Have you ever been to a place that, at first glance, looked completely normal but you still had some unexplained goosebumps and chills running down your spine? A place that oozes unease even though you’ve been to similar places before? Somewhere you’d be glad never to set foot in? Well, you are not alone! People from this Reddit thread shared their own experiences of encountering such seemingly innocent yet completely haunting places in the wild. Places they sure won’t mind forgetting.
Now, you might think these eerie places are peppered all throughout the world, and you’d be completely right about that. However, only our Cat Overlords know why most of the scary places in this list are located in… Yup, you guessed it - in the U.S. of A. As we said, we don’t know the reason behind this phenomenon, but we guess it’s simply because the country is so vast and the people are so diverse. Or, it might be haunted, which is totally a joke so there is no need to pull down those blinds and lock your door… Yet.
A whole other thing is these scary places in Europe. If in the USA everything is relatively new - a couple of years old, at best - and not so seeped with the passing of time, then Europe has thousands of Medieval towns, absolutely terrifying old forests (Romania, it’s your time to shine here), and everything is basically from a history book. Now, add in the factor of many, many, many people spending time in those places over hundreds of years, and well, you’re bound to feel their presence in those walls and in those woods. Creepier than ever!
Now, even if you think you are ready to read these scary stories that people shared in this AskReddit thread, you might still want to put on your brave pants before you fully commit. Once you’re done reading the stories (or however much you had the courage to go through), give the most haunted place your vote, so it can scare the bejesus out of other readers, right on the top of this list.
May the odds be ever in your favor!
This post may include affiliate links.
"In Northern BC there's a long stretch of highway with absolutely nothing but dense forest and it's nicknamed "highway of Tears" in reference to an incredible amount of mostly First Nations women who've gone missing or have been found dead/murdered on the stretch of road. After visiting family, my husband, kid (5), and I were headed south on that road and during this one long stretch with few cars around us a white cop car flashed its lights to get us to pull over. So we did and once pulled over he turned his brights on. As we waited for the cop my partner and I were trying to guess what this was about. We were driving an insured car at the speed limit, sober with a valid licence. So after a couple of minutes, we were getting slightly worried we had unknowingly done something. When the officer got close enough to actually see him... this dude was not a cop. His uniform looked like he had ordered off Wish and looked "off". If you had never seen a uniform or weren't from this country, I don't think you would know. We asked to see his badge and he got visibly nervous. So he went back to get the badge from the car and suddenly the brights switched off and the car roared past us. When we reported it, we learned we weren't the only ones stopped by a fake cop."
darkknight109 wrote:
"Buddy and I were on a road trip to Vegas and we stopped in this little small town in Nevada. Unbeknownst to us, it was right next to a military base that was apparently focused on some pretty high-level research. My buddy's car was not exactly in great shape and we broke down while stopped at a red light on a road adjacent to the base. I kid you not, within maybe three minutes there were five unmarked SUVs around us. The guys that got out were very friendly but very businesslike - they quickly got our car moving again, wished us well, and told us pleasantly but quite firmly not to stop on that road again."
mojavekoyote replied:
"What I'm reading is, for free car repair break down in front of a military base in Nevada."
This could have been area 51, have been past it myself and felt quite eerie, mostly due to all the stories you hear about it.
"The neighborhood I stayed at in Belém, Brazil. I had just arrived at the airport, and took a taxi to my hotel where I was to stay for a couple nights before meeting my colleagues and continuing up the Amazon. After checking into the hotel and unpacking, I grabbed my camera bag and started walking around the neighborhood. Came across some kids skateboarding at a skate park as the sun was setting, and waved hello. Took out my camera and pointed to it, trying to gesture that I wanted to take some photos of the scene.
The kids begin to point and gesture, shouting excitedly, and I laugh and pantomime paparazzi with my camera. They shout louder and wave their hands around harder. I keep miming. After about 15 seconds of this, I figured I had bothered them and turn around to start walking up the street back toward my hotel.
The entire group of about 15 kids runs to catch up to me. As I’m trying to figure out what’s going on, the oldest looking one tells me in broken English and pantomime that I cannot have a camera here. I’m confused and try to ask why.
The boy mimes a grabbing gesture toward my camera and points a finger gun at me and says “bang”.
It suddenly dawns on me that I am in the middle of a Brazilian favela and these boys are trying to protect me from being robbed. I pantomime my thanks and give them each some reais, and they walk me back to my hotel, surrounding me like secret service agents protecting the president.
It was hilarious, terrifying, enlightening, and moving, all in one."
Great kids. Very naive of the OP though ... So important to research areas and customs. Be streetwise and be careful. Glad OP was OK.
"Troyes, France. We were in the old medieval area, which was incredible, but it was eerie because there were literally no other people there, and bizarre because there were soundsystems pumping britney spears music into the streets.
I felt like shrek and donkey walking into Duloc."
Might there be a connection between the type of music and lack of people?
Galaxy_Ranger_Bob wrote:
"Lewiston, Maine.
It's not the people, it's the town. There is just something about the place that stains your soul. Even driving through the place and not stopping makes you want to shower afterwards, but soap and water doesn't make you feel clean, because it isn't dirt, or pollution that is sticking to you, it's the Darkness that is Lewiston."
TheEngineer09 replied:
"Northern new England is a weird duality of gorgeous landscape and depressing towns. So much of that area only survives due to tourism, so you get these towns that have shriveled since the mills and factories that once sustained them closed down filled with residents that simultaneously hate tourists but know they need to be nice to them to survive. Most of those towns have a feeling to them that isn't great."
Well, Stephen King has many horror stories set in Maine! Inspiration?!
"I’m surprised no one has said Pulaski TN. I was visiting a friend who goes to college there and while I was hanging out with them and some of their friends they’d all tell me not to go out after night for any reason. They were all really hesitant to explain why after awhile tho they tell me it’s because the kkk still patrol the streets in that town. It turns out that’s where the kkk was founded and they still have a strong presence around town."
"A buddy and I were taking a road trip a few states over. We had left late one evening and found ourselves early the next morning low on gas and looking for a place to fill up. We saw a sign that indicated there was a gas station at the next exit, so we took it, and pulled into the eeriest little town in the Smoky Mountains. On the highway it had been reasonably clear weather, but once we got down into a valley there was dense fog everywhere. There were maybe five buildings in this whole town, and it looked totally abandoned - even the gas station announced from the highway sign was closed. We pulled into the parking lot anyway because we needed a break, and got out to take a look around and the eeriness just intensified: it was totally silent. Not just quiet, but I literally could not hear a single sound other than our footsteps. We stood around for maybe 30 seconds, then looked at each other and silently decided to get the hell out of there, we didn't even say anything once we were in the car.
Fortunately we found a 24 hour truck stop a few more miles down the road, and the lights and activity were sufficient to snap us out of the spell that place had put on us and we started talking about it. My buddy mentioned that he had seen a lone, scary-looking guy just walking slowly past us some distance away and barely visible through the fog, staring intently at us but not making a sound. I hadn't even noticed him, I guess I was looking in a different direction, but apparently he was giving off strong 'I will murder you and no one will ever find the bodies' vibes."
Honey_81 wrote:
"Centralia, PA is eerie as hell because you expect to find people walking around the town streets yet the town is completely abandoned due to the fire that's been burning under the town for 70-ish years(I haven't been to the area since 2006 btw)."
melaninmatters2020 asked:
"Can you explain how a fire burns under the town for so long?"
quanjon elaborated:
"It was a coal mining town, but there was an accident and part of the mines caught fire. Coal being coal will burn and smoulder, so the fire has been burning slowly for decades now. There are areas where you can see smoke rising from cracks in the ground, and there are signs everywhere warning people because the ground is unstable."
"During a training in Boulder I, a mixed race Dutch guy, visited a restaurant with my Latino coworker, a British instructor and one local guy. We went cruising through the Rocky Mountains and ended up in Nederland, named after the original settlers. It was a Friday night, the place was packed with families, music was playing, people were having a good time. We came through the door and everyone stopped talking and stared at us, I swear the music stopped as well. Our local friend was the last one to get in and he just yelled a jolly “howdy folks”. The music started playing again and people continued their talking. Felt like a scene from blazing saddles."
"I stopped in a small town in Utah and asked where I might buy beer. I might as well have asked where the local heroin shop was."
Hell, just try to get a glass of iced tea at some of those little towns.
"Years ago I stopped in a little town called Brandywine in WV. Walked into a bar and right away everyone turned and glared at me. A couple of good ol boys asked me if I was looking for trouble and if I wasn't that I should move on. I left the bar and a sheriff car and two trucks followed me out of town. The dude in the sheriff car glared at me all the way out of town lol. I thought I was gonna get lynched."
goblingoddess1 wrote:
"Alamo, Nevada. During the time I lived there, every person in town was a Mormon. - not saying that all Mormons are bad, but this particular group was to the cult level. Church 3 times a week, a camp for girls to learn how to be good wives and submissive to their husbands."
Rains_Lee replied:
"Alamo used to be a stronghold of polygamist followers of FLDS “prophet” Warren Jeffs. He owned (or controlled through shell companies) one of the local motels, which hosted nuptials arranged by Jeffs between middle-aged men and barely pubescent girls. Jeffs has been imprisoned for the past ten years, serving a life sentence for child sexual assault, but he still runs the FLDS from his cell. I don’t know firsthand if it’s still active in Alamo. Friends of mine who live nearby in Panaca suspect it is."
They don't go to church three times a week. There are different activities for the youth/kids that may be held at the church building, but it's not like they are going and actively worshipping three times a week. Girl's Camp is also not about teaching the Young Women to be good wives who are submissive to their husbands. So much f*****g ignorance in the first response.
Practical_Fee_1102 wrote:
"Some little town in Alabama. Stopped at a little gas station/convenience store Ina run down shack. Went in to buy something and there was a sign saying no black people allowed in the store and there was a window for them to pay/order things at."
AccidentallyBored replied:
"We either went to the same place or there’s more than one. I’m leaning towards the latter."
"Happy Valley, NY. It's an abandoned ghost town that now is a state park. Rumor has it the town was killed off in an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague but the details are sketchy at best. Every time you passed by the entrance to the state park where you could look down the former main street that existed in the 19th Century you'd always get a chill up your spine."
Abandoned in the 1930s not due to plague but because the government bought it up to make a state park. Doesn't mean it wouldn't feel creepy though.
"Frenchburg, Kentucky.
When I was a kid, my father travelled around to different car shows on weekends selling various things like owner's manuals and decals for classic cars (he also had a classic car he entered into the shows).
He heard about a little town festival with a car show in Frenchburg, so off we went. The town was tiny, and the festival was maybe 12 people standing around in the middle of town with a few random decorations...not a classic car to be seen.
Everyone watched as we drove through, just staring. When we rolled the window down to ask if we were in the right place, no one said a word...they just stared at us like we were some kind of threat to their very existence.
So we left, but first, we stopped at a gas station on the edge of town. A girl working there told us she lives in another town and couldn't wait to find another job because it was the creepiest place she'd ever worked. She joked that Everyone there must be vampires because the town was always dark even in the middle of the day and they don't like outsiders. (We hadn't noticed before, but it was kind of dark there for a summer afternoon).
Maybe we just caught them on an off day, but it creeped us all out. Weird little town."
"Jaywick in East Anglia. It's the worst town in the UK several years running. There's just nothing there. All the houses are dilapidated and their gardens ruined, for a place so close to the seas it's so creepy you can't even hear the waves. It's not a scary place just really sh*tty and it just makes you uncomfortable! It's probably the only place in the UK you can buy a beach front property for under £100,000, but I don't even think that price would be worth it."
crimsonlaw wrote:
"My college roommate, who is one of my closest friends, grew up in a little spot of nothing. I think the town only still exists because it's the last stop off an interstate leading out of our state. Maybe 250 residents. This is in the deep south too.
When he got married, his wedding was held in his hometown. I was his best man so I spent the weekend there helping him get things ready. Never felt more unwanted in a place before. People knew my buddy and he was pretty popular, but me? They wanted nothing to do with me.
Even at the wedding and reception, only one person who I didn't know from before spoke to me. When I would try to talk to others, they would smile politely then walk away without otherwise responding. Even the dang preacher.
I was happy to be there for my buddy, but I was REALLY happy to leave town when that mess was over. It was like something out of a horror movie."
notreallylucy replied:
"I had a very similar experience in Abilene, Texas. I was there for a friend's wedding. I'm from the west coast and very obviously not local. I kept getting honked at even when I was literally doing nothing wrong. I got cut off a few times, too Eventually someone told me it was because of my out of state plates.
A cashier at Walmart told me she could tell I was from out of town by the way I talked. She asked where I was from and when I told her, she said, "Ew!" I was very glad to have that town in my rearview mirror."
"Montgomery Alabama. My family moved there because my dad got a job as a plant manager. We came from New York. And the locals DO NOT LIKE YANKEES. My brother and I were ostracized in school because of it. Nobody wanted to be our friends, the teachers were hard on us. When we went out our lack of southern accents were noticed. It was just a not very nice place. Never experienced a single moment of “Southern Hospitality “. Thankfully the plant manager job never panned out and we only were there 8 months."
... wondering if people still get called carpetbaggers in a place like this.
"When I was about 14, my family took a road trip to Toronto from Chicago. We stopped in the north of Michigan to eat lunch at a Panera. We were the only people of color we saw the entire time, and kept getting looks. I had never wanted to leave so fast."
"I was on a road trip with some friends several years ago. We had a lot of ground to cover, so we often drove through the night taking shifts at the wheel. One night on our way from Utah to California, we drove through the Nevada desert. If you’ve driven through the desert in Nevada, you know there is not much of anything, especially at night. No street lamps, no passing cars, and very few populated towns or gas stations that work.
It had been a couple of hours since we passed a gas station, so we slowed down as we came to a town—I forget the name—on the highway. We very quickly realized that this town was abandoned: there were no lights, no cars, and all the buildings were boarded up. We needed gas, so this was concerning—but we had a 10gallons of emergency gas in a tank on the roof rack of the car. We stopped in this town to fill up. Immediately we got an eerie feeling. Being a ghost town, it was completely silent. But there was something in the air that felt unnerving. We got in the car to leave.
As we approached the border of the town and more desert, we saw an old El Camino with its lights on sitting on the shoulder of the road. As we approached, it peeled onto the highway ahead of us, as if it had been waiting for us. It kept in front of us for a half hour before we passed another car, which got onto the road behind us. This was strange and those of us who were awake were on high alert.
Eventually, the El Camino in front of us slowed to a stop and parked his car diagonally in the road, as if to stop us from passing him. We were in the middle of the desert. There was no reason to stop. The car behind us also stopped, sandwiching us between these two vehicles. When we saw the driver behind us get out and approach our car, we got the f*ck out of there. Hit the gas and drove past the car in front of us, getting off the pavement and onto the rocky desert sand to do so. Hauling ass away from the two cars behind us, we watched in the rearview mirror as we saw both cars exit the road onto what seemed to be some trail over a hill until we could no longer see their taillights. There was nothing there, and I have no idea what that path lead to if not deeper into the desert.
Felt like a scene out of breaking bad."
"Rhinelander, WI.
My dad had been promoted to an assistant manager position, but to get the job, he'd have to move to Rhinelander. We figure, let's go for it.
My parents (and myself) knew nearly nobody in town, and at one point my parents joined a bowling league for a period of time, with the intent of meeting new people. At one point, someone pulled them aside and said, "look, I see what you're trying to do, but until you've got someone in the local cemetery or have been deer hunting with people here, you're always going to be those people who moved into so-and-so's old place."
After things turned south there, we moved back to Michigan and stayed there."
"I was moving cross-country and driving my own truck. I stopped at a Walmart in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas to resupply on a couple of things, and by the way the locals acted, you'd think Satan himself had just walked through the door. Everyone stared, at least 3 people followed me around. I was dressed in black and do have a thick beard and visible tattoos, which adds up to looking like trouble in some people's books, but I didn't do anything wrong and wasn't wearing something with anything objectionable or offensive on it. It was totally uncalled for, just say hello. I'm really nice, I promise. Big teddy bear, that's my whole thing."
scruffynerf wrote:
"Wilcannia, New South Wales. Arse end of nowhere. If you're ever on that road, stop overnight in Broken Hill instead. Much safer."
Commenter No. 2 replied:
"We spent a night sleeping in our car in Wilcannia in 1988, I was 11. There was something wrong with our car so we were stuck there.
I vividly remember a few key things the place. As we were approaching the town I saw a river. It was actually shining broken glass. The shops had bars on the windows and fences like fortresses. People were asleep in the street during the day.
I remember playing on a playground with my brother and talking to local kids, they were nice enough and were keen to chat and play with us.
But overall it felt unsettling, if we were unsafe my folks didn't let on but my dad was a policeman.
We were in the area because we were going to or from Pooncarie, another interesting town, which was wonderful."
"Nitro, WV.
I pulled into a gas station to fill up my leaky tire. There were people hanging out at the gas station at 3 in the morning, giving the “tweaker stare.” One asked to borrow my phone despite there being a working pay phone.
I jumped in the car with a half-flat tire, went ten miles down the road, and found a much less sketchy truck stop to fill the tire back up."
"Forsyth, GA.
Few buddies and I took a road trip down to Florida shortly after we all graduated (years ago). Had a tire issue, stopped there to grab a new one. The guy at the tire place recommended we try the Subway while we waited. Everyone kept insisting we try the Subway, even the people at the place we went to eat. The people at the little grocery store thing when we were grabbing road snacks.
It was creepy as hell."
"Emmaville NSW. Old mining town, still has some life in it. Wandered into a weirdly empty and labyrinthine pub to find a bathroom, struggled to find my way out. There’s a minerals museum there, pretty good, the further you go into the place the weirder and weirder it gets. The town didn’t get electricity til like 1958 and it shows. There’s all these black panther things around too, all weird and off putting and creepy, apparently there’s stories about a panther stalking the nearby bush. Panthers don’t live in Australia. Overall it was a really strange place, in a way that makes the pit of your stomach tense up, and you want to run away."
"Hiking in the mountains of Romania. Middle of nowhere, I find a paved road. It wasn't on any maps, no idea where it led or where it came from. No nearby villages or towns, just endless forests. And there's this immaculate two-lane road cutting across the forest.
I was legitimately creeped out, it was like one of those "staircase in the woods" creepypasta-type things."
Morethanafeeling62 wrote:
"Fallon, Nevada. Huge “you ain’t from around these parts are ya boy” vibes. Small military town with the standard one diner and one DQ."
Awesum024 replied:
"Stayed at the quality inn there for a night couple years ago. Went outside to make a phone call, and some sunglasses-in-a-truck-facebook-selfie guy with crossed arms kept staring at me. For the whole half hour of my call.
When my friend was ready to go have lunch at the one (probably only) pho spot, his gf/wife joined the staring party as we drove off.
Yeah no thanks to Fallon."
"I don't remember what town we were in, but it was in Wyoming. We were staying at a campsite that had a nice little stream next to it, secluded, and a ways away from the town. We had just finished setting up camp and finished lunch when a rusty, beat up truck rolled through flying a massive confederate flag. Dude did 2 loops of the road in the campground then just went on with his day. My wife and I packed up and left pretty quick after that."
Oh great, another supporter of the "Lost Cause". insert eyeroll here.
"Jerusalem. I was wearing a knee-length sun dress when I was heckled in the street for having legs uncovered. It’s the only place in the world that this has happened to me. Interestingly, I visited Palestine on the same trip and was met with a lovely welcome there from all that I encountered. Nobody commented on my clothing."
F*****g fundamentalists - mostly mentalists, completely mental. The sooner these people are sidelined the better, whatever the bloody 'religion / delusion' the better.
"Tucumcari, New Mexico.
I have never been to a place that time so obviously forgot, somewhere around 1990. This place is so f*cking uncomfortable just to drive through, and my friend and I stopped to eat...
I think is was called The Lizard Lounge, or something like that. This restaurant was in a (maybe?) abandoned hotel, and gave serious wrong turn vibes. The food and service was fine, but the ambiance was sooo uncomfortable. They had life-like portraits of people painted like they were sitting in the booths, eating with you."
EWH733 wrote:
"In the late 80’s I worked for a company that sent us to county seats and irrigation districts here in California and Nevada, and I was strictly warned before going to Humboldt County, CA that I was to stick to main roads and not go exploring the backcountry. People disappeared all the time back then when they stumbled upon one of the many illegal pot farms and were never heard from again!"
ExcuseDependent2978 replied:
"I remember hearing stories from that era that the back roads of Humboldt weren't safe because the marijuana crops were booby-trapped and that people looking to poach free weed would disappear. Urban legend?"
"Jeffery City, Wyoming. Stopped in at the only establishment in the ghost town. Old timer is sitting at the bar and turns around and before even saying anything to me tosses me something and I catch it. It was a .50 Cal round from an M2 or something. He was like don't drop it it will probably detonate! I was like thanks for the heads up dude. Drank a beer with him though he was nice enough cowboy."
"While traveling through west Texas about 40 years ago with my parents, we stopped at a roadside diner. Not really in a town, just a little place off to the side of I-40. There were no other cars in the parking lot, but we went in anyway, mostly to use the restroom. My dad was hungry so we stayed to eat. Sat down in a booth across the aisle from this skeevy looking redneck. He stands up and walks to our table, bends down and looks 15 year old me directly in the face and says "bet you never expected to be no place like this". Walked out the door.
We did not stay to eat. Just got back in the station wagon and got the hell out of Dodge."
"I’m pretty sure it was just outside Derby, VT. I’ve been through the Bronx, partied in Dorchester, MA, hung out with some good ole boys in Louisiana. Though I’ve never seen nothing like that lil place outside Derby.
Friend of mine and I stop in for a beer. Our truck was the only vehicle there that we could see. Everyone else had shown up via snowmobile. We go inside and sit down at the bar. We were getting pretty friendly with the bartenders and they were reciprocating our niceties.
Everyone else in there was staring us down. We see the bartenders talking to a group at the other end of the bar. Then they came back over to us. “You boys need to go, now.” “But…” “Beers on the house. Go.” One of the bartenders follows us outside gives my friend her digits and we left.
Just about everyone I’ve ever met from Vermont are the friendliest people I’ve ever met outside of the bayou. But that place was just weird."
zilchzeronadazip wrote:
"The bazaar in Hammamet, Tunisia.
The locals started following us in the market and chanting "Monica, Monica, Monica" at my wife. First it was 1 then 3 then eventually dozens of insane shopkeepers chanting in unison as we made our way to the exit.
Although we left the market they still came charging out and local police began beating a few of them with clubs.
Later that same day I used the swimsuit I purchased there and it disolved in the sea... It was made of gelatin apparently."
kidfriday asked:
"Why Monica?"
zilchzeronadazip elaborated:
"I have absolutely no idea. That's what it sounded like, but it could have been a word in Arabic that sounds similar. We didn't stick around to find out.
You couldn't pay me to go back to that place. The entire trip from start to finish was pure insanity."
Munhal? Meaning promiscuous? I've heard that dune North African Arabians see Western women as such, might be wrong.
"Jerome Arizona, other people love it and swear by it. I don't know what it was but that town gave me the creeps. I just had a horrible gut feeling the whole time I was there and felt like something bad was going to happen. And I have no idea as to why, I never get that way and love travelling. Needless to say, I got some food walked around and dipped."
Yeah, I got a similar feeling when I visited around 15 years ago. Nice enough on the surface, but just didn't feel a happy place and had a very unsettling vibe.
"Not a town, but a motel near the airport in Portland that was owned by some kind of evangelical church. We had to leave the property entirely to smoke, and they did not look kindly on the fact that we weren’t married. The congregation ate breakfast at the buffet every morning. They tried to be friendly, but looked like talking to us made them physically uncomfortable, and I don’t remember seeing another guest the whole time. It was kind of like we weren’t good enough for them to get us to join their cult, but they couldn’t sacrifice us to their god because they needed the cash and a positive yelp review."
"Napanee Ontario.
I was only there for 3-4 months my aunt passed away and was a hoarder so I helped my parents sort stuff and get rid of it.
This town was creepy mainly at night but it seemed that basically everyone there was on welfare you got extremely racist vibes from everyone I have lived in a lot of places but this place made my skin crawl and it wasn’t the house that did that.
I wouldn’t step foot in the town ever again if you paid me."
"Drove through the abandoned town of Picher, Oklahoma without knowing anything about it. Looked very eerie with abandoned buildings. Looked it up afterwards, and the whole town was condemned due to insanely high lead levels in the water supply and children, and this was in the 90s. Apparently, there are a few holdouts who still live there."
"Covington Virgina.
I used to drive a lot for work a few years ago. And about twice a week I would find my self in Covington. The first thing you notice is the smell. It was like drinking hotdog water, but you were breathing it in. That was caused by the pollutants from the paper factory there.
About 20% of the people who live there work for said factory. And factory work is not all rainbows and butterflies. So it makes sense that the people there wouldn't be too happy in the first place.
All that aside, I drove by GPS for the most part and before I even noticed the smell, as i was coming into town, I just felt off. Like some one was watching me or following me. But of course no one was.
I dont believe in the supernatural, but that place freaked me out so much. I'm talking "Evil Dead 2013" type of feeling. Thankfully I am no longer in that line of work now and I WILL NEVER STEP FOOT IN THAT TOWN AGAIN."
"Most of rural pennsylvania. I am not sure what it is about this state, but once you veer off the main road things get weird fast. I’ve driven across rural New York, Maryland, and Ohio and they are all normal. Pennsylvania is another story.
I think what does it to me is that rural PA is more likely to have a gloomy overcast sky. Also the rural places are developed but they give off this vibe like you are visiting somewhere no one else has visited for decades. Places untouched by time. There are all these signs of brands that don’t exist or that exist but the sign has to be like 60 years old? Like plenty of vintage ads. Also there are these weird twisted trees up there.
I want to add that I have nothing against PA. I like the state and it’s many tourist attractions. It is just something that I noticed and that struck me as weird and unexpected. Another thing that might make everything weird is that PA went all in with fracking, so it isn’t unexpected to see communities that look half abandoned and destroyed."
"Drumnadrochit, Scotland.
It's a small town on the shores of Loch Ness. When planning our roadtrip there, we'd found information about this place being the place to visit when visiting Loch Ness. There's a tourist information centre, a museum, the whole deal.
So me and my cousin arrive after about a 4 hour drive from Edinburgh, park the car and have a look around town. The museum and tourist centre were closed and looked like they had been closed for a long time, even though there was no mention of that online. It should be open.
Anyway, we decided to look for a place to eat, but it litteraly seemed like this was a (quite charming) sleepy little village where there wasn't much to do. In the middle of town we found this single small restaurant, so we went with that.
The best way to describe this place is like a cross between a funeral home and a diner. The moment we set foot in the door, the whole place fell silent and everyone looked at us. It was quite busy, but it was instantly clear that all the other people were locals and didn't seem too used to visitors. I'd almost felt like they'd drive us out with pitchforks and torches.
The vibe was really weird, but it was the only place to eat and we were pretty damn hungry. So we took seat at the only available table, quickly ate some (pretty decent) fish and chips and noped the hell out."
Commenter No. 1 wrote:
"Danville, VA... if my memory serves me correctly, there was a giant Confederate flag by or near the Welcome to Danville sign, and a giant-a*s highway looping around it, in the middle of f*cking nowhere. When you have an entire f*cking series of roads built so you don't have to enter your small town, it makes me wonder what kind of unspeakable terror exists that necessitates that sort of thing."
FopFillyFoneBone replied:
"Danville used to be the centre of the textile industry for the entire region. The (partial) loop is there because of the hub design of the roadways - if you look at a map, there are roads converging on Danville from all around.
Having said that, it's a town that has fallen from grace since the textile industry moved overseas. It's a very depressed area now."
"Anna, IL would count for me. It has a reputation of being a sundown town even now. Most people forget about Southern IL, and it shows. Hell, most of SIL is like that. Nothing to do but do drugs, f*ck and go hiking (not necessarily in that order).
The colleges are dying, and with them places like Carbondale (the closest thing to civilization outside of the St. Louis burbs). There's no jobs worth much, so anyone who wants to go somewhere in life would move elsewhere quick."
ThrasherLA wrote:
"Redding, CA. They’ve got a cool bridge that’s a tourist attraction but got bad vibes in the actual town as a person of color trying to pick up some food. There was also a caravan of pickup trucks decked out in Trump and MAGA flags driving aggressively all over the road (this was the election year).
Maybe it’s a great town and I completely misjudged it, but I felt I needed to be in high alert."
Awesum024 replied:
"Get the same vibe from Anderson near Redding. There’s a diner there I fancy, and before the pandemic, the people were nice enough. Like “you go about your day and I’ll go mine”. When I went back to the diner during the pandemic i felt the tension going back into the diner as it was plastered with anti-vax, anti-mask, trump shrines etc. people were more angrily vocal about political differences and so on..
Food was still good tho, waitresses were always nice."
"I have an old memory of driving across NM, my home state, but in a really remote part, I'd never been to before. We had just passed through a national forest area and on the outskirts of the green hill country we stopped at this rundown gas station in this absolutely tiny town alongside this quiet road. I think it might have been Reserve, New Mexico, but I honestly don't remember.
Anyway, it was getting on toward late afternoon and there was a looming thunderstorm in the distance, which might have explained the mood of the place. Whatever it was, the vibe was creepy as hell, the gas station attendants were just short of hostile, and my mind kept thinking of the movie Deliverance. NM is nothing like Appalachia, but we do have our version of "hill folk," and sometimes it's best to mind one's business. We couldn't get out of there fast enough."
"Sanderson, FL.
One blinking stoplight town, basically one small 4-way intersection with a couple of gas stations where townsfolk hang out at, and a big church that’s lit up at night right off the I 10 exit.
Needed gas as I was heading back down to south FL and went into town to fill up.
I’m sure the people are fine and all, but the drive in passed the previously mentioned landmarks made it feel like the opening to every legit terrifying horror movie you can think of.
I was with my dad and once we got back to I 10 we both said it was the eeriest place we could remember being (granted it was late at night which always adds to it).
Nobody unwelcoming or anything, just creepy and sort of a time warp feeling where it felt like you’d gone back into the past 50-60 years.
That was about 12 years ago and I’ve passed the exit for that town quite a few times in travels throughout the years, and I will continue to pass it by indefinitely."
"Blytheville Arkansas... most evil feeling Town ever... the military base moved out in the 80s so it is a complete Ghost Town.. never in my life have I felt like someone was following me all the time there was just darkness you can't explain it was like every day was cloudy. I never left my house I only stayed 4 months I couldn't stand it anymore. Come to find out it had a horrific history. A lot of the wood to rebuild Chicago after the fire was taken from Blytheville Arkansas and there was a lot of drinking a lot of unsaviness and a great deal of murders.. I grew up in historic DC and Virginia so you have this death was just thick in this place."
jchaff509 wrote:
"Peach Springs, AZ.
Stayed overnight for an early morning rafting trip. Decided I'd walk the town a bit to see where I was at. Cop stopped me less than 100ft away from the hotel's front doors. Warning me to turn back and stay inside. Stupidly I asked why out of sheer surprise. His response, "I'm the only cop in town and can't be everywhere at once. I can't force you to go back but promise we'll be seeing each other again if you keep heading in the direction you are going". Enough said was my thought."
HayDiosMio- replied:
"Was he trynna keep you safe? Or was that threat?"
jchaff509 elaborated:
"For sure trying to keep safe. I found out later that's a dry residue to substance abuse issues and criminal activity. Very sad to see, but honestly inside the hotel the people were very friendly and proud to share their history. One guy even sat with my fan for about an hour explaining the variety of fry bread recipes he makes and which he highly recommends we try at some point.
Plus bonus that rafting trip was one of the best I've been on!"
"Seligman. End of route 66. Got stuck there for 3 months attempting an adventurous route of starting over.
1 small grocery store, a bar, a diner with a waitress wielding a 2 foot tall beehive, chewing gum, named Flo, and a hotel.
The bar was like something out of the old west. Same drunks every night, and a couple of twins that were notorious for... Shady deeds."
Seligman is home to the Grand Canyon Caverns and, oddly enough, was the inspiration for Radiator Springs in the "Cars" movies.
"Lincoln, NM. Town with a violent history as the epicenter of the Lincoln County War with Billy the Kid. It's basically a ghost town/museum. It's amazing to visit since the whole town is a self guided museum. You can stand where Ollinger was shot and where Billy the Kid shot him. You can touch the bullet holes that Billy the Kid put there. You can feel the energy there. You can visit the graves (Billy the Kid's grave is in Ft. Sumner). Incredible place."
Interesting place. Mother and Father-in-law are buried there as well as his Mother, Geronima, a daughter of Geronimo.
"It's a small town near Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. My family and I passed by mistake and received rocks on our heads by a bunch of dumb*ss teenagers, and then a police car stayed as we slept on a bench since there were no hotels nearby. Of course, we weren't even allowed to sleep and were told to move away."
It sounds like there are parts of this country stuck in stranger danger mode. Sad. These folks are scared of the outside world. I wonder how much foxnews (or worse) they watch.
No no no you've all got it wrong: St Marie Montana. Abandoned air force based. I used to hang out in the abandoned buildings once in a while to party in 98. Went back in 2020 to visit the homestead after my father died. I kid you not, I have video. The place is exactly the same. As in the abandonded homes have been maintained in the exact abandoned condition as 20 years ago. The only people living there are still a bartender and some yocals who happen to all drive brand new $60,000 pure white vehicles. The only new thing......is the google maps view showing a gigantic landing strip 5 times the size of the town, that wasn't there when I was a kid at least. consider the fact the site was used to store atomic weapons in the cold war and....well I don't know what you've got, but it's clearly one of the strangest, eeriest places I've experienced back home!
The Devil's Den, at Gettysburg. I was there with a friend years ago, very close to the anniversary of the battle. We were there at dusk - and night comes on very quickly on that battlefield. the fireflies all came out, and we both felt an indescribable malevolence - we almost ran back to the car and got the hell out of there.
It sounds like there are parts of this country stuck in stranger danger mode. Sad. These folks are scared of the outside world. I wonder how much foxnews (or worse) they watch.
No no no you've all got it wrong: St Marie Montana. Abandoned air force based. I used to hang out in the abandoned buildings once in a while to party in 98. Went back in 2020 to visit the homestead after my father died. I kid you not, I have video. The place is exactly the same. As in the abandonded homes have been maintained in the exact abandoned condition as 20 years ago. The only people living there are still a bartender and some yocals who happen to all drive brand new $60,000 pure white vehicles. The only new thing......is the google maps view showing a gigantic landing strip 5 times the size of the town, that wasn't there when I was a kid at least. consider the fact the site was used to store atomic weapons in the cold war and....well I don't know what you've got, but it's clearly one of the strangest, eeriest places I've experienced back home!
The Devil's Den, at Gettysburg. I was there with a friend years ago, very close to the anniversary of the battle. We were there at dusk - and night comes on very quickly on that battlefield. the fireflies all came out, and we both felt an indescribable malevolence - we almost ran back to the car and got the hell out of there.
