Curated trip-planning for dark tourism — real logistics, family ratings, and verified travel info for every location.
Chicago, IL
Chicago Hauntings Ghost Tours, now operated under the American Ghost Walks brand, runs evening walking and bus tours through Chicago's Loop, Lincoln Park, and southwest suburbs. The company's flagship Original Chicago Hauntings Tour departs Saturday evenings from the Congress Plaza Hotel.
Weston, WV
Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia is the largest hand-cut stone masonry building in North America. Construction began in 1858 on the Kirkbride plan — a 19th-century therapeutic design philosophy emphasizing fresh air, natural light, and spatial dignity for psychiatric patients. The facility opened in 1864 with intended capacity for 250 patients. At its mid-20th-century peak, it held approximately 2,600.
Bartonville, IL
Peoria State Hospital, originally the Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane, operated in Bartonville from 1902 to 1973 under Illinois state oversight. Its first superintendent, Dr. George A. Zeller, persuaded the legislature to drop 'Incurable' from the institution's name. Most of the original 63-building campus has been demolished or repurposed.
Long Beach, CA
The RMS Queen Mary was constructed at John Brown & Company's Clydebank shipyard beginning in 1930, launched September 26, 1934, and sailed her maiden voyage on May 27, 1936. Requisitioned as a troopship in 1939, she carried 810,000 soldiers under the nickname 'The Grey Ghost.' The ship has been permanently moored in Long Beach, California since December 1967.
Westland, MI
Eloise opened in 1839 as the Wayne County Poorhouse on 280 acres of farmland in Nankin Township, west of Detroit. Over the next century it grew into a self-sufficient complex of seventy-five buildings spread across 902 acres, peaking at roughly 10,000 residents during the Great Depression and combining a poorhouse, psychiatric hospital, tuberculosis sanatorium, and general hospital.
Cincinnati, OH
Cincinnati Music Hall at 1241 Elm Street opened in 1878, designed in the High Victorian Gothic style. It was built on land that had served as the city's potter's field — a burial ground for the indigent, disease victims, and unidentified dead — used from the 1820s until the cemetery closed around 1857. Bones have been discovered beneath the building in 1927, 1988, and again during the 2016-2017 renovation. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975.
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Ashland, OR
Walk Ashland is the tour company of Peter Finkle, who moved to Ashland in 1991 and began researching and writing about the town's history, neighborhoods, art and culture full-time in 2018. The haunted tours grew out of his history walks.
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Akron, OH
The Akron Civic Theatre opened in 1929 as Loew's Theatre, an atmospheric movie palace designed by architect John Eberson. Built over the Ohio & Erie Canal, it is one of only sixteen surviving Eberson atmospheric theaters in the United States and now operates as a nonprofit performing-arts venue.
Juneau, AK
The Alaskan Hotel opened in 1913 on South Franklin Street during Juneau's Gold Rush years and is the oldest operating hotel in the city. The Victorian-style building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and retains much of its original interior. The ground-floor Alaskan Bar has operated as a downtown gathering place for more than a century.
Sitka, AK
Castle Hill in Sitka is the rock outcrop the Tlingit called Noow Tlein. It was the site of the 1804 Battle of Sitka between the Kiks.adi Tlingit and the Russian-American Company, later the seat of Russian colonial government, and the place where Alaska was formally transferred from Russia to the United States on October 18, 1867. The site is a National Historic Landmark and an Alaska State Historic Park.
Ketchikan, AK
Creek Street is an elevated wooden boardwalk built on pilings over Ketchikan Creek. From the early 1900s until 1954 it was the city's red-light district, with dozens of brothels operating over the water. Today the converted buildings house shops and museums, and the district is one of Ketchikan's most-visited attractions and a featured stop on the local ghost walk.
Ketchikan, AK
Dolly's House at No. 24 Creek Street was the home and business of Dolly Arthur, Ketchikan's best-known madam. She bought the house in 1919 and operated it through the red-light era until Alaska closed the trade in 1954. The green building is the last of Creek Street's working houses still standing as it was, and it now operates as a museum.
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