91PORNY

As a paranormal author, investigator, and podcaster, I've been to a lot of haunted hotspots all across North America. I've slept in haunted hotel rooms, explored haunted jails and prisons, eaten in haunted restaurants, and investigated the darkest reaches of haunted locations that aren't available to most people. Some were definitely a bit overrated, but others? Yeah, something is definitely happening there. From coast to coast, here's my ranking of the creepiest, most haunted hotspots I've visited. 

Port Gamble, a town on the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington State, is so haunted that it holds an every November. It's a scenic, company-owned timber town that was settled in the mid-1800s, and many of the original homes and buildings remain. 

I present at the ghost conference every year, and we stay in one of the local historic haunted homes. I can attest that the entire town is extremely haunted, from the small, historic theater to the picturesque cemetery that sits atop a hill in the middle of town. 

Today, it's a popular tourist destination with a small population of permanent residents. I've had more paranormal experiences throughout the town than I have time to share, from hearing a piano playing in an empty theater to having items mysteriously move in the house we're staying. It's a lesser-known haunt internationally, but it deserves a spot on this list for the sheer amount of activity that takes place. Spend enough time there, and you'll probably have an experience.

Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the location of some of my more profound paranormal experiences. It's a city with a fascinating maritime history. It was critical in rescue efforts when the Titanic sank because it was the closest city to the location in the North Atlantic, and some of the artifacts and energy associated with that event continue to haunt the town.

In 1917, a few years after that tragic event, the disaster that's responsible for most of Halifax's haunted history occurred when two ships (including one carrying munitions) collided in the city's harbor, triggering an explosion that ripped through the streets, killing more than 1,700 people, injuring 9,000 more, and collapsing buildings and blowing in windows in the blast zone. All buildings within 800 meters of the explosion, both in Halifax and the town of Dartmouth across the harbor, were leveled.

Even today, the weight of this tragic history hangs over the area. We explored Halifax and had a ton of experiences, but it was when we visited the local maritime museum, with artifacts from both the explosion and the Titanic, that it became apparent how haunted the city is. Halifax does a beautiful job of honoring those who died and were injured with a huge memorial on the hill overlooking the harbor. Whether you're into ghosts, history, or just want to visit a beautiful place, Halifax is the place to go. 

Located in Northern Arizona, Jerome is a turn-of-the-century copper mining town that perches precariously on a hillside. It's a popular tourist destination with climbing, narrow roads that wind through the town's central business district, and it has a hugely haunted reputation throughout the small city, from the Haunted Hamburger restaurant that clings to the side of a hill to the Jerome Grand Hotel that sits at the apex of the town.

The city is especially popular with tourists in October, when it holds annual ghost tours exploring the town's history and haunting. I've never been on a ghost tour there, but I've been to Jerome multiple times, and I can tell you that the place isn't overrated. I've been at different times with various groups of friends, and everyone has independently mention just how oppressive the place feels. It feels dark to me, and I don't enjoy the energy there. If you're into dark hauntings, want to go on a great ghost tour, or just want to get a feel for a truly haunted place, Jerome could give you the experience you seek. 

If you watch the ghost shows, then you've probably seen the USS Salem called out as one of America's most haunted ships. The heavy cruiser never saw combat, but it served as a relief vessel in multiple disasters, including the Ionian earthquake in Greece in the 1950s. Many people who have visited and investigated the Salem, which is now a floating museum, believe the ship is haunted by its former crew.

We definitely experienced some activity on the Salem when we visited it in 2023, particularly in the crew mess. Lots of shadow figures and disembodied voices, plus just a sense of heaviness and dread throughout the ship. 

I've written two books about the hauntings at Wellington, which is in my home state of Washington. In the summer of 2009, I investigated the site multiple times, and we visit at least once every summer to enjoy the hike along the that traverses the Wellington site.

Wellington is a ghost town in the North Cascade Mountains — now a rails-to-trails hiking path through where the townsite once sat. In 1910, an avalanche came down on the railroad town, killing more than 100 people and pushing Great Northern Railroad trains off the track and down into a river valley below. It was the most significant avalanche disaster in terms of human life lost in the history of the United States. After the disaster, the railroad built a half-mile-long concrete snow shed to protect trains from similar disasters. The snow shed still stands today, and it's one of the places where the most encounters occur (although I've experienced them all over the site). 

There's a reason I've written two books about it and return year after year — it is extremely haunted. I've seen three full-body apparitions there and one shadow figure, recorded countless incredibly clear EVPs, heard disembodied voices, been touched, and more. In fact, I don't know anyone who has visited Wellington who hasn't had a paranormal experience — many people have written to me, sharing their stories of the haunting. 

It's a beautiful place to hike and visit, the spirits are friendly and interactive, and many people have experiences. If you go, be sure to check it out between July and early October. The rest of the year, it's snowed in.

Related: 7 Haunted Hikes in Washington & Their Chilling Backstories

The Tokeland Hotel in Tokeland, WA is one of the first haunted places I ever investigated (& spent a few nights). It's a small hotel in coastal Washington that's not super well-known outside of the area, but it's definitely haunted. The hotel was built in 1855 and is the oldest hotel in Washington. 

The Tokeland Hotel is the reason I now say out loud when I visit haunted places, "Don't bug me while I sleep." Someone or something was in our room in the middle of the night, making a racket and waking me from a sound sleep. There were footsteps in our room when we were both in bed. It wasn't the best night of sleep I ever had, but it was certainly an interesting one. 

While it's called a castle and looks like one, Preston Castle is actually a former boys' reformatory in Ione, California. The haunting in this crumbling building has been featured on several paranormal shows, and when I visited it in 2018, I understood exactly why.

The building looms large over the small town of Ione, and it's quickly decaying in spite of massive efforts to preserve it. It's filled with bats, too, so that's fun. But it's not the crumbling interior or risk of getting bats caught in your hair (or the bazillion spider webs) that make it seem haunted. It's the ghosts. Nearly every nook and cranny of the gigantic building is teeming with them. 

You can feel the heaviness from the moment you set foot in the building, and it gets more oppressive with every floor you climb. I was touched several times, heard disembodied voices, and saw shadow figures. It's a pretty creepy place and would be even if it weren't home to thousands of bats.

From British luxury liner to wartime troop transport to hotel, the RMS Queen Mary has had multiple incarnations. Today, she's docked on a pier in Long Beach, CA, serving as a hotel, museum, venue, and haunted curiosity. When we visited, we were lucky enough to get insider access to places beyond where tours take you or guests can wander when they stay there. 

And yes. She's haunted. I encountered an apparition in the engine room and heard weird disembodied voices throughout the ship. You can take ghost tours aboard the ship, eat in one of its restaurants, or stay in the ship's staterooms. There's paranormal activity throughout, so if you pay attention, you might just have an experience. 

There are some places where the history looms so large, that you almost expect it to be haunted, and the sites where the United States' Civil War was fought definitely fall into that category, especially Gettysburg.

The entire military park is vast, now filled with canons, monuments, and memories. Oh — and ghosts. I visited Gettysburg several times over a couple of days back in 2021, and it is absolutely haunted. You can feel the pain and memories of those who fought there reaching out to you from where their blood spilled on the grounds. If you've never been, it's worth a visit, first, for the history, but also if you want to have a paranormal experience in famous places like Devil's Den or at the Jenny Wade house in town. 

From the graceful oaks draped with Spanish moss to the quaint squares to the beautiful old mansions, Savannah, Georgia, is a city dripping with Southern charm. But all this charm has a seedy underbelly, from bricks in buildings that have tiny fingerprints in them from the enslaved children who made them to the thousands of bodies buried underneath the city. Buildings, squares, and monuments went right up over the top of them, and that could very well be why this entire city is so darn haunted. 

Ghost tours leave nightly from the downtown squares, and many of the old residences also have guided ghost tours and investigations. We visited the Sorrel-Weed house and definitely saw some weird stuff in the enslaved people's quarters. We also saw shadows darting after dark when we peeked through the wrought iron fence of a haunted cemetery on a ghost tour. Whether you take a tour or just sit in a square and soak in the atmosphere, be assured, there are spirits around. 

There's a good reason why Stephen King's late-season visit to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, inspired him to write The Shining. This beautiful Victorian Classic Revival hotel (& its many outbuildings) is haunted AF.

We stayed at the Stanley early in the season one spring on a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. We had a room reserved in the main structure, but a burst pipe before we arrived moved us to the former gentlemen's quarters, called The Lodge. I was disappointed because I really wanted to stay in the main hotel, but not for long!

On arrival, I tossed a grocery bag with sunscreen in it on our bed, and we headed out to walk around the grounds. When we returned to the room, it had mysteriously disappeared. A few hours later, I was poking around in the room, opening random doors, and discovered a walk-in closet we didn't know was there. In the back corner of the closet tossed into its darkest recess, I found the sunscreen, still in the bag. It was strange, to say the least. My verdict given that and a few other experiences? Haunted, and super cool in a gorgeous location. 

Another former military ship turned into a floating museum? Why not!

Since it's in Washington State, I've spent a lot of time on the Turner Joy. It's an old Navy destroyer that saw action in the Gulf of Tonkin in the Vietnam War. An explosion in a gun mount in 1965 killed three and wounded three.

I've had a ton of experiences on the ship. Your typical shadow figures. Deep feelings of fear in the engine room. Deep feelings of despair near the gun mount that exploded. This is a haunted ship well worth spending some time on. 

The Waverly Hills Sanatorium may be one of the most notorious haunts on this list. For haunted thrill seekers, it's bucket list. Any place with a body chute and thousands of TB deaths must be haunted, right? Right!

Friends, it isn't hype. I was involved in a private investigation there a few years ago, and the stuff that happened while we were there was absolutely wild. From seeing a shadow person form from the boots up right next to me to having a long and coherent ghost box conversation with a dead guy in the morgue, it was all action the entire time we were there. If you get the chance to participate in a tour, go!

My first in-person view of Alcatraz as an adult was from the deck of the Golden Gate ferry crossing from Sausalito to San Francisco. And even at a distance, the former prison looms large and ominous.

We visited Alcatraz the next day, taking the standard tour of the place, which is self-guided. As with many prisons, this place has an energy to it. Even my husband, who calls himself "as psychic as a rock" felt stuff while we were there, including feelings of dread outside of a cell in cell block C where guards had been confined and executed during the prison takeover in 1946.

It was too crowded to get any "evidence" of a haunting, but the entire island definitely feels like it has something going on. If you're in the Bay Area, it's a can't miss. 

This former prison-turned-museum and classic car museum isn't as well-known as others, like Alcatraz, but it is the site of some of my strangest paranormal experiences, and it's quite well-known around these parts as a haunted hotspot.

We visited the prison just for a museum tour (one side is the classic cars, the other side is the prison museum) on a road trip a few years ago. As we wandered the self-guided tour, we came across death row. I took one step inside, and it felt as if I had been physically pushed backwards in my chest. I had the worst feeling come over me, so I noped out of there right quick. I was in a foul mood (for no reason and unusual for me) for the rest of the day.

A few years later, Jim and I were driving through Deer Lodge on our way home from South Dakota. We always plug my iPhone into Apple CarPlay and listen to music on road trips, and it has always gone off without a hitch. We've done this for thousands of miles all across the US and Canada. Except when we hit the outskirts of Deer Lodge that day. 

Suddenly, my Apple Music started skipping forward and backward, jumbling through music, and nothing I did could make it stop. Until we exited Deer Lodge. Then it went back to normal. I suspect that whatever I encountered on death row that day just reconnected to my energy as we drove through. It was anomalous, if nothing else, and that's why it earned the top spot on my haunted hotspots list.

Even if you don't have any experiences at the Old Montana State Prison, the tour is interesting, and the classic car museum is fun and one of the best I've ever seen. 

Related: Most Haunted Prisons in America: Unlocking Their Stories

I've been to so many haunted hotspots over the years that it was a challenge to narrow it all down. I left a lot of really haunted places on the cutting room floor, like San Diego's Hotel Del Coronado, Whaley House, and Berkley Ferry. Or haunted hotels like the Hotel Alex Johnson in Rapid City, South Dakota, the Wolf Creek Inn in Wolf Creek, Oregon, the Geyser Grand Hotel in Baker City, Oregon, and the Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia.

Wherever you roam in North America, hauntings await. So hit the road and visit haunted hotspots. Then, keep your eyes and ears open. You never know when you'll encounter a ghost.