With the approach of Halloween, it's natural for thoughts to occasionally dwell on ghosts, goblins, and things that go bump in the night. This week I'm blogging about America's most haunted cities.
There are several lists of the most haunted cities in the United States, most of them basically naming the same cities in varying order. Here's one list of 10 cities that recently came to my attention. There are certainly several cities other than these ten, perhaps the city where you live, that are considered very haunted.
10) Portland, Oregon: Portland has a reputation for being the most
haunted city in the Pacific Northwest. It's a city of many haunts, both
seasonal tourist attractions and historical happenings where the participants
refuse to leave. One of the most famous…or more accurately, most infamous…historical haunts in Portland are
the Shanghai Tunnels. We've all heard the expression of someone being Shanghaied, meaning to be abducted. This
is where it originated. In the Victorian
era (around the 1870s), ship captains would put into Portland on the Columbia
River looking for fresh crew members. Local middlemen drugged pub goers,
dropped the bodies through trapdoors into the tunnels below where they were
held captive until they could be carted off to the waterfront and sold to the
captain for $50/each. These ships were quite often headed for China and the
port of Shanghai, thus the term being Shanghaied.
Many of these drugged unfortunates died while being held in the tunnels. Today,
the Shanghai Tunnels have several ghosts, some menacing and others apparently
confused.
9) San Francisco, California: A city of many haunted locations and
happenings. One of the most interesting
is Alcatraz. The island has a long history, first as a military prison during
the Civil War. It was used off and on by many different groups to house various
prisoners from that time until 1933 when it was officially turned over to the
Federal Bureau of Prisons and used as a maximum security prison for the likes
of Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly. On March 23, 1963, Alcatraz closed its
prison doors for good. Over the one hundred plus years that the island housed
prisoners of all types, many died in cruel and terrible ways. Those spirits
still inhabit Alcatraz. Even today as part of the National Park Service system,
tourists taking one of the park ranger guided tours report seeing and hearing
strange things that can't be explained. I've done the National Park Service
tour of Alcatraz and found it very interesting but didn't see or hear anything
unusual or strange. But, I can honestly say, I wouldn’t want to be locked up
there overnight.
8) Chicago, Illinois: Chicago was the center of gangland activity
during the Prohibition years, including the famous St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Many gangsters of the era used
Chicago as a body dumping ground. There were also six thousand Confederate
soldiers and sailors buried during the Civil War at Oak Woods Cemetery which
has ongoing paranormal activity. Only twenty miles from Chicago is Justice,
Illinois, which is famous for the ghost of Resurrection
Mary, named for Resurrection Cemetery.
She was killed by a hit and run driver on the street in front of the
cemetery and now is often seen hitch hiking along that street.
7) Charleston, South Carolina: The downtown area known as The Battery was an
artillery installation during the Civil War. The area is known for its ghost
stories. The Battery Carriage House Inn is the city's famous haunted hotel
where visitors often see strange happenings. The inn's two most famous ghosts
are the gentleman ghost and the headless torso. The gentleman ghost is
thought to be a young man whose family owned the house in the early 1900s and,
for reasons unknown, jumped off the roof and killed himself. The headless torso
is believed to be military from the Civil War. There is no evidence that he
intends any harm, but guests have been scared and often felt threatened when he
has suddenly materialized in their room.
6) St. Augustine, Florida: The nation's oldest city and the first
permanently occupied European settlement on our shores, dating back to its
founding in 1565. Castillo de San Marcos is a star-shaped fort and is
considered to be one of the most haunted places in a city filled with
unexplained phenomenon. The construction of The Old Fort began in 1672 and took
twenty-three years to build. Many strange sightings, including a Spanish
soldier, have been reported. It is not uncommon for individuals to capture on
film strange lights, orbs, rods, spheres, and even distinct apparitions
composed of strange mists.
5) San Antonio, Texas: The home of the Alamo is regarded as the most
haunted city in Texas. Prior to the
Battle of the Alamo, the ground was a cemetery between 1724 and 1793. It's
estimated that about one thousand people were buried during those years. On the
morning of March 6, 1836, following the thirteen day Battle of the Alamo, one
thousand six hundred Mexican shoulders lay dead along with the approximately
one hundred forty-five defenders of the old mission. The remaining buildings at
the Alamo as well as the surrounding area is one of the most haunted places in
the nation. Tales of ghostly sightings have been reported for almost two
centuries.
4) New Orleans, Louisiana: With a history of voodoo and slavery in its
past, it's no wonder that New Orleans is considered a very haunted city. Its
most famous ghost is voodoo priestess Marie Laveau who was buried at St. Louis
Cemetery #1, considered one of the most haunted cemeteries in the country. New
Orleans is well below sea level, so the dead are buried in above ground tombs
or vaults resembling small architectural buildings. Located on the edge of the
haunted French Quarter, this oldest still-in-service cemetery has been the
setting for many haunted New Orleans movies such as Easy Rider, Interview With
The Vampire, and Johnny Handsome.
But its biggest draw is the tomb of Marie Laveau.
3) Salem, Massachusetts: This site of the infamous Salem Witch Trials
in the late 1600s certainly makes the list of haunted cities. Gallows Hill is
believed to be haunted by the spirits of the nineteen women accused of being
witches who were hanged there. Most of the original witch trial activity
actually occurred in Salem Village (now part of the city of Danvers,
Massachusetts) located about 5 miles north of Salem. It also shouldn't be
surprising that Salem has one of the largest Halloween celebrations in the
country for people of all ages.
2) Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: The Civil War battle at Gettysburg resulted
in 51,000 casualties. It is believed that nearly all forty miles of the
Gettysburg battlefields have paranormal activity. Many of the ghosts show up in
photos, including the ghost of Robert E. Lee. In July 1863, Gettysburg's living
population was out numbered twenty to one by the dead.
1) Savannah, Georgia: Savannah was named America's Most Haunted
City in 2002 by the American Institute of Parapsychology. The city was home
to a Revolutionary War battleground as well as Civil War actions. Savannah
offers several different haunted tours and is also famous as the location of
the bestselling book Midnight in the
Garden of Good and Evil.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that all of these cities offer ghost tours. Have any of you ever had any firsthand experience with hauntings?
