Some of you might also follow Autumnforest’s blog Ghost Hunting Theories, but if not she recently posted the results of her “Haunting Formula” research. I was really excited about her research, which even she admits was ambitious, because it was that –ambitious. But potentially very useful, and definitely very interesting. To my knowledge no one had categorized haunted places in this fashion before.
If you’re not familiar with it, what she did was analyze 50 allegedly haunted sites in the U.S. She rated them based on variables like history of emotional trauma/upheaval, the geology of the area, and the building’s contruction (ie. what it was made of, such as brick, wood, stone etc.). She also looked at their proximity to water and train tracks. Then she put them in order, 1 through 50.
She wasn’t saying that these were the 50 most haunted places in America, or that if one scored low that it was the least haunted in America. She simply chose 50 allegedly haunted places to research and apply her formula/theory to and ranked those. They also just happened to be some of the most well known.
I thought it’d be fun to apply her findings to Haunt Jaunts. Not all of her 50 places were the kind I like to feature on HauntJaunts.net (meaning open/somehow accesible to the public), but here’s the ones that welcome visitors:
- Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
- The Essex Mountain Sanatorium**
- West Virginia Penitentiary (Moundsville)
- Ohio State Reformatory
- Waverly Hills Sanitorium
- Fort Mifflin
- Eastern State Penitentiary
- Arkansas’s Crescent Hotel
- Historic Gila County Jail
- Alcatraz
- Tombstone’s Bird Cage Theater
- The Kehoe House
- St. Augustine Lighthouse
- Myrtles Plantation
- Bob Mackey’s Music World
- The Queen Mary
- Shanghai Tunnels
- Stone’s Public House
- The Lizzie Borden B&B
- The Moore House (aka the Villisca Axe Murder House)
- Copper Queen Hotel
- The Lemp Mansion Restaurant and Inn
- The Battery Carriage House Inn
- Seguin Island Lighthouse
- The Sorrel-Weed House
- The Kewaunee Inn (formerly Karsten Inn)
- Lincoln Theater
- Stanley Hotel
- Iron Island
- Chateau Marmont
- Bullock Hotel
- Winchester Mystery House
- The Hollywood Sign
- Bell Witch Cave
- Belmont Mansion
- Ogden Union Station
- The White House
** = Updated 8/17/09. I incorrectly listed this as a Haunt Jaunt, but it’s not. There are no tours, just a website which tells about the reformatory’s history. (Including it’s paranormal one if you’re interested in reading about it.)
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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Thanks for the mention. The next phase of this research is to take impressive evidence accrued by hunters who’ve been to these sites and compare that with the geomagnetic activity on that evening. I myself have found a 100% correlation in my own hunts with geomagnetic activity and getting evidence that’s impressive. I suspect this might be the “instigating” factor in these haunted-rich sites to ensure you have a very good night for a hunt. As Trans-Allegheny was my #1 find of the 50 and “Ghost Adventures” is doing a lock-down live there on October 30th, I’m hoping geomagnetic activity is going on and they can be ensured some awesome evidence–finally.