Haunted Places in West Virginia
West Virginia is a state with a rich history, including stories of haunted places. From Civil War battlefields to abandoned mental institutions, many of the state’s buildings and landscapes are said to be haunted. The state’s troubled past and its geography – surrounded by the Appalachian Mountains – provide an eerie and atmospheric backdrop for the tales of ghosts and supernatural activity that have been passed down through generations…
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Harpers Ferry
The town of Harper Ferry, located in West Virginia within the Blue Ridge Mountains, has a long history of natural disasters and bloody civil war violence, and is now known to be one of the most haunted places in the US. The town saw many frontline battles during the civil war, which resulted in the…
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General Lewis Inn
The General Lewis Inn is a historic hotel in Lewisburg, West Virginia. The inn was originally constructed back in the early 1800s by a man named John H. Withrow. When building it, he intended to make it a small residence. The inn is named after Andrew Lewis. Along with that, the town as a whole,…
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Berkeley Castle
Colonel Samuel Taylor Suit was a man who loved to make a grand entrance. In the late 1800s, he set out to build Berkeley Castle, an imposing stone structure perched atop a hill in West Virginia. He spared no expense, importing Italian marble for the fireplaces and French tapestries for the walls. He even had…
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The Ghost of the Darkish Knob
The Darkish Knob is a hill in Tucker County, just beyond the town of Parsons. It is known for its steep sides and loose, rocky terrain. Before West Virginia was formed out of Virginia, there was a railroad that ran straight through Parsons, often used by runaway slaves. During the Civil War, slavery had not…
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The Cole Mountain Light
Cole Mountain, located in Moorefield, West Virginia, is known for the lore of the Cole Mountain Light, an Appalachian folklore that started in the 19th century. As the story goes, in the mid 1800s a man named Charles Jones, a wealthy raccoon hunter, took one of his slaves hunting with him, along with his hunting dogs.…
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The Greenbrier Ghost
The Greenbrier Ghost was a young girl named Zona Heaster Shue who lived in Greenbrier County, West Virginia in the late 1800s. The Greenbrier Ghost is one of the most famous legends in West Virginia. The story goes that, in 1897, a young girl named Zona Heaster was found dead in her home. Her death…
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Blennerhassett Hotel
The Blennerhassett Hotel is one of the most iconic landmarks in West Virginia and is a popular destination for tourists from all over the world. The hotel is best known for its grandiose architecture and its luxurious setting on the banks of the Ohio River. It has been featured in a number of films and…
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Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
This institution was opened for patients in 1864, while construction on the grounds continued until the 1880s. Like many similar institutions, Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum struggled with overcrowding issues which impacted living conditions for patients. In 1949, reports found unsanitary conditions, insufficient heating and lighting, and it was home to the West Virginia Lobotomy project in the…
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West Virginia State Penitentiary
Construction on West Virginia’s first state prison began in 1866 and completed in 1876, which is when the prison opened it’s doors. Starting out in the 20th century, conditions in the present were set to be fair, with educational and vocational opportunities for prisoners. However, as time went on, conditions within in the prison worsened. The…
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Lake Shawnee Amusement Park
Is The Lake Shawnee Amusement Park Haunted? West Virginia’s Lake Shawnee Amusement Park has quite the sordid past as a Native American burial ground with strange occurrences and brutal deaths, but is it haunted? Lake Shawnee Amusement Park has been the location of bloodshed and allegations of paranormal activity for centuries. In the 1980s, the area…