West Virginia rated third most haunted state in the country

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) - Halloween is just around the corner, but spooky encounters don’t end after October 31st. A study recently conducted by MoveBuddha sought to determine the most haunted states in America, and West Virginia ranked third overall.

The study took into account factors such as number of haunted places by population, founding date of oldest town or city, number of cemeteries by population, age of oldest cemetery, number of unsolved murders, number of abandoned buildings, number of ghost towns by population, and number of reported ghost sightings by population.

West Virginia’s abundance of cemeteries (18,534) helped to increase its “spook score.” The oldest cemetery is the Morgan Chapel and Graveyard in Bunker Hill, Berkeley County, founded in 1741.

One notably spooky cemetery is the Hatfield Cemetery in Logan County, where members of the Hatfield family (famous for their feud with the McCoy’s) are buried.

The study also notes that West Virginia hosts 25 ghost towns around the state, including Brink in Marion County, Jerryville in Webster County, and Exchange in Braxton County.

West Virginia is also famous for being the root of the legendary red-eyed “Mothman,” who was first sighted in 1967 near abandoned WWII bunkers in Point Pleasant. Today, Point Pleasant is home to a 12-foot steel statue and an entire museum dedicated to the humanoid creature.

For more about this spooky study, visit https://www.movebuddha.com/blog/most-haunted-states/. You can also look into the details for the study’s methodology here.