“Offers a glimpse into Salem’s complex, haunted history—murders, hangings, corruption—and provides a handful of ghostly tales.” —Statesman Journal Salem’s haunted tales date back to the 1830s, when indigenous tribes, trappers and homesteaders shared the lush Willamette Valley. Murders, hangings and dark underground passageways defined the city’s early days as the Willamette River moved old stern-wheelers up to the city’s docks. Today, the sounds of those phantom vessels can be heard plying along the river late at night. Oregon’s capital city has long been the site of mental hospitals, prisons and other notorious institutions, famously depicted in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The residual effects of decades of torture and depravity cling to the old facilities in both sight and sound. Author Tim King examines many of these chilling encounters along with eyewitness accounts of spirits that refuse to be quiet. “Tim King’s new book takes readers to the far west, investigating the hauntings and other supernatural and inexplicable occurrences still going on in Salem, Oregon, putting that city in the same category as old Salem, Mass. . . . A good read for Halloween or, for that matter, any other time of year when one is tempted to learn more about those strange occurrences that defy the laws of science and nature, and challenge our inner complacency.” —Salem-News.com

Double your chills by delving into the dual heritage of this North Carolina city—stories of haints, witches, ghosts, and beyond . . . Whether it was Winston, Salem, or Winston-Salem, the city has a rich history in the strange, unusual, and ghostly. Colonial Salem was once visited by George Washington, and accounts tell of the president entering the cave of three witches. Locals still see an old tobacco wagon rolling around the streets of Winston in the early morning, harkening back to the days when tobacco was king. Elaborate systems of tunnels and pipes once existed beneath the city that many believe were home to groups of chanting monks. Join author and historian Michael Bricker as he vividly retells these stories and more in a historically haunted guide to Winton-Salem. Includes photos!

The “Hop Capital of the World” is brewing with otherworldly spirits—from the mischievous to the macabre, from glowing orbs to tortured souls. Meet the spirits of Independence, Oregon, who whisper to passersby and tickle the spines of the curious: A young woman who threw herself from a window upon learning of her lover’s death. Patients who underwent crude surgeries a century past and whose quiet moans linger on. A mysterious skeleton uncovered by a local business owner in the shadowy recesses of an attic. A doll that inexplicably relocates to different parts of the local museum at night. Mischievous or downright chilling, the ghosts of Independence offer a doorway to the city’s colorful past. Tour historic downtown Independence with Marilyn Morton, founder and chair of the annual Ghost Walk, as she reveals the haunted heritage of the one-time hop capital of the world. “[Morton] spins tales about the scary side of Independence . . . [and] takes readers on a tour of historic downtown.” —OregonLive

In this book Tiya Miles explores the popular yet troubling phenomenon of "ghost tours," frequently promoted and experienced at plantations, urban manor homes, and cemeteries throughout the South. As a staple of the tours, guides entertain paying customers by routinely relying on stories of enslaved black specters. But who are these ghosts? Examining popular sites and stories from these tours, Miles shows that haunted tales routinely appropriate and skew African American history to produce representations of slavery for commercial gain. "Dark tourism" often highlights the most sensationalist and macabre aspects of slavery, from salacious sexual ties between white masters and black women slaves to the physical abuse and torture of black bodies to the supposedly exotic nature of African spiritual practices. Because the realities of slavery are largely absent from these tours, Miles reveals how they continue to feed problematic "Old South" narratives and erase the hard truths of the Civil War era. In an incisive and engaging work, Miles uses these troubling cases to shine light on how we feel about the Civil War and race, and how the ghosts of the past are still with us.

Esteemed photographer David Maisel has created a somber and beautiful series of images depicting canisters containing the cremated remains of the unclaimed dead from an Oregon psychiatric hospital. Dating back as far as the nineteenth century, these canisters have undergone chemical reactions, causing extravagant blooms of brilliant white, green, and blue corrosion, revealing unexpected beauty in the most unlikely of places. This stately volume is both a quietly astonishing body of fine art from a preeminent contemporary photographer, and an exceptionally poignant monument to the unknown deceased.

An intellectual feast for fans of offbeat history, Ghostland takes readers on a road trip through some of the country's most infamously haunted places--and deep into the dark side of our history.

Tales of ghosts inhabiting the Pacific Northwest include stories of haunted houses, departed loved ones, and disturbed Native American burial sites