A ghost tour of Salem is not complete without a visit to the Old Burying Point Cemetery. This cemetery sits on a small plot of land sporadically dotted with worn, decrepit gravestones. It is actually the second oldest cemetery in the United States and because of the dark history linked to it is also thought to be one of its most haunted.
Salem is of course most famous for its history of the Witch Trials. The Old Burying Point Cemetery is linked to that history by holding some notable characters that influenced this notorious era. The cemetery holds the remains of the man known as the Hanging Judge, Jonathan Hawthorne. He is suspected of being responsible for one of the cemetery hauntings, showing up in unsuspecting tourist photographs.
The Old Burying Point of Salem is also thought to manifest many other paranormal events. Many people have reported hearing disembodied voices, sighting unexplained light anomalies and experiencing sudden temperature drops as they trudge through the dated gravestones.
[A] slowly followed the pale outline of their guide. Their translucent boots touch the earth but did not bend a single blade of grass, and [A] couldn’t tell if the lantern in their hand was actually lit or if the glow was from their incorporeal body alone.
“Here we are.”
[A] jerked to a stop, barely stopping their next step before they tumbled through their guide’s button vest and white flame eyes. They jerked their rude stare away from the ghost’s face and to the grave in front of them instead.
“Th-thank you.”
The ghost only dipped its head and motioned to a little silver bell with a handle shaped like a winged angel. “Ring the bell once to summon the grave’s resident. Twice to send it back. Three times of you need me.”
[A]’s stomach squeezed. “Er…is there a reason I would need you?”
“To return to the entrance of course.”
“Oh. Right! Of course! Very dark out here.”
“Or if you can’t get it to go back,” the ghostly undertaker added, their words disappearing on the same gust of wind that carried their suddenly vaporous form away.
The Terrifying TRUE Stories Of Native American Burial Grounds And 7 Haunted Burial Sites That You Gotta Hear About feat. why this trope should be 6-feet-under
In 1966, the Lake Shawnee Amusement Park in West Virginia was abandoned.
First opened in the 1920s, 6 tragic deaths - including the drowning of a child - forced the closure of the park after 40 years.
But in 1988 it was discovered that those who had met their demise at this supposedly cursed theme park were not alone.
13 other bodies were discovered during an archaeological dig at the site.
Most of them were the remains of young children.
Local research and the evidence of the archaeological dig only confirmed the tragic story to what lay beneath the fairground:
A Native American tribe - the Shawnee tribe - lived there until 1775 when settlers first arrived. Mitchell Clay was one of them, and built a farm that often resulted in clashes with the locals.
In 1783, the tribe killed his children and even burnt one of them at the stake. Clay got his vengeance in a similar murderous manner.
The current owner has reported a wide range of paranormal activity he believes can be traced back to the bloody history it's built on, from cool breezes passing through the seat of swings and moving them despite there being no wind, to frequent sightings of a small girl in a pink dress splattered with blood.
Could this be just another story of a haunted or cursed Native American burial ground? And what is it about these burial sites that is quite so spooky?
*rolls sleeves up*
October is finally here.
But just as much as I’m desperate to get hella-Halloween and unleash my inner crone, I thought it best to dive deep into some of the most spook-tastic tales and tropes haunting our streaming platforms.
And one of them is the Native American Burial Ground - or, as everyone on the internet loves to call them, ‘Indian Burial Grounds’.
*eye roll*
But that’s the thing:
The name of the trope is just as ignorant as the trope itself.
So, What Is The Trope?
By disrespecting or disturbing a place where Native Americans are buried, you unleash spirits of awaken long dormant curses… Basically you piss off the dead, and shizz gets paranormal.
Wow what an innovative concept it’s not like anyone has thought of that before wow
The interest in the trope took hold in the 1970s and 1980s, and emerged on our TV screens with a cult classic: The Amityville Horror (1979).
This long-winding and totally-overdone film series will have you convinced that this house was built on the site of a bloody religion mission by Reverend Jeremiah Ketchum. It was here that he slaughtered innocent Native Americans and thus created somewhat of an unofficial Native American burial ground.
Were the spirits of the tribe slaughtered here haunting 112 Ocean Avenue?
Was this what would provoke Ronald DeFeo to murder his entire family in 1974?
*Shakes head*
The Lutzes, the family that originally experienced the paranormal activity and lived there after the DeFeo family, claimed that the house was not built on a burial site. They believed it was built on a make-shift sanitarium for Shinnecock Indians. The old, the sick, and the dying were effectively cared for here until they met their demise.
Ohhh - so it was the spirits of the Shinnecock’s that died here who were haunting the iconic house?
*Keeps shaking head*
The Shinnecock tribe probably lived on the other side of Long Island, so if the sanitarium did exist, the remains wouldn’t be underneath their floorboards. And the Montaukett Nation, the closest related to the tribe, claim that such a sanitarium didn’t actually exist.
Despite the inaccuracy of this tale, a smattering of other films have laid claim to a similar plotline.
Poltergeist (1982) and Pet Sematary (1983) pin the supernatural storyline on a haunted or cursed cemetery which is crammed full of mysterious power. And although Poltergeist is incorrectly labelled as including a Native American burial ground, it leads us to an important point:
Are Native American Burial Grounds That Spooky?
These sites are portrayed as mysterious, cursed locations protected by unknown magic.
But the thing is, this is not true.
The indigenous population do not agree on one straightforward answer to life after death - they don’t follow one straightforward way to bury the bodies of those that have died, either.
In fact, practices are not that distinctive from other communities, and thus are comparable to cemeteries that don’t have a reputation for being cursed.
Across pre-Columbus America the dead could be buried in a number of different ways: many tribes built burial mounds that sought to replicate the social order in individual communities for some tribes, others believed the spirits of the dead had to be exposed to the elements to be released, and some placed their dead in large jars before being buried.
With 600 different Native American tribes living, breathing, and burying their dead in the 17th century, pinpointing the supposedly mysterious and, ahem, ‘savage’ rituals only an 80s film could showcase is pretty impossible.
But there is one shared experience that gives a whole new meaning to the ‘haunting’ of these locations.
These sites laid undisturbed for thousands of years prior to colonisation. In the 18th and 19th century a culture of exploration was used as an excuse to desecrate sites.
Take the Grove Creek Mound in West Virginia: it was ransacked in 1838, and essentially turned into a ‘museum’ so the locals could poke, prod, and peer at the ‘exotic’ people and rituals of Native American culture. This was unfortunately typical of Western scientific exploration.
The Spiro Mounds site of Oklahoma was even dubbed the King Tut of the West, confirming that too many burial sites have been used for such a purpose. The digging up of bones and the stealing of artefacts peaked during the 19th century as a means for scientific investigation into cranial size, intelligence, diet, and DNA of Native Americans.
The scientists' take on the bodies dug up was often displayed in museums with exhibition labels even more offensive than a slutty Pocahontas halloween costume.
A century later, in the 1970s and 80s, these issues came to a head. Native American legal groups filed lawsuits that sought to close the museum displays still showcasing these racist attitudes, and demanded the return of the remains of Native Americans.
These legal cases coincided with the emergence of the trope in Hollywood, and appeared to continue the damage that colonisation did in the first place.
The treatment of the burial sites has haunted the communities far more than the families that built their dream house on top of it.
But the other flip of the coin tells a different story.
This side of the dime extends the line of thought that disturbed the burial sites in the first place:
The urban legend of the Native American burial site is based primarily on a fear of retribution or vengeance by Native Americans for the brutal history and current oppression they still face.
Ok, Fine, The Trope Is Trash. But Could The Native American Burial Grounds Still Be Haunted?
Like most haunted locations, burial grounds are packed full of dead people. And many Native American communities will probably vouch for similar beliefs as those that believe in the paranormal.
Belief in the afterlife varies from tribe to tribe, but some of these few variants include the existence of a spirit world that can be communicated with via dreams or medical experts, the absence of the spirit world due to constant reincarnation, and the journey of a spirit to an ‘afterlife camp’ in the Milky Way.
Even within Indigenous folklore these sites could be haunted, especially when disturbed.
But any burial site can be laden with a paranormal reputation.
So, to combat the ignorance empowering the trope, it’s time we talked about the burial sites that are haunted, whether Native American or not.
The 7 most haunted burial grounds in the USA
#1 - St Louis Cemetery, New Orleans
Smack bang in the middle of one of America’s spookiest cities is one of it’s spookiest cemeteries, too.
And with sightings of the unexplained going back 200 years, this place has cemented itself in the supernatural history books.
The reputation is founded on a number of factors from the graves and tombs that have been broken into, to the voodoo rituals and seances that have been performed here.
With three centuries of dead people clogging up the site, there’s more than enough spirits often seen taking a midnight stroll.
The most famous ghost here is that of Marie Lavue, the voodoo priestess who is both a local urban legend and a potentially-undead-celeb since the 19th century. Many have reported seeing her in the cemetery wandering through the graves. She is often seen donning a headscarf and ceremonial clothes. It is disputed whether she is a ghost, however, as rumour has it she was brought back to life by a voodoo spell.
You might also spot Henry Vignes, a tall sailor in a crisp white t-shirt with striking blue eyes. It is rumoured that he was betrayed when his family vault was sold for personal gain, and he was thus buried in the pauper’s section. It is believed he is still looking for his family’s vault for a proper burial.
Another famous spirit is Alphonse, an unknown and unexplained mystery to the locals. Allegedly the spirit of a young man, he will go up to visitors and ask for help returning home. He will then cry and disappear. He is also known to be afraid of the Pinead family vault and tells people to steer clear of it.
#2 - Resurrection Cemetery, Chicago
Turns out Chicago is home to a collection of haunted burial grounds, but the first one up for discussion is actually renowned for an urban legend.
Resurrection Mary follows the classic tale of a vanishing hitchhiker story. Since the 1930s, several men that have been driving between the Willowbrook Ballroom and the cemetery have reported picking up a seemingly ordinary young woman. She is often reported to be wearing a white dress, a thin shawl, dancing shoes, and holding a small clutch purse.
When the driver approaches the cemetery, she asks to be let out and then disappears into the darkness.
Apparently she left the ballroom after an argument with her partner one evening. Upon storming out into the street, she was killed by a hit-and-run driver. She was found by her parents, and buried in the same dress and shoes she died in. The driver that killed her was never found.
Despite this tale simply being a vague urban legend many can write off, there is some evidence that she might just exist.
In 1939, 1973, 1976, 1978, 1980, and 1989 similar sightings were reporting. And in the later years many reported that they nearly hit a woman in a white dress and thin shawl; by the time they left the vehicle to check if she was alright, she was gone.
It is also believed that she burned her handprints into an iron fence around the cemetery in August 1976, at the peak of her sightings. Officials had to remove the burnt fence due to the macabre tourism growing from it.
#3 - Stull Cemetery, Kansas
In the quiet town of Stull lies a portal to hell.
We most certainly aren’t in Kansas anymore.
Just like Resurrection Cemetery, the reputation of this small burial ground is based on an urban legend that has found a certain level of infamy.
The University Daily Kansan first claimed in November 1974 that Satan himself appeared in Stull twice a year: at Halloween, and at the Spring Equinox. Oh, and that church over there, yeah, the Evangelical Emmanuel Church? It’s possessed by the devil.
To complete the vibe, the cemetery is believed to house one of the seven gates to hell.
The legend has only gained momentum over the years, and trespassers seeking a peek at the portal have resulted in sheriff office patrols around the cemetery, especially on Halloween night. It’s also branched out to include the mysterious death of their mayor from the 1850s (who didn’t actually exist) and the Pope redirecting the flight path of his private jet to steer clear of Stull.
But if you don’t happen to see Satan, you might be lucky enough to hear strange noises and experience peculiar memory lapses…
Remind me how that’s lucky again?
#4 - Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery, Chicago
Told you Chicago was creepy-as-hell.
With over 100 different reports of paranormal activity in the cemetery ranging from demonic entities to iconic photographs capturing evidence of the paranormal, Bachelor’s Grove is one of the most haunted locations in the world.
Reports of hauntings peaked in the 1970s and 80s and included a vast range of supernatural sightings:
There’s the White Madonna who roams the grounds during a full moon with a child in her arms.
There’s the farmhouse that shimmers, floats, and vanishes.
There’s the farmer and his plough-horse who were allegedly killed in a ploughing accident.
There are the religious monks that wander through the cemetery.
And then there’s the black dog, one of the most infamous demonic entities, which is often seen by the entrance of the burial site.
The most famous activity was captured in a picture taken in 1991, and showed a woman solemnly sitting on a grave.
#5 - El Campo Santo Cemetery, California
We now head to San Diego for a cemetery that fits the plot of Poltergeist far too well.
Some of the graves have been covered by a street and others have been desecrated, supposedly leaving the spirits restless for the last few decades.
Despite being first opened in 1849, the growing city - and the growing number of dead citizens - failed to be contained by the cemetery. A modern road actually runs right through the cemetery, over where numerous gravestones one stood.
Throughout the surrounding area supernatural activity has been reported, from electrical problems and alarms systems malfunctioning, to cars unable to start when parked by the cemetery.
The most famous activity has to be the sighting of Jim Robinson, however. He was hung on the property of Whaley House nearby and has often been seen gliding above the graves. Cold spots, orbs, and shadowy figures are also reported.
#6 - Silver Cliff Cemetery, Colorado
Many haunted cemeteries are known for their high-profile residents, whether they stay under the ground or stretch their legs in the afterlife. This cemetery is infamous for the kind of activity witnessed here.
First built in the late 19th century, the cemetery is known for the ‘dancing blue lights’ seen around the cemetery at night. Bearing a resemblance to small, white orbs or blue lantern lights, they allegedly bounce on the headstones.
The phenomenon was even featured in an edition of the National Geographic Magazine back in 1969 when first seen by a group of miners.
Scientists and skeptics alike have forged a number of claims disregarding its potentially paranormal origins. From the phenomenon of ‘wildfire’ seen at swamps and wet locations, and the effects of ‘phosphenes’ which are flashes of light perceived by the eye, an explanation is yet to be proven.
What do you think?
#7 - Greenwood Cemetery, Orlando
Allow me to set the scene:
You’re in a cemetery in the dead of the night. A full moon rises, illuminating small, stubby headstones amongst brown, rusty leaves. Suddenly you hear a laugh.
A child’s giggle, perhaps?
The chuckle is silenced by the sound of distant music. It evolves into music box tunes. The atmosphere grows thick with paranoia until you feel a tug at your t-shirt.
Many have reported such experiences at this Florida cemetery. Most of the children that passed away at the local Sunland Hospital were buried here and allegedly still haunt it today. In fact, the cemetery is typically sectioned off into ‘Baby Land 1’ and ‘Baby Land 2’ to house the infants that didn’t reach the age of 5.
Yeah, f*ck this.
***
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Though Ohio has a plethora of notoriously haunted places, some of the most spiritually active are known only to locals. Salem Church Cemetery in Jackson County, Ohio is one of these places.
Established in the early 1800s, the old Salem Church and surrounding cemetery is the final resting place for many Civil War soldiers who died in the infamous Morgan Raid that happened nearby. It was the…
Greathouse Cemetery is located outside of Waxahachie, TX near what used to be the abandoned town of Boz. It was pure luck that we ran into this one on our ghost hunt. There was an eerie atmosphere to this place as it seems as though it had been vandalized. We considered the possibility of a tornado or natural disaster as they are common in Texas near the countryside, but only the tombstones were in shambles, not any other structure nearby that seemed to be equally as antique.
What is disturbing enough is the missing head of the lamb on a child’s grave. The head was no where to be found, as if taken as a souvenir. As we were leaving the site, we had stopped to take landscape pictures on the bench outside. The weather suddenly got bad and even though it was summer, we experienced very cold winds as if we had air conditioning blown on us.
*Names, although passed long ago, have been blurred to protect any identity of current family members.
Called Spider Gates because it has eight gates, this cemetery is said to be very dangerous. Starting at the first gate it is said that one will hear whispers and notice leaves moving around when the wind is calm. As one gets closer to the eighth gate, it is said they will feel the sensation of someone brushing against them. Others have reported seeing people walking aimlessly around graves. As one gets closer to the eighth gate, the sensations and images become so strong that most people faint. No one has ever made it to the eighth gate. It is said that some have suffered massive heart attacks and died because they were overcome with fear.
