6 Scariest Places in America

With Halloween coming up quickly, everyone starts scrambling to find something spooky to do for the holiday.  With all of the emphasis on this site about funny and amazing things, we have to include a post about the 6 scariest places in America.  For the truly daring, you can head here for a few Halloween scares.  Each of these places is not your standard haunted house, but rather places were supernatural activity has been proven, at least to a point.  These items are presented in no particular order, and permission must be gained to visit each location.

1.  The Winchester Mansion

The fabled Winchester Mansion is considered to be one of the most haunted places in the United States.  Under construction for 38 years, the owner, Sarah Winchester (of Winchester gun fame) continuously built on the house because she thought it was haunted by the many people who were killed by the rifles.  It has doors leading out of the upper levels, stairs that end in ceilings, hallways that shrink as you go down them, and a slew of other creepy features.  There are tours offered to this scary local and it is considered to be one of the best Halloween attractions in the United States.

2.  Salem Massachusetts

Very few will need to be introduced to this city since it is one of the homes of the famous Salem Witch Trials.  The city of Salem itself has capitalized on the fame and notoriety of the trials with a slew of witchcraft stores and attractions, but the historical sites are where the true horror can be seen.  The cities of Salem, Ipswich, and Andover all saw trials beginning in 1692, and before it would end, several people would be hung, crushed to death, set on fire, or drowned while trying to expel the black arts from the area.  You can still feel the spectral presence of paranoia in the entire area, especially at night.  For many, touring the high number of historical sites found around the area will help many find a truly horrifying experience.  If nothing else, the number of fun tourist attractions will help make the trip worth wild.

3.  LaLaurie House

When it comes to haunted locations, no city in the United States can compete with New Orleans.  Home to a number of different spooks and ghouls, this haunted mansion has a history of brutal slavery dating back generations.  Madame Lalaurie would treat here slaves viciously, chaining one to the stove in the kitchen to ensure his meals were prepared.  Others were killed through cruel treatment and buried in shallow graves on the estate.  After a fire broke out in the home, their cruelty became apparent.  In the locked attic, firefighters found several slaves, each of which were in a terrible conditions.  Some were chained to walls, others were held in cages, some were even secured to operating tables.  Along with the whole slaves were random body parts found throughout the attic.  While some were dead, others were merely tortured in deliberate fashions to stave off death.  When compared to the rest of the French Quarter, this is truly or horrific site.

4.  Athens Lunatic Asylum

When it comes to the horrifying and macabre scary places in America, few can compare to the Athens Lunatic Asylum.  This location, found in Athens, Ohio, is known to be an established location of paranormal activity believed to be associated with the many actions that took place while the actual asylum was in operation.  Included in the horrible things that occurred here are the birth of the lobotomy procedure (where a part of the brain is destroyed to help improve a mental condition), a never-fading stain from an older dead women (the stain has yet to disappear from the spot of her death), and the many insane and mentally unstable Civil War veterans, criminals found to be insane, and others in an insecure metal state who died in the facility.  Many of those individuals were also buried in a cemetery found on premises.

5. The Bell Witch Cave

Not too many have heard of the Bell Witch Cave, but those who have can tell it is a very scary place.  Located in Adams, Tenn., the Bell Witch Cave is believed to be the final resting place of the fabled Bell Witch, a women who haunted the Bell family over a long period of time, apparently even causing some of their deaths.  Included in her stalkings are a number of different events, including clawing and scratches, strange noises through all hours of the night, even illnesses striking, eventually taking some of their lives.  Andrew Jackson even considered the event important enough to investigate, leading him to experience the phenomenon itself.  The witch, who was apparently a neighbor who had bad business dealings with the family, is believed to have either practiced in this 490 ft. cave, fled here and died when others began investigating, or is still living there, almost 200 years later.

6.  Waverly Hills Sanatorium

Located in Louisville, Ky., the Waverly Hills Sanatorium is considered to be one of the most haunted hospitals found in the world.  Started as a hospital for those afflicted with tuberculosis, a then incurable disease of the lungs, various, and sometime horrific, treatments were administered on patients.  In all, over its years of operation, more than 8,000 people are believed to have died in its walls, either from the treatments or the disease itself.  Early estimation were greatly sensationalized, leading to many people speculating that more than 80,000 people had met their end in the hospital.   The development of medicines for the disease led to the hospitals closure.  Going here now, which tours are provided, a person will experience odd sounds, shadow people walking the halls, doors closing and opening on their own, and a generally horrifying atmosphere, especially in the morgue and the solarium.  This place was so bad, even a nurse committed suicide in one of the rooms.  A truly scary place to be found in America.