Ten Stories of Ghostly Happenings in US National Parks – Listverse
Within the paranormal community, supernatural events and the United States National Park Services go hand in hand. However, most outdoor horror stories involve Bigfoot, missing people, or UFO sightings. Regular, old-fashioned minds don’t cut it in the spirit of the times when it comes to National Parks. Yet you’d be wrong to assume that these places of natural wonder are devoid of ghostly activity – if you believe in such things.
The following is a list of ten different paranormal reports involving standard ghosts in the Congressionally designated National Park System of the United States of America. While some stories involve ghost-related phenomena, such as poltergeist activity or missing time, these ten entries will reveal strange occurrences that can’t be mistaken for anything other than the ghost of someone lingering in the afterlife.
Related: 10 Gruesome Deaths Attributed to Ghosts
10 Diana van de Duinen
The Indiana Dunes are found on the south side of Lake Michigan and were designated a U.S. National Park in 1966. However, since the 1910s, people have cherished the dunes’ natural beauty. One of those dune climbers was a woman named Alice Mabel Gray, who was so dissatisfied with her job in Chicago that she decided to run away to the wilds of Indiana and live off the grid. Some say she enjoyed her new natural home so much that she decided to stay in the afterlife as well.
Nicknamed “Diana of the Dunes,” the ghost of Alice Gray has a reputation for skinny dipping in Lake Michigan. Her ghost is also seen in several abandoned houses, where Gray took up residence in her life. One such house was also the site of a crime scene when a body was discovered nearby in 1922. Some link this murder to Alice Gray’s unofficial husband, Paul Wilson, a man whose desire to live off the grid may or may not have involved a desire. to run from the police.[1]
9 The Grouse Lake ghost in Yosemite
After Yellowstone and Mackinac Island, Yosemite National Park was the third location to be declared a national park in 1890. It is often said to be an absolute hotbed for sasquatch sightings and UFO reports. But it’s also host to an old-fashioned ghost tour. The ghost of a crying boy can be seen and heard at Yosemite’s Grouse Lake, and the ghost is said to have been sighted since the park’s founding.
In fact, park ranger Galen Clark heard the ethereal wailing at Grouse Lake as early as 1910. He even asked local members of the Ahwahneechee tribe if they had experienced something similar and was told the tragic story of a young First Nations child who drowned in the lake . Yosemite is also host to a second haunted location: the Yosemite Valley Pioneer’s Cemetery, where the ghost of Galen Clark has occasionally been spotted.[2]
8 The haunted volcano house
This next haunted location can be found all the way west, in the Hawaiian Islands. Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park was registered in 1916, but this particular story is about a building built fifty years earlier. The Volcano House began its life in the early 19th century and was built within the boundaries of today’s National Park. However, in 1940 a fire destroyed the original building, prompting the construction of a new hotel on the site.
As is the case with many haunted houses, the new disturbance on the land appears to have sparked the ghost of an elderly woman dressed in 1800s garb, who wanders the halls and appears in various rooms. Some paranormal investigators have also reported the appearance of a dog, with the more folkloric among them hypothesizing that this dog is actually a manifestation of Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire. [3]
7 The horse spirit of Big Bend
As far as the continental United States goes, Big Bend National Park is the furthest from civilization you can find. Nestled against the Rio Grande River in the Texas foothills, Big Bend has a notorious reputation for paranormal that rivals that of Yosemite, with alien encounters and chupacabra sightings in every nook and cranny. But it’s the strange ghost of a mysterious white horse that warrants Big Bend National Park’s inclusion on this list.
According to legend, the horse in question was branded with the word “Murder” by a cowboy, possibly as a joke, and according to some interpretations of the legends, it may even have died during the branding. Every now and then, hikers in Big Bend have reported seeing a horse appear out of nowhere, marked with the word “Murder,” which is sure to be an utterly horrifying sight for those unprepared for it.[4]
6 Charlie Watt on Isle Royale
Located in the northwestern vicinity of Lake Superior, Isle Royale is a national park on an island belonging to the state of Michigan and was given the honor in the year 1940. People have called the island home for thousands of years. However, because the water between the island and the Canadian province of Ontario can often freeze in winter, the crossing is easy.
However, as far as ghost stories go, the story of Charlie Watt is much more recent. In 1845, the copper prospector and his wife Angelique tried to get rich on the island. Both relied on a steady stream of supply ships for food, but ultimately became stranded for an entire winter without such a shipment due to harsh weather conditions. Starvation eventually claimed the couple, and to this day, visitors to Isle Royale have reported seeing the hideous apparition of a prospector prowling the wilderness alone.[5]
5 Stephen Bishop at Mammoth Cave
Located just northeast of Bowling Green, Kentucky, Mammoth Cave is a popular, well-visited tourist attraction that was granted National Park status in 1941. More than 400 miles (644 kilometers) of tunnels have been mapped, making Mammoth Cave the largest cave structure discovered. all over the world, and there are countless areas yet to be discovered. But long before it became a park, the cave was a tourist attraction owned by owner Dr. John Croghan, who happened to use slave labor to organize the tour.
One of those guides was a man named Stephen Bishop. Although he suffered in a life of slavery, he steadily became the man who discovered and explored most of the structure of Mammoth Cave. The date and cause of the bishop’s death have been lost to history. However, some modern explorers claim to see the historical explorer manifest as a ghost when left alone in the dark cave. Others even claim to have seen the ghosts of an entire black family materialize in the room once used as a Methodist church.[6]
4 A ghost tour at the Dry Tortugas
While most entries on this list cover large swaths of breathtaking wilderness, some specific buildings in the United States deserve the National Park designation because of their historical significance. Such is the case with the series of forts in Key West, as well as the adjacent coral reef. Fort Jefferson in particular was built by the US government as a bastion of strength against the Caribbean threat of piracy and began its lifespan in 1825.
Creepy privateers are far from the fort’s only ghostly clientele, however. While some claim to hear and see the wailing ghosts of pirate prisoners who suffered from yellow fever, others claim to see the ghost of Samuel Mudd, who died at Fort Jefferson. Mudd was not a pirate, but instead a conspirator who worked with the murderer John Wilkes Booth before his execution in Florida.[7]
3 Edgar Watson on the Everglades
However, the Dry Tortugas are far from Florida’s most famous National Park, and the ghostly legends therein pale in comparison to the swampy specters associated with Everglades National Park. A plantation owner and serial killer by the name of Edgar Watson was gunned down in the vast swamplands by Chokoloskee residents in 1910. Watson was known to kill his own servants, most of whom were black, and indiscriminately kill anyone who entered his business. property.
Rabbit Key, the island in the Everglades where Watson was murdered, serves as the killer’s eternal home, according to some eyewitness accounts. A nearby museum is also plagued by strange examples of poltergeist activity, such as motion detectors going off randomly, and strange shapes moving through the preserved store after hours. The Everglades were granted National Park status in 1947, but were also included on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979.[8]
2 The Wailing Woman of the Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is the second most visited national park in the United States, barely beaten by the Great Smoky Mountains. Although President Theodore Roosevelt, who initiated the National Park project, committed to preserving the canyon in Arizona in 1909, it wouldn’t be until nine years later that it officially became a national park. The Grand Canyon is home to countless legends of various shades, but the ghost of a mysterious wailing woman is perhaps one of the most famous.
Apparently on the edge of the cliff where the Transept Trail stands today, a father and son were killed in a sudden rainstorm in the 1800s. The woman who remained behind took her own life out of grief. This woman was said to be wearing a white dress, a blue scarf, and an assortment of flowers around her neck, which coincidentally matches the description of a translucent entity often seen on the Transept Trail. True to her name, the wailing woman is also often heard shouting in a disembodied voice at those who dare to walk the path alone.[9]
1 The Battle of Gettysburg
The alleged, illusory reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg is not only the most prolific ghost tour in the National Park, but possibly the most prolific ghost tour in the entire United States of America. The famous Civil War skirmish took place in the summer of 1863 and ended in the deaths of more than 7,000 soldiers on both sides. The Union eventually claimed victory, both at Gettysburg and during the Civil War, and the battlefield was designated a National Historic Site in 1895 and later considered a national park.
As for the hauntings, the battle scene is littered with ghostly activity. Tourists report hearing the sounds of guns and horses. Translucent soldiers appear in the background of photos. Electrical equipment goes out near a rock structure known as the Devil’s Den. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Local guides and National Park staff claim that the most haunted spot on the battlefield is a large, unnamed maple tree where six Union soldiers all sat facing each other and died within minutes of each other.[10]