What ghost stories do you have in your locale?

[RandySF]

San Francisco is full of them. Here is my favorite:

Cameron House

Located on Sacramento St. in Chinatown, San Francisco. Once owned by Lady Cameron, the basement of the house was a refuge for Chinese immigrant from lives of prostitution and slavery, among the obvious discrimination and hell that was once Chinatown. She sealed the doors in the basement to protect the immigrants from inspections by the police. If she can’t open the doors, they can’t inspect and then arrest and possibly kill the rooms of people. However, the people were able to come in and out through a secret passageway. Apparently, rumors spread about her philanthropy and some people came and burned down the house. Everyone in the rooms died.

Now, the restored Cameron House (turned church) sends chills up spines. The basement doors are still sealed, but every door contains a red charm and a gold charm to seal in the spirits, as well. Furthermore, the pipes that run along the ceiling run to the end of the hall forming an “X” over a door with the script: “do not enter.” Photographs taken in the house have shown white figures in the background. Supposedly, these photos are nonchalantly mingled in with normal ones and kept in photo albums at the site. This possibly happened around the 1930’s or so. It might be the late 1800’s or the early 1900s. Most likely early 1900’s.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/top-lists/haunted-bay-area/

[Kaleva]

1. The Paulding Light.

"The Paulding Light (also called the Lights of Paulding or the Dog Meadow Light) is a light that appears in a valley that lies outside of Paulding, Michigan. Reports of the light have appeared since the 1960s, with popular folklore providing such explanations as ghosts, geologic activity, or swamp gas."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulding_Light

[mercuryblues]

2. Old Charleston City Jail

http://www.charlestonandlowcountry.com/old-charleston-city-jail

A foreboding, grim, and haunting presence
The Old Charleston City Jail - From its original construction in 1802 to 1939, the building located at 21 Magazine Street was utilized as a jail and insane asylum. With the exterior stucco now falling off and exposing the brickwork beneath, this medieval, gothic-like style building projects a foreboding, grim, and haunting presence. As if that was not enough, since its closing in 1939 , it has a history of strange, mysterious, and unexplained occurrences that continue to this day. It's considered to be one of the most haunted buildings in the US.

Old Charleston City Jail - They say it's... "Haunted"
Haunted?... Well, I for one am certainly haunted by the memories of the many men, women, and children of whom endured this place as their home during its one hundred thirty-seven years of operation as a jail and insane asylum. Since the closing of the jail in 1939, there has been more than just a few strange occurrences of the mysterious and unexplained happenings within the walls of this old building. There is no doubt an ominous, dark, and dreary presence in and around Charleston's Old City Jail.

The sad thing it has recently been sold to a business and they plan to convert into an office building. The upside of that is, Charleston is very protective of it historical places and they will not be allowed to change the exterior. It's most famous prisoner was Lavinia Fisher, America's 1st serial killer.

I went there a few weeks ago. Creepy is an understatement.

[DBoon]

3. Sharon Tate is out there somewhere

http://dearlydepartedtours.com/helter-skelter-tour/

[DBoon]

13. She haunts a booth at El Coyote

I swear her ghost moved my margarita the other day

[LeftInTX]

4. Woman Hollering Creek

Woman Hollering Creek is a creek located in Central Texas. At one point, it crosses Interstate 10, between Seguin, Texas and San Antonio, Texas.

Alternatively known as Womans Hollow Creek,[1] the creek's name is probably a loose translation of the Spanish La Llorona, or "The weeping woman". According to legend, a woman who has recently given birth drowns her newborn in the river because the father of the child either does not want it, or leaves with a different woman. The woman then screams in anguish from drowning her child. After her death, her spirit then haunts the location of the drowning and wails in misery. The legend has many different variations and there have even been occasional sightings of the restless woman's spirit. The legend also states that if you get too close to the water, the hollering woman will drag you in, hoping you are her child.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman_Hollering_Creek

[Jim Beard]

5. While I was turnroad talking to a farmer friend in a neighboring county, he pointed to the cemetary

adjacent to his farm and started telling about murders in his town/area.

The story goes that a farmer was having a farm sale to sell his farm, machinery, and household items.

While the men were interested in the machinery, the women were looking at some of the household goods because as the owner, he explained that he had sent his wife and children ahead and they would buy new household goods when they got there.

As the women got to looking more closely, they saw a lot of clothing for the children and their mother. It was clothing that should have gone with them.

The local sheriff got a warrant and found the women and children buried in the cellar. Its a good story to tell close to cemeteries.

[bathroommonkey76]

6. Lydia, The Phantom Hitchhiker

On certain rainy nights, where US 70-A twists around a sweeping curve that passes by an old, overgrown underpass, drivers will see a young woman in a white evening dress standing by the side of the road. She will be desperately trying to flag down any passing car. If anyone pulls over to help the young lady, she climbs meekly into the back seat of the car and says that her name is Lydia. She will tell the driver that she's just been to a dance and now she's trying to get home. She gives the driver an address not too far away, and he kindly agrees to take her there. The driver may try to engage Lydia in conversation, but she seems distracted and in a world of her own, so he just leaves her in a respectful silence and concentrates on the road ahead.

When the car pulls in to the address that the young woman gave, the chivalrous driver invariably hops out to open the door for her — only to discover that she has vanished.

Perplexed, the man goes to the door and rings the bell. An old woman answers. The man explains that he's picked up a young lady named Lydia by the overpass who asked to be brought to this address, but she's no longer in the car. He wonders if she may have run out before he could open the door, and he just wants to know if she's safe and if everything is as it should be.

A faint, pained smile of recognition passes over the old woman's face, as she reaches for a picture in a silver frame sitting on a table by the door. It's a photograph of the young woman the man drove to the house.

"Lydia was my daughter," the old woman says, "She died in a car wreck by that overpass in 1923. You're not the first one, and I suppose you won't be the last. Every so often, her spirit flags down a passing driver. I suppose she still doesn't understand what happened to her. I suppose she's still trying to get home."

That's why the overgrown underpass near Jamestown is called Lydia's Bridge. Drive past it on a rainy night and you may see Lydia, too.

http://northcarolinaghosts.com/piedmont/lydia-phantom-hitchhiker/

[Kaleva]

10. Some think that Lydia is this woman

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=58464999

[Jersey Devil]

7. The Jersey Devil

The New Jersey Pinelands is home to miles of pine trees and sandy roads, but it is also home to New Jersey’s most infamous resident... The Jersey Devil. Designated in 1938 as the country’s only state demon, the Jersey Devil is described as a kangaroo-like creature with the face of a horse, the head of a dog, bat-like wings, horns and a tail. For more than 250 years this mysterious creature is said to prowl through the marshes of Southern New Jersey and emerge periodically to rampage through the towns and cities.

The most widely held belief about the origin of the Jersey Devil is that Mrs. Leeds, a resident of Estellville, was distraught when she learned she was expecting for the thirteenth time. In disgust, she cried out, "Let it be the devil!" The story continues that the child arrived and it was a baby devil. The creature then gave a screech unfolded its wings and flew out the window and into the adjacent swamp.



http://www.pinelandsalliance.org/history/devil/

[Achilleaze]

8. Three fingered Willy

Who could ever forget that tale ?

[smirkymonkey]

9. I love ghost stories. I am not really sure I believe them, but there is a part of me that wants to.

I'm not sure why. Anyway, they fascinate me. Here is one from my city of Boston:

Woman in Scarlet
Boston Harbor’s Long Island is home to one of the most tragic Boston Ghost Stories. At the close of the American Revolution, the British still had several ships lagging in Boston Harbor. On board one of these ships were William and Mary Burton. The newly weds, like so many others, were fleeing the chaos of this besieged city and looking forward to spending their lives together across the Atlantic.

As their ship attempted to sail out of Boston Harbor, a cannon ball from the Long Island Battery hit Mary in back of the head. Unbelievably, she was not killed instantly, but lingered on for several days in excruciating pain before succumbing to her massive head trauma. As she lay dying, Mary pleaded with her husband not to bury her at sea. She was never fond of the sea and could not bear to have her earthly remains consigned to a watery grave. Eventually mary died of her injuries and William was permitted to venture to Long Island to bury his love. Once ashore, he sewed her body into a soft red blanket that Mary had brought aboard with her to keep warm on the long journey home and laid her to rest in the sandy dunes. He fashioned a headstone out of a piece of driftwood and as he carved her name into it he swore that he would return to Boston and give her a proper marker. He never returned.

But Mary, it seems, refuses to be forgotten. To this day, visitors to the island report seeing a woman with “muddy-gray skin” and wearing a scarlet cloak stumbling over the sandy dunes. Blood is usually seen streaming down her cloak from a gaping hole in the back of her head—the exact spot where the cannon fire had smashed her skull.

[ffr]

11. None, because there's no such thing as ghosts.

Can't be. They'd have to breach the natural world. They are supernatural beings. Impossible for us to even know of one in any way, shape or form.

I'm such a killjoy.

[Tanuki]

12. Mothman. (I am originally from southwestern West Virginia)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman