Campfire Stories
Where truth blurs with tale, and the shadows do the talking.
At The Travelers’ Field Guide, we believe every great road trip should come with a good ghost story. This is where we keep ours.
Some of the stories you’ll find here are rooted in real places—based on local legends, strange sightings, and whispered accounts passed down through generations. Others are stitched together from imagination, dreams, and the occasional nightmare.
Growing up, I’d beg my uncle to “scare me” with his best ghost stories—long drives and late nights were his stage. This page is a tribute to that tradition. A place where folklore meets fiction, and curiosity meets the unexplained.
So whether you’re here to research your next haunted destination, or just want something a little creepy to read after dark—welcome. Settle in. Read slow.
And don’t mind the noises behind you. Probably just the wind.
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The Walls Remember
Once the most notorious prison in America, Eastern State still feels alive with what it held. Visitors report voices, footsteps, and the sound of cell doors slamming shut — even when every one of them stands open.
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The Devil’s Footprints
After a three-day blizzard, a line of small hoofprints appeared across Maine’s frozen coast — marching over rooftops, fences, and rivers without pause. By morning, they were gone. But old families still talk about that night, when the snow seemed to remember more than it should.
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The Children Beneath the Lake
A town was buried before the lake was filled. Roads, houses, even a church. Now, boaters talk about ghostly hands reaching up from the water, and divers hear the faint echo of children’s laughter rising from below.
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The Phantom Train of North Carolina
In 1891, a train derailed on Bostian Bridge, killing everyone aboard. Now, every year near the anniversary, people gather to listen. They say you can hear the whistle before the clock strikes midnight — and see the headlight appear, just before it disappears into thin air.
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The Witch of Pungo
Grace Sherwood was called a witch, thrown into the river, and left to prove her innocence by surviving. She did. But locals in Virginia Beach still say that when the water’s calm, you can see her reflection drift by, waiting for justice that never came.
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The Wailing Bride of Sleepy Hollow
Long before the Headless Horseman, locals whispered about another spirit in the valley — a bride who never left the river. Her wail drifts through the fog along a lonely road by the Hudson, rising when the night goes still.
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The Lighthouse Keeper Who Never Left
For nearly two centuries, Owls Head Light has guided sailors through Maine’s fog-bound coast. Locals say the keeper never left his post — his footsteps echo on the stairs during storms, and the scent of pipe smoke drifts through the tower long after the lamp’s been trimmed.
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The Black Dog of Ocracoke
Locals say the Black Dog walks ahead of the storms that batter Ocracoke Island. Some think he’s a stray spirit from a shipwreck long forgotten. Others believe he’s the sea itself, warning — or claiming — those who cross his path.