heard (and sometimes seen) roaming down the halls long after everyone else has left for the night. The solitary confinement cell, known during its run as “The Hole,” is said to be the most haunted. Museum employees claim that a spirit inside that tiny cell pushes and shoves people who come inside. Other folks have been overwhelmed by threatening auras emanating from The Hole.

It’s not all bad, though. There’s actually a friendly ghost within the prison’s walls, too! The prison held a mentally ill inmate who went by the name of Turkey Pete. He would spend his time “selling” nearby wild turkeys to other prisoners on the grounds. In turn, those prisoners would “pay” him with fake money to pass the time and have some fun. He loved the turkeys, and the other prisoners loved him. Even though he’s long since been dead, he is said to still roam the halls of the Old Montana Prison, too. Thank goodness! At least one happy and helpful spirit is still inside to counteract all the evil demons…^[8]

2 KiMo Theater (New Mexico)

First built in 1927, the KiMo Theater in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was a very unique building right from the start. It was constructed by a man named Oreste Bachechi as a push to combine American Indian traditions with the then-popular Art Deco look. And soon enough, the theater became a major attraction for plays, productions, and vaudeville shows. Soon after that, silent films took hold, and then “talkies” swept through, with blockbusters following quickly behind. Today, the KiMo Theater sits on the National Register of Historic Places. Which is cool! But it has nothing to do with ghosts… yet…

Locals claim that in addition to all that, the KiMo Theater is actually haunted. They point to a former teenager named Bobby, who worked at the theater long ago. As the story goes, Bobby supposedly died in an explosion in the theater’s basement back in 1951. Ever since, his mischievous teenage personality has come through with a variety of strange hauntings. For years now, theater workers have claimed that he regularly plays pranks on staff. He’ll move items around from where (real, live) humans put them. He’ll also knock things down and make strange noises in the dark just to scare people.

He means no harm, but employees have taken to making sure that he’s happy, regardless. They will leave things like candy and donuts all around the theater to appease him. And even patrons have seen the ghost of Bobby! Some say he can be seen wearing a striped t-shirt and jeans at the top of the theater’s staircase every so often. Oh, and he’s not the only ghost to haunt the KiMo Theater, either. Through the years, several other ghosts beyond Bobby have been spotted, too. The most frequent of those is that of an unknown woman who wears a bonnet and is known to silently walk the halls of the theater at night. As far as we know, just like Bobby, she means no harm. Doesn’t make it any less creepy, though!^[9]

1 The Ocean Born Mary House (New Hampshire)

On a ship sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean in 1720, a young girl named Mary Wallace was born. Her parents were coming to America in search of a better life. Mary was to represent their new future in the new world. But not long after her birth, the ship they were on was captured by pirates not far outside of Boston.

The pirate captain was moved by the baby’s cries, though, and made a deal with the captives: he’d let them all go if the couple would name their baby Mary after one of his relatives. The terrified parents agreed, and everybody was freed to continue on to America. The pirate captain even went so far as to give the young mother some green silk meant to be used as part of her infant daughter’s wedding dress one day in the future!

For the next few decades, Mary grew up and lived in a small town in New England. She later got married as a young adult (yes, while wearing that same green silk) and went on to have five children. Years later, as an old woman, she eventually settled down in the small town of Henniker, New Hampshire. She spent the final 16 years of her life there before dying as a very old woman in 1814. Nice, right? Well, a few decades after her death, a newcomer showed up in Henniker. He was looking to purchase an estate, and eventually, he found one. Then, in time, he wanted to make it a tourist attraction. So began his complicated trajectory of weaving tall tales about the so-called “Ocean Born Mary” of the long-dead past.

Before anyone knew it, this man was spinning crazy stories about how Ocean Born Mary supposedly died in the house—and then haunted it long after her departure. But here’s the thing: Ocean Born Mary didn’t even live in the house this man had purchased in Henniker! She lived in a totally different house across town. Regardless, the man latched onto her story, the Atlantic crossing, the pirate ship, and all the rest. He began telling tourists that they could stay at his home and see Mary’s ghost roaming the halls.

Against all odds, his persistence actually paid off. Visitors began coming to his Henniker home—which, again, was not the house in which Ocean Born Mary had ever lived. And those same visitors began to swear up and down that they were seeing her ghost! Some claimed to have seen her sitting in a rocking chair. Others claim Mary reunited late in her life, as an old widow, with the pirate captain to supposedly let him stash treasure in her orchard. To this day, visitors of the Ocean Born Mary House swear they have seen ghosts. Poor Mary… she didn’t even live there, but her spirit is being dragged against its will through the afterlife!^[10]

fact checked by
Darci Heikkinen