Maine ranks as the nation’s most haunted state after a 2025 study found the highest ghost sightings per capita, home to five creepy historic places.
A Mental Floss feature details how the Pine Tree State topped that ranking for ghost sightings per 100,000 residents and walks through five spots tied to colonial fighting, lonely keepers, and old burial grounds.
Visitors still report lights, cold gusts, piano notes, and slamming doors at these landmarks. The accounts mix hard history with long-running legends.
Fort William Henry sits in the New Harbor area of Bristol as a 1908 replica of the original built in 1692. British forces housed 60 soldiers and many cannons there during King William’s War.
In 1696 the fort saw a hanging and a deadly breakdown of a truce. Chief Taukolexis was hanged outside the walls. Abenaki leaders arrived under a flag of truce to protest treatment of their people. Captain Pasco Chubb ordered his men to open fire, killing Sagamore Edgeremet and his two sons.
The Abenaki fought back and forced a British surrender. The original fort fell in the Siege of Pemaquid that same year. Chubb later faced jail in Boston and was killed by revenge-seeking Abenaki.
People who visit the replica still describe glowing lights, sudden chilly air, and specters. Some say the ghost of Chief Taukolexis wanders the grounds from time to time.
Seguin Island lies nearly two miles off the mainland. The lighthouse went up in 1796; its central tower was rebuilt in 1857. Summer tours still run there.
Major John Polereczky, a count of Hungarian origins, served as the first keeper. He apparently died penniless on the island after a thin salary. Some visitors claim they see the “Old Captain” climbing the staircase.
Another tale centers on an unnamed later keeper and his wife. He ordered a piano that arrived with only one piece of sheet music. The story says he went mad hearing the same song over and over, murdered his wife, and killed himself. Mariners and guests still report faint piano music drifting across the water.
Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor opened in 1836 and ranks as the second-oldest garden cemetery in the country. Author Stephen King was born in Portland and spent much of his youth in Durham. As a University of Maine student he often walked the grounds.
The 1989 film of his novel Pet Sematary used the cemetery as a backdrop. King filmed a cameo there. Accounts say he borrowed names such as Carrie and Georgie from headstones. In 2021 the cemetery set aside a section so people could be buried alongside their pets.
Visitors continue to describe unexplained spirits among the old stones.
Fort Knox stands on the banks of the Penobscot River and never saw combat. One of its first keepers, Leopold Hegyi, fell ill and died there in 1900. People still say his ghost appears in the tunnels and corridors.
Local legend adds a builder who snuffed his cigar on a keg of gunpowder and died at once. Witnesses claim they recognize his presence by the smell of tobacco. Others report hearing a little girl’s voice.
The site offers ghost tours and has appeared on Destination Fear and Most Terrifying Places in America.
The Museums of Old York preserve a stretch of early English settlement. Guests report doors that slam on their own and conversations that start when no one else is present.
One recurring figure is the so-called White Witch. Some legends say she was hanged on the premises after a witchcraft accusation and that her spirit never left. She is often described wandering the grounds alone. The museums run ghost tours and Edgar Allan Poe readings.
Maine’s colonial forts, isolated lights, and old burial grounds keep drawing people who want to walk the same ground where the stories began. Whether the cold spots and footsteps are history’s echo or something more, the Pine Tree State still leads the count.
