Maryland's Most Haunted Spot Linked To Witch Lore, Website Says

BURKITTSVILLE, MD — Every region has at least one place or story that gives locals the creeps, and the tales are retold as Halloween approaches. The website Thrillist listed the most haunted places in America to give horror fans everywhere a look at lore and legends that creep folks out across the country.

So which Maryland spot made the cut? Coffin Rock in the Black Hills Forest near Burkitsville — the site tied to a gruesome tale about the Blair Witch — gets the nod. While the rock has a mysterious and bloody story tied to it, the independent film "The Blair Witch Project" that was a blockbuster in 1999 made up its own story about the creepy woods.

Here's what Thrillist says about Coffin Rock and the Blair Witch:

The Blair Witch Project, one of the creepiest films in low-budget Hollywood history, still pulls tourists to Burkittsville, Maryland. To find where most of the film was shot, though, you need to head into Black Hills Forest about 20 minutes west of town to find Coffin Rock. It’s a large flat rock near a creek in the middle of the woods. And in history, it’s where a Maryland search party went missing in 1886 in an attempt to find missing 8-year-old Robin Weaver. The kid eventually returned to town; the search party did not. A second search party found disemboweled bodies, bound at the hands and feet, on Coffin Rock. Those bodies later vanished when the search party returned with backup help. Local legend attributes all of this to the so-called Blair Witch. You can, of course, retrace those steps in history … just bring a flashlight and a good pair of running shoes. -- Tim Ebner

And here's the story on the movie.

Two young directors, including a Maryland native, and three little-known actors descended upon the state to film what they thought would be a small, low-budget film. Though "The Blair Witch Project" took only eight days to film and had a shooting budget of about $25,000, the film grossed almost $250 million when it was released in 1999.

The movie focused on student filmmakers who venture into the woods near Burkittsville in search of the fabled Blair Witch, which supposedly haunted the small town for centuries. The students disappear in the woods and the only remnants of their quest is film footage discovered by University of Maryland anthropology students.

Watch a trailer for the movie on YouTube.

The town of Burkittsville, founded in 1824 in Frederick County, is on the National Register of Historic Places. In September of 1862 Burkittsville residents fled the town as forces of the Union and Confederate armies fought the Battle of Crampton's Gap, a prelude to the Battle of Antietam., according to the town's website.

In 1876, the War Correspondents Arch, a memorial to the newspapermen of the Civil War, was built at Crampton's Gap in Gathland State Park about a mile from Burkittsville.

"Today, the residents of Burkittsville lead their lives surrounded by beauty and nature. Their town etched in time, almost as though the town itself were a ghost from the past," the city says.

See the full list of America's most haunted places from Thrillist here.