Abandoned Places With The Creepiest Stories

If there is one thing cities, towns and villages of all sizes and cultures have in common it is people. When they are missing – whether you know the reason why or not – a place feels scary and it sends bad vibes. Your only companions in certain spots will be ghosts, if you believe in them.

This has been known as one of America's most haunted prisons. It has a past darker than most; but, after all, it had been in operation for more than a century. Before the prison closed in 1995, nearly 1,000 prisoners died inside. The history of the penitentiary includes several riots, escapes, hangings, electrocutions, and grisly murders. Visitors say they can feel the presence of trapped souls still lingering. You can stay overnight. See if the original electric chair, "old sparky," is still in its place.

Oradour-sur-Glane was a small farming village. During World War Two, it was located in the German-occupied zone of France. On June 10, 1944, German troops killed 642 people, almost the entire population, and then destroyed the village, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. After the war, Oradour-sur-Glane became an iconic symbol of German crimes against civilians.

The former tourist township was built on the shores of Lago Epecuén, a lake with therapeutic powers, which had about 5,000 people in the 1970's. A huge volume of water after a storm broke through the dam in 1985swamped much of the town, according to The Weather Channel. The flood was consuming the town for years until it was covered in more than 30 feet of salt water. It began was recede in 2009 and people can now see some of the ruins on the surface.

The history of this small town goes back 400 years. Now, only the cellar holes and a few foundations remain. The roads look more like untouched hiking trails in a forest, and many visitors even claim the woods become eerily silent. Some people call Dudleytown "the village of the damned." The famous story dates back to England in 1510 when Edmund Dudley was beheaded for plotting to overthrow King Henry VIII, and a curse was allegedly placed on the Dudley family for the treason. So now, it is believed that if you go and take something from the abandoned place, you are placing a curse on your own family.

The park opened in 1997 but it was open for barely four years. Imagine an amusement park with no major rides; no wonder people weren't going. Another factor that contributed to its eventual demise was the fact that the theme park was built next to a so called "Suicide Forest," which was the place with the highest number of suicides in the country. Also, the park was close to the infamous Kamikuishiki village, known for being the location of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult's headquarters and nerve gas production facility.

This must be the most famous bus in America. It became well-known after Christopher McCandless's body was discovered inside in 1992. He was the real person on whom the character in the successful movie Into the Wild is based. Every year many people hike along the Stampede Trail to the bus's location near Healy. Often people get lost and have to be rescued. The once wild side has become a tourist attraction and items have accumulated inside the bus left by "pilgrims."

The island, known as Isla de las Munecas (Island of the Dolls) is dedicated to the lost soul of a poor girl who met her fate too soon in strange circumstances. Thousands of people live in the region south of Mexico City, but the tiny island is just home to hundreds of petrifying dolls with severed limbs, decapitated heads, and blank eyes. A local legend says that the dolls move their heads and arms. People have said that they heard the dolls whispering and telling them to come down to the island.

As a result of the riots in Ukraine in 2014 that forced the pro-Russia President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych to flee the capital, abandoning his home, its gates were thrown open. The gigantic posh mansion is now a symbol of the lawlessness and greed that wrecked the country after it became an independent nation. The palace is now a museum displaying Yanukovych's luxurious lifestyle.

The abandoned fort of Bhangarh is said to be the most haunted place in India. The Archaeological Survey of India has banned access to the site between sunset and sunrise, and locals have even moved their town outside the limits of the fort, according to Ancient Origins. There are many stories of spirits and ghosts. One legend goes that a 16th century musician cursed the city because he got rejected by a princess; another that a Holy Man cursed Bhangarh after the fort cast a shadow over his house.

Around 400 suitcases that belonged to former patients, most of whom never left the hospital, were found at the asylum in 1995. They date from 1910 to 1960. Those who died there were buried in numbered but nameless graves. There is a tour for visitors usually every May but it was canceled last year due to safety concerns. The asylum has since been known as Destination Fear and a haunted location where unexplained screams have been heard.

The small city of Pripyat was home to 49,000 residents until it was evacuated and abandoned following the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Although the area remains uninhibited, the ghost town is overrun by nature and has been deemed safe to visit. Some outfitters there offer guided tours of the site. Trees grow in schools, piles of books can be found in libraries, and dolls can still be seen in kindergarten's floors. The theme park opened the day after Chernobyl, which occurred just several miles away; and it never opened its doors again. Thirty-one years later, radiation levels in certain parts are still high – the radioactive particles were simply washed into the soil – even though many adventurous people visit to see at least the park's iconic Ferris wheel.

This is about the 1984 Winter Olympics track. It was damaged during the bloody conflict in the region in the early 90's. The luge and bobsled track used as an artillery stronghold – and battlement and storage for their fighting and weapons. Smithsonian Magazine reports that "some defensive holes, drilled by troops, can still be seen in the track's concrete walls." The Siege of Sarajevo left over 10,000. One makeshift cemetery is located in the middle of the Olympic arena.

The park was abandoned in 1996 after two young guests died accidentally. Many visitors say the girl who died on the swings still appears to them, according to Visit Southern West Virginia. To add to the creepy factor, the site was built over the bones of the Native Americans who had once roamed its fields. An archaeological dig uncovered 13 bodies, most of them children. The gates are open for visitors every Friday and Saturday in October.  

The ghost town was inundated when Lake Mead first filled up in the 1930's. At one point, it was flooded higher than 60 feet above the tallest structure. A Mormon settlement back in the day, it thrived as a stopping point between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City along the Arrowhead Trail, according to NPS. The remnants of the town can now be seen due to the lowering water levels of Lake Mead. Tourists can roam the ghost remains of an authentic western town.

If you don't know anything about this house, it looks like a normal old place on a residential street during the day. At night, however, when no lights or sounds can be seen or heard, you get a very different feeling. This is the "Murder House." The walls still protect the identity of the murderer or murderers who bludgeoned to death the entire family of Josiah Moore and two overnight guests on June 10, 1912. Day tours are now open. Overnights are 7 nights a week all year.

The small community in the Los Lagos Region was devastated by a pyroclastic mudflow, after a volcanic eruption caused the Blanco River to burst its banks and forge a destructive new path through the town. On May 2, 2008 the vast caldera of the Chaitén volcano, two miles in diameter, became active. The volcano spewed a toxic plume of ash and sulfurous steam 19 miles into the atmosphere, which drifted across Patagonia.

The hospital opened in 1842 as Georgia's first public psychiatric hospital, according to Haunted Travel USA. Today, the property is now mostly empty and falling into decay. Two thousand acres still echo with the memory of the patients who were treated — and mistreated — at Georgia's most haunted asylum. Parents even used to reprimand mischievous kids with the threat, "I'm going to send you to Milledgeville!" The cemetery on the property has about 2,000 cast-iron markers commemorating the 25,000 patients buried on the hospital grounds.

The interesting fact about the hut is that it has remained the same since it was built between 1901 and 1904 thanks to the freezing climate. Otherwise, the wooden hut would have completely deteriorated over the course of a century. Everything inside is just as it was back then.