By Katie Waldeck

Countless Americans visit haunted houses around Halloween. Usually though, it’s more common to spot teenaged actors in costumes than it is an actual ghost. Well, where’s the fun in that? Click through to read about some truly haunted houses across the United States.

1. Winchester Mansion, San Jose, California

An heiress to a gun fortune, Sarah Winchester felt spooked by the spirits of the people who died from the weapons. A psychic medium told her to move out west, build a house, and keep building it forever and ever. And that’s exactly what she did. For 38 years, the house was under construction day and night. Stair cases that lead to nowhere, a door that opens to a three-story drop, secret rooms and windows into other rooms are all present in this huge, bizarre house. Winchester believed the spirits of the Winchester gun victims were always present — some believe they’re still hanging around today.

2. Devil’s Tramping Ground, North Carolina

Local legend says that, for at least a century, nothing has grown in this patch of forest. Dogs don’t want to enter it, things mysteriously disappear, and all sorts of other spooky things happen.

3. Lizzie Borden House, Fall River, Massachusetts

Want to spend the night in the home where one of the most prolific murders in American history took place? In the late 1800s, Lizzie Borden shot to infamy after being tried and acquitted of murdering her father and stepmother with an axe. Today, the family home/crime scene is a Lizzie-themed bed and breakfast, and purportedly haunted by the victims of the unsolved murders.

4. Whaley House, San Diego, California

Often called the most haunted house in the United States, the Whaley house is thought to be haunted by at least five ghosts — including the four members of the Whaley family who died in the house. There have even been reports of a ghostly dog.

5. Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado

This historic hotel is no stranger to spooky events — from ghostly figures to the sounds of a party but not a (living) soul in sight. It’s even the hotel that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining!

6. Myrtles Plantation, St. Francisville, Louisiana

It’s thought that 12 ghosts — 10 of them victims of murder — haunt this centuries-old plantation. Purported to have been built on an Indian burial ground and the home of three murders of soldiers during the Civil War, this plantation has a storied and spooky history. Today, it’s a bed and breakfast.

For more on this story go to: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/americas-scariest-haunted-houses.html#ixzz2AoJvsNpg

Also: https://mysteriousheartland.com for Haunted places or abandoned places