These Are The Creepiest, Most Haunted Places In Maryland

MARYLAND — Haunted houses around the neighborhood are great Halloween fun for impressionable children, but Marylanders seeking an authentic scare might want to check out Coffin Rock near Burkittsville, the inspiration for the horror movie "The Blair Witch Project."

That’s according to Thrillist, a travel and entertainment media outlet that recently released its list of the 50 (one for each state) most haunted, scariest places in America.

A handful of other media outlets have also compiled a list of creepy, haunted places in Maryland, showing there’s no shortage of places to get the daylights scared out of you.

Of Coffin Rock, the Thrillist editors said:

“‘The Blair Witch Project’ 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 where a Maryland search party went missing in 1886 while looking for 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.”

Meanwhile, both Business Insider and HGTV say the Antietam National Battlefield in Washington County is the most haunted place in Maryland.

Often referred to as “the bloodiest day in American history,” 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing after the Civil War battle that took place on Sept. 17, 1862. While the battle happened more than 180 years ago, the souls of some soldiers may have never left.

“Today, visitors to the battlefield have reported hearing gunfire or smelling gunpowder when no one else was in sight, or seeing mysterious figures in Confederate uniforms. Some also claim to have spotted strange balls of blue light at Burnside Bridge, where many soldiers were hastily buried,” HGTV editors wrote.

Finally, Forbes claims the Hager House in Hagerstown is the most haunted place in the state. After converting into a museum in 1944, the Hager House now offers tours for Marylanders to learn the haunting tales that keep this 18th-century residence of town founder Jonathan Hager at the top of Maryland’s creepiest sites.

“Phantom figures, said to have been sighted by guests, include a contemplative lady by the window, a solemn man occupying the porch and a little girl with a peculiar affinity for female guests,” Forbes wrote of the Hager House