By Melanie Jones: Subscribe to Melanie's RSS feed
October 26, 2011 5:59 AM EDT
Come on, America! Who wants to go to a fake haunted house for Halloween when you can experience real haunted houses (and some terrifying haunted roads) with years of ghostly visitations and paranormal happenings to their name?
This Oct. 31, let us take you through some of the scariest and spookiest haunted places that America has to offer. Our top 13 picks for Halloween 2011 cover everything from an abandoned sanitorium to a haunted highway named for the Number of the Beast. These spooky settings, complete with ghost sightings and mysterious deaths, are all (allegedly) real, with countless visitors recording their terrifying impressions of these haunted highways and horror houses.
Prepare yourself for our top 13 real haunted houses and roads across America. Remember, there's still time to turn back!
13. The Crescent Hotel (Eureka Springs, Ark.)
The Crescent, built in 1928, is home to many of the haunted. Michael, an Irish stone worker who fell off the roof, is said to roam the halls around Room 218, which was built where his body landed. Another ghost, Dr. Baker, ran the facility in the 1930s when it was a hospital and a health spa. He and a nurse in white have been spotted all over the hotel, wandering from room to room. In one reported case, a man said the nurse visited him when he was staying in Room 202, another infamous part of this haunted house. She played with the lights, touched the guest on his arm, and shook an antique mirror above his bed.
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12. Boone County Roads (Belvidere, Ind.)
Never accuse Indiana of being an underachiever for Oct. 31. Boone County is home to hauntings on 10 roads, including Sweeney Road (points for the name) and Wheeler Road, the site of several true and alleged hangings, suicides, train accidents and covens. The most famous haunted roadway is Bloods Point, where a phantom car tries to run drivers off the road and ghosts from a fatal school bus crash still haunt the bridge where the children died.
11. Boy Scout Lane (Stevens Point, Wis.)
According to legend, a troop of Boy Scouts in the late 1950s or early 1960s were on an overnight expedition when their scoutmaster (or bus driver, depending on the story) murdered them in their sleep. The small stretch of road near the campsite has since been called Boy Scout Lane, and the haunted road has seen many a ghostly child covered in blood. In an alternate version of the story, one of the boys dropped a lantern and started a forest fire, and some have reported smelling smoke, hearing screams, and even seeing the boys' charred bodies.
10. Fort Mifflin (Philadelphia)
Fort Mifflin is the only Revolutionary War battlefield that is still intact, and the only fort that doubles as a haunted house. Among the ghosts said to haunt the fort are a screaming woman whose cries are so loud that the Philadelphia police have often been called to investigate. Other ghostly visitors include a faceless man wandering around the fort, a tour guide dressed in revolutionary garb and numerous children and dogs who lead tourists on a wild goose chase before vanishing without a trace.
9. Haynesville Woods, Route 2A (Haynesville, Maine)
In northern Maine, off Route 2, you'll find the Haynesville Woods, a strip so infamous for treacherous roads during winter that the Dick Curless song "A Tombstone Every Mile" is all about the many fatal accidents that have happened there. Not surprisingly, all this tragedy has led to quite a few paranormal spottings. Many people report seeing a young woman suddenly appear in front of their car or on the side of the road, begging assistance for a car accident involving her and her husband. Those who offer her a ride, however, are overcome by a sudden chill, and the woman vanishes from the car soon after. Others report seeing a small child, a girl killed by tractor-trailer while walking down Route 2A.
8. The White House (Washington)
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