Nancy Hendricks - Haunted Histories in America

Haunted Histories in America

Copyright 2020 by ABC-CLIO, LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hendricks, Nancy, author.

Title: Haunted histories in America : true stories behind the nations most feared places / Nancy Hendricks.

Description: Santa Barbara : ABC-CLIO, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020005478 (print) | LCCN 2020005479 (ebook) | ISBN 9781440868702 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781440868719 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Haunted placesUnited States. | GhostsUnited States.

Classification: LCC BF1472.U6 H457 2020 (print) | LCC BF1472.U6 (ebook) | DDC 133.10973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020005478

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020005479

ISBN: 978-1-4408-6870-2 (print)

978-1-4408-6871-9 (ebook)

242322212012345

This book is also available as an eBook.

Greenwood

An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC

ABC-CLIO, LLC

147 Castilian Drive

Santa Barbara, California 93117

www.abc-clio.com

This book is printed on acid-free paper

Manufactured in the United States of America

Contents

Abandoned MinesArizona

AirshipsNew Jersey

Amusement ParksWest Virginia

BattlefieldsVirginia

BreweriesMissouri

BridgesIndiana

BrothelsAlaska

CanalsMaryland

CastlesNew Hampshire

CavesIdaho

CemeteriesGeorgia

CollegesVermont

Deadly JobsAlabama

DeadwoodSouth Dakota

DistilleriesKentucky

Environmental

DisastersPennsylvania

FactoriesConnecticut

Forests and WoodsIllinois

Forts/Presidio SystemTexas

HangingsMinnesota

Health SpasArkansas

HospitalsNorth Dakota

HotelsColorado

ImmigrationNew York

InnsDelaware

IslandsMichigan

JailsIowa

Las VegasNevada

Leper ColoniesHawaii

LibrariesKansas

LighthousesFlorida

Little BighornMontana

Mental HospitalsWashington

MurdersRhode Island

MuseumsNebraska

PiracyNorth Carolina

PlantationsTennessee

Potters FieldsOhio

PrisonsNew Mexico

Rail StationsUtah

Relocation CentersWyoming

Roads and HighwaysMaine

ShanghaiingOregon

Summer HomesWisconsin

TavernsMississippi

TheatersDistrict of Columbia

Tuberculosis SanitariumsSouth

Carolina

VoodooLouisiana

Wagon TrainsCalifornia

Witch HuntsMassachusetts

Women SoldiersOklahoma

Bonaventure CemeteryGeorgia

Buffalo Trace DistilleryKentucky

CentraliaPennsylvania

Chesapeake and Ohio

CanalMaryland

Cincinnati Music HallOhio

Cold Harbor BattlefieldVirginia

Crescent HotelArkansas

DeadwoodSouth Dakota

Deer Park InnDelaware

Donner PartyCalifornia

Edna Collings BridgeIndiana

Ellis IslandNew York

Fords TheatreDistrict Columbia

Fort GibsonOklahoma

Greenville Tuberculosis

HospitalSouth Carolina

Heart Mountain Relocation

CenterWyoming

Hutchinson LibraryKansas

Kimball CastleNew Hampshire

Kings TavernMississippi

Lake Shawnee Amusement

ParkWest Virginia

LakehurstNew Jersey

Las VegasNevada

Lemp BreweryMissouri

Little BighornMontana

Mackinac IslandMichigan

Marie Laveau GravesiteLouisiana

Minneapolis City HallMinnesota

MolokaiHawaii

Museum of ShadowsNebraska

Northern State Mental

HospitalWashington

Ocracoke IslandNorth Carolina

Presidio La Bahia GoliadTexas

Red Onion SaloonAlaska

Remington ArmsConnecticut

Rio Grande DepotUtah

Robinson WoodsIllinois

SalemMassachusetts

Santa Fe PrisonNew Mexico

Shanghai TunnelsOregon

Shoshone Ice CavesIdaho

Sloss FurnacesAlabama

Sprague MansionRhode Island

Squirrel Cage JailIowa

St. Augustine LighthouseFlorida

St. Josephs HospitalNorth Dakota

Stanley Park HotelColorado

SummerwindWisconsin

University of VermontVermont

U.S. Route 2AMaine

Vulture MineArizona

Wheatlands PlantationTennessee

The author wishes to thank editor Jane Glenn from ABC-CLIO; Dr. Guy Lancaster, editor of the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture; and Dr. Peg Lamphier of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, as well as CEK who prefers anonymity but is an important part of this work.

Who believes in ghosts? Many people do, claiming they have seen them, heard them, or experienced a feeling of being touched or watched by them.

Sometimes hauntings take place in an obvious spot like a cemetery at midnight. At other times, it might be a room at a historic inn or hotel where a previous guest may have met a sudden, violent death. Theaters are especially prone to alleged hauntings, with a high degree of emotion, superstition, drama, and ego that often takes place in the darkened surroundings of a playhouse. After all, the bare onstage light bulb that is always left burning when the theater is empty is universally called a ghost light.

Sometimes hauntings are said to occur after lives are lost in accidents or other tragedies, or when someone sets out one day as usual only to vanish, never to be seen again.

Occasionally, an entire town is said to be haunted, especially if it is one that bears a history like Deadwood, South Dakota, or Salem, Massachusetts. Sometimes haunted sites are ghost towns from the past, or perhaps a modern-day ghost town like the abandoned community of Centralia, Pennsylvania, which is consumed by unending plumes of smoke pouring out of the ground, which some people say resembles the portals of Hell.

The living hell of bloody battlefields like the Little Bighorn or Cold Harbor often leads to stories of being haunted by the spirits of young soldiers who perished amid the terror they must have felt when taking their last agonized breath. A famous photo at the Library of Congress illustrates the tragedy of Civil War battles like Cold Harbor, showing not only skulls from unburied young men who fought and died there but also a foot with an intact shoe and pants-leg still attached. If the ghosts of these soldiers truly haunt the place where they died, it is hard not to feel their humanity.

SACRED GROUND

Hauntings are often said to happen in places where there was a tragedy or violence. This is nothing new. Throughout human history, there have not been many times when the world was free of strife, war, fear, famine, disease, natural disasters, or man-made catastrophes.

While the United States has been blessed with remarkable bounty since its inception, there have also been times when life in America was a struggle for many. When tormented lives ended in death, it was usually not the kind of happy ending that allowed them to rest in peace.

The ghosts of enslaved people and those who were convicted of witchcraft are said to wander restlessly, seeking vengeance. Spirits of the dead are also believed to walk when housing developments are built atop sacred Native American burial grounds, or when strip malls are built on Civil War battlefields.

PAINLESS HISTORY

Perhaps if ghosts do exist all around us, they are there to remind the living that those events are part of our collective history. That is the perspective of this book. It is not intended to recount campfire tales of eternally lost Boy Scouts or urban myths that end with... the calls were coming from