Spooky Spots To Visit in Southern West Virginia

The hills of southern West Virginia are full of beauty, history, and mystery. From the area’s pre-European settlement to the present day, the people of this land have shared stories of spirits and creatures that reside there. Some of the tales arise from tragic stories, others from paranormal encounters.

One way to celebrate Halloween—the season that recognizes the descent into dark winter and the end of the vibrancy of summer—is to explore stories and places that give goosebumps and scares. Here are just a few places in southern West Virginia with stories of spooky sightings. 

Red Ash Island, New River Gorge National Park and Preserve – Near Thurmond, WV

Red Ash was a small mining community between Cunard and Thurmond in the 1890s. Shortly after people settled in the town, it faced a smallpox outbreak. Locals constructed housing for doctors and the sick on Red Ash Island to contain the spread of the disease. However, with no nearby hospitals that would take in the patients, there was little the townspeople could do. Those who perished were buried on Red Ash Island with river stones or crosses marking their graves. 

Even after the smallpox epidemic, locals used Red Ash Island as a cemetery. Before electric bulbs, miners had open flame lamps to light their way through the mines. In 1900, a headlamp ignited a pocket of methane gas within the Red Ash Mine and caused an explosion, causing the deaths of 46 miners. Five years later, in 1905, a spark from a railcar came into contact with coal dust, causing an explosion that killed 13 miners. All rest on Red Ash Island. 

Red Ash Island is only accessible when water levels are low. Visitors can hike there from either side of the Southside Trail. If you’re like paranormal investigator and writer Jannette Quakenbush, you might have an infant cry lead your way. 

Kaymoor Miners Trial, New River Gorge National Park and Preserve – Fayetteville, WV

Low Moor Iron Company established Kaymoor on the side of the New River Gorge in 1899. The town had two parts: Kaymoor Top and Kaymoor Bottom. Now, all that remains of a company and town that employed nearly 1500 workers at its peak are rusted and crumbling structures along hiking trails. 

Hikers have reported seeing a ghost train along the tracks of Kaymoor Bottom and miners walking along sidetracks that fade into glowing orbs of light. 

Sandstone Falls, New River Gorge National Park and Preserve – Sandstone, WV

According to “The Big Book of West Virginia Ghost Stories” by Rosemary Ellen Guiley, a mysterious light wanders up and down the New River at Sandstone, WV. Legend has it that it is the ghost of Samuel Richmond, a canoe ferryman and Union sympathizer during the Civil War.

One night in September 1863, he was paddling across the New River when Confederate sympathizer Jefferson Bennett shot Richmond. Samuel Richmond managed to make it to shore but died shortly after. If you visit the Sandstone Falls area and see a ghostly light, it’s Samuel crossing the river.

U.S. Route 19, Nicholas County Scenic Overlook – Birch River, WV

A headless horseman haunts U.S. Route 19. Henry Young was a 36th Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment member during the Civil War. There are varying stories as to how he died on the side of Powell Mountain, tales from him being caught as a spy for Gen. Rosecrans to Young fighting an advancement of Union troops to an unofficial militia catching him. However, one thing is clear: his remains show that he was shot.

With his body in the middle of Union territory, Henry Young’s body remained on the mountain. According to local legend, his cousin buried Young where he found him, as he had no help to carry him to a cemetery. His burial site became known as “The Lonely Grave.”

In 1963, highway construction crews disturbed and moved Young’s grave to make way for U.S. Route 19. Young’s body now resides on Young’s Monument Road, not far from where he was initially buried, where there is now a historic marker commemorating Young’s death. However, he is not at rest. Henry Young’s spirit appears at the place of his death as a headless horseman despite not being beheaded.

John Henry Historic Park – Talcott, WV

According to Rosemary Ellen Guiley’s “Big Book of West Virginia Ghost Stories,” John Henry’s competition against the steam drill cost him his life. He was so exhausted after out-mining the machinery that he could barely walk. He was dead by morning. 

Soon after, workers started to see a large man with hammers rapidly swinging in each hand lingering in the Great Bend Tunnel. Workers saw John Henry’s spirit and heard him striking his hammers. 

Those who want to learn more about John Henry and American railroad history can visit the John Henry Historical Park in Talcott, WV. Visitors can read about the man and myth and visit the tunnel where the legend started. You may hear the swinging of hammers during your visit. 

Whipple Company Store – Oak Hill, WV

Built in 1890 by coal Baron Justus Collins, the Whipple Company Store operated as a store for the workers and families of the Whipple mine, a post office, a doctor’s office, and a morgue. There is a secret second floor, which is thought to be the storage for coffins. People who have visited have said they could smell coal miners, see dried blood on the floor that wasn’t there before, hear the manual elevator move, see and smell cigar smoke in a vault room, and hear voices. 

Though the Whipple Company Store is no longer open to the public, there are interpretive signs outside that dive into local mining history. If you stop by to read these signs, you might see someone in one of the store’s windows.

Greenbrier County Courthouse – Lewisburg, WV

In 1897, a young boy walked to his neighbor’s house to ask if the woman who lived there needed anything from the store. Upon entering the home, the boy discovered the body of Zona Heaster Shue lying on the floor of her house. At the time, she was reported to have died of natural causes. But Zona’s story doesn’t end there. 

After her death, Zona appeared to her mother, telling her the true story of her demise, that she didn’t die of natural causes but was instead strangled by her husband. Motivated by the information her daughter’s ghost had given her, Mary Heaster, Zona’s mother, went to the county prosecuting attorney to have her body exhumed.

Instead of shrugging Mary off as a grieving mother, the attorney looked into the matter and found that Zona’s husband had prevented a complete examination of the body. Finding this suspicious, the attorney granted the exhumation of Zona’s body for an autopsy. 

Zona had a broken neck—just as her ghost had said. Her husband faced trial and was charged with murder. This is the only known case of a ghost giving testimony to convict a murderer. 

The Greenbrier County Courthouse, where the ghost trial occurred, still stands in Lewisburg, WV.

Lake Shawnee Abandoned Amusement Park – Rock, WV

For 2,000 years, Native Americans lived where the Lake Shawnee Abandoned Amusement Park now stands. Beyond the rusting rides are burial grounds of both Indigenous Americans and white settlers. The earth is as rich in artifacts as it is in stories. 

During white settlers’ westward expansion in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, skirmishes between settlers and natives cost lives on both sides. Shawnee Native Americans killed three white children, and the settlers retaliated—causing more bloodshed. Over the centuries, the land transformed and eventually became an amusement park in 1926. 

Thousands of mining families swarmed the park, but the tragedies did not stop. A young girl lost her life when a van backed up into the swing she was on, and a little boy drowned in the pond when his arm got caught in a drainpipe. In 1966, the park closed. 

In the 1980s, Gaylord White purchased and reopened the property for three years. The high insurance costs were too much to keep the park open, but they managed to keep the property in operation by hosting fishing tournaments and mud bogging. While creating the mud bogging track, crews uncovered the mass Native American burial site. With the help of Marshall University, the White family uncovered the graves of nearly 3,000 Shawnee people and the graves of two of the children. 

People can visit Lake Shawnee Amusement Park by scheduling a daytime tour or overnight experience. In October, Lake Shawnee hosts a Dark Carnival, which features tours, campfire stories,  monsters in the dark scare experience, zombie paintball, and a freak show.

Lake Shawnee is also a stop on the West Virginia Paranormal Trail.

Twin Falls Resort State Park – Mullens, WV

Twin Falls Resort State Park is home to a little-known cryptid called the Poke Hollow Monster. The monster is named after Polk Gap, a dip in the mountain ridge in the area. Big Jim McMoore first saw it in the fall of 1942. 

McMoore was about to be sent off to fight in World War 2, but before he went to the fight, he wanted to practice shooting his shotgun in the nearby forest for one last time. He shot bottles, rocks, and stumps before ending his excursion by resting in his favorite tree—a large beech with a horizontal limb with views of the surrounding area. Though, before he could sit in his favorite tree, McMoore saw that it was occupied. 

McMoore saw an enormous creature nearly 12 feet tall, covered in silver hair and glowing red eyes, looming by his favorite tree. They stared each other down. McMoore shot warning shots at the beast to try to scare it, but he had no luck. So he made a mad dash to escape the forest, the monster in hot pursuit. When he left the forest, he saw it standing at the edge of the wood before it turned around to retreat into the dark grove. 

Since then, locals have heard blood-curdling, animal-like sounds and the occasional sighting. The Independent Herald reported in 1978 that a local patrolman responded to a call in Oceana, WV. He investigated strange noises and saw the Poke Hollow Monster jump across the Clear Fork River and ascend the bank. 

A hiking trail passes through Poke Hollow at Twin Falls Resort State Park.

Sweet Springs Resort Park – Gap Mills, WV 

One of the most haunted places in West Virginia is the Sweet Springs Sanatarium/Resort in Sweet Springs, WV, on the Virginia border. 

In the late 1700s, the area was famous for its spring water, which colonial and revolutionary American elites, such as George Washington, would visit for its therapeutic properties. The large brick resort building was constructed in the 1830s using slave labor. It stayed in operation through the Civil War but fell in popularity after the war’s end. Travelers went to resorts that were more conveniently located along rail lines instead.

From 1942 to 1945, Sweet Springs operated as a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients until the State of W.V. purchased the property and turned it into a home for the aging. Those interested in conducting a paranormal investigation of the property to engage with the hotel’s many ghosts can contact Cindie Harper to spend the night. The payment goes towards the restoration of the building. 

Sweet Springs Resort is open for walking the grounds, hosting weddings and reunions, and offering tours on specific days of the year.

Big Red – Panther, WV

When the word “haunting” is mentioned, a human-like apparition comes to mind. However, a different kind of spirit roams the roads of Panther, WV. 

According to Theresa’s Haunting History of the Tri-State, in 1961, Westerville, Ohio, used the chassis of an old truck to construct a fire engine known as “Big Red.” It was a source of pride in the community but a focus of scorn by a former fire volunteer. The legend says the volunteer failed the test for a paid firefighter position and swore to haunt the engine after his death. 

The Ohio town needed better-functioning equipment to handle the growing population. 

Westerville sold Big Red to the town of Pineville, West Virginia in 1979. However, the volunteer fire department only used Big Red for two years before the truck became more of a hazard than a help. 

The department stripped the truck for parts, but that didn’t stop the engine from cruising the country roads. Though Big Red sat unmovable behind the volunteer fire station, locals would report seeing it on the move. Theresa’s Haunting History of the Tri-State says fires would erupt shortly after a sighting. 

Want to see more spooky places? Join West Virginia’s Paranormal Trail and check-in at various locations to redeem points for prizes.