The United States has significant locations reporting lively ghost sightings. However, Virginia is the smallest of the three and purports to host the largest population of poltergeists per square mile. Texas and Illinois are the other two states although sightings occur across all of the continental 48 states.
Meet and Greet the Ghosts
Most haunts are tourist attractions with guides to accompany visitors through the sites at appropriate times – mostly evening or overnight hours. Tourists cannot access any sites without a guide. Virginia’s ghosts are active during evening hours at the following locations:
1. Stafford, Virginia is unique because the haunts are churches, especially the Aquia Church. Rumor has it that this is the most popular ghostly haunt in all of Virginia. The church and its graveyard report active paranormal sightings stretching over the past 200 years. Graveyard tombstones date back to 1738.
2. The Battle at Leesburg took place in October of 1861. Ball’s Bluff is notorious for ghostly activity by the spirits of those fighters who died at this location.
3. John Hartwell Cocke was a brigadier general in the War of 1812. He was also the builder of note for a plantation estate and home at Bremo Recess. The ghost of Anne Blaws Barraud Cocke reportedly haunts this house in Bremo Bluff, Virginia.
4. Eleven ghosts haunt the Ferry Plantation House in Virginia Beach, Virginia, a colonial plantation era structure. The poltergeist population includes some people who died in an 1810 shipwreck at this ferry landing. The spirit of a former slave, Henry by name, still considers the Ferry Plantation House as his home.
Sally Rebecca Walke eternally mourns the loss of her lover and the Lady in White, who broke her neck when she fell down the stairs, still live here as spirit residents. A former resident and artist, Thomas Williamson, continues to live in spirit at the Ferry Plantation House.
5. Many reports of paranormal activity are on the record for Manassas National Battlefield Park. The Battlefield contains a railroad, built by order of Robert E. Lee during the Civil War, which remains unfinished. This is a hot spot for paranormal sightings.
6. Thomas Jefferson made Monticello his home in Charlottesville, Virginia. Employees often hear him whistling on the grounds of his estate as he did while alive. A 10-year-old boy appears in a second floor window wearing a uniform with tri-corner hat. This apparition is on the record.
7. A mansion built in 1725, The Rosewell Plantation, reports numerous incidents of paranormal activity. The location is within Gloucester County, Virginia.
8. Another old building in Charlottesville, Virginia, was a civil war hospital and is only two miles from the Monticello. It is now the Tandem Friends School. Numerous reports are on file that the ghost of a confederate soldier walks the upstairs hallway.
Avoid Getting Lost in Virginia
All locations are close together and Charlottesville seems to be the place to begin an adventure into the paranormal world within the state of Virginia. Seek out a specialty tour company and join the group in order to gain from historical insights of their guides. For current information, contact the Virginia Board of Tourism from their website.