ALABAMA — THE MCCALLA HUM
Image: Dwayne P / Wikipedia
One day in late 2011, the residents of McCalla, Alabama, woke to a strange, unidentifiable noise. Variously described as "sirens in the distance," "locusts," or "whirring of a helicopter," no source could be found for the constant hum, even though authorities thoroughly searched the town. Even more baffling, witnesses say that when they walk toward what they think is the source of the noise, the hum grows dimmer in that direction and louder in the direction from which they came.
ALASKA — THE GHOST SOLDIERS
In the late 1990s, servicemen stationed on Alaska’s Adak Island reported seeing strange apparitions. In one incident, a Marine on guard duty was shocked to see two lines of 1940s-era Japanese soldiers marching toward the island’s Toothpick Bridge. This was not just a glance or a brief hallucination. The Marine watched the ghost soldiers march all the way up to the bridge, something that took several minutes before they finally faded away.
ARIZONA — CLOSE ENCOUNTER
In 2009, four young people encountered a huge UFO and its occupants in the desert west of Phoenix. Witnesses described the UFO as being three football fields long and three stories tall. Two witnesses approached the landed craft and were met by two humanoid occupants, one nine feet tall. The aliens told the witnesses they hoped to prevent humans from destroying the Earth. They also warned that a "horrible event, from the Middle East, bigger than 9/11" would happen someday soon. The witnesses were later stopped by the military and questioned extensively about the strange event.
ARKANSAS — MYSTERY QUAKES
Image: Arkyan / Wikipedia
Something weird has been shaking the small town of Guy, Arkansas. Last September, the tiny community just north of Little Rock experienced nearly 500 earthquakes in just a few weeks’ time, including 15 quakes in one day. Officials from the U.S. Geological Survey say the quakes are happening less than a mile below the town. The theory that a local gravel company’s operations were to blame was quickly discounted, leaving no explanation for the tremors.
CALIFORNIA — EL DIABLO’S NUCLEAR JELLYFISH
In April of 2012, an unprecedented invasion of jellyfish-like sea creatures forced a nuclear reactor on the California coast to shut down. A mysterious swarm of the gelatinous organisms, called salp, had so completely clogged screens used to filter the plant’s cooling seawater, the utility company had to turn off its so-called El Diablo reactor. Salps are usually found farther out to sea, so why the creatures chose to attack the plant’s filtration system en masse remains unknown.
COLORADO — THE FLYING MEN OF THE SLV
The San Luis Valley experiences more paranormal activity than any other place in America. UFOs are routinely spotted there, along with ghosts, strange weather, Bigfoot-like monsters, and so-called prairie dragons — invisible slug-like creatures that invade people’s homes. Strangest of all: reports of flying humans. Said to be a cross between Dracula and the infamous Mothman, these flying men soar above the valley in full view of witnesses. Nearly two dozen of the strange aerial creatures have been reported over the last two years, many by reliable people including policemen and local government workers.
CONNECTICUT — OVERRUN BY CREEPINESS
CT might be the third smallest state, but it ranks near the top on America’s weirdness scale. In just the last year, the state has been besieged with hundreds of UFO reports, including one sighting described as "a cluster of alien ships, floating overhead." Dozens of encounters with unknown creatures were also reported, including a mysterious animal being hit and killed on one of the state’s highways. Several rural towns report hauntings unexplained music. Most bizarre were the many reports from residents all over the state of horrific screams coming from nowhere.
DELAWARE — UFOS HANG OUT AT RACETRACK
The Dover Downs Racetrack in Dover, Delaware has apparently become a popular hangout for UFOs. Employees spotted the mystery objects over the racetrack day and night throughout 2012. Described as bright spotlights that turn on and off, the UFOs arrive in groups of three to six and hover as if they are watching what’s going on below. Even more bizarre, just about anytime the UFOs are seen, all cell phones in the area go dead.
FLORIDA — THE HAUNTED LAUNCH PAD
Image: Bubba73 / Wikipedia
Cape Canaveral’s Launch Pad 34 is said to be haunted by the ghosts of three astronauts who died there after a tragic accident. Spacemen Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were killed almost instantly on January 27, 1967, when a fire engulfed their Apollo I capsule as it was being tested for launch. Many witnesses, including NASA employees, say a weird feeling comes over all who approach the now-abandoned launch pad. More disturbing, the astronauts’ dying screams can be heard at times. Though at one point NASA allowed visitors to tour the facility, due to what the agency calls "strange occurrences," the haunted launch pad is no longer open to the public.
GEORGIA — JURASSIC PARK COMES TO LIFE
In July 2008, two men on a hunting trip in northern Georgia encountered a lizard-like creature about 100 yards ahead of them. Both men confirmed the beast looked exactly like a Jurassic Park raptor — five feet tall, long tail, huge claws on both feet and smaller claws on its short, stubby arms. The hunters said the creature stopped for a moment, sniffed the air, and then disappeared back into the bushes.
HAWAII — THE NIGHT MARCHERS
Hawaii is full of strange things, none more so than the Hawaiian Night Marchers. Numbering in the hundreds, these shadowy figures appear on deserted beaches long after dark, carrying blazing torches, They walk in formation, continuously moving forward all night long — hence their name. Hawaiian legend says the Night Marchers appear when a deceased family member wants to warn his living relative to leave the ghosts in peace.
IDAHO — THE MIST
Image: Emily L. Ferguson / Flickr
Just outside Emmett, Idaho, is a swimming hole called Sawyer’s Pond. One night in 2012, a young couple drove to the pond, but upon arriving, felt something was not right. Walking to the water’s edge, they were suddenly enveloped in a strange fog so dense they couldn’t see anything. Then the boyfriend felt something squeeze his shoulder and the couple blindly ran back to their car. The man claims to have seen a human-shaped figure moving in the mist. Since then, several people have reportedly drowned at the pond.
ILLINOIS — THE ENFIELD HORROR
On the evening of April 25, 1973, a young boy was playing in his yard in Enfield, Illinois, when a creature attacked him. The monster was described as having three legs, a thick body, arms that came out of its chest, and two red eyes. The creature tore at the boy’s feet before the youngster could get away. Soon after, a neighbor saw the same creature and shot at it with a rifle, only to see it bound away at incredible speed. Other townspeople, including a TV newsman, had subsequent encounters with the beast. A similar creature reportedly attacked people in a nearby town during the 1940s.
INDIANA — THE ELIZAVILLE MONSTER
An unusually large number of people have been reported missing from the tiny town of Elizaville, Indiana, over the past 100 years. There is no scientific explanation for the disappearances, but current residents swear that a seven-foot tall "man beast" has been spotted at night wandering the town’s fields and haunting its cemetery. Locals say that if a person screams anywhere in the small town between the hours of 1 and 3a.m., the monster will track them down, kill them, and then eat them, bones and all.
IOWA — FLYING DRAGON
A number of Burlington, Iowa, residents have reported seeing a dragon flying over their city in recent years. Two witnesses described it as brown-skinned with a long, snake-like body and 15-foot bat-like wings. Its head was shaped like a seahorse and it had a skinny tail flowing behind it. They watched the dragon slither through the air until it flew high up in the night sky.
KANSAS — GATEWAY TO HELL
Image: Ryan Metcalf
The small town of Stull, Kansas, has a notorious reputation. It is said that its small cemetery, and a place halfway around the world in India, are the only two spots on Earth where Satan appears in person, having been materializing there since the 1850s. The evidence? Visitors to the Stull Cemetery tell of being assaulted by a strong wind that fixes them to the ground, temporary paralyzing them. Interestingly, the town’s name was changed from Skull to cover its association with black magic.
KENTUCKY — RETURN OF THE GOBLINS
Goblin-like creatures have attacked a family located in rural Kentucky on a regular basis since 2011. Reportedly, these beings stand four feet tall with large heads and eyes, slits for mouths, and green skin. They frequently try to break into the family’s home. The local police blame wild animals for the problem. In the fall of 1955, identical creatures besieged another rural Kentucky home. In what became known as the Hopkinsville Goblins Case, dozens of witnesses saw nightly attacks by little green men before they abruptly stopped later that same year.
LOUISIANA — THE MORGAN CITY MONSTER
In December of 2010, a nature photographer checked on a trail camera he’d set up to film wild animals in a reserve in Morgan City, Louisiana. The camera was smashed, but its SIM card survived. When the photographer uploaded the camera’s final images he was shocked at what he found. Instead of a wild animal, his camera caught the image of a ghostly, near-transparent humanoid figure. The anonymous photographer let a local news station run the footage, but no one could explain the humanoid.
MAINE — REAL-LIFE VAMPIRE
Image: The Smoking Gun
Police say a Maine man, charged with three counts of kidnapping and murder in Massachusetts, could be a real-life vampire. The man told police he drank the blood of himself and others. The defendant, who has undergone extensive surgeries to create devil-like horns on his forehead, had previously served time in prison after slashing a young girl’s neck and lapping up her blood. Now known as "Caius Veiovis," (Veiovis being a Roman god of the underworld and Caius the name of a vampire from Twilight), the suspect, who was born Roy Gutfinski, is currently on trial.
MARYLAND — THE BELTSVILLE GOATMAN
In 2000, construction workers near Bowie, Maryland, came face to face with a 300-poound, seven-foot-tall furry creature. The workers said the beast had the legs, hooves, and horns of a goat but the upper-body of a man. It may have been The Goatman, a monster that had been bedeviling nearby Beltsville for years, often attacking cars with an axe. Rumor has it the beast was once a scientist who was conducting an experiment on goats when things went horribly, horribly wrong.
MASSACHUSETTS — THE BRIDGEWATER TRIANGLE
Image: JS Custadio
Located in southeastern Mass., the Bridgewater Triangle is a large swamp that has been the site of many UFO incidents, reports of glowing orbs and flying balls of fire, giant snakes, monstrous dinosaur-like birds, even Bigfoot sightings. Plus, more than a dozen confirmed homicides have taken place inside the Triangle over the past 30 years. Legend has it that Native American tribes cursed the swamp centuries ago after receiving poor treatment from early colonial settlers.
MICHIGAN — THE DOGMAN
Sightings of The Dogman have been reported in Michigan since 1987. That July, police found an empty cabin near the town of Luther scarred by deep claw marks around its door and windows, prompting reports that an "unknown animal" had tried to get in. Ten years later, a witness camping in the forest near Luther heard a chilling howl, something more human-like than a wolf or coyote. Later that night, the witness saw a creature across a narrow river bed from him, standing larger than a bear, with black fur, a long skull, and reflective yellow eyes. The beast howled again, then ran up the bank and disappeared. Most startling of all, the creature ran not on all fours, but on two legs, like a human.
MINNESOTA — GHOST TRAIN
In 2006, a group of friends in Elk River, Minnesota, went night fishing at a pond next to a long-abandoned railroad track. Soon after arriving, the anglers were stunned to hear a train approaching. As the train sped by, the witnesses heard a blood-curdling scream and saw something fly off the last car, disappearing into some bushes. Suddenly a disturbance erupted from the bushes that enveloped the fishermen in an earth-shaking wind. The group fled the area without discovering the cause of the blast.
MISSISSIPPI — THE CARROT-TOP ALIENS
One of America’s most famous — and strangest — UFO incidents happened in Pascagoula, Mississippi. On the night of October 11, 1973, two men fishing from a pier reported that a large cigar-shaped craft suddenly appeared in front of them. Three creatures emerged from the craft, described by both witnesses as humanoid in shape, five feet tall, with lobster-like claws and only one leg. Most unusual, there were three carrot-like growths on the creature’s. The men say they were probed and examined by the creatures before being released.
MISSOURI — BLACK-EYED CHILD
In 2009, a Lawson, Missouri, housewife answered a knock at her front door to find a young girl she did not recognize. The child, about seven years old and wearing a white dress, had dirty hair and bad breath. She said she needed help and pleaded to come inside, but the woman noticed the girl’s eyes were coal black. The woman immediately closed the door and locked it; she was so traumatized that she needed medical attention and refused to leave her house for days. Dozens of reports of black-eyed children appearing at people’s doors have surfaced from around the world in recent years.
MONTANA — THE TIMBER CREEK MONSTER
An unidentified creature has been wandering the hilly terrain around Timber Creek, Montana, for several years. The creature viciously attacked sheep herds in the area — in one month alone it killed three-dozen ewes and injured 70 more. The beast’s killing pattern is bizarre. While wolves and coyotes take only one or two sheep at a time, the mystery beast seems to kill just for the thrill of it. The creature’s hunting habits are like those of a hyena, but that animal is found only in Africa and Asia.
NEBRASKA — COWBOYS & ALIENS
On June 6, 1884, in a remote part of Nebraska, a group of cowboys rounding up cattle saw a fiery aerial object crash to the earth a few miles away from them. Investigating the crash site, the cowboys discovered the remains of a fifty-foot long cylindrical object glowing with intense heat. Two days later, a local newspaper described the object as "an air vessel belonging to some other planet." Four days after that, the paper reported a heavy storm had passed over the crash area and that rainwater had melted the craft’s remains into a substance resembling salt.
NEVADA — THE GHOST OF ELVIS
Taxi drivers in Las Vegas swear this happens every Halloween. Sometime around midnight an unsuspecting cabbie will pick up a customer dressed like Elvis. The customer will ask to be taken to the Desert Inn, which was actually demolished years ago. Thinking the customer is just another Halloween drunk, the cabbie drives him to The Wynn, where the Desert Inn once stood, but before arriving, the customer suddenly disappears, the cab mysteriously empty except for a $20 casino chip left on the back seat.
NEW HAMPSHIRE — THE DOVER JAZZ GHOST
A young woman newly relocated to Dover, New Hampshire in the 1960s was at a jazz club late one night when she saw a man dressed in black and carrying a saxophone staring at her from the shadows. When the woman returned home, she saw the man again, sitting on a neighbor’s lawn. Later that night, she heard sax music and looked out to see the same man on the neighbor’s lawn, now playing his sax. After informing her neighbor of the disturbance, the neighbor said that her brother was a musician and would often sit out on her lawn and play his sax — but he had died tragically three years before.
NEW JERSEY — THE MYSTERY SHIRTS
On or about October 17th, 1999, in a swamp located just off U.S. Route 70 in Brick, New Jersey, someone hung 17 men’s dress shirts across a small patch of dead trees. The shirts were white, pressed and clean. Each one was hanging about 20 feet up, fastened to the tree with nails. Twelve days later, the number of shirts increased to 29, hung in the exact same manner. No one has ever determined who placed the shirts there or why.
NEW MEXICO — THE WEEPING WOMAN
Colfax, New Mexico, was once a thriving Old West town — that is, until 1890, when a ghost returned to haunt the local church. Always sitting in the back row and sobbing uncontrollably, reports say her spirit — that of a grieving mother who died shortly after her young son — was seen so frequently people started moving out of Colfax. Eventually, the place became a real ghost town.
NEW YORK — THE GHOST PLANE OF 1933
One of New York’s oldest unsolved mysteries is the Ghost Plane. On December 26, 1933, every airport in the New York City area was asked to turn on their landing lights in hopes that an airplane heard circling the city during a snowstorm might be able to land. Attempts to contact the plane by radio had failed; no one knew who was flying it or where it had come from. By nightfall, the NYPD was fielding numerous calls from people seeing and hearing an airplane flying dangerously close to the ground, as if looking for a place to land. But then the ghost airplane simply disappeared. No crashes were reported, nor were any airplanes or pilots ever reported missing. Nearly 80 years later, the ghost plane and its pilot is still a mystery.
NORTH CAROLINA — THE POOP MONSTER
Something very creepy is living in the sewers of Raleigh, North Carolina. Caught in a video that has since gone viral, the creature has been labeled the Poop Monster, because that’s exactly what it looks like. A spokesperson for the city’s public utilities commission confirmed "Poopy" appears to be a living creature, but offered no idea what it could be.
NORTH DAKOTA — THE HAUNTED FORT
Located in southwestern North Dakota, Fort Abraham Lincoln is one of the most haunted places in the state. Witnesses say they see a woman wearing a black dress pacing in front of the fort’s barracks. They also hear the sound of children crying and the clamor of invisible horses stomping dirt in the stables. Why is the place so ghostly? Maybe because it was from here in June of 1876 that George Custer and his 7th Cavalry left to do battle at the Little Big Horn, never to return.
OHIO — THE THRICE HAUNTED LAKE
An eleven-foot-tall, 1,000 pound ape-like monster known as Orange Eyes has been terrifying residents near Ohio’s Charles Mill Lake since 1959. But the popular recreation site is also said to be the home of an armless, web-footed, green-eyed creature known simply as the Mill Lake Monster. Even stranger, in October 1973, there was a bizarre encounter between a UFO and a military helicopter over the lake, leading many people to believe Orange Eyes and the Mill Lake Monster might be extraterrestrial in origin.
OKLAHOMA — THE OKLAHOMA OCTOPUS
A mysterious creature is said to inhabit Oklahoma’s Lake Thunderbird. It resembles an octopus, with long tentacles and leathery, brown skin. It may be more than a coincidence that an unusually large number of drowning deaths have been reported at the lake since sightings of the monster first began. While octopuses are normally saltwater creatures, certain species of jellyfish have adapted from saltwater to freshwater, and some cryptozoologists say the same adaptation is also possible for an octopus.
OREGON — THE MYSTERIOUS ROCKS OF NEHALEM BAY
Nehalem Bay is located on the northern coast of Oregon. Legend says that when a 16th century gold-laden galleon was shipwrecked there, its crew buried their African slaves alive with the treasure, hoping to keep the local tribes away. These days, unusual piles of rocks mysteriously appear overnight near the rumored burial ground. Sometimes they consist of single piles, other times, of elaborate stacks. No one has ever determined who is responsible for these strange displays.
PENNSYLVANIA — WHEN A GHOST CALLS
One night in 2011, a paranormal investigator based in Danville, Pennsylvania, received a message from a man who wanted his home inspected for ghostly activity. Identifying himself only as "George," the man left a phone number different than the one from which he was calling. The investigator called the number and asked the woman who answered if he could speak to George. After a long pause, the woman replied that George had been killed in a house fire ten years before. When the investigator told her the number George had called from, the woman confirmed it was from a phone George owned before he’d died.
RHODE ISLAND — THE PAWTUCKET WEREWOLF
On December 16, 2008, three boys playing hooky decided to explore some deep woods near Pawtucket, Rhode Island. While walking along a streambed, the boys saw a dark figure running through the brush nearby. The figure was humanoid in appearance except for its face, which was elongated like a wolf’s. The creature stopped and looked at the boys for a few moments, then disappeared into the woods. The truants later told police they were convinced the creature was a werewolf.
SOUTH CAROLINA — THE GRAY MAN OF PAWLEY’S ISLAND
For the past 100 years, prior to any hurricane making landfall on South Carolina’s Pawley’s Island, a mysterious man appears on the beach and warns all who see him to leave the island. There are numerous documented instances of witnesses encountering this strange man, dressed all in gray, as the stormy weather is approaching. Even stranger, those residents who take the Gray Man’s advice always find their homes undamaged after the storm. Those that don’t invariably have their homes destroyed.
SOUTH DAKOTA — DEADWOOD
Seth Bullock moved to Deadwood, South Dakota, in 1876 to build a hotel that still carries his name. Though Bullock died in 1919, many guests have reported seeing his ghost in various areas of the hotel. Even stranger, the ghost seems to want to make sure the hotel staff works hard, because unexplained events always seem to happen whenever staff members are goofing off. Plates and glasses shake, lights turn themselves on and off, and items move on their own any time an employee finds he has a few spare minutes on his hands.
TENNESSEE — TROLL
One night in October 2008, a man driving to a relative’s home in rural Tennessee nearly hit a dark figure sitting on the side of the road. The figure was wearing a black hat and a shabby looking black coat and had long, oddly shiny black hair. Its body was lumpy, as if stuffed with leaves. As he drove by, the figure turned and looked at him. It had glittering black eyes and a horrible, wrinkled, sunken-in face. The driver hit his gas and left the scene as quickly as possible. The man later did some research and improbably concluded what he had seen was a real-life troll.
TEXAS — GHOST LIGHT
The Texas Ghost Light can be found near Saratoga, Texas, on a dirt path called Bragg Road. The light appears at random times at night, changing from yellow to white and swaying from side to side like someone waving a lantern. While some witnesses have attempted to approach the light with no success, others claim it has followed their vehicles. Though local legend says the weird illumination is a lantern being carried by the ghost of a railroad worker who’d been killed in an accident nearby, exactly what causes the light remains a mystery.
UTAH — BULLETPROOF WOLF
Soon after moving to a new ranch in central Utah, a family found an unusually large wolf sitting at their front door. Though the strange animal acted as if it were their pet, when it tried to snatch a farm animal, the rancher shot the creature six times at point-blank range. But his bullets had no effect. Not even bleeding, the wolf casually trotted across a field and disappeared. Since then, the ranch has been plagued by a strong musky odor and the constant buzz of ghostly voices talking day and night.
VERMONT — THE PIGMAN
One night in 1971, a farmer who lived in Northfield, Vermont, heard strange noises coming from his backyard. Expecting to find a raccoon going through his garbage, the farmer turned on an outside light to find a hideous creature hovering over his trash. Covered with white hair, the beast had the body of a man but the facial features of a pig. After a few seconds of staring at each other, the monster ran off into the woods. Dubbed The Pigman, it was seen by dozens of residents a few days later lurking outside a high school dance. Since then, the Pigman has been spotted many times by motorists driving Northfield’s country roads at night.
VIRGINIA — GHOST OF BUNNYMAN BRIDGE
Bunnyman Bridge in Fairfax, Virginia got its name from a 1904 incident in which a patient escaped from a Fairfax insane asylum and survived for years in the nearby woods by eating raw rabbits. Reportedly, every Halloween the lunatic would emerge from the woods dressed as a rabbit and murder trick-or-treaters with an ax, hanging their bodies near the bridge. The killer became known as the Bunnyman. It is said that if a person stands under the span and intones his name three times the hare-like ghost will reveal itself to them.
WASHINGTON — THE HAUNTED ELEVATOR
The Landmark Theater in Tacoma is seriously haunted. Shortly after the building opened in 1929, a ghost was spotted in the audience during a performance. Since then, eerie shapes have been frequently seen in the theater’s balcony. Adding to the spirit count, one of the theater’s janitors was accidentally killed in 1972 and his ghost has been riding the service elevator ever since. Witnesses say the elevator goes up and down on its own and stops at random floors where the doors will open for several seconds, as if an unseen person is walking in or out.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — THE WHITE HOUSE
You saw this one coming, didn’t you? It’s been said that Honest Abe roams the White House corridors, his business as President forever unresolved (in his mind)…
WEST VIRGINIA — THE BLUEFIELD GARGOYLE
Is there a gargoyle living in Bluefield, West Virginia? In 2004, a boy was playing near a house surrounded by high hedges and strings of barbed wire. Suddenly, there was a rustling in the hedges; a moment later, a creature resembling a huge misshapen frog popped out. It had sharp teeth, green skin and webbed feet that faced inward. The beast hissed, then vanished back into the hedges.
WISCONSIN — STRANGENESS AT BONG PARK
The extensive UFO sightings here probably won’t come as a surprise to regular visitors of the appropriately named Bong Park. On top of the UFOs, there have been numerous reports of alien abductions, ghostly apparitions, strange fogs, mysterious noises, and unexplainable lights. The park has a labyrinth of tunnels beneath it, leftover from when the area housed a military airbase, but access to these tunnels is forbidden by federal law.
WYOMING — HAUNTED HIGH SCHOOL
In 1940, a student rehearsing for a play at Natrona High School in Casper, Wyoming, was tragically killed before the play could open. The school’s auditorium has allegedly been haunted ever since. Not only has the student’s ghostly figure been seen on stage many times, if someone sits in a certain front row seat during a performance, something invariably goes wrong and the performance has to be stopped. The girl’s ghost has also been known to laugh hysterically during quiet moments of a show.
Everything and anything 
