While leaf peeping and scenic drives are popular fall choices in the national parks, October also means that spooky season is upon us.
Many national parks have stories and legends that might make your spine shiver. Put these destinations on your Halloween travel list to experience the paranormal for yourself, or tuck these tales away for your next campfire story night.
How Phantom Ranch got its name
Phantom Ranch is located at the bottom of Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, near the junction of Bright Angel Creek and the Colorado River, and it’s used as a halfway house for Rim–to-Rim hikers.
Phantom Ranch was named for the nearby Phantom Canyon and Phantom Creek, but no one can agree how the name “phantom” came to be.
Some say that the name comes from the fact that the narrow Phantom Canyon often seemed to disappear and reappear in a phantom-like haze, others believed it was named for Phantom Rock, a formation located about two miles north of the ranch that looks like a cloaked figure.
Another gorier story goes that an early Grand Canyon prospector named John Shane was killed in the narrow canyon after a stone fell off the wall and crushed him. Afterward, when prospectors and hunters were in the area, they kept seeing a strange light appear on the wall where Shane had been killed.
Ghost Lights in the Great Smoky Mountains
With its mist-shrouded mountains, there’s no wonder that ghost stories abound in the Great Smoky Mountains. In the national park boundaries, the landscape is filled with abandoned homes and communities from former residents.
You can visit Elkmont, Sugarlands, Tremont and Cades Cove for a peek into the past. You might even spot a ghost of one of the residents who chose to continue living in the national park until they died.
One of the biggest mysteries of the Smokies lies a couple hours outside the national park.
At the end of a gravel road in North Carolina, you will arrive at Wiseman’s View, named after Josiah Lafayette “Fate” Wiseman. In the 19th century, Wiseman would go camping with his father up on the ridge, where he began to see a mysterious light, night after night.
Now known as the Brown Mountain Lights, these glowing orbs have drawn ghost hunters and scientists alike for over 100 years. There’s even a symposium where scientists share new evidence about the mystery.
While scientists ahve said many of the lights they’ve observed came from man-made sources, they are still uncertain about some of the lights they captured.
Explanations range from ball-lightning to fireflies. Take a journey outside the park for the chance to see the lights and decide for yourself.
The Twice Hanged Man of Skidoo
This famously hot desert park has one of the most foreboding landscapes in the United States. With names like Dante’s View, Devil’s Cornfield, Coffin Peak and the Funeral Mountains, there’s no wonder spooky stories abound in Death Valley National Park.
Over 100 years ago, the mining town of Skidoo, located within park boundaries, was buzzing with residents searching for gold. Only the toughest survived in the harsh and hot environment.
In 1908, local saloon owner Joe Simpson went on a drunken rampage, shot Jim Arnold, who owned the trading company across the street. Simpson was apprehended and placed under guard in the deputy sheriff’s cabin.
After Arnold died from his injuries, Skidoo locals were so angry that they formed a mob and pulled the prisoner out of the improvised jail. They hanged him on the nearest telephone pole.
After the incident, several locals and journalists were upset that they hadn’t brought their cameras to capture the event, so they removed Simpson from his grave to restage the hanging. To add to the horror, Simpson’s head was removed soon after by Dr. MacDonald, who used it for medical study.
Years later, a prospector in the area came to town to report a headless skeleton. Some claim that his headless ghost wanders the town to this day.
The Patients of Mammoth Cave
Mammoth Cave National Park boasts more than 150 documented paranormal events, making it one of the most haunted NPS destinations.
Over a century before the cave became a national park, Dr. John Croghan purchased the cave to test his theory that the cave’s environment would cure “consumption,” the term they used for tuberculosis at the time.
The doctor brought 15 patients into the cave, but rather than curing the disease, two of them died and all experienced worsened symptoms. Then, Dr. Croghan himself caught tuberculosis and died.
The remnanats of the patients rooms, known as “consumptive cabins,” can still be seen while touring the cave. In front of one of the rooms is Corpse Rock, where the dead tuberculosis patients were laid before they were taken out of the cave to be buried.
Some visitors have reported hearing the racking coughs of patients long-gone in this section of the cave.
Visitors can pay an extra $25 to go on the Violet City Tour of the cave, where park rangers give the tour by lantern light.
Many park guides report having strange experiences during the tour, including being shoved by an unknown force, hearing footsteps or being grabbed in the darkness.
Celebrating Halloween from home this year?
Add a National Park twist to your festivities with a National Park-themed costume or participating in the NPS pumpkin carving challenge.
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