The Definitive Guide To All Things Haunted And Creepy In Kansas
Kansas is a beautiful state that’s rife with hauntings, eerie happenings, strange anomalies, and all kinds of bizarre and creepy tidbits of history. From real-life haunted houses, haunted woods, and otherwise haunted places, to creepy man-made haunts like some of the best haunted trails, haunted hayrides, and haunted corn mazes in the entire country, Kansas is definitely up there in terms of “most haunted.” Join us as we explore some of the spookiest things Kansas has to offer, including what might just be the scariest haunted house in the United States!
The Most Haunted House In Kansas
This scary-as-hell house sits in the insanely haunted town of Atchison, Kansas, and is unoccupied...mostly. You can schedule visits during the day or (our favorite) you can reserve the place for a super-spooky overnight stay.
Once upon a time, this house was the home of a local doctor who lived with his family on the second floor while practicing medicine on the first. One day, a child named Sallie came in with severe appendicitis, and unfortunately, she died in surgery after anesthesia failed, so her demise was intensely painful. Her spirit was said to remain following her death.
It kept up its reputation as a creepy, haunted house throughout the decades, but things really seemed to ramp up in 1993 when a young family moved in as renters. Fires began breaking out, started by unseen forces, and the man of the house was repeatedly attacked and scratched by unseen hands. The dog growled at nothing, especially upstairs in the room the family set up as a nursery. Objects moved on their own when the husband was around and to this day cold spots, moving objects, and being touched are the norm for terrified visitors. Interestingly, the wife and their baby were never the targets of these supernatural attacks. Although nobody has been seriously injured by the tormented spirit of the house since those days in 1993, guests still need to sign a waiver in the event that they're harmed by a specter at the Sallie House.
This eerie, empty house has been featured on channels like Discovery and A&E. What do you think happened at the Sallie House in 1993? Would you dare to sign the waiver?
Once upon a time, this house was the home of a local doctor who lived with his family on the second floor while practicing medicine on the first. One day, a child named Sallie came in with severe appendicitis, and unfortunately, she died in surgery after anesthesia failed, so her demise was intensely painful. Her spirit was said to remain following her death.
It kept up its reputation as a creepy, haunted house throughout the decades, but things really seemed to ramp up in 1993 when a young family moved in as renters. Fires began breaking out, started by unseen forces, and the man of the house was repeatedly attacked and scratched by unseen hands. The dog growled at nothing, especially upstairs in the room the family set up as a nursery. Objects moved on their own when the husband was around and to this day cold spots, moving objects, and being touched are the norm for terrified visitors. Interestingly, the wife and their baby were never the targets of these supernatural attacks. Although nobody has been seriously injured by the tormented spirit of the house since those days in 1993, guests still need to sign a waiver in the event that they're harmed by a specter at the Sallie House.
This eerie, empty house has been featured on channels like Discovery and A&E. What do you think happened at the Sallie House in 1993? Would you dare to sign the waiver?
The Most Haunted Road In Kansas
There are quite a few lonely country roads that could easily qualify as "pretty haunted" by Kansas standards but the most ominous one is probably the Rocky Ford Bridge, otherwise known as Bird Bridge, near Emporia. Legend has it, a preacher and his mistress murdered his wife by drugging her and then pushing her car off the bridge - her screams echoing on the way down. Nowadays, people report hearing those screams coming from thin air, and occasionally, a lucky (or maybe unlucky) visitor will catch a glimpse of a female apparition walking up and down the length of the bridge. There was a movie made about the incident called "Murder Ordained", and it's one of Kansas's most notorious cases. How many of these haunted Kansas roads have you driven down?
The 3 Most Haunted Places In Kansas
1. The Stull Cemetery in beautiful LeCompton, Kansas, is a terrifying legend among ghost hunters, and for good reason. It may or may not have a stairway straight to hell hidden somewhere on the grounds. Visitors report all kinds of strange happenings, from disembodied voices to floating lights. As a plus (or a minus, we suppose), legend has it that witches were executed here long ago. Do you think you're brave enough to check it out?
2. Old Abilene, Kansas, might just be one of the most haunted towns in the entire country! Established in 1857 as Mud Creek (it didn't become Abilene until 1860), the spirits of the wild, wild west are thought to still roam the streets. Creeped-out visitors tell tales of cowboys who disappear, as well as being touched by unseen hands. There are remarkable amounts of weirdly cold spots throughout the town and people commonly hear voices that come from nowhere.
3. The Midland Railroad Hotel, built in 1899 as "Power Hotel", is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The entire building is super haunted but the third floor is the hub of the activity. A young girl's spirit is said to knock on doors, jump on beds, and run up and down the halls, and a town sheriff may or may not have been lynched on the third floor as well. Apparitions and flying objects are commonplace and the stairwell seems to be a hot-spot. The hauntings began following a fatal fire in 1902. What do you think?
5 Creepy Facts About Kansas
- Kansas is home to the first-ever EF5 tornado after the original F-Scale was enhanced in 2007. That very same year on May 4th, the town of Greensburg was wiped 95% off the map by an eerie, terrifying nighttime monster tornado, leaving 11 dead and 63 injured. The fact that this beast of a storm was only visible in brief flashes thanks to lightning made it extra-terrifying, as it was a literal monster creeping into town under the cover of pitch-black darkness. Do you remember this incredible tornado?
- Dennis Rader, known to the world as the BTK Killer, was an American serial killer who operated in Kansas from 1974 to 1991. He is easily one of the scariest human beings who’s ever existed, though his murder count is relatively low at “just” 10 victims. During part of the time in which Wichita was gripped with utter terror in light of the absolutely brutal murders carried out by BTK, Rader worked as an installer for a home security system company and often installed systems in homes where the residents were specifically afraid of BTK. He selected at least one victim because he serviced her home. Who else in Kansas deserves the title of “most evil”?
- Flowerpot Mountain sounds nice and sweet but it’s got a super creepy backstory. A pioneer woman kept a diary during the days in which she and her family settled here up until she and the rest of the settlers were slaughtered. Her diary was found buried beside a gnarly, dead tree, and strangely, everything around the burial site was (and still is) dead. Plants do not survive in this spot. Nobody is quite sure why; have you heard of the dead-wood diary?
- On June 20th, 2019, hundreds of phone calls poured into emergency services and media stations in and around Kansas City reporting strange, round white orbs in the sky. Further fear ensued when the National Weather Service issued a statement on Twitter stating that they had absolutely no explanation for the mysterious orbs in the sky. The sightings prompted an emergency town hall meeting to comfort and inform freaked-out residents.
- Ellinworth, Kansas, has an entire abandoned town underground. It lies beneath the Historic Wolf Hotel and used to contain things like a brothel, a barber, speakeasies, and other necessities of the time. Would you visit this long-forgotten, derelict underground ghost town?
5 Creepy Photos From Kansas
A long-forgotten homestead rots in the clutches of gnarled, dying trees, somewhere in rural Kansas.
This unsettling image is simply an abandoned boat at a decaying, deserted Kansas filling station, but something about the way the insulation ripped from the walls and ceilings looks reminds us of raw meat in some kind of bizarre hellscape, and we're not about it.
Elmdale is a small, mostly-abandoned town that will remind you of something out of a zombie movie. There are little to no signs of life, and this photo perfectly encapsulates that. It's lonely, quiet, and for whatever reason, creepy.
The "Humble House", an abandoned home in Marshall County, sits alone and unloved, decomposing as the years tick by. If you ask us, the place looks like it has many, many ghosts wandering the halls.
This doorway leads to just about nowhere other than a decaying hallway in an abandoned house. Photos like this make us think about the why and the who - who lived here, and why did they up and leave, leaving their belongings, in many cases? The severed head of a doll rests in the hallway in this photo. Yikes.
The Scariest Haunted House In Kansas
The Cannery is a nightmare-come-true of Kansas horror enthusiasts. It was rated the #1 haunt in the state in 2019 and is typically open on weekends in October. It begins with a ridiculously creepy haunted hayride to the Haunted Cannery and the Lunatic Asylum where all hell breaks loose. Expect chainsaws, bloog, guts, clowns, eerie music, zombies, and so much more. You can customize your experience by purchasing the RIP FAST pass which enables you to receive a closed-casket rail ride from hell, or you can take it a little easier with the "Scaredy Pants" pass. How many of these legendary haunted houses in Kansas will be enough to terrify you?
The Best Haunted Corn Maze In Kansas
The Field of Screams in Maize, Kansas is everything you never knew you needed in a downright scary haunted corn maze. Not only do you wander through a huge, overgrown sorghum field, but you also experience the eerie terror of touring dilapidated buildings and other fun features. The haunt features live actors and some of the gnarliest special effects makeup in the industry. This one is not for the faint of heart! Which Kansas corn maze is your favorite?
Would You Spend A Night In This Haunted Kansas Hotel?
The Eldridge Hotel in Lawrence is easily one of the most haunted spots in the state, said to be haunted by Colonel Eldridge himself. There are common reports of bizarre crackling sounds from nowhere at night, the AC turning itself on (it's not automatic), and objects and bags moving on their own accord. If you're really, really brave, room 506 is by far the most infamously haunted and may provide you with a night of pure terror. Do you think you could handle a stay here?
