West Virginia has plenty of paranormal activity to share. The Mountain State can boost apparitions of Civil War Soldiers, encounters with extraterrestrial beings, and ghosts of murder victims still seeking justice along with many other paranormal anomalies.
Join us as we dig deeper into the 11 most haunted places in West Virginia.
1. Lake Shawnee Amusement Park, Mercer County
In the late 1700s, there was a bloody altercation between a white settler named Mitchell Clay and the local tribe of Shawnee Indians. This resulted in the tragic death of 3 of the Clay children and a number of Shawnee warriors.
Some say that these deaths have left a curse on the land. This may well be the case because in the 1920s a local businessman bought the land and built the Lake Shawnee Amusement Park.
Over the next couple of years, several people died in accidents at the park and it ended up closing down in 1966.
The abandoned remains of the park are now considered to be one of the most haunted locations in West Virginia.
There are regular paranormal tours of the property and many people have reported seeing apparitions of a man and a little girl dressed in pink.
2. North Bend Rail Trail Tunnel No 19, Ritchie County
The North Bend Trail extends for a total of 72 miles and is very popular with hikers, cyclists, and horseback riders. However, all of them need to make sure that they are particularly careful when navigating tunnel number 9, which is also known as the Silver Run Tunnel, as it is said to be extremely haunted!
As far back as 1910 reports started to emerge of a young lady in a flowing white dress standing on the tracks.
She was first seen by an engineer who brought his train to an abrupt halt thinking that he was going to hit her, but when he goes out to look for her she had gone – vanished into thin air.
Over the years many of his predecessors have experienced the same thing. It is not at all clear who she is, or why she is haunting the tunnel.
However, it is said that some human bones were uncovered under a house very close to the tunnel!
If you want to go looking for this lady in white then you are going to need a flashlight – even in the daylight since the damp tunnel is 1376 feet long and daylight does not penetrate it!
3. 22 Mine Road, Logan
Mamie Thurman lived the life of a carefree flapper during the Prohibition era, but it seems that she may have thrown a little too much caution to the wind since she ended up being discovered dead on the lonely 22 Mine Road.
A local handyman was charged with the murder, but most people believed it to be a well-known banker that Mamie had an affair with who was the real murderer.
Her body also disappeared and there are no records of a burial.
Perhaps this is why her restless soul is said to be haunting 22 Mine Road.
She is often seen there in search of justice and a final resting place.
4. Lewisburg Historic District, Lewisburg
One thing that West Virginia seems to have in abundance is towns that are haunted as opposed to just single buildings. One such town is Lewisburg, in particular the historic district.
Visitors to the town say that late at night they hear moaning and cries of pain coming from the Old Stone Church. Since the building served as a Civil War hospital this is thought to be the spirits of wounded soldiers.
The General Lewis Inn is also very haunted with up to 3 spirits in residence, all of whom are tricky and mischievous!
However, the most famous spirit here is an entity that is known as The Greenbrier Ghost.
This is the ghost of Zona Hester Shue, a lady who was murdered by her husband and who helped to convict him when appearing as a ghost!
5. Droop Mountain Battlefield, Pocahontas County
Droop Mountain Battlefield has become a memorial commemorating West Virginia’s final significant battle during the Civil War.
On November 6, 1863, Brigadier General William Averell’s Union troops staged a crushing victor over the Confederates, driving them south into what is now Virginia.
The site became a national park in 1929 as a memorial to those who lost their lives here.
Since then, visitors have been reporting a variety of paranormal activity including the sound of galloping horses, and sightings of a headless confederate soldier and another soldier who is napping against a tree!
6. Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County
The town of Harpers Ferry is well known for its ghosts. In fact, some of the hauntings are said to go back hundreds of years!
There are various buildings around the town that have a spooky story or two attached to them making Harpers Ferry one of the most haunted towns in West Virginia.
One of the most popular tales involves a female spirit in 18th-century style attires who is often seen looking down at people from the window of Harper House.
There are often tales of several spirits including wounded soldiers and an old priest who are said to haunt St Peter’s Catholic Church, which was used as a hospital in the Civil War.
However, the most common experience is for visitors to hear the distant strains of fife and drum music which is said to be the phantom army performing some marching drills.
7. Morgantown, Monongalia County
Morgantown stands on the site of the famous Decker’s Creek Massacre which occurred back in 1759.
A total of eight settlers were brutally slaughtered by Delaware Indians in approximately the center of what is now the city of Morgantown and home to West Virginia University.
With so much blood staining the land, it is no surprise that there are literally spirits wandering the streets of Morgantown.
The University in particular seems to attract plenty of paranormal activity with many of its buildings reported to be haunted.
The most famous of the campus ghosts is probably the spirit of Elizabeth Moore who was the original founder of the institute from which the university grew.
8. Blennerhassett Hotel, ParkersburgSTAY HERE
Blennerhassett Hotel in Parkersburg is one of the most haunted buildings in West Virginia.
The Queen Anne-style building is reportedly haunted by William Chancellor who was responsible for building the property in the late 1800s.
Guests staying at the hotel have claimed to encounter the ghosts of children playing in the hallways and others say that they have seen a man dressed in a tuxedo in the mirrors.
Staff at the hotel also say that mysterious knocking and other unexplained sounds are fairly commonplace.
The hotel even offers ghost tours as part of their ‘Haunted Parkersburg’ package deal!
Learn more about the ghosts of the haunted Blennerhassett Hotel, Parkersburg, WV
9. West Virginia Penitentiary, Moundsville
West Virginia Penitentiary opened back in 1875 and it is widely regarded as being one of the most haunted prisons in the United States – it is definitely one of the most haunted places in West Virginia.
This prison has seen it all over the years including several riots, fires, and over 100 executions.
Even before it was closed, prisoners and guards experienced paranormal activity in the building and it has only escalated since the prison ceased operation.
Now visitors tend to see phantom inmates and shadow men along with unexplained noises, cold spots, disembodied voices, and agonizing screams.
This is not a place for the faint of heart that is for sure!
There are regular tours of the prison which offer the opportunity to check out the electric chair that has been nicknamed ‘Old Sparky’.
The bravest souls can also participate in an overnight stay!
Learn more about the ghosts of the haunted West Virginia State Penitentiary
10. Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston
The Gothic stone structure that is Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum is somewhat infamous in the paranormal community!
Even looking at it from the outside you would probably assume that it is haunted just based on how it looks!
The building certainly lives up to expectations.
This is without a doubt one of the most haunted places in the state.
Construction on the asylum began in 1858 and originally it was built to house just 250 patients.
However, the facility reached its peak of around 2400 patients in the 1950s at which time they were terribly overcrowded and living in extremely poor conditions.
It closed down in 1994 and reopened as a tourist location.
It is now considered to be one of the most haunted locations in WV with visitors reporting all manner of unexplained activity including horrific screams, shadow figures, and slamming doors.
11. Sweet Springs Sanitarium, Sweet Springs
Established in 1792 by Revolutionary War Veteran, William Lewis, the Sweet Springs Sanitarium was a mineral spring resort, where people from all over the
People would visit from all over West Virginia as they’d spend their summer months relaxing, and socializing. In the 1830s the current brick hotel was built, and business continued to boom up until the Civil War broke out.
During its heyday, the resort would welcome some of history’s most well-known, such as George Washington, Jerome Bonaparte, and General Robert E. Lee.
After the Civil War people continued to visit the resort, though numbers dwindled, with vacationers preferring to visit resorts closer to the railways. By 1930 financial trouble hit, and the resort had to close.
Between 1942-1945, the Sweet Springs Resort would operate as a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients, before turning into the Andrew S. Rowan retirement home in 1945.
Haunted by some of the thousands of people who died here during its life as a sanitarium and a retirement home, the resort has featured on numerous paranormal TV shows recently, including series 1 of Destination Fear, and Paranormal Lockdown.
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From an apparition of a shadowy grave digger carrying a corpse to a young child apparition riding around on a tricycle, there are countless hotels that have some form of paranormal activity in West Virginia. Ready to test your nerve? Book one of the most haunted rooms in the most haunted hotels in Mountain State.