Category: US – Other

Ghost hunting? Tired of haunted houses, haunted jails, and so on? Ready for a breath of fresh air?

As an outdoor enthusiast, I love haunted places in the wild.

That’s one reason I especially enjoyed the book, Haunted Hikes of New Hampshire. It’s a chance to get off-the-beaten-path and discover some of the eeriest haunted sites in New England. (And, in that part of the U.S., that’s saying a lot.)

Of course, other parts of the US have haunted hiking trails and campgrounds. In the warmer weather, you may want to explore them.

The following video starts with an annoying ad. It’s worth sitting through it to get to their top 10 list of haunted campgrounds and parks in the US.

Top 10 Haunted Campgrounds and Parks in the US

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Here’s another video about America’s most haunted campgrounds.

Camping in the UK

In the UK, my first choice for camping – and ghost hunting in the wild – might be Dartmoor. The Paranormal Database lists many ghostly hotspots around Dartmoor. And, if you’re not sure where to camp, this link takes you to camping information for Dartmoor. (Camping / Dartmoor)

(Of note, “As part of a Dartmoor walking expedition, it is acceptable to backpack camp for one or two nights in some areas of open moorland, well away from roads or settlements using a ‘no impact’ approach.” But be sure to read the rest of the related rules.)

If you know of other, genuinely haunted places to camp in the UK, let me know.

Camping in the US

In the US, summer is an ideal season for camping in cooler, northern states. In places like Florida, winter is a better choice.

Start with campgrounds that have verified ghost stories.

The following are a couple of them from an article, 4 Haunted Campgrounds with No Escape. (The full article is linked at the foot of this page.)

If you knew there was a chance you may end up as a late night snack for long lost souls on a feeding frenzy, would you do it? Even knowing you couldn’t get away? All you need to do is pitch a tent. It’s that easy. But you have to know where…

Malakoff Diggins State Historic Site – Nevada County, Calif.

Nevada County is smothered with small ghost towns, but none as haunted as North Bloomfield which was preserved as part of this historic site.

Legend has it, a strict disciplinarian schoolteacher slaughtered a student and hung him from the schoolhouse rafters for answering too many questions incorrectly. It’s said to be the most haunted building in the deserted mining town.

Faces have been seen peering from windows inside of some of the preserved buildings… If you really want to, you can spend the night with them. Pick a spot. Sleep tight.

Big Moose Lake – Adirondacks, New York

The ghost of Grace Brown is said to haunt the area. Brown, unwed and pregnant in 1906, begged the father of the child, Chester Gillette, a well-known womanizer, to marry her. He initially refused and in one her love letters she wrote, “If I die I hope then you can be happy. I hope I can die. The doctor says I will, and then you can do just as you like.”

Gillette finally agreed to the marriage and the couple took a trip to Big Moose Lake to privately tie the knot. But Gillette had ulterior motives. He was accused of killing Brown with a tennis racket while they were in a rowboat in the middle of the lake…

Sometimes the ghost of Brown is seen in the lake drowning while at other times she is seen wandering the lake shore. It’s been reported she likes to turn off lights in cabins and some guests have suddenly found themselves sitting in a darkened room with no explanation.

There are plenty of campsites surrounding Big Moose Lake. Pick one right by the shoreline.

For more details, and additional stories like this, be sure to read 4 Haunted Campgrounds with Nowhere to Escape.

 

Does the Winchester Mystery House hold untold secrets? Di more terrifying spirits – not just ghosts – lurk in locked rooms and unexplored corners?

Something scared Sarah Winchester, badly. She was trying to outrun something. 

The Winchester Mystery House was the focus of a stylish 2018 movie starring Helen Mirren.

Some of the house’s strange elements aren’t quite what they seem, and – in historical context – may have been more practical than spiritual.

Well, maybe.

I’m not sure what to think about the recent discoveries in Sarah Winchester’s attic. My initial reaction was, “Oh, that was staged.”

Then I started wondering if it was staged for drama… or if it’s hiding something in plain sight.

Looking more closely, we may see a far darker aspect of Mrs. Winchester’s life.

I have the feeling it’s right there, in front of us, but we haven’t recognized it yet.

Much of the Winchester house’s most compelling paranormal evidence isn’t obvious.  It’s layered in history, mystical beliefs, and secrets.

So, yes. I believe the Winchester Mystery House is haunted. And whatever haunts it is extreme.

Extreme enough that it stands out as one of the most baffling haunts in the world.

Winchester House Videos

These videos will introduce you to the strange (and sometimes chilling) Winchester story.

The next video is a 7 1/2 minute visual tour of the Winchester Mystery House. The soundtrack is entirely music, no verbal descriptions.

If you’re looking for ghost stories or history, you may want to skip ahead to the “Winchester Mystery House – Secrets of the Mansion” series, further down this page. That series delivers a tour of the house plus details of Sarah Winchester’s life, and how the house was built.

Winchester House Secrets & Mysteries

I recommend the following four short (4-5 minutes, each) videos in a series, “Winchester Mystery House – Secrets of the Mansion.”

The sound quality is okay, but not great. Despite that, if you want a good overview of the history – including some ghostly legends – this series is worth your time. You’ll gain a far better understanding of why the Winchester story is so compelling. And why we may have only scratched the surface of what lurks there.

My next link to a Winchester Mystery House video starts around the 3:20 mark, and includes an interesting paranormal story. It resonates with similar stories I’ve heard in other haunted locations. To me, it seems credible.

(After she finishes telling her story, fast-forward to the 7:46 point. There, another tour guide describes her own eerie experience. After the 8:19 mark, the video shows a little more of the house, but no additional stories.)

YouTube videos I did not include:

• • Ghost Adventures S05E04 Winchester Mystery House – a YouTube video posted by Perdue Adrian. It’s probably the full episode (or more), but it’s in a skewed screen-in-screen image. If you want to see that episode, as of January 2018 it’s at Daily Motion.com.
  • Ghost Adventures S12E11 Return to Winchester Mystery House 1080p HDTV x264 tNe – another skewed screen image, with a link to another website “to see in full HD.” I don’t click on links like that. Instead, I recommend watching the full episode on Hulu. (That link was current in Jan 2018.)
    
  • If you’re looking for the Ghost Hunters episode (Season 2, Ep. 11) that includes the Winchester Mansion, it’s at Daily Motion, too.
  • Winchester Mansion: The House That Spirits Built – It Is Written. It explains why God warns us about seances and believing in ghosts, and uses the Winchester Mystery House as an example. (If you don’t believe in ghosts and you’re looking for a fairly high-quality Christian video, that’s probably the best relevant YouTube option.  The video references: Job 7:9-10, Ecclesiastes 9:5-6, Leviticus 19:31, 2 Corinthians 11:14-15, and so on.)

Additional Winchester House Resources

If you’re a fan of the Winchester story, be sure to see the stylish, old-school (1963) video about the mansion, narrated by Lillian Gish, Mrs. Winchester’s House. For me, it was 30 minutes well spent.

I also enjoyed the first-person stories about the house – and Mrs. Winchester – during her lifetime, in Sarah Winchester, My Neighbor. It’s a short book by a cheerful (if slightly nosy) neighbor, and it helped me understand the era when Sarah Pardee Winchester was building her very strange home.

In that historical context – when most wealthy women like Mrs. Winchester occupied themselves with hobbies, and walking their dogs, etc. – I saw how very odd she was. More than I’d expected. Was she fleeing something more than her own mortality? And just how terrified was she…?

Why didn’t she just pack her bags, sell the property, and live far away from whatever-it-was?

Perhaps it was something she couldn’t outrun.

In general, I think the Winchester house is one of America’s more enigmatic haunts. The mansion’s eerie legends and quirky history raise many questions. Some may only be answered by the ghosts… and whatever else lurks there.