There are many “haunted” places that are open to the public across the country. From the Lizzie Borden House in Fall River, Massachusetts (where you can spend the night at the bed and breakfast) to the Algonquin Hotel in New York City, there are any number of places an amateur ghost hunter can visit to get their ghost search on.
But most of us realize we won’t really see a ghost. We might be spooked. Or freaked. Or even marginally unsure as to what we saw or experienced. But few of us would say we’d really seen a ghost.
We at Destination America and The Hauntist wanted to hear from the people who did, though. Hundreds of you sent us your encounters with the paranormal. Here are nine times that people went on a “haunted” tour and got the real deal.
1. White Mist at The Bethel Assembly of God Church
Photo: Chris Duncan
“This picture is from a 2010 trip to a local cemetery, The Bethel Assembly of God Church in Atoka, TN. This is also one of our very first adventures in paranormal investigating as we now go as often as we can. As we walked through the chilly, empty graveyard with only our basic recording devices at hand we made several attempts at communicating with any spirits not knowing what, if anything, we would find.
As we moved through the blackness surrounding us I began taking pictures directly in front of us. It was a way to light up the dirt path, and see where we were going. Using a very basic Canon camera, I snapped picture after picture when all of the sudden the pictures became blurry, and out of focus. I stopped and commented on how the pictures where no longer clear, confused I took another picture. I was not prepared for the white mist that appeared when I looked at the screen. I quickly took another picture but the next picture was fine, not blurry, completely in focus, and no mist. The anomaly had vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
I was stunned to have actually captured something. We tried to recreate the picture over and over using breath, and dust from the path in the midnight air to no avail. We were unable to ever recreate this picture during our several attempts that night and over one of our many times re-visiting this location…”
— Chris Duncan
2. Little Girl Comes Out to Play at the Myrtles Plantation
Photo: Tammy Berry
“We were at Myrtle’s Plantation in 2011 on October 30. I was randomly taking pictures of the house while my little girl was playing behind me. When we got home and I uploaded my pics, I got the surprise of my life. The little girl came out to play! See for yourself!”
— Tammy Berry
3. Headless Figure at Alcatraz
Photo: Jenny Melton
“The first time I visited Alcatraz was for a night tour. I had wandered off from the group by myself to go take some shots and when I got the pictures developed this lovely “guy?” showed up. I know I was alone in the entire cell block except for one other boy from the tour who was wearing a baseball cap and a red sweatshirt. I am also fairly certain that there was no person on the tour that was abnormally tall, missing a head, and wearing a trench coat.”
— Jenny Melton
4. Shadow Mystery at The Porter House
Photo: Priscilla D’Agostino
“We were on a ghost crawl in the Florida Keys having a lot of fun. The guide said to take lots and lots of pictures because you never know what you might get so we were. We were at The Porter House an historical landmark that is famous for being haunted by a doctor Porter. I took this picture of my husband. As you can see, the shadow behind him is not his. It is someone in a lab coat.”
— Priscilla D’Agostino
5. What’s That Hanging Around in the Morgue at the Crescent Hotel?
Photo: Gail Kerwin
“My daughter and I took a road trip the summer of 2014. We were looking for haunted locations and ended up in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. We took a ghost tour at the Crescent Hotel. I was the only one to capture the images I did. They were taken in the morgue. The tour guide has never seen anything like whatever is in my photos and she’s done the tour over 20 years. The image in the picture is “hanging” over the morgue door. You only saw it though the camera. It wasn’t behind it. I have a few more photos of it also.”
— Gail Kerwin
6. Are Those Orbs at The Eastern State Penitentiary?
Photo: Karen Tulina
“During a visit to Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia with my sister in-law and niece I was just taking pictures all through the prison and while one of the guides were telling us how the TV investigators were all a bunch a bull is when I got this photo however I didn’t see it until I got home.”
— Karen Tulina
7. Uninvited Guest at The Haunted Hospital
Photo: Jason McCombs
Jason says: “This picture was taken during Haunt season at The Haunted Hospital in Scottsville KY formerly known as The Old War Memorial Hospital which was featured on the 1st season of Ghost Asylum episode 1, during the haunt we kept having odd things happen in our hallway and when we took a picture during the night we had an extra member in our group, a huge orb.”
8. Lady Grey at the Chillingham Castle
Photo: Kirsty Edwards
“Taken at Chillingham Castle in Northumberland England back in 2009, it was just a quick snap of our ghost tour guide, William. Nothing too special. Or so I thought. Upon further review I noticed that there was a figure behind William at the gate; a figure that was NOT there when the picture was taken. There was absolutely no one else in that area of the castle. It was just myself, William and perhaps the famed Lady Grey overseeing her visitors?”
— Kirsty Edwards
9. Something Watching from the Windows of the Myrtles Plantation
Photo: Miranda Torres-Coffin
“This picture was taken on a family road trip to Myrtles Plantation, St. Francisville in 2011. We went on the tour where I felt a cold spot. I also felt like we were being watched which led to my photos of the windows.”
— Miranda Torres-Coffin
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Feature photo: Wikimedia Commons
