"Carved In A Tree, We Saw Her Name And The Year She Died": 17 Chilling Stories Of Small-Town Lore

We're officially in the thick of spooky season, which means it's time for another round-up of the BuzzFeed Community's freakiest and most spine-chilling stories of hometown lore.

Here is the first post for reference.

So, from ghost towns to one-footed-ducks, please enjoy the following 17 stories that gave me full-body shivers:

Content warning: This post contains some graphic descriptions of violence and murder.

1. "In my town, we have a bridge we call 'Cry Baby Bridge.' One night, my friend's mom was driving seven of us home from prom (3 couples and our one friend who didn't have a date), and my friend's mom said we should stop by the bridge for fun. I didn't know where this place was, as I had only heard about it during high school. Around midnight, we got out of the car on this little creek bridge. We were all dressed in our prom best, just waiting for something to happen."

"Eventually, my friend's mom's car alarm goes off, and her lights start flashing. Keep in mind her mom is standing right there with us, and she DOES NOT have a working car alarm. It had broken months earlier! 

We all ran as fast as we could back to the car."

—toomanykidsnotenoughtime

2. "The Mill Ridge Inn restaurant and catering hall on Long Island, NY, is famously haunted. It has many stories of weird happenings going on within the restaurant over the decades, such as lights flickering, glasses falling, objects disappearing, or even hearing music playing in the ballroom when it is completely empty. The creepiest and most interesting story is the one I've heard from several people over the years. These people are mostly previous restaurant employees who have never met each other, yet they reported the same experience."

"People say that when they are alone or setting up before customers come in, they see a couple in 19th-century clothing walking or dancing together in the ballroom. 

My mom and my friend have also shared the same story about seeing a male figure walking around. Their experiences happened two decades apart, but both describe the same thing, down to the room in the restaurant where they saw this figure." 

—Anonymous, Jericho NY

3. "I live in Burkittsville, MD, which is the same place the film Blair Witch took place. About 300 yards from the center of town, at the crossroad, one street goes up toward the South Mountain. You can stop your car, turn the engine off, and put it in neutral. The CAR WILL ROLL UP THE MOUNTAIN ROAD."

"The story is that the ghost of dead Rebels from Civil War battles are trying to push a wagon of weapons and explosives up the mountain."

—Michael, 74, Burkittsville, MD

4. "The legend of my small Pacific Northwest town was that a crocodile was released in the town pond and attacked a duck, not killing it but leaving it with one foot to forever swim in circles."

"Turns out, it was a nutria (which is like a large rat) that had attacked the poor pond-circling duck."

—clairmonde

5. "In my town, the legend is that the devil comes for a human sacrifice every year. One of my cousins went missing in the forest when she was exploring, so my friend and I went to go find her and carved in a tree, we saw her name and other people's names and the year they died, dating back to 1694. Blood was all over the tree, and no one has heard of them since."

—Anonymous, St. Augustine Florida 

6. "The Blue Anchor British Pub in Delray Beach, Florida, has a fascinating history. It was originally a 150-year-old London pub, shipped piece by piece to the infamous Atlantic Ave. For over a century, the pub has been haunted by the ghost of a young woman named Bertha Starkey. Bertha was stabbed by her husband after he found her having an affair with another man."

"Footsteps and wails have been heard at night after closing, candles light and extinguish themselves, and a half-inch-thick glass shelf was found to have shattered itself on the very anniversary of Bertha’s death." 

—jillievanilli (and thank you, jillievanilli, for providing a link to learn more)

7. "The McLoughlin and Barclay houses in Oregon City are both haunted. The former is haunted by its former inhabitants, as well as a murder victim who died back when it was a house of ill repute. The latter is haunted by a small red-haired boy, whose dog leaves muddy footprints, which have been reported by the staff. The boy has also been seen playing downstairs in the windows most days. If you see him, you're supposed to wave. "

"On the other hand, the ghosts of the McLoughlin House are said to be more vicious. They break technology, attempt to strangle visitors, and drag people to the edge of the banister."

—Anonymous, Oregon City

8. "I live not too far from the ghost town of Bodie, California. It’s a popular attraction, and you can tour the town. You can see the inside of houses, stores, etc. However, don’t take anything as a souvenir unless specifically bought from the gift shop or you will be cursed with bad luck. My grandmother took a silver spoon she liked, thinking the legend was just to keep people from stealing, but that it wasn’t actually real. The next few weeks, she experienced the worst bad luck of her life, which nearly cost her her life several times."

"She drove back to Bodie and replaced the spoon, and her life immediately returned to normal. Because of this, my family doesn’t mess around with spooky stuff. You never know!!"

—Ciana, Bodie, California 

Bodie, California

9. "There is a legend in my small town about the ghost of a young woman haunting the railroads. Years ago, a tragedy occurred on that railroad when an oncoming train crashed into a car. In the car was a young couple whose car broke down and got stuck on the rails, and they died instantly. Sometime after the tragedy, people reported hearing whimpers and cries by the railroad, and some have reportedly seen a silhouette of a woman in a white dress."

"There have been other accidents like that one (a car breaking down and a train crashing into it), and some have said that the ghost of the woman is behind those accidents because she can't move on and is stuck in that place. 

I have only passed by those rails a couple of times (all during the day), but I have definitely felt uneasy while passing there."

—Anonymous

10. "Out in a rural area of Washington State, there was a local lore of 'the lights.' If you drove down a certain road into a wooded valley at night, rolled down your windows, and went very slow, orb lights were supposed to appear around your car. If you drove off fast, the lights were supposed to chase you."

"The legend was that they were trying to get you to crash, and you didn't want them to catch you because it wouldn't be good. We went many times and never saw any lights. It was a great, scary-fun teenage activity, though."

—Anonymous, Marysville WA

11. "There is a local legend around here about a family who lived on a farm on Gorge Road in the 1870s. They had multiple children, and the youngest daughter, Rebecca, was rumored to be a witch with psychic powers. Eventually, she was hung from the branch of a large poplar tree and then buried face down under a layer of concrete so she couldn’t dig her way out."

"The slab of concrete is still there to this day. Some claim to see a black cat sitting on the concrete, only to disappear moments later."

—Stephanie, 32, Moncton

12. "My town had an old tuberculosis sanitarium. It was a medical facility of various kinds until it closed in 1977, after which it became an abandoned property on a hill that overlooked the railroad tracks. As kids, we always heard and were told stories about ghosts and demonic cults in the ruins. A popular one was that the supposed cult sacrificed animals by throwing them onto the railroad tracks."

"It was torn down around 2000."

—jenniferr4786d9525

13. "I grew up in a small town in rural Washington. There were a significant amount of murders. One of the most mythologized was about a dead body that was found behind one of the grocery stores. Supposedly, the body was in a sleeping bag, and the hands had been removed to avoid identification."

"There was also a dentist who murdered his wife with a pair of scissors and a guy who murdered his mom and buried her in a footlocker by the swim school. 

There was one very brutal one where one of the butchers at the local Safeway killed one of the bag boys (they were both teenagers) by slitting his throat and standing on his chest until he stopped bleeding. The butcher cleaned up the blood and then dumped the body on one of the nearby mountains. 

You could tell when they discovered what happened because the whole Safeway reeked of bleach for a week."

—quizzydaisy112

14. "I’m from a town called Sleepy Hollow, New York. The same sleepy hollow from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which was written in and about this town. We go so much into the legend; even my high school mascot was the headless horseman."

—turtles2000

The Headless Horseman Bridge in Sleepy Hollow, New York.

15. "The Tabor Cemetery Lights have a history going back to the 1930s. There are many different stories as to why they exist, but I'll tell you what I was told. Apparently, there was a young girl who died and was buried outside the fence of the cemetery for some reason (people believe it was because she was an atheist, killed herself, or wasn't of the denomination for the cemetery). The story goes that the light is from her searching for a way into the cemetery."

"Now, this light has been seen a lot. My parents saw it throughout the '60s and '70s. They say they mostly saw the lights follow cars. 

One time, they saw it follow a car and go into the tailpipe. The car died, and my parents gave the people a lift. The car started fine the next morning. 

It's worth looking into; there's a very long story about it in Ghost Stories of Saskatchewan."

—Ken, 40, Churchbridge

16. "I live in Portland, and we have the Shanghai Tunnels, which are known for having been used for bootlegging purposes (Portland started prohibition before the US did) and other illegal activities."

"There were crimpers who sold men to ships (mostly going to Shanghai, hence the name), and the legend is they used the tunnels to hold them. Human trafficking was rampant and honestly still is today, which is horrific.

You can tour the tunnels or do a walking ghost tour of Portland. The city has a savage past of crime and plenty of ghost stories and legends."

—octopuslasers

17. "The local legend in my small town of Crownpoint is 'The Howler.' The Howler lives around town and has been heard near the community cemetery and mesas. There have been unexplained footprints and noises that only certain [people] would hear. Over the past few years, there have been no unusual noises."

—Anonymous, 37, New Mexico

There you have it! While you're here, please share any of your own hometown lore in the comments, or if you would prefer to remain anonymous, you can submit your story via this Google Form.

Your responses could be featured in a BuzzFeed Community post!

Note: Submissions have been edited for length and clarity.