{"id":3520,"slug":"uss-sultana-marion-arkansas","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Sultana is the '65 — the 'April 27' that's the 2 a.m., the '1,800' that's the died. The '376' is the capacity — the '2,400' that's the crammed, the '$5 a head' that's the greed. The 'patched' is the boiler — the 'Taylor' that's the warned, the 'Mason' that's the rushed.","The 'Andersonville' is the passengers — the 'POWs' that's the survived camp, the 'home' that's the almost. The 'forgotten' is the news — the 'Lincoln' that's the buried, the 'Booth' that's the killed. Sultana is the buried — the 'soybean field' that's the 20 feet, the 'Marion marker' that's the remembers.","The file keeps Sultana: the 1865 explosion, the 1,800 dead, the patched boiler, and the soybean grave.","USS Sultana is the archive's Arkansas file — the ship itself."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["USS Sultana is the archive's Arkansas file — the greed's explosion.","A wreck keeps its toll — the file's suggestion being that Sultana's hold is the forgotten: the '1,800' that's the died, the 'patched' that's the boiler, and the 'soybeans' that's the buried."]}],"name":"USS Sultana","aliases":[],"type":"SITE","type_label":"Site","cats":["DARK_HISTORY","LOCAL_FOLKLORE","LEGEND_SITE","MARITIME_DISASTER"],"groups":["dark-history","legends"],"desc":"April 27, 1865—the steamboat that killed 1,800 freedmen.","full_desc":"USS Sultana is a site in Marion, Arkansas. April 27, 1865—the steamboat that killed 1,800 freedmen. The presence its accounts keep returning to is the one they call the 1,800. The dossier holds 2 reported claims, 1 legend, 1 documented fact and 1 named or described presence — documented record and retelling kept side by side. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Marion","county":null,"state":"Arkansas","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":35.204246,"lon":-90.206715,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":"Historic site","research_notes":"SHIP batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":59.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":3848,"type":"NAMED_GHOST_LEGEND","description":"The dead are reportedly seen. Witnesses name it The 1,800; the name travels further than the proof. USS Sultana's file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. It's a documented legend: the telling is real, the contents remain folklore. Sources including 'Sultana (alt)' keep the claim in circulation. The name gives the haunting a face, and the sightings give the name a job.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"The 1,800","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Sultana (alt)","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Sultana","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]},{"id":3849,"type":"APPARITION","description":"Reported a presence at the site. USS Sultana's file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. It's anecdotal evidence in the strictest sense — stories, repeated, unresolved. The figure remains the site's most-repeated sighting. The file stays open on it.","evidence":"ANECDOTAL","evidence_label":"Anecdotal","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Sultana (alt)","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Sultana","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The April 27, 1865 explosion is documented. USS Sultana's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer beneath whatever lore attaches. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. 'Sultana (alt)' documents the entry. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest. The reports keep the address on the map.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":"1865-04-27","confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Sultana (alt)","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Sultana","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"The dead are reportedly seen. USS Sultana's file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. It's a documented legend: the telling is real, the contents remain folklore. The report is preserved in sources like 'Sultana (alt)'. As folklore it's unkillable: the story is too good, and the place too fitting, to let go.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Sultana (alt)","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Sultana","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"The 1,800","claimed_identity":"The 1,800","verified":null,"summary":"The dead are reportedly seen. The presence goes by The 1,800. USS Sultana's file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. A named spirit outlasts an anonymous one; the file's name is The 1,800. The lore keeps its witness. It remains the site's standing claim.","behavior":"The dead are reportedly seen.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Sultana (alt)","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Sultana","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Site access varies; verify before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Sultana (alt)","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Sultana","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":2,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}