4 Popular Scary Campfire Stories to Tell When…

The beach. Amusement parks. Camping. All quintessential summer pastimes that come with their own thrills and chills. However, there’s something perhaps most particularly thrilling about roughing it in the woods, isn’t there? And what better way to end a day being one with the land than by telling scary campfire stories. Or listening, if you prefer to do that rather than be the teller.

Although, not all campfire stories are scary of course —except for the best ones. Or maybe it’s just a matter of perspective. The campfire tales I like most are all scary.

Like these four. Let’s check them out.

1. Scary Campfire Story to Tell when Camping Near a River or Lake: La Llorona

Some consider the movie The Curse of La Llorona part of the Conjuring Universe. However, its director, Michael Chaves disputes that. As he explained to Bloody Disgusting, there’s a simple reason why: Basically, “it was made without one of the [Conjuring franchise] producers, so technically it can not be fully embraced.“

Whether it is or not isn’t the issue. Before it became movie fodder (which it did as early as 1933) the legend of the La Llorona, the Weeping Woman, was a popular Latin American folktale.

There are various renditions of it. The tale always involves the same two things though: a woman and a body of water, be it a river or lake.

In some cases, the woman is said to be the ghost of a woman named Maria who either watched her children drown or did it herself when she caught her husband with another woman. (Depending on the telling. Sometimes it’s also told that she killed them herself.)

Either way, she ends up dying too and is so distraught she now spends eternity in mourning. Specifically, she roams near bodies of water, wailing in grief, as she searches for her kids.

But some versions are more menacing. La Llorona is a killer who hunts for children who are out alone at night by themselves. In even darker versions it doesn’t matter if you’re a man, woman, or child. If you have the misfortune of coming across her, she’ll kill you.

Either way, you can see why this would be a particularly spooky story to tell near water, right? Good luck sleeping and trying to tune out every little nearby noise. And good luck keeping your pants dry if you suddenly hear a loud wail.

But if you want to capitalize on Mother Nature’s sound effects, tell this story where there are loons. Some have particularly chilling calls, almost like a person screaming or wailing…

2. Scary Campfire Story to Tell when Camping Near a Barn: Killer Farmer

Barns can be a little creepy on their own anyway but add in this legend and it ups and the ante. This one has a modern edge to it because ghost hunting is involved!

The story goes that there was once a farmer who lived in…well, you can insert just about any midwest state here, but the most popular one is Ohio.

Anyway, as many farm families did once upon a time, the farmer and his wife were busy creating a large family to help around the place.

But the farmer didn’t just view his kids as help. He loved each and every one of them and built barns for each of them.

Then tragedy struck. The farmer’s wife experienced difficulties after the birth of their thirteenth child. (In some versions it’s the seventh child.) Both she and the child died.

The farmer went out of his mind with grief. One by one he took his other kids to their barns and killed them, burying their bodies in them. When he was done, he went to the last barn he’d built, the thirteenth for his most recent child, and hung himself from the rafters.

Here’s where people who like “based on a true story” type tales can have some fun. Allegedly one curious legend hunter, who’s sometimes described as a teacher, other times as some other profession, researched the story to see if he could figure out where the farm was. Rumor had it the land had all been divided up, sold off, and all the barns had been torn down…except for the very last barn. Could he find it?

After scouring property records, he found where a man and his family had died and no one wanted the land because they felt it was associated with too much tragedy. He also learned that one barn did still stand and that many believed it was haunted by the ghost of the farmer. He decided to gather up some equipment and take his son to go investigate for himself.

That was the last time his wife saw them alive.

When they didn’t return home that evening, she called the police and explained where he’d gone. They went to check it out —and found the husband and the son hanging in the barn.

3. Scary Campfire Story to Tell when It’s Foggy: The Werewolf

Sometimes real places inspire scary campfire stories, like Espantosa Lake in Texas. In English, Espantosa translates to hideous, frightening, dreadful, or frightful.

The lake is located in South Texas between Crystal City and Carrizo Springs and is known for the eerie fog that forms on it some nights. The Texas State Historical Association explains the lake served as a campsite during the days when a colonial mission trail ran between San Antonio and Coahuila, Mexico

Legend has it that certain horrors befell some of the trail’s travelers. Like one woman who went to wash her family’s clothes when they stopped to rest during their journey. Soon after she got to the river, she screamed out. When her family rushed to check on her, they arrived in time to see the swish of an alligator’s tail before it disappeared under the water, carrying her with it. Some say the screams they hear these days belong to her.

But of all the weird tales involving the lake, none are weirder than the one about a man whose baby went missing. His name was John Dent and in 1835, he and his pregnant wife, Mollie, had been traveling with a group led by Dr. Charles Beale. The Dents decided to set up their camp about half a mile away from the Beale group, which spared them from a Commanche raid. Most of the Beale group was massacred and their bodies were thrown into the lake. (Which also might account for some of the lake’s ghost stories.)

Except the Dents wouldn’t be spared for long. Mollie soon went into labor and experienced complications. Allegedly this was all happening during a thunderstorm. Undeterred and desperate to help his wife, John rode to a nearby goat ranch. Sadly, no sooner had he found help than he was struck by lightning and was killed instantly.

The goat ranchers still wanted to help John’s wife, though, so when the weather cleared they headed for Dent’s cabin. But when they got there they found Mollie dead. There was no sign of the baby but there were signs wolves had been there. They presumed the wolves had eaten the babe. Until…

Fast forward to 1845. A boy living in the area claimed to have seen a naked girl amidst a pack of wolves attacking a herd of goats. His story was ridiculed but a year later an old woman also claimed to have seen a naked girl with two wolves. They were all eating a goat.

From other settlers to Apaches, sightings of human hand and footprints mixed amongst wolf tracks and sightings of the “Lobo (Wolf) Girl of Devil’s River” spread. One days cowboys rode in search of the mysterious girl, if for nothing else to put the rumors to rest. Instead, they ended up fueling them more.

They found a naked girl running with a pack of wolves. She fought when they tried to capture her, but finally they did. They put her on a horse, rode to the closest ranch, and locked her in a room.

They noted she looked human, and could walk upright, albeit awkwardly. She was more comfortable moving on all fours. Her body was covered in hair, but she definitely looked human.

She couldn’t speak though. She only growled and howled, which she did all night long, her pack answering her in response. Then they seemed to launch a coordinated attack on the ranch. With the cowboys busy defending the livestock, the wolf girl managed to pry the planks away from the window and escaped into the night, where it’s presumed she reunited with her pack.

No one ever came into close contact with the wolf girl again, but there were reports of her again after that. In 1852 men claimed to have seen a hairy young woman nursing two wolf cubs. But as soon as she saw the men, she ran off into the woods. Even up until the 1930s people reported seeing “human-faced” wolves in the area.

4. Scary Campfire Story to Tell on a Dark and Stormy Night: The Crazed Axe Murderer

There’s no way you can have a list of scary campfire stories and not have one involving an ax. Like all of the other creepy campfire legends, there are many variations of this one. But it goes a little something like this…

A couple was traveling to go camping in a remote area. However, they got a late start leaving from home. (Or for whatever reason. Maybe they couldn’t get out of work in time. Basically, they’re on the road after dark and didn’t mean to be.)

Then they get lost. (Or are forced to take a detour for some reason which results in them getting lost.)

But wait, their bad luck is only just beginning. Next, they find themselves driving in a wicked thunderstorm through pouring rain that’s making the road hard to navigate. That’s how they find themselves running off the road.

In some renditions, it’s a stretch of road, or maybe a bridge, rumored to be haunted by a man whose wife met her lover there for their illicit liaisons. When the husband found out, he took an ax to them before taking his own life.

Or did he? Is it his vengeful spirit that still haunts the area and butchers any couples he finds, mistaking them for his cheating wife and her lover and killing them too? Or did he get a taste for blood and is still very much alive, patiently waiting for his next victims to come along in the desolate spot where he knows no one will hear their cries…

Check-In

What are some of your favorite scary campfire stories? Whether it’s one of the above or one you heard or tell around your own campfire.