Prepare to get scared this Halloween at Ohio’s creepiest haunts – from train tunnels and cemeteries, these places won’t leave you unscared!
Mansfield’s Ohio State Reformatory, made famous by the film The Shawshank Redemption, is said to be haunted by violent prison ghosts who terrorize visitors. Visitors have reported hearing odd noises, seeing shadowy apparitions, feeling anger and despair while inside.
The Ridges
The Ridges was a former mental asylum and hospital during the 1800s, housing patients as they underwent the lobotomy procedure. Since its construction, The Ridges has become well known for paranormal activity due to this procedure; many experiences reported include sightings of ghosts or figures as well as noises or rattled door handles that go undetected by staff or patients.
Famously featured as the setting for The Shawshank Redemption movie and other paranormal TV programs, this location is open to the public with self-guided tours available throughout the year and especially popular as a spot for Halloween-related haunted hunts and special events.
At The Ridges there are three cemeteries containing the remains of many patients who passed away while staying there. Headstones bear only numbers, with up to 1,930 people believed buried here – making this haunting spot an essential visit for horror enthusiasts.
Buxton Inn
The Historic Buxton Inn first opened as a stagecoach tavern in 1812. Today it is considered to be one of the most haunted places in Ohio, with reports from visitors about past innkeepers, guests and staff appearing throughout its walls.
Orrin Granger built this building in 1812. Other reported ghosts at this location include Orrin’s ghost as well as that of Ethel “Bonnie” Bounell who once worked here and is believed to wear light blue dresses — her favorite hue. Her ghost has also been seen appearing in room nine where Ethel lived before she passed on in 1994.
Guests have reported footsteps, doors opening and closing on their own, and even hearing cats purr through the halls. A former owner named Major Buxton who inspired its name is said to still linger there with an accompanying cigar smoke aroma.
The Athens Lunatic Asylum
At this castle-like prison, violent inmates were disciplined by being sent into “The Hole,” an isolated confinement cell. Legend has it that unexplained apparitions, unearthly noises and even demonic presence haunt the grounds – making it an attractive location for paranormal reality shows and visited annually by thousands of ghost hunters.
The Ridges is an expansive complex of buildings which was used as an insane asylum until its closure in 1993, before becoming owned and maintained by Ohio University for classrooms, offices and the Kennedy Museum of Art.
People have reported seeing spectral figures wandering around the building and hearing disembodied cries at night, along with hearing strange noises at night and witnessing electric anomalies and vanish[ing apparitions. The ghost of Margaret Schilling who died in a hidden dungeon-like room is said to still haunt it today while other ghosts can be heard lurking around Brown House where longtime resident used to watch children playing outside her window and at Bush Hall which is famous for turning water faucets off and on without her being physically present there in real time!
Boston Mills
Settlement began here in 1806 and was given its current name due to being mistakenly associated with Boston, MA. Once connected by canal transportation, post offices opened here in 1832 and soon after a bustling community developed including two stores, a hotel, paper mills, broom factories and even two broom factories among many others.
Long associated with this location has been the legend of a headless ghost and murder by someone carrying large sums of cash – but unfortunately it can be difficult to determine the validity of these stories.
Ghosts of Ohio believes the Boston Cemetery ghost may be an old urban legend and that any spirits left over from Hell Town likely have their own reasons for remaining there.
