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Beyond the façade of stately Louisiana platations are stories of hope and subjugation, tragedy and suffering, shame and perseverance and war and conquest.

After sixteen workers chopped down most of the Houmas House's ancient oak trees, referred to as the Gentlemen, eight of the surviving trees eerily twisted overnight in grief over the losses wrought by a great Mississippi River flood. An illegal duel to reclaim lost honor left the grounds of Natchez's Cherokee Plantation bloodstained, but the victim's spirit may still wander there today. A mutilated slave girl named Chloe still haunts the halls of the Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville. Cheryl H. White and W. Ryan Smith reveal the dark history, folklore and lasting human cost of Louisiana plantation life.

Discover some of Southwest Pennsylvania's most harrowing ghost tales.

The ghostly woman of Summit Cut Bridge, a black hound that guards the Gates of Hell and the whispering dead entombed beneath the Black Crossthese are the spirits of southwestern Pennsylvania. Join local author Thomas White as he recounts such chilling stories as that of Revolutionary War witch Moll Derry and the phantom bride of White Rocks and the hair-raising tale of the angry specter of a steel millworker burned alive in a ladle of molten iron. Ascend the secret stairs of the Cathedral of Learning in Pittsburgh and wander the dim stretch of Shades of Death Road in Washington County to encounter the otherworldly denizens of the Keystone State.

Step back in time to experience mountain Maryland in all its strange and vibrant glory.

From its fascinating caves, dangerous mines, and mysterious mountains to the hex magic practitioners and spooky tales that haunt its towns, folklore infuses every hill and hollow of Western Maryland. Prepare to meet the colorful characters who kept life exciting in Maryland’s westernmost counties, like the locals who never met a poisonous snake they didn’t love and a well-read twentieth-century cave dweller. Travel historic highways and byways straight into frontier Maryland’s darkest history, where an axe murderer cleaved the peaceful mountain night in 1830 and a little-known monster lurks in a place ominously called Spook Hollow.

Join local historian Susan Fair on a tour through obscure and spooky places in the beautiful mountain regions of the Old Line State. 

Meet the unusual creatures of the Pacific Northweird.

The Pacific Northwest is a land of secrets, legends, and some might even say monsters. Stories of cryptids—hidden animals—are whispered throughout the region’s history, told in everything from bashful confidences to bold headlines.

Unusual creatures like the Cadborosaurus have been sighted in the Salish Sea, and the Pend Oreille Paddler is rumored to live inland, lurking deep in still waters. It’s said that one can sometimes catch a glimpse of a hulking bat-humanoid winging its way across gray skies, and the rugged Pacific coast could be hiding more scaled, tailed, finned, and furred sea cryptids in remote harbors. The foggy forests, thick with evergreens, are said to hide everything from an arboreal octopus to the king of cryptids, Sasquatch.

Through historic and contemporary newspaper articles, expert interviews by cryptozoologists and cryptid enthusiasts, and retellings of local legends, author and professional weirdo Devon Kelley uncovers the hidden creatures of Cascadia.   

Ghoulish Legends from The City of Lakes

Haunted government buildings, theaters, museums, restaurants, parks, and, of course, cemeteries—Minneapolis has it all. Local folklore comes to life at the Turnblad Mansion, where the piano plays on its own, and at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, where the subjects of portraits move about. Spirits of victims in the disastrous 1878 mill explosion haunt Mill Ruins Park. The Foshay Tower’s elevator seemingly goes haywire for no reason, and inmates and guards in the Hennepin County Jail report sightings of an underdressed spectral figure.

Local author Ron de Beaulieu investigates the roots of the Mill City’s ghost stories, ranging from the tragic to the horrific as well as heartwarming and perplexing. 

Some Illinois travelers are so taken by their destination, they hunker down for eternity.

There’s something about old hotels and locales that tourists flock to. The places are experiences unto themselves, but they also thrum, sometimes quite literally, with the lingering presence of those who previously paid them a visit. At the Mineral Springs Hotel in Alton, traces of floral perfume from a woman who took her life more than a century ago greet visitors in room 220. Spirits abound at the DeSoto House Hotel in Galena, one bearing an unsettling likeness to Abraham Lincoln. At the Congress Plaza Hotel in Chicago, children from the past still laugh after dark. From the polite spirit at the Inn at 835 Boutique Hotel in Springfield, who encourages guests to “turn the page,” to the specter of the jilted chambermaid at St. Charles’s Hotel Baker, author Maria Salvo Benson guides intrepid readers through hotels and getaways where previous guests never truly checked out.

Author Maria Salvo-Benson guides the intrepid through the most haunted hotels and getaways throughout the Prairie State.

Explore the spooky side of Havre de Grace, one of Maryland's most historic towns.

Since its founding in 1785, the historic town of Havre de Grace has weathered its share of tragedy. Over the centuries, loss, hardship, and untold sorrow have left this eighteenth‑century gem alive with restless spirits and unexplained supernatural phenomena. Among the town’s most haunting legends is that of a mysterious woman of the night said to drift silently across the third floor of the American Legion building. Unable to let go after a violent death, a young lady’s spirit roams the State Theater. On foggy nights, strange figures are seen drifting along the waterfront. Lights flicker in buildings untouched by time. And the river—always moving, always murmuring—seems to carry voices from the past.

Step into the shadows with Lisa Unruh-Lopez to explore the chilling stories of Havre de Grace.