Are there any REAL haunted places near you?

[Squall]

I love ghost stories. Not the fiction ones you read in novels or watch in movies or share at campfires -- REAL ghost stories. I've never been able to decide whether I personally believe in ghosts or not (in part because I've never seen one), but I love to read about the REAL alleged hauntings in our world, their alleged causes, and where they are.

Note: I love unsolved mysteries in general, actually -- cryptozoology, UFOs, ghosts, etc. :D As a man with a college degree in Engineering (which is Math & Science combined), that which cannot be explained always catches my interest, and always has.

Anyway, to my question... Are there any REAL haunted places near you?

I live in Austin, Texas, USA, and there are a couple of famous haunted places near where I live:

The Driskill Hotel -- this hotel is haunted on the top floor by a ghost of unknown origin.

Metz Elementary -- an elementary school east of IH-35 is haunted by the students that died there when the school once caught on fire. Construction workers on site heard the kids laughing from the walls. Mysterious events would happen to the crew who were working. Some had minor injuries.

Logan's Bar & Pub on 6th Street -- a ghost that died when the building was a coffee plantation refinery is there and now glasses swing by themselves, doors swing open and a loud cackling can be heard on the second floor in the middle of the night. (I have a couple of friends who work there or nearby, and they swear that there's something 'not right' about that place). :eek:

So, please! Share your TRUE ghost stories (famous or personal, if you wish), and if you have any pictures of 'ghosts', or websites about ghosts or unsolved mysteries in general you think are cool, then share! :)

http://www.theshadowlands.net/

[Elven Moon]

Well, I have two, actually:

A friend of a friend of mine had some pretty freaky things happen in her house. Books would fly off the shelves, all that ghostly stuff. They had to call a priest (or a psychic, not sure which), and things are OK now. But I'm always a little jumpy and nervous when I'm in that house ;) I'm even too afraid to go upstairs, which is where all that stuff happened.

This isn't too near me, but it's close enough to count, I guess. I never actually saw any ghostly behavior, but was told that it is in fact haunted, and it did feel really funny just being there. It's an old pioneer house at one of those restored "Villages" (like Williamsburg). It even has a little name scratched into one of the windows - the name of a boy who lived there in the early 1800s.

Weird Phenominal Behavior:

I used to live in Virginia, which you know is chockfull of restored 1700s and 1800s buildings. Well, my dad was taking a tour in one of them. They were in a bedroom with a clock on the table next to the bed, when suddenly the clock started to chime. The tour guide said that it hadn't gone off since the daughter of the house died over a hundred years ago - I think it was the anniversary as well :eek: Freaky, huh?

[Calhoun07]

When I was a kid, we lived in a house we swore was haunted, but other than that, I had no experiences with ghosts...that I am fully aware of anyway...

[Clayface]

Since "ghosts" aren't real, no, I don't have any REAL haunted places by me. :p

[Squall]

Well, alleged haunted places, if you will. :) I don't really believe in ghosts either, but they facinate me! So c'mon, Clayface, there has to be some local ghost stories where you live!

[Lucky Bob]

Assuming that ghosts are real, I must say that the local McDonalds is filled with apparitions of workers that appear and disappear at random.

[batboy2001]

I used to live in this one small town that had to local, legands. First, there was the haunted bell tower (don't really know about that one) but when nuns moved in everything was okay. Next there was the haunted hospital, this is a well known one, you would supposedly see ppl walking around who weren't supposed to be there, and all sorts of weird stuff (tons of ppl believed this). I don't believe in ghosts.

[Clayface]

Originally posted by Squall
Well, alleged haunted places, if you will. :) I don't really believe in ghosts either, but they facinate me! So c'mon, Clayface, there has to be some local ghost stories where you live!

Hmmm. Well, unfortunately, I just moved across country, so, since I'm new to the area, I don't know of any here. But in the area I grew up there were some.

The most famous one was Resurrection Mary - the usual story of the man who's driving late at night, sees a girl on the side of the road, picks her up, takes her out, drives her home, but she has him stop near the cemetary, and she disappears. She leaves her jacket behind, so the next day he goes to the place she supposedly lived at, and the woman that answers the door says that girl has been dead for X number of years. The locals even have pictures of the cemetary fence that she supposedly entered the cemetary through - the bars are bent back and human hand prints are melted into them.

When I was a little kid in grade school, some kid from the local high school hung himself in the grade school's playground (wanker did it on my favorite swing too!). Ever since, there have been stories that that playground is haunted. They even rebuilt it a few years back to ease the local's fears.

I grew up outside of Chicago, and, of course, there are tons of stories of hauntings in the Chicago proper.

[JustJack]

Rumor has it that an abandoned High School, downtown, is haunted. It's been fenced up, with barbed wire & everything for a couple years now. My friends & I like to go ghost hunting...we've wanted to break into the place for a long time...but it's just way to risky. :(

[Jedigreedo]

Sometimes I've had some rather strange happenings in my house... :eek: I believe in ghosts, but usually theres are logical explanations for things, and other times... well, it's interesting. :cool:

[hello_lola]

Originally posted by Clayface




The most famous one was Resurrection Mary - the usual story of the man who's driving late at night, sees a girl on the side of the road, picks her up, takes her out, drives her home, but she has him stop near the cemetary, and she disappears. She leaves her jacket behind, so the next day he goes to the place she supposedly lived at, and the woman that answers the door says that girl has been dead for X number of years. The locals even have pictures of the cemetary fence that she supposedly entered the cemetary through - the bars are bent back and human hand prints are melted into them.

Hey, Dr. B., I think this must be your long lost ex. I guess she's done this to a lot of guys.

[Ruffian]

The Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego. It's appeared in movies, like Some Like It Hot. The locals say it's haunted by a ghost girl, some lovey dovey story behind it. I'll post again if I remember, but the girl killed herself and people say the room she died in or jumped from is haunted as well as the tower. Some people also say that her ghost haunts the beach by the hotel as well.

Heh, I was at that beach one night with friends. We were out looking at the red tide. It was cool cuz the algae phosphorylates and so the water glows green when the waves crack and the sand that's wet from the water washing up on it also glows after we step on it. It was fun running around watching our footprints glow. For some reason we started discussing the story of the ghost girl of the Hotel Del and scared ourselves in the process. :p

[Do-Do]

Actually, I'm pretty sure that my house is haunted! :eek: Me and all of my family have heard footsteps and doors closing when nobody else is home, some spots in the house will suddenly get cold, my older sister has felt something pulling her hair, and sometimes you can get a brief glimpse of a short little girl wearing a winter coat running around (and it ain't my little sister!).

[Stardust]

cool, all these posts about how your houses being haunted...i'm not alone! ;) i've had two instances but my brother says he got more.

in third grade, my family just moved into our home :) my bros, sis, my brother's friend, and I were in the basement playing Nintendo because my mom went grocery shopping. we heard a thud upstairs so thinking it was mom, we all went up to help her with groceries....but the door wasn't open and she wasn't home. we thought it was a burgular but we wanted to check the house before we falsely called 911 but there wasn't anyone around. >_<

then, when i was a junior, it was nearing the end of the semester (May 9 to be exact) and I was up really late typing a paper. i was gonna pull an all nighter and talking to my friend on AOL when i heard the windchimes that we put on a door in the house (my brothers slept in that room back then). I thought one of them were awake so i peeked in, but they were totally knocked out, snoring like pigs. checked to see if the window was open, nope. no draft, air conditioning wasn't even on. >.< i HAD to finish the paper so i told my friend to stay awake with me (like being on the other side of the computer was going to do me any good) and got a baseball bat and some other makeshift weapons with me. i still have that chat saved on my comp just to remind myself that it happened.

my friend, brother, and sister were going to go on a ghost hunt but that didn't happen. HA, chickens! >=)

then in my dorm room this year, our instant messenger would become unidle when my roommate and me are at class...and i had a dream this person was chocking me and i woke up chocking (this happened before I went on a ruck march at 5 AM so i was totally burned out and delusional during the march).

as for haunted places, near the city of the school i go to, there's a haunted jail cell. Jim Thorpe is the name of that city, where the Molly Maguires were hanged. The jail has certain "haunted" places, but i didn't feel any ghostly presence, although that place was CREEPY. there's a hand print that shows up no matter what so now it just stays there...Sean Connery's movie, Molly Maguires, was filmed there.