The bibliography
3,516 dossiers cite5,502 sources between them — government registers, encyclopedias, newspaper archives, local histories and, yes, the occasional ghost-hunter blog. This page reads the whole shelf: which works the record leans on hardest, and what kind of paper is actually underneath the stories.
The most-cited works
ranked by dossiers citing them · top 40- 01Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01556 citationsNational Park Service · Government
- 02NPS Network to Freedom listing554 citationsNational Park Service · Government
- 03Underground Railroad554 citationsWikipedia · Encyclopedia
- 04Ghost Adventures15 citationsWikipedia · Encyclopedia
- 0515 Ghost Stories from South Carolina11 citationsSouth Carolina ETV · Local Journalism
- 06Alabama Hauntings — County by County Part IV10 citationsSouthern Spirit Guide · Blog
- 07Alabama Hauntings — County by County Part V10 citationsSouthern Spirit Guide · Blog
- 08Alabama Hauntings — County by County Part VI10 citationsSouthern Spirit Guide · Blog
- 09Find the 10 most-haunted places on the Hammock Coast10 citationsGeorgetown County Chamber of Commerce / South Carolina Hammock Coast · Tourism
- 10Haunted Places in Houston10 citationsVisit Houston · Tourism
- 11The True (-Ish) Stories behind D.C.'s Famous Ghosts10 citationsGeorge Washington University / GW Today · Official Site
- 1210 Most Haunted Places In Puerto Rico – Urban Legends Guide9 citationsPuertoRico.com · Blog
- 13Alabama Hauntings — County by County, Part III9 citationsSouthern Spirit Guide · Blog
- 14Ghost Towns9 citationsOklahoma Historical Society · Historical Society
- 15Haunted Destinations in Tennessee: September 20269 citationsTennessee Department of Tourist Development · Tourism
- 16Haunted Kansas Road Trip: 13 Spooky Locations to Make Your Blood Run Cold9 citationsKansas Tourism · Tourism
- 17Southwest Montana’s Haunted Places9 citationsSouthwest Montana · Tourism
- 18Spooky Stuff in State Parks9 citationsMaryland Department of Natural Resources · Government
- 19The haunting of Columbus, Mississippi9 citationsSouthern Spirit Guide · Blog
- 20Where to Find Famous Georgia Ghosts9 citationsGeorgia Department of Economic Development · Tourism
- 21Discover Washington Ghost Towns8 citationsState of Washington Tourism · Tourism
- 22Ghost Towns of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore8 citationsNational Park Service · Government
- 23Haunted Kentucky8 citationsKentucky Department of Tourism · Tourism
- 24Hot Spots for Colorado Ghost Hunters8 citationsColorado Tourism Office · Tourism
- 25Most Haunted Places in Oklahoma8 citationsOklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department · Tourism
- 26Nebraska Ghost Towns, Nebraska History 18 (1937), 181–1918 citationsNebraska State Historical Society / G.H. Gilmore and John C. Miller · Library Archive
- 27Oklahoma Ghost Towns8 citationsOklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department · Tourism
- 28Paranormal Piedmont8 citationsVisit North Carolina · Tourism
- 29Staunton Haunted Locations8 citationsVisit Staunton · Tourism
- 30Unique, Immersive Experiences at Haunted Destinations in Tennessee8 citationsTennessee Department of Tourist Development · Tourism
- 31West Virginia Paranormal Trail8 citationsWest Virginia Department of Tourism · Tourism
- 3213 Haunted Places in Indiana to Visit on Friday the 13th7 citationsVisit Indiana · Tourism
- 338 Haunted Places in North Carolina7 citationsVisit North Carolina · Tourism
- 34A Guide to Florida Ghost Tours7 citationsVISIT FLORIDA · Tourism
- 35Alabama Hauntings — County by County, Part II7 citationsSouthern Spirit Guide · Blog
- 36Alabama Hauntings—County by County Part VII7 citationsSouthern Spirit Guide · Blog
- 37California’s Most Haunted Hotels7 citationsVisit California · Tourism
- 38Explore the historic ruins of the Pennsylvania Wilds7 citationsPennsylvania Wilds · Tourism
- 39Historic Sites7 citationsMarianas Visitors Authority · Tourism
- 40Minnesota's Spookiest Sites7 citationsExplore Minnesota · Tourism
Who signs the record
citations by kind of source
- Encyclopedia2,433 · 44.2%
- Government1,573 · 28.6%
- Tourism723 · 13.1%
- Official Site224 · 4.1%
- Historical Society134 · 2.4%
- Blog90 · 1.6%
- Paranormal Organization76 · 1.4%
- Local Journalism70 · 1.3%
- Museum57 · 1.0%
- Library Archive52 · 0.9%
- Academic31 · 0.6%
- Directory22 · 0.4%
- Newspaper13 · 0.2%
- Government Research3 · 0.1%
- Media Reported1 · 0.0%
The shelves it comes off
citations by domain · top 12 of 581
- en.wikipedia.org2,433
- nps.gov1,253
- southernspiritguide.org68
- hauntedhistorytrail.com43
- ghostresearch.org33
- ctvisit.com30
- traveloregon.com26
- travelok.com23
- history.nebraska.gov22
- visitnc.com22
- dnr.maryland.gov22
- kentuckyafterdark.com21
What the citations prop up
citations in dossiers carrying each evidence class
- Documented legend1,838
- Local folklore1,329
- Anecdotal963
- Investigation claim407
- Media reported224
- Disputed168
- Reported experience156
- Internet rumor50
- Unverified38
- Verified history0
And the phenomena they file
citations in dossiers carrying each claim type · top 12
- Apparition1,619
- Named Ghost Legend1,169
- Reported Anomalies461
- Haunting454
- Legend185
- Historical Legend119
- Cryptid Sighting83
- Unspecified Haunting67
- Unexplained Lights53
- Folklore Creature52
- Voices50
- Shadow Figure50
Attribution overlaps by design: a dossier's citations count once toward every class the file carries.
Why the bibliography is load-bearing
Most haunted-place directories end at the story. This one ends at the shelf. A claim with a citation is something a reader can check; a claim without one is decoration. Every dossier in the archive cites at least one source — not because citation makes a story true, but because it makes a story traceable.
The shape of the registry is itself a finding. The single most-cited work —Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01 — underwrites 556 dossiers on its own, and the top of the table is dominated by federal registers, encyclopedias and official site histories rather than paranormal media. America's ghost stories, it turns out, rest heavily on paperwork filed for entirely unghostly reasons.
A citation is not a verdict. Tourism boards and crowd-edited encyclopedias sit in this registry beside government surveys and newspaper archives — provenance, not endorsement. What a citation guarantees is narrower and more useful: the claim traces somewhere, and the somewhere is printed on the page. How each filing earns its evidence class is laid out in the methodology, and the reader-facing version lives in how evidence works.
Record last amended October 2, 2026 · registry recomputed with the archive