Jace Lamonica
There’s a kind of stillness in Appalachia that presses in once the sun drops behind the hills. The fog curls low over fields that have seen too much, and stories drift around like smoke. Some are family legends. Others are warnings. But these 20 places have a past that you shouldn’t try to uncover on your own.
Noland Creek Trail, North Carolina
The forest around Noland Creek holds the kind of quiet that doesn’t feel restful. Submerged homesteads lie beneath Fontana Lake, leaving ghosts with nowhere to go. One in particular—a father still searching for his daughter—glows as an orb along the trail. People who’ve seen it say the air gets colder just before he appears.
Devil’s Courthouse, Whiteside Mountain, North Carolina
It’s not just the name that unsettles hikers. Something about the sheer drop and looming rockface never sits quite right. Cherokee stories spoke of Jutaculla, a slant-eyed giant who lived here, while later settlers said it was the Devil’s perch. Strange sounds and flashes of movement keep people looking over their shoulders.
Roaring Fork Motor Trail, Tennessee
Lucy’s story is not dramatic. It is just unbearably sad. Her life ended in a fire over a century ago, and now she walks the woods barefoot, still looking for help. People have offered her rides, only to turn and find the seat empty. It’s not a scream-in-your-face kind of haunting but the kind that lingers.
Old Trinity Episcopal Church, West Virginia
Old Trinity is hidden among trees, more forgotten than feared. But after the church was desecrated in the ‘70s, the air shifted. Locals stopped going near it at night. Visitors claim the statue of Mary weeps blood, and some swear they’ve seen “things” watching them from the woods.
Flatwoods, West Virginia
In 1952, something tore across the sky and crashed into a hillside. What came next was pure Appalachian folklore: a towering figure, wide eyes glowing, and panic that gripped a whole town. People called it the Flatwoods Monster, and while most moved on, a few still won’t walk that stretch of woods alone.
Walking Horse Hotel, Tennessee
The rooms here feel heavy as if they remember too much. Built for visiting horse breeders, it later became a spot where strange things started happening. Doors close when no one’s near them. Horses are heard in the hallways. Guests even report seeing a woman in old-fashioned clothes pacing, restless, like she’s still waiting for someone.
Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, West Virginia
The asylum was built with optimism but ended in misery: overcrowding, outdated treatments, and years of suffering left scars on every inch of this place. Tour guides talk about cold spots and figures that dart across doorways, but it’s the heavy, silent moments—the ones that make you pause mid-step—that really stay with you.
Lake Shawnee Amusement Park, West Virginia
A Ferris wheel rusting under the trees, swings creaking in an empty breeze—the park looks like a horror movie set, except it’s real. Two children died here in the 1920s. Before that, the land saw blood-soaked conflict between settlers and Native tribes. Locals talk about ghost children playing tag among the ruins.
Crescent Hotel, Arkansas
This hotel started as a grand mountain resort. Then, it became a fake cancer hospital where people suffered and died under a con man’s knife. Now it’s a hotel again, but the spirits didn’t check out. Guests wake to shadowy figures at the foot of their bed, not the friendly kind.
Moonville Tunnel, Ohio
Moonville was always remote, and the rail line that sliced through the forest brought as many tragedies as it did trains. The tunnel is still there, swallowed by trees. That swinging lantern people see? It’s said to belong to a brakeman who passed away on the tracks. Nobody goes near it after dark.
