America's Most Haunted State Is Home to These 5 Creepy Places

With its dense forests and rugged coastline, Maine has a unique and wild beauty all its own. Yet lurking amid all its natural majesty are plenty of haunting legends and a whole lot of bloody history. Maine was ranked America’s most haunted state in a 2025 study, which found that it had the highest number of ghost sightings per 100,000 residents of any state. The Pine Tree State, it turns out, is home to countless locations stained by grim pasts and plagued by frequent bumps in the night. 

Read on to discover five of Maine’s most famously haunted places.

1. Fort William Henry
2. The Seguin Island Lighthouse
3. Mount Hope Cemetery
4. Fort Knox
5. The Museums of Old York

Fort William Henry

New Harbor is an immensely picturesque town, filled with beautiful forests, a gorgeous coastline, and lush wildflowers in the summer months. Yet amid all that beauty lies a reconstruction of a British fort long rumored to be haunted. 

Fort William Henry was built during King William’s War in the 1690s, and housed 60 soldiers and many cannons. In 1696, Native American Chief Taukolexis was hanged outside the fort. That same year, according to some historical accounts, a group of Abenaki people came to the fort to protest their treatment by the British, and a battle broke out. The Abenaki eventually raised a truce flag, and the British Captain Pasco Chubb agreed to meet with them. Instead, he ordered his men to fire, killing the Abenaki leader Sagamore Edgeremet and his two sons. The Abenaki fought back, ultimately forcing the British to surrender. Upon returning to Boston, Captain Chubb was jailed for his actions and was later killed by revenge-seeking Abenaki. 

Ever since then, the fort has been the subject of many rumors of hauntings. People have reported seeing glowing lights, feeling chilly gusts of air, and even seeing specters. The ghost of Chief Taukolexis is also said to still wander the premises from time to time.

The Seguin Island Lighthouse

Located on Seguin Island, which is nearly two miles away from the mainland, this lighthouse is tasked with illuminating one of the foggiest and stormiest areas off the coast of Maine. It was established in 1796, and its central tower was rebuilt in 1857, making it one of Maine’s oldest lighthouses. 

Its first keeper was Major John Polereczky, a count of Hungarian origins who apparently died penniless on the island after his salary proved too paltry. Some visitors claim to see the ghost of the “Old Captain” still climbing up and down the staircase from time to time.

Perhaps the most popular legend about this site claims that the lighthouse is also haunted by the spirit of a lighthouse keeper who murdered his wife and killed himself. According to the story, he ordered a piano for his wife to alleviate her boredom, but it came with only one piece of sheet music. Eventually, he went mad after listening to her play the same song over and over. Visitors and mariners sometimes claim to hear the faint echo of piano music through the night, meaning that she may still be playing that same melody even in death. The lighthouse and island are open for tours in the summer, if you’d like to take a listen yourself.

Mount Hope Cemetery

Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine and spent much of his youth in the town of Durham. Many of his stories are set in the state, including Pet Sematary, which is set in the fictional town of Ludlow. The 1989 film was also shot in Maine, and Bangor’s Mount Hope Cemetery served as the backdrop for the film’s central cemetery and haunted house. King himself even filmed a cameo there.

Founded in 1836 as part of the rural cemetery movement, Mount Hope is the second-oldest garden cemetery in the U.S. King often spent time there as a college student at the University of Maine and allegedly even borrowed names for some of his more famous characters—including Carrie and Georgie—from headstones there. 

Over the years, many visitors have claimed to see and hear various spirits and apparitions wandering through the cemetery. Soon, those apparitions might include more furry friends, as in 2021, the cemetery set aside a section for people who wish to be buried alongside their pets.

Fort Knox

Fort Knox is a well-preserved military fort located on the banks of the Penobscot River. It never actually saw battle, but one of its first keepers, Leopold Hegyi, fell ill and died there in 1900—and his ghost is still said to occasionally appear around the fort’s dense subterranean tunnels and winding corridors. 

Another ghost said to haunt the premises is the spirit of a builder who, according to legend, stifled his cigar on a keg of gunpowder and died instantly. His presence is said to be recognizable by the smell of tobacco hanging in the air. Some visitors also report hearing the voice of a little girl calling out for her mother, and some even claim to feel tugs or taps from errant spirits. Today, the fort offers numerous ghost tours and has also appeared on shows such as Destination Fear and Most Terrifying Places in America.

The Museums of Old York

This collection of museums is located in one of the most well-preserved English settlements in the nation. Today, visitors often report hearing doors slam and conversations when no one is around. Perhaps the most common supernatural sighting here, though, is that of the so-called “White Witch,” a woman often seen wandering the premises in solitude.

According to some legends, she was hanged on the premises after being accused of witchcraft, and her spirit never left. Today, the museums offer a number of ways to immerse yourself in the area’s spooky aura, from Edgar Allan Poe readings to the inevitable ghost tours. 

This list includes just a tiny fraction of Maine’s many supposedly haunted places. From dangerous roads to inns with dark secrets, the list of spooky, eerie, and downright terrifying attractions in Maine goes on and on. Of course, all of America is rife with haunted locales, from ghost towns to haunted hikes and much more, so no matter where you are, you're likely to find somewhere to ghost hunt before long!