{Natural} State of Fear: 17 Haunted Places in Arkansas

{Natural} State of Fear: 17 Haunted Places in Arkansas

 

The season of scares doesn’t have to end; heaven (or hell) knows that the entities in the shadows never go away. Whether a believer or cynic, some things just can’t be explained. Trying to make sense of the phenomena that have sparked story after story and legend after legend is an endless loop. There doesn’t always need to be an explanation, but it sure is exciting trying to find one.

 

 

Crescent Hotel: As one of the most well-known haunted hotels in the country and the most famous in the state, the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs brings in visitors from all over to experience the horrors that wander the halls. 

 

Many of the horrors are the product of Norman Baker’s time at the hotel. Baker sold cancer patients on the idea that he had the cure to save them. As there is still no cure to this day, he was obviously lying. Cancer patients came to the “Baker Cancer Hospital” in hopes of returning to their loved ones healthy and cancer-free. Baker’s infamous elixir to cure cancer was nothing more than a mixture of watermelon seed, brown corn silk, alcohol and carbolic acid. Some patients left alive only to die a short time later, but many patients died within the walls of the Crescent. Today, guests in the hotels can hear the squeaking of gurney wheels going down the hallway, reminiscent of Baker wheeling the dead out of the building. The morgue has some of the most paranormal activity in the building. Feelings of pain, sadness and fear are often felt by guests touring the morgue.

 

Children are often seen wandering the halls, appearing in rooms and playing tricks on hotel guests. Some of these children are believed to have also been Baker’s “patients,” but others could be residual from the many years the building has been in operation.

 

As if the supernatural could get any stranger, a favorite spirit to roam the grounds is the “general manager” of the hotel, a cat named Morris who lived at the Crescent for 21 years. Though he is deceased, guests still have the possibility of meeting Morris. Visitors have reported the feeling of a cat rubbing against their legs in the lobby and paranormal investigators have caught his calming purr on recordings.

 

 

Rader Road: Unknown to many Arkansans, the Natural State has its own headless horseman legend. On the edge of Rogers going down a vacant street, eerily named Rader Road, rides a phantom horse and its headless master. If stopped on the road, the clomp of hooves can be heard running at an alarming speed while the horseman sits silently. 

 

 

MacArthur Museum: Dating back to the 1840s, the grounds surrounding the Tower Building of the Little Rock Arsenal, also known as the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, has been tread by thousands of feet over the course of its lifespan. Wars, major historical events, and the residual energy within artifacts have seeped into the grains of the floorboards in the museum. 

 

Museum workers experience heavy footsteps on the stairs when the building is empty, handprints on windows too high for a living person to reach, the constant feeling of never being alone and the constant presence of a spirit going by the name of “Sarge.”

 

Sarge resides in the tower of the museum, where he keeps watch over the building and the grounds. If you ask Sarge, he will tell you that he is in charge of the building. His strong voice has been caught on recording, instructing people to “GET OUT” of his tower, but with the right equipment, he will answer any of your questions.

 

 

Boggy Creek “Fouke” Monster: The history of the Boggy Creek monster, or Fouke monster, has reached legendary fame. The 1972 docudrama The Legend of Boggy Creek earned itself the title of a cult classic and the 11th highest-grossing film the year it was released. The star of the film, the Boggy Creek Monster, had a notorious streak in the late 1900s of tormenting homes and individuals in the woods of Fouke. The creature has been dormant for a while or possibly moved on to the next small community, but the sasquatch-looking monster is still present in legend and memory.

 

 

Empress of Little Rock Bed and Breakfast: Otherwise known as the Hornibrook Mansion, the Empress of Little Rock stands as one of the most haunted places in Arkansas. The Victorian-style structure has had its fair share of use as a women’s college, boarding house, nursing home, apartments and now, a bed and breakfast. 

 

Through the years of the Empress’ presence, many spirits have been named as permanent residents. The former owner, the namesake Hornibrook, is one spirit hanging around. The former owner died at the age of 49 while playing a game of cards with his friends. The man had always had a feeling he would die prematurely and had a death mask made for himself. This mask still hangs in the hotel.

 

The current owner believes that the spirit of Hornibrook influenced him to renovate the hotel to its days of elegance. Other ghosts include a former maid who is often spotted standing in rooms around the second floor and vanishing into closets. Another spirit has been seen dressed in an old-fashioned captain’s uniform. The sound of footsteps in empty hallways and people talking in empty rooms are not uncommon occurrences. Time may have moved on, but the faces from the past have yet to leave.

 

Gurdon Light: This urban legend has been around for practically eons. Generations of variations of the same story have been passed on through the decades, but what is the real story? The root folklore of the light tells of a railroad worker killed when he tragically fell into the path of an oncoming train. The man’s head was separated from his body and was reportedly never found. The light, varying from blue to green to white, is said to be the lantern of the fallen worker lighting his path as he searches for his head.

 

 

Blowing Cave: There is a long-held belief that there was once an underground civilization of people living in a far more advanced society. This is known and the Shaver Mystery, and though science disputes this legend, there are records that assert otherwise. One of these records comes from a man named George D. Wright, who supposedly discovered the underground civilization through a network of tunnels that led him to the intelligent civilization below our feet. There is said to be only five entrances to this subterranean society, and Cushman, Arkansas’ Blowing Cave, is believed to be one of them.

 

Avon Cemetery: Ghostly mother and child figures may be some of the most common themes in ghost stories, and the Avon Cemetery in De Queen is no different. Many moons ago, a mother sat her baby on the edge of an old well in the cemetery while she drew water. The baby tragically fell down the well and drowned. The spirit of the mourning mother is said to roam the grounds looking for her child. People say that the baby’s cries can be heard echoing from the bottom of the well if a rock is dropped from the edge — the same fall the baby took in its last moments.

 

Old Fort Smith Courthouse: Reasons are constantly hypothesized as to why some spirits seem to stay on earth rather than pass on, and a popular theory is the residual energy left behind by people who had strong ties and emotional bonds with a place or item. The residual energy carries those same ties from life to death which could explain why spirits tend to linger. The Old Fort Smith Courthouse is liable to hold strong residual energy as countless death sentences were handed out and performed on the property. In the late 19th century, the infamous “hanging judge” Isaac C. Parker was one of many judges to sit at the courthouse and sentence death to people tried for various crimes. The executions were performed right outside of the courtroom, where gallows loomed waiting for the next guilty verdict. The men who were hanged at these gallows are believed to still roam the property where they spent their final fateful minutes. The gallows have since been reconstructed.

 

Haunted Texarkana Ghost Walk: Southern Arkansas doesn’t receive enough credit for the history that took place in that region of the state. On the border of Texas, where instability was common throughout the centuries, there is plenty of foot traffic from over the years to leave a mark. In more recent times, recent being the beginning of the 20th century, crime, gambling and prostitution was a force on both sides of the state line. The city of Texarkana is all-too-familiar with the history and lingering snippets of those times, and they share that with visitors through a Ghost Walk through the streets that hold whispers and shadows of the sordid past.

 

 

Dover Lights: Imagine this: You’re driving your car in the dead of night down a long, twisting gravel road. Cell phone reception is spotty, and the destination you’re heading toward is not exact on any map. You pull up to a dirt-flattened clearing in the trees with a stone wall three feet high overlooking a drop into pitch-black. A few trees can be seen at the bottom if you squint, and your phone’s flashlight is your one source of light. You might sit there for five minutes or a couple of hours waiting, waiting on the stories to be true. You get excited, only for a firefly to flutter away. Finally, you see it: the Dover Lights.

Depending on who you ask, the mysterious orbs floating back and forth in strange patterns below the overlook in Dover could be the product of many different legends. Nobody knows for certain who these lost souls are wandering the hillside, but spectators remain captivated.

There are stories of Spanish Conquistadors searching for gold, Native American burial grounds, coal miners trapped in an eternal labyrinth and the most common story of all, a doctor in search of silver.

The story goes that a doctor went to an older couple’s home to aid the sick and dying wife. The couple had little money, so the husband paid the doctor in lead bullets. The doctor accepted the payment and went on his way. He decided he would display the bullets in his home, so he began polishing the little bits of metal, only to discover that they were not lead but silver. The doctor, greedy for more, devised a plan to manipulate the couple into showing him where they got the bullets and hopefully lead him to the silver. He rode out the next day only to find two headstones side by side behind the cabin, the names of the couple carved. The doctor began searching the land to locate the old man’s silver and found a crate of metallic bars, his treasure. The doctor grabbed a few bars planning to return for the rest the next day, but he never got the chance as he mysteriously died in his sleep that night. Neighbors reported seeing two floating spheres of light wandering through the deceased doctor’s home and hearing hushed voices calling, “Where, where is it?”

 

Moss Mountain: Appropriately, this story takes place on Halloween night. An English naturalist, Thomas Nuttall, and his team make camp on Beaver Island during an exploration. In the early hours of Halloween, Nuttall and his group were attacked by what is commonly believed to have been wild animals, but Nuttall told a different story. The sole survivor of the attack, Nuttall claimed to have seen his men attacked not by animals, but by human figures. On the anniversary of the attack, brave souls venture to Moss Mountain to catch a glimpse of the humanoid figures rising from the river to search out victims on land.

 

 

White River Monster: A lesser-known monster that has made Arkansas its home, the White River Monster is believed to live near Newport and is lovingly referred to by locals as “Whitey.” Whitey was first sighted in 1915, but many believe that the creature has been around since the Civil War where a transportation boat was overturned. The mysterious water dweller has gray skin, is roughly the size of a car wide and as long as three cars bumper to bumper, sounds like the combination of a “moo” and a “neigh” and has three toes. Every few decades, either another sighting or a strange occurrence will take place in the river, bringing attention back to Whitey. In 1973, the Arkansas State Legislature signed into law a bill creating the White River Monster Refuge between the Old Grand Glaize and the northern point known as Rosie. In trying to identify what the creature could be, elephant seal and manatee have been thrown around, but nothing has been confirmed.

 

Mount Holly Cemetery: A cemetery might not be an ideal tourist destination, but Mount Holly can be an exception. Major political figures of Arkansas, war veterans and influential families can all be found in the black, wrought-iron gates of Mount Holly. The towering headstones and ornate decorations from over a hundred years ago express more than just the names and dates of who is buried beneath. The angel statues guarding the grounds have been seen to move and watch with more than just a stone-cold stare. Apparitions of people dressed in clothing from times long-forgotten wander the walkways while a distant flute plays in the background. If you live nearby to the cemetery and a statue appears one morning, don’t be alarmed, just carry it back to where it belongs.

 

 

The Witches Hollow: A witch story is always a thrilling one. In the abandoned homes of Cave City, a witch practiced her black magic in the vacant houses, creating a hub of dark entities and energy. The spirit of the witch is believed to haunt the land on which the houses sit, and a figure resembling her walks the dirt road off of Sandtown. For those itching to explore her dark place of practice, the Hollow can only be found with the guidance of a local named George. Who is George? There is no straight answer, but with a little digging, anything can be uncovered.

 

Clayton House: William Henry Clayton and his family once resided in this locally infamous house many moons ago. The family might have passed, but they are still believed to live in the home. Employees of the house avoid a room on the second floor of the building due to loud, angry stomping and slamming doors. In the Clayton study, a woman in brown with gray hair has been seen by multiple living persons. A figure of a woman has appeared in photos of the home and paranormal investigators have captured the sounds of a man yelling aggressively. The common feeling expressed by the Clayton House is one of discomfort and a story that only the walls know the details to.

 

Devil’s Hole Cave: The entrance to the underworld might be closer than we would like. Long ago, in a legendary unmapped town called “Self” somewhere in Boone County, a man ventured into an unexplored cavern. He descended approximately 200 feet into the depths of the earth, but he was stopped by a blood-curdling hissing noise and only darkness surrounding him. The man returned to the surface and with the help of members from the town, they lowered a flat iron tied to a rope into the cavern. They heard the hissing sound that had frightened the man and a strong tug was given to the rope. When they pulled the iron back to the sunlight, the metal was badly bent. The group tried once again with a rock tied in place of the flat iron. Again, a chilling hiss was heard and a tug given. When the rope was pulled up, the rock was missing. There has never been an explanation for what lived in the depths of that cave, and there will likely never be an answer. Unless someone is hell-bent on finding out.

 

READ MORE: Something Strange in the Neighborhood: Arkansas X Files