United States of America Gazetteer

Tucked in the northern corner of Lancaster County, the tiny village of Adamstown boasts at least four ghosts. One of these is a small black dog, who appears seemingly at random and follows pedestrians before vanishing as mysteriously as it came. Read More »

In 1951 Mr Harvey Slatin (an engineer) and his wife Yeffe Kimball (an artist) began renovations on their home in Bank Street, Greenwich Village. The property had been a large nineteen room boarding house which had been run by Mrs Maccario before the Slatin’s purchased it. Without lodgers, Mr and Mrs Slatin decided to make into a single family home again. Read More »

"Mr. Fred Babcock came to the station 12:30 pm. While hunting in the woods one and a half mile south of the station this noon he found a skeleton of a man hanging to a tree. We went to the place with him and found that the clothing and everything tally with the former keeper of this station who has been missing for seventeen months." Read More »

The tiny village of Warfieldsburg in Carroll County is haunted by a black dog. Recounted by Maryland folklorists Annie W. Whitney and Caroline C. Bullock is the story of two men who were riding along near the Ore Mine Bridge at dusk around 1887. They saw a large black dog which passed through a fence, crossed the road, and passed through another fence. Read More »

Legends of black dogs and phantom hounds are widespread throughout the Chesapeake Bay region, which was one of the earliest areas settled by the English. Read More »

It is probably no coincidence that many of the oldest counties in Pennsylvania share the names of counties and regions of England (Berks, Bucks, Chester, Lancaster, Westmoreland, York) and that like Maryland and Delaware, dealt with in a previous article, Pennsylvania also has a number of tales of phantasmal dog-creatures. Read More »

It could be just another variant of an urban legend or a wholly separate story, but the city Frederick (Frederick County) has its own Blue Dog of Rose Hill. The grounds of Rose Hill Manor off Route 355 in the northern part of the city are also haunted by a phantom blue dog. This blue dog was the pet of a previous owner of the manor. Read More »

Perhaps the oldest ghost story of Maryland is that of the Blue Dog of Rose Hill. Near the town of Port Tobacco (Charles County) is a rock covered in reddish discolorations. Called the "Peddler's Rock", it supposedly marks the spot where a trader was killed at some point in the latter part of the 1700s. In true ghost story fashion, there are many variants of the tale. Read More »

Charles J. Adams III cites the story of ghostly activity at the Stroud Mall in Stroudsburg, Monroe County, part of which was the appearance of what appeared to be a lion-headed dog. The sound of a whimpering dog was sometimes heard even when the phantom was not seen. The mall was formerly an old mill.

On 20 April 2010, Regine Labossiere reported on the reputed haunting of the public library in Deep River, Connecticut. Read More »

On 13 June 1993 in the skies above John Wayne Airport in Orange County a small red distinctive racing aircraft identified as belonging to astronaut Donald Slayton triggered automatic noise monitoring systems which led him being sent a noise violation warning letter. Read More »

In Danish folk belief every Elder Tree is inhabited and protected by a female spirit known as the Hyldemoer, and is revered as a sacred tree. This tradition may have some parallels in Britain, as I heard a similar folk belief when I was growing up in England. I was told that the tree was guarded by a female spirit and it was unlucky to bring the wood into the house. Read More »

The Fairbanks House at 511 East Street, dates from the mid 17th century and is thought to be North America's oldest surviving timber frame house. It was built around 1637 for Jonathan Fairbanks (Fiarbanke, Fairbanck, Fairebanke or Fayerbanke) (born 1594 – died 5 December 1668), his wife Grace (nee Lee) and their six children. Read More »

The Fence Rail Dog is an enormous hound, nearly ten feet in length, which haunts a stretch of Route 12 near Frederica in Delaware. Mentioned by Charles J. Adams III, a Pennsylvania-based author on paranormal topics, the dog appears in the wake of automobile accidents on the road. Read More »

Over the last 250 years there have been several sightings of a creature that has become known as the Jersey Devil (or Leeds Devil). Described as being bipedal with hooves and wings, the Jersey Devil would apparently dry up the milk within cows by breathing upon them. Read More »

Lake Memphremagog (meaning "where there is a big expanse of water" in native Algonkian) is a thin twenty seven mile long freshwater glacial lake which some believe is the home to a huge serpent like creature known as Memphré. Lake Memphremagog spans across the border between Canada and the United States of America. Read More »

A number of phantom black hounds have been reported in the large hilltop cemetery at the end of Akeley Lane near Lock Haven University in Lock Haven, Clinton County. I'm not sure whether these dogs could have any relevance to a black, smoky form seen moving through the halls of Sloan Hall, the university art building adjacent to the cemetery. Read More »

On 18 April 1968 London Bridge was sold to Robert McCulloch, an American businessman for US$2,460,000. The bridge was dismantled and transported via Long Beach to Lake Havasu City in Arizona where it was re-assembled and has become one of the states top tourist attractions. However, it has been reported that ghostly apparitions, possibly of Londoners have been seen crossing the bridge. Read More »

Built by Charles Eisenbeis, the first mayor of Port Townsend, the impressive 19th century Manresa Castle certainly has a reputation of being haunted and has appeared on several paranormal related television shows, but the authenticity of some of these ghosts has been thrown into question in the following article by Jonathan Martin entitled, Read More »

On 6 July 2009, The Sun reported on a strange image caught on video at Neverland (formerly Sycamore Valley Ranch), the private home of Michael Jackson who died of cardiac arrest on Thursday 25 June 2009, aged 50 years.  The 2676 acre Neverland was bought by Michael Jackson from William Bone in 1988 and became his own private amusement park, named after the isla Read More »

The Mount Misery area and the nearby Sweet Hollow Road has developed a reputation for being the source of strange experiences and hauntings. Given the number and variety of these reports I suspect many could be categorized as modern myths or urban legends, but as always I would love to hear from anybody who has had genuine experiences here. Read More »

The Passamaquoddy people were primarily settled in modern day Maine (USA) and New Brunswick (Canada). The following Passamaquoddy legend was taken from Charles Leland's 'The Algonquin Legends of New England; or, Myths and Folk Lore of the Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot Tribe' (1884) Read More »

The Palatine Light is a legendary ghost ship that was said to appear off Block Island (Rhode Island) in New England. When witnessed the ship was seen to burst into flames and sink into the ocean, and was the harbinger of bad weather. Read More »

In his book the astronaut Donald Kent “Deke” Slayton (March 1, 1924 – June 13, 1993) reported the following UFO experience whilst test flying a F-51 Mustang. Read More »

The Brandywine Creek State Park in northern Delaware near Wilmington is home to appearances of a large dog or fox which is often seen to rise up into the apparition of Gil Thoreau, an outdoorsman. Not much information is known on this creature.

The myth of Robert Johnson is an enduring American blues legacy rooted in the hoodoo culture of the Deep South. The basic myth is that Robert sold his sold to the Devil in exchange for his supernatural guitar prowess. (Part of this legend about the Crossroads is examined here). Read More »

Salem Village (now Danvers) was settled by European farmers from nearby Salem Town in the 1630's becoming a separate parish in 1672. The Parsonage dated from 1681, and from 1689 when the covenant church was established it was the home of English born Rev Samuel Parris (born 1653 – died 27 February 1720), his family and household slaves. Read More »

"Snarly Yow" is the name given to a phantom hound which haunted a section of the National Pike near Turner's Gap (Frederick County). The hound was first mentioned by Madeleine V. Dahlgren in 1882. Her book South Mountain Magic details no less than a dozen sightings of the beast. One account is from a Daniel Mesick, whose father kicked at a huge dog near Dame's Quarter. Read More »

A phantom wolf supposedly haunts this ridge south of New Hope. Information on the wolf is scarce (read non-existent) but I find it interesting that a number of sightings were reported in the last few years of the so-called Yardley Yeti, which despite the name was a dog-like creature, from the region around New Hope.

The following article entitled 'Did something crash in Sylvan Lake on Monday? Authorities in Forest Lake say they don't know' appeared on the Forest Lake Times website on Tuesday 28 Jult 2009.  It was written by staff writer Jennifer Larson. Read More »

In the days before the Edmund Fitzgerald, the Bannockburn was one of the most famous ships to mysteriously vanish on the Great Lakes. She's one of the more commonly sighted ghost ships of the lakes, often seen struggling through the November storms, a victim of the Witch of November. Read More »

The following poem was wrote by John Greenleaf Whittier (1807 - 1892)

Far away in the twilight time
Of every people, in every clime,
Dragons and griffins and monsters dire,
Born of water, and air, and fire,
Or nursed, like the Python, in the mud
And ooze of the old Deucalion flood,
Crawl and wriggle and foam with rage, Read More »