Forget the Costumes, Alabama's Got Real Spooks!
Halloween's cool and all, but let's be real - it's just dress-up. Alabama? We've got the year-round spooky vibe going on. Forget fake ghosts; we're talking about creepy happenings in the real world, and our cemeteries? Straight outta a horror flick.
Alabama's creepy cemeteries are scattered across the state. Here's a glimpse into a few spots where the dearly departed might still be raising a ruckus.
Butler County: Double Dose of Dread
Passing through on I-65? You're near some serious spooky spots. Head down those local highways (10 and 55) and you might stumble upon:
Consolation Church Cemetery: Outhouse of Horrors (RIP)
Picture this: Deep in the woods, down dirt roads, pitch black. This place screams "haunted." Oh, and it had a haunted outhouse. Legend says the door would lock you in until someone sprung you from the outside.
Sadly, a fire torched the abandoned church and the infamous outhouse in 2015. But the cemetery? Still there. Red-eyed hellhounds, screaming banshees, and a black truck chasing folks away are among the tales that persist. And back in '07, some folks were arrested for some "cultish behavior" in the area. Yikes!
Oakey Streak Cemetery: Tales from the Tombstones
Head to the intersection of Halso Mill Road and Oakey Streak Road, and you'll find Oakey Streak Methodist Church. The cemetery next door? Prime for ghost stories.
Unmarked graves of slaves and pioneers, a mass grave of 21 infants, and a headstone marking the tragic passing of triplet boys who died on Friday the 13th. Need we say more?
Dallas County: Selma's Secrets
Selma's known for history, but it also has a couple of mysterious cemeteries:
New Cahaba Cemetery, Old Cahawba: Whispers from the Past
Old Cahawba, Alabama's former capital, is now a historical site. But the graveyard here is still kicking. Visitors and workers report hearing disembodied voices and the giggling of children.
Pay a visit to Col. John Bell's grave. He and his son were killed in a shootout, and the family's bitterness is etched on his tombstone: "No murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." Chilling.
Adams Grove Cemetery, Sardis: Shadowy Figures
Next to the abandoned Adams Grove Presbyterian Church (last used in '74), you'll find a cemetery with Confederate soldiers, slaves, and prominent citizens buried together.
Keep an eye out for a "shadowy man with fiery red eyes." Folks also claim to hear a Confederate soldier yelling and a baby crying.
Bass Cemetery: Irondale's Best Kept Secret
Tucked away off a dirt road in Irondale, it seems like no one knows how old it is. Rumors abound about occult rituals. One ChumCity reader shares their experience:
"In the fall of 1987, my older brother and I (as well as another friend and three females) went to Bass Cemetery on a Saturday night to drink and hang out for a little while. As we got out of our vehicles, we noticed another vehicle on the property as well as a shirtless redneck walking out of an open crypt (above ground) near the front of the cemetery. Needless to say, we didn’t want any issues, so we got in our vehicles and left. The following morning, my brother (now deceased) realized he had dropped his asthma inhaler when we were trying to leave the cemetery. We skipped Sunday school that morning and drove back to the cemetery to retrieve it. Sure enough, we pulled into the same area we parked the night before, and the inhaler was laying on the ground, so he picked it up and we started to leave. As we began to pull out of the entrance onto Ruffner Road, we both see a guy wearing a Confederate soldier uniform carrying a napsack on a stick over his left shoulder. He looked directly at us and continued walking in the high grass across the road from us. Still remember this incident vividly…he had red hair (also wearing the infantry cap) and a red beard. The wind began blowing as we were pulling out, and we couldn’t see his legs below the knees. At the same time, we both said what is he doing here, as there were no re-enactments in the area and it is mostly industrial. We continued on to church and talked about it again afterwards. A few years before my brother passed away, we talked about it again and the memory was just as vivid as years before."
Harrison Cemetery, Kinston: Grancer the Dancer's Groove
This cemetery in Coffee County is home to the ghost of Grancer Harrison. A wealthy cotton planter with slaves, he was known as "Grancer the Dancer." Before dying, he had his slaves start building his above-ground tomb. His instructions? Bury him in his dancing clogs, on his feather bed.
After his entombment, people started hearing a fiddle and clogs tapping. Some even heard a man calling out square dance moves!
Church Street Graveyard, Mobile: The Oak Tree's Secret
Founded in 1819, Church Street Graveyard is said to be haunted by Charles Boyington, a man wrongly convicted of murder. Boyington was hanged just outside the cemetery wall, and an oak tree now grows on the spot where he was buried.
Roden Cemetery, Marshall County: Victims of Buck Island Massacre
This little-known cemetery holds the remains of four men killed in the Buck Island Massacre of 1864. They were shot after trying to hide their cattle.
Union Cemetery, Woodville: Screams from the Past
Over 1,200 graves in this Jackson County cemetery. Legend says it's haunted by Civil War soldiers whose dying screams can sometimes be heard.
So, skip the fake blood and head to one of these spots for some real scares. Just don't blame us if you see something you can't explain!
