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Twenty-five Mysterious and Cursed Locations



There are some places on Earth that are downright scary – jinxed, hangouts of demons or the devil himself, or simply doomed. Most have few human inhabitants, but still draw tourists – places where the inexplicable happens, where people see and hear weird things or simply get “bad vibes.” Visit these locations at your own risk.



United States



Mount Shasta, Redding, California. This breathtaking snow-capped peak in the Cascade Mountain range has long been considered a “cosmic power spot.” The area is home to a plethora of strange phenomena including, but not limited to, bigfoot and UFO sightings, altered states of consciousness, crystal caves and even Lemurians, a race of humans believed to have survived the destruction of Atlantis.



Tate’s Hell State Forest, Florida Panhandle. Years ago, a fisherman by the name of Tate got lost in what is now 202,000 acres of almost impenetrable swampland. When he finally returned to civilization, the by now thin and haggard man told of encountering a race of giants and entering into an intimate relationship with an Amazon-type woman, who was so demanding she literally wore him out. Most dismissed Tate’s account as the ravings of an individual driven mad by hunger, fear and fatigue, but others, recalling the stories of Spanish explorers, who reported the Timucuan Indians of Florida were close to 7-feet-tall, wondered if perhaps a remnant of this tribe was living somewhere deep within the swamp.



Kaluapapa, Hawaii. Once called the “most cursed place on earth,” this beautiful location on the coast of Molokai has a dark history. For more than 100 years, the spot was reserved for lepers, who were never allowed to leave the colony or see their families. Over the years, rumor had it the place was haunted by the ghosts of these unfortunates. After it was discovered leprosy wasn’t as contagions as once believed, the colony was closed, however, around five patients still inhabit the haunted section of the island.



Stull Cemetery, Stull, Kansas. According to legend, a witch who actually copulated with the devil is buried in the cemetery (above) and some claim the old church, since pulled down, was one of the Gateways to Hell. People have allegedly seen apparitions, heard strange noises and experienced creepy incidents in the graveyard, but many attribute such claims to nothing more than wishful thinking.



Bridgewater Triangle, Massachusetts. This 200-square mile location in southeastern Massachusetts is said to be a hotbed of paranormal activity where people have reported seeing ghosts, UFOs, balls of fire, bigfoot, giant snakes and even thunderbirds.



Devil’s Tramping Ground, Chatham County, North Carolina. The mysterious area in the pine woods has long puzzled locals and visitors alike and according to legend, this is the place where Old Scratch himself paces in a circle as he ponders how he will harass and tempt mankind. Oddly, nothing will grow in the approximately 40-foot circle, something scientists have been unable to explain. It has been noted that toward the center of the area, a compass will skew by around 5 degrees, something that usually happens where there is a high iron content. Those who visit the location at night often experience dysphoria and hear inexplicable noises.



Roanoke Island, North Carolina. In 1587, a group of English men and women led by Capt. John White settled here. When the captain sailed back to England for supplies, he left his family behind and upon his return, found the fort in ruins and no trace of his family members or any of the other colonists. The only clue was the word “Croatoan” carved on a tree. Many believe the island is haunted.



Centralia, Pennsylvania. In 1962, when the subterranean coal fire started, this borough in Columbia County boasted a population of approximately 1,500. By 1980, a third of its inhabitants had packed up and left for less smoky locales. The 1990 census shows a population of 63 and by 2017, only five brave souls remained.





Adams, Tennessee. This was the home of John Bell, a man bedeviled and allegedly murdered by an entity known as the “Bell Witch.” The witch also tormented other members of the family, particularly Betsy Bell, who was persuaded to break off her relationship with a young man and instead marry Richard Powell, the local schoolteacher. To this day, people claim to see and hear strange things in the vicinity and many are convinced the Bell Witch is still around. (The cabin in the photo above was moved from the old John Bell farm.)



Skinwalker Ranch, Ballard, Utah. This approximately 500-acre property is believed by some to be a hotspot for UFOs, strange creatures and other phenomena. When the Sherman family lived on the property in the 1990s, they told tales of vanishing farm animals, cattle mutilations, circular patterns appearing both in pastures and bare soil, and doorways appearing in midair. There are even stories of bulletproof werewolves stalking the area. In 1996, billionaire UFO enthusiast Robert Bigelow purchased the property to study the other-worldly incidents, but the results of his experiments are unknown. He sold the ranch in 2016.



The Long Trail, Bennington County, Vermont. The Long Trail is part of the Appalachian Trail and strange things have happened in the portion located in Bennington County. On November 12, 1945, Middie Rivers, a seasoned guide, vanished while leading a group of hunters near Glastenbury Mountain. Over the next five years, four other people disappeared in the same vicinity and no one knows what happened to any of them. Additionally, in the 19th century, a bigfoot-type creature attacked a stagecoach near the former settlement of Glastenbury. As recently as 2008, a man hiking the Long Trail reported becoming inexplicably disoriented and experiencing “lost time.” There’s so much strangeness in the area that some years ago, Joseph A. Citro, a local author, dubbed the location “The Bennington Triangle.”



Mel’s Hole, Manastash Ridge, Washington. The strange, nine-foot diameter bottomless hole is the former dump site of Mel Waters, who once owned the property. Waters told a lot of stories about the mysterious opening, claiming he had seen black rays shoot from the hole and that on one occasion, he tossed a dead dog into the pit and shades of Pet Sematary, the animal came home alive. Some say the opening is a tunnel to the underworld and others speculate it’s a “blow hole” for Mount Ranier, a nearby volcano.



Around the World



Shahr-e-Gholghola, Bamyan, Afghanistan. Known as the “City of Screams,” this site was the capital of the Ghorid people before Mongol hordes seized it in the 12th century. Genghis Khan was particularly brutal because the ruler, Jalaludin, fought back, killing Khan’s favorite son. Initially, the city held strong under Khan’s siege, but was sold out by Jalaludin’s daughter who, according to legend, betrayed her father and people by divulging the castle’s secret entrance, believing she would be rewarded for doing so. But she was wrong and the sadistic Khan slaughtered her, along with the other residents. As the Ghorids died, their screams reverberated throughout the Bamyan Valley. Ever since, locals as well as soldiers involved in the current fighting in Afghanistan have reported hearing bloodcurdling cries and feeling uneasy when they are the vicinity of the ancient city.



Hoer Verde, Brazil. In 1923, during a period of political unrest, more than 600 inhabitants of Hor Verde disappeared. According to reports at the time, the only thing left was a single gun that had been fired and a note reading, “There is no salvation.”



Anjikuni Village, Nunavut, Canada. On a full-moon night in early November 1930, fur trapper Joe Labelle sought respite in the village at the shore of the Anjikuni Lake, but he found no one. The huts contained provisions, clothing, pots of food hanging over burned-out fires, but not a living soul. Even creepier was the fact graves in the local burial ground had been opened and the bodies removed. When he contacted the authorities, the men reportedly saw odd, bluish lights pulsating on the horizon.



Clapham Wood, West Sussex, England. Strange things happen in this small woodland. There’s a long history of UFO sightings and supernatural activity in the area, dogs and horses have inexplicably vanished and it is said to be the meeting place of at least one Satanic group. But all this pales in comparison to the several people who have gone missing in Clapham Wood. In April 1972, a young woman was murdered in the woods and a few months later, Constable Peter Goldsmith, one of the officers investigating the case, vanished. An elderly man went missing in July 1975, a retired vicar vanished on Halloween of 1978, and in 1981, a local woman was found raped and strangled. Additionally, the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, which is located in the woods, seems to be plagued by paranormal activity and those in search of it.



Château de Montségur, Montségur, France. Locals sometimes refer to this remote castle atop a steep cliff as “Satan’s Synagogue.” The Cathars (also known as Cathari from the Greek Katharoi for “pure ones”) were a dualist medieval sect that flourished in the 12th century. The castle became the seat of the Cathars, but when they challenged the authority of the Catholic Church, they were declared heretics and the pope sought the assistance of the French government to drive them out. In the year 1245, following a 10-month siege, the castle – which some believe once held the Holy Grail – was stormed and 200 Cathars died in a bonfire, but not before cursing the place. Although the ruins on the site are not those of the original castle, visitors still report hearing the howls of the martyred Cathars.



Brocken Mountain, Germany. The Harz mountains were one of the last places in what later became Germany to convert to Christianity. Brocken Mountain, the highest peak, is shrouded in fog 300 days a year and the mist magnifies the observers’ shadow, creating an optical illusion known as the Brocken specter. According to legend, on Walpurgisnacht (April 30), witches mount their broomsticks and fly to the top of the Brocken to dance and feast with the devil. During the winter of 1777, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe climbed the Brocken while attempting to get over his sister’s death. Later, he included a scene about witches and Walpurgisnacht in his masterpiece Faust. Today people don grotesque costumes and party in observance of the dark celebration.



Jonestown, Guyana. On November 18, 1978, 909 members of the Peoples Temple, founded by the Rev. Jim Jones, died in a mass suicide-murder scheme. Today, with the exception of a memorial plaque placed at the site by the government of Guyana in 2009, the rapidly-growing vegetation has obliterated all evidence of the sinister cult.





Poveglia, Italy. Just outside Venice lies what is left of Poveglia, also known as “The Island of Death.” Once a location that boasted several hundred families so prosperous they governed themselves, today only a few grape farmers and sheep inhabit the island. After the population was wiped out by the Plague, Proveglia became a refuge for lepers and the insane until the place was abandoned in 1968. Locals sometimes remark,“When an evil man dies, he wakes up on Poveglia,” and some describe the location as the “most haunted place in Europe.” In 2014, the island was purchased by Luigi Brognaro, a businessman who intended to restore it, but thus far, there have been no renovations. In 2016, five Americans decided to spend the night on the infamous haunted isle, but as soon as night fell, they claimed they were haunted by a “presence.” A passing boat heard their cries for help and they were rescued by the Italian authorities.



Timbuktu, Mali. In 2012, extremists attacked Timbuktu, desecrating the graves of saints and blowing up a door in the Sidi Yahya Mosque. According to legend, the opening the 600-year-old door would signify the end of the world. Since that time, locals insist the end times are near by citing chaos throughout the world. Others, however, say Timbuktu, a trading center that allowed outsiders in just a hundred years ago, was doomed from the start. Local soothsayers claim the city has lived under a curse for hundreds of years – since the days of the Salt Trade, when it was rumored the streets were paved with gold.



Eilean Mor, Outer Hebrides, Scotland. In December 1900, three men manning the Flannan Isles Lighthouse (above) disappeared and according to locals, the small island has been cursed ever since. When a ship docked at the location, crew members found no signs of human life, but did come across a series of creepy entries in the log. Thomas Marshall, the second assistant, wrote of “severe winds the likes of which I have never seen before in twenty years.” He also noted the head keeper, James Ducat, had been “very quiet,” while William McArthur, the third assistant, was crying. Entries for December 13 indicated the storm was still raging and all three had been “praying.” But stranger still was the fact there were no reported storms in the area on December 12, 13 or 14. The final entry, written on December 15, read, “Storm ended, sea calm. God is overall.” The three men had simply vanished.



Nauru, South Pacific. Nauru is a tiny phosphate rock island south of the Marshall Islands and just 50 years ago, the island nation was one of the richest in the world. Alas, the inhabitants sold out their livelihoods by over-mining the natural phosphate and polluting the environment in the process. It is said such destruction infuriated the gods, who cursed the careless residents and their descendants to lives of poverty and misery. Today, Nauru is dirt poor and to eke out a living, the government rents most of its land to Australia as an internment camp for illegal immigrants and refugees.



Pripyat, Ukraine. In April 1986, when the No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, for all intents and purposes, Pripyat, the nearest town, ceased to exist. The municipality boasted 25 stores, a large hospital complex, several schools, movie theaters, factories, pools, an amusement park and all the other accouterments of a thriving 20th-century community. Within hours, everyone was forced to evacuate and today, all those residential and business structures are slowly being reclaimed by the ever-encroaching forest and within a few years, there will be little evidence human beings ever inhabited the area.



Gūr-e-Amīr Mausoleum, Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The tomb of Turkish/Mongol conqueror Timur is also the site where, according to some historians, he massacred 1 percent of the world’s population in 1360. The inscription reads, “When I rise from the dead, the world shall tremble.” In the early 1940s, a Soviet scientist obsessed with Timur opened the tomb and exhumed the body to study. A few hours later, Germany invaded the Soviet Union.



Sources: Paula Froelich, The New York Post, January 11, 2020; Lisa Hefner Heitz, Haunted: Kansas; Kara Goldfarb, All That's Interesting, October 14, 2019; Passing Strange by Joseph Citro; Adrien Glover, Travel and Leisure, August 18, 2009; Adventures of Lil Nicki; Joshua J. Mark, Ancient History Encyclopedia, April 2, 2019; Rob Morphy, Mysterious Universe, July 24, 2011; North Carolina Ghosts; Atlas Obscura; The Occult Museum; and TripAdvisor.