Ghosts & Haunts In Missouri

The 10 most haunted places in Missouri and why.

What are the Top 10 Most Haunted Locations in Missouri?
It's not possible to answer that question definitively without visiting every haunted site in the state, which is impossible; however, after being involved with paranormal investigations over the past twenty years, I do have a definitive list of places that represent outstanding cases for different reasons.

1. Austin-Milam-Lucas-Store, Potosi, Missouri. This location has moved up on my list to the #1 position. There are several ghosts here, but one in particular, a vicious tick of an entity defends its room by attacking those who enter. Its insidious method of attack is by triggering pre-existing medical conditions, but if the victim has none it can scratch them, trigger painful muscle spasms, or induce vomiting to get them to leave the house. It has no power beyond the front porch, so it can’t pursue victims into the front yard. There appears to be no pattern to who will be attacked: young, old, male, female, but sensitives seem especially vulnerable. A slow night at this location would be one person attacked; on some nights I have encountered attacks on up to six people. I have never ever heard of any ghost at any location anywhere being as aggressive as this one. One guest brought her two kids with her because they were interested in ghosts. It menaced her but left her two kids alone -- she spent the rest of the night in her car while her two kids had a great time! She wanted nothing further to do with it. Other activity documented are pieces of equipment being thrown and the sound of disembodied voices. On some occasions this ghost tried to function through people, making them speak and act so outrageously they needed to be brought outside where it was forced to release them. Another oddity: visitors have said things in this house that the individual denies having ever spoken, yet multiple witnesses will attest they did hear them say.
Accounts of visitors being touched at this site are common. I saw this happen to a man who spun around (he later described it as feeling like he had snagged his arm on something); I was standing three feet behind him, so there was no explanation for this. A ghost inhabiting the second floor was able to correctly identify the contents of a box I brought during an EVP test, confirming that this is an intelligent entity, not a residual haunting. This location is often accompanied by banging and knocking sounds, and cold spots are not uncommon, even in summer. The suicide room is consistently active. On the staircase people have seen a figure and heard it going up the steps. Others have watched it peering around corners and in doorways looking into rooms. On the lighter side, in the dining room there is a ghost cat that has been heard on several occasions.

2. Pythian Castle, Springfield, Missouri.
Many ghosts occupy Pythian Castle.  My favorite ghost of all time resides down in the tunnel. He is a US soldier I have nicknamed Mr. Boots. He speaks as a disembodied voice, and through EVP audio, but he refuses to provide us his name, rank or other information. He is often heard roaming the tunnel, scaring the hell out of people. What alarms visitors as he draws near, each footstep shakes the ground like mini earth tremors. When he shows himself he is a very tall distinguished looking man in a sharp green military uniform. He is by far the most physically powerful ghost I have ever encountered -- on three occasions he shook the entire castle! Once when this happened I was in the tunnel, and this shaking event produced a massive air pressure wave that ran the entire length of the tunnel. He is extremely intelligent. I have been able to persuade him to respond to requests. There is another seldom heard from female ghost inhabiting the tunnel (I think she is a nurse, but we have little to work with surrounding her). Eyes looking back at you and shadow figures also manifest here. The front parlor has a ghost that’s best described as aloof snob. The two main stairways are a great location to capture EVP voices. The women’s bathroom, main floor is haunted. The backstage theater area is haunted by an actress/singer with a beautiful voice singing in French. I have also captured great EVPs and bizarre sounds backstage. At one time the tower room triggered scratching attacks on women although for some reason these have stopped. There is a bad boy ghost in the two basement rooms along the west wall that has harassed women, and on a single occasion punched one of our PTF members in the arm! There are instances of him grabbing women around the ankles while seated in a chair, and when no one is looking you can hear him drag the chair across the floor. This ghost has a unique scary-sounding voice, like it’s coming from a water filled cave. The spirit of a little boy occupies the boys’ dormitory. He refuses to do anything when I bring a video camera in there, but after I remove it resumes his activities. In the queen’s bedroom the apparition of a man in full suit has been seen. In the foyer of the queen’s room, on some nights powerful static fields that cause your skin to go numb have occurred. In the theater upstairs many guests capture macabre ghost photos on the stage and in the aisles. There is a room downstairs decorated to look like an old kitchen. This is a suicide room which is very active. And for some reason, something at this castle causes people to whistle -- we sometimes hear it downstairs when there is no one there, along with voices and footsteps in the downstairs hallway.

3. Ray County Museum, Richmond, Missouri. The ghosts here are highly active. The Civil War room has a ghost drummer. We have captured him on camera performing a march. Another ghost in here opened some cabinet doors repeatedly while on camera! We have documented conversations with soldiers in this room. The school room has a ghost with a short temper. It triggered a scratching attack after someone joked about the quality of education back then, when it took offense and scratched the man four times throughout the night, even chasing him down to the other end of the building to continue the attack. The Native American room has two ghosts who are polar opposites in temperament. A friendly Native American spirit and a mean old man who doesn’t like visitors! At the end of the second floor hallway a disembodied voice commanded us to “Get out” on our first trip here, but seems more tolerant of people now. There is one area along the main second floor hallway that has frequent cold spots. Lots of touching going on throughout the building. It usually feels like spider cob webs when they touch you. In the WW2 room on the first floor, a shadow figure has been seen lurking on several occasions. Down in the basement a ghost in the old tool shop can both touch people and make them feel sick. Visitors have reported a large white orb of light appearing in the basement -- when they passed their arms through it, the air inside was very cold. The basement houses a number of jail cells that are very active.

4. Zombie Road
The level of paranormal activity is incredibly high. You never know what will happen there -- the type of activity is very unpredictable, from subtle things such as experiencing a ravenous appetite, to rocks or shards from  marble headstones being thrown at you.  While capturing video and photographic evidence at most haunted locations is sporadic, Zombie Road is an exception -- video footage of cold spots in summer, spooklights moving through the trees, photos of figures standing on hillsides, unexplained voices -- this place consistently has it all. Video

5. Ballwin Manor
Although you may never have heard of this location, most of the greatest paranormal photos we have ever captured originate from this site. It's really incredible when you think about everything that has been documented here; these ghosts are mobile, with the ability to visit the neighbors' homes (based on resident interviews) and to be seen drifting along the street. One of these ghosts actually smashed out a window ten feet away from me; it's wonderful encounters like this that keep me ghost hunting. On one trip something rounded up all the chemical glow sticks placed throughout the home and buried them behind the house under a pile of leaves, but not before some of us witnessed at least one of these glowing sticks being carried off through the woods by nobody! Video

6. Tri-County Truck Stop, Villa Ridge
Home of the blue ghost, caught on video and witnessed by law enforcement. Tons of activity here, the EVP voices are the most desperate sounding of any haunting with "help us!" and "help me!" turning up on almost every investigation. Unexplained lights, moving like scurrying rodents across the floor. People being scratched, including myself. Objects thrown ranging from toys and pennies to lightbulbs, saw blades, we even had a reporter witness a rusty old knife being thrown. Stories of murder and poisoning are linked to this site. There are also shadow figures running around the building.
Strange events like an entity that plays tug of war with people from the other side of closed doors. One of these ghosts repeatedly
tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention.  Video

7. Six Flags, Eureka
We conducted three consecutive overnight weekend investigations at Six Flags. This venue has multiple hauntings -- both The Palace Theatre and Empire Theatre are haunted, along with the Mine Train Transfer House, the Bugs Bunny National Outdoor Area, and their Haunted House really is haunted. Especially worth noting is the haunting out in the fields on the east side of the park. Activity includes manipulation of camcorder equipment, photos, and very high quality EVP voices, some of which have identified themselves by name. I could spend years just investigating this site, no doubt other areas are also haunted but the park is so vast, we just scratched the surface of what's in here. If only they issued season passes for ghost hunters after hours. Video

8. St. Barnabas Cemetery, St. Louis
I changed its real name to guard against possible vandalism at this site. Apparitions in every form are prominent, shadow figures, luminous mists and phantom specters accompany the more typical paranormal activity. One shadow figure appeared to be luring me over to a freshly occupied grave. This cemetery is very strange in that it produces numerous paranormal photographs with bazar self illuminating fogs of light that appear green to blue in color, ranging in shape from a hovering blanket of mist, to wispy patches, even human like figures. This is the most haunted cemetery I have ever investigated when it comes to ghosts showing themselves. Video

9. St. Vincent's Hospital, Normandy
One of several locations in St. Louis tied to the infamous 1949 exorcist case. People often ask me whats the scariest place I have ever gone ghost hunting, I would give this site the blue ribbon. I've never felt it wasn't safe being alone until I ran into something up here pounding on the ductwork trying to get me to leave the 5th floor. Members of the security staff are afraid to go up their and I don't blame them. Its a very unpleasant haunting. We documented the ghosts switching the lights on and off; footsteps; unexplained voices; two members of our group saw a ghost that was so solid they thought was a human, until it vanished; another saw a trail of footprints walking across the insulation covering the floor; and all the decapitated bird heads lined up in a row added to the strangeness.   Video

10. Charbonier Bluffs, Florissant
It's a difficult climb with a backpack full of equipment, but worth it. This is no residual haunting; the ghosts here are intelligent, manipulating electronic equipment as one of their ways of communicating, along with the more common EVP's. They can also generate ground tremors, and drop large stones creating a thud or booming sound in the woods. When these spirits manifest, the air gets colder and your camera images appear fogged. We brought a psychic up here to get their impression of what was going on. She described an evil gnome-like creature to be leery of wandering the paths. Its erie to note she warned us not to go too close to the edge of the cliff, this entity wanted to push people over. Much later we found out that someone jumped from this site to their death. These bluffs were originally occupied by the Indians, followed by French settlers. Because of the language differences, in a future investigation we need to attempt EVP communication with someone fluent in French (as an experiment.) Video

 11. Jefferson Barracks
  We have conducted several ghost hunts here. So many investigators were having exceptional encounters with phantom mists, strange figures of light, invisible figures illuminated by laser pointers, and excellent EVP voices qualify this site for inclusion in my list of the top 10 most haunted places in Missouri. If I had to pick a site where people would most likely encounter a ghost, Jefferson Barracks would get my vote, I suspect the sheer number of ghosts roaming the grounds is enormous. Known hot spots are the Old Labor's House, the Powder Magazine, the Old Ordnance Room, even the ladies restroom by the Veteran's Ampatheater, so many other buildings are haunted you could write a book about whats going on at each location.  Video

2016 update! Its been 5 years since I wrote the original top ten list. I am going to add two more locations,making it the 12 most haunted, the two additions are just as haunted as the others on the list, hence the need to expand it.

12. The Long Banta Mansion, Potosi The activity documented here has gone on for so many years that these ghosts know who we are, and what were doing. They interact with strangely high levels of intelligence. People have been pushed here, and the ghosts of little girls have been seen upstairs. Active spots include the attic room, objects have moved, crashing sounds, and doors slamming. There is also one ghost that comments when people arrive. The kitchen has weird sounds that when you go to investigate the source it stops.  The stairways, people have been pushed and voices are common. Several of the bedrooms are haunted, one likes to rock the baby crib.

Video 1          Video 2

The following sites were excellent examples of hauntings, but unfortunately have since been torn down.
Misty Manor, Fenton
Sadly, this site has been destroyed along with The Book House, Manchester Rd.

Special Category list includes:
Most haunted town -- I have changed my mind on this one, it use to be the tiny town of Blackwell, now I give the title of most haunted town to Potosi MO.

It's because of the large numbers of well documented hauntings, sites like the  Long Banta Mansion, Lucas Store, the old Presbyterian Church and its Cemetery, along with the Sweet Memories Sandwich Shop. There are  many others, along with sites like the Bust Mansion which no longer exist.

Best well-known haunting: The Lemp Mansion, St. Louis.
This site isn't in league with the others on this list because it's spotty on activity, but it can put on a good show some nights. I had rented out a room during one investigation, and locked it up with our equipment; and upon returning, the door was wide open!
And the Caverns beneath the Lemp Mansion, closed off to the public are a special place.  Video

Most overlooked haunting: The Lehmann House B&B; Video. Why no one mentions this place, I don't know -- it's a solid haunting. (check out the attic)

For my friends on the Illinois side of the boarder looking for an outstanding local haunt, I strongly recommend the Mineral Springs Hotel at 301 East Broadway, Alton IL. My favorite spot in the Hotel are the long hallways behind the Men's Pool and Williams Garage.

Video

Most suspected haunted places I want to investigate, but haven't been able to. A few on this list: Calvary/Bellefontaine Cemeteries -- I have never encountered anyone with the contacts to get permission to conduct an overnight investigation here yet.
The same applies to the Military base at Fort Leonard Wood, and the private residences they maintain. I receive so many letters reporting paranormal activity occurring at the base, and their homes, this site is just screaming to be investigated. 

As you may have noticed, there are no private residences included on our list of most haunted locations.  We keep the locations of private residences investigated confidential.  We do however post the evidence collected from these homes. 
The level of paranormal activity collected from these homes wouldn't be enough to make our Top 10 Most Haunted list.  The closest case is an interesting situation in St. Louis involving a haunted cemetery where we have documented activity.
It’s the homes lined up adjacent to this graveyard that tell an incredible story.
We were called in (we didn't know any of the owners; they contacted us) to investigate unusual activity. We have been called back by multiple home owners who don't even know each other – all of their homes just happen to border this cemetery!
There are over 6 million people in Missouri -- why are the home owners along one street that’s less than a 1/4 mile long requesting to have their homes investigated?
There has to be a wandering spirit in that graveyard.