Civil War Prison Camp, 1830 Lighthouse, and Chesapeake Confluence
11175 Point Lookout Road, Scotland, MD 20687
Age
Public state park; appropriate for all ages during daylight hours.
Cost
$
Maryland State Park entry fee per vehicle in season; lighthouse open dates have separate ticketing. Camping is available with reservation.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved roads, sand beaches, and dirt trails; the Civil War Museum and Visitor Center are accessible
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1830 · Point Lookout Light (1830) · Camp Hoffman Civil War prison · Fort Lincoln earthworks · Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery
Point Lookout is the southernmost tip of the St. Mary's County peninsula in Maryland, where the Potomac River empties into the Chesapeake Bay. The Point Lookout Light was constructed in 1830 to guide vessels around the dangerous shoals at the confluence; it operated continuously into the twentieth century and remains a landmark on the peninsula today.
The site's Civil War history is the principal historical anchor for the state park. After the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 produced large numbers of Confederate prisoners, the United States established Camp Hoffman at Point Lookout to detain captured Confederate soldiers. The camp received its first prisoners in August 1863 and operated until June 1865. Over its operational period, more than 52,000 Confederate soldiers passed through Camp Hoffman, making it one of the largest Union prisoner-of-war facilities of the war. Conditions deteriorated as the camp population exceeded its planned capacity; nearly 4,000 prisoners died of disease, exposure, and malnutrition and are buried at the Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery on the grounds.
Three earthen forts were built on the peninsula during 1864 to defend the camp from possible Confederate raids: Forts Lincoln, Burroughs, and a third smaller fortification. Fort Lincoln has been partially reconstructed and is interpreted as part of the park's living-history programming.
The peninsula was acquired by the state of Maryland in 1962 and developed as Point Lookout State Park. The park today includes the Civil War Museum, the lighthouse, the reconstructed Fort Lincoln earthworks, the Confederate cemetery, picnic and camping areas, and beaches along the Chesapeake Bay. The site is part of the American Battlefield Trust heritage-sites network.
Sources
The paranormal reputation of Point Lookout is among the most consistently documented in the Chesapeake region. The lighthouse — operated as a public open-house site by the Maryland Park Service and partner volunteer organizations — has been the subject of repeated witness reports across multiple decades.
The single most-cited apparition is a male figure in ragged homespun Civil War-era clothing, observed both inside the lighthouse and on the surrounding grounds. Witnesses across unrelated visits have consistently described a strong smell of mildew and of gunpowder accompanying the sighting, with the figure often described as appearing on the stairs or in upper rooms of the keeper's quarters. A separate persistent account describes a woman who approaches visitors asking for help finding a grave; that account is associated with the Confederate cemetery portion of the park.
The broader park grounds attract a range of additional reports: phantom marching cadence and disembodied voices from the Fort Lincoln earthworks, cold spots in portions of the prison-camp grounds, and orb photography in the cemetery. Licensed ghost-walk operators including American Ghost Walks run scheduled evening programs at the park, and Point Lookout is regularly cited in Travel Channel and regional Maryland coverage of the most-haunted Mid-Atlantic destinations.
A 1980 study by parapsychologist Hans Holzer at the lighthouse is cited in many subsequent accounts; the study reportedly identified more than twenty distinct voices in audio recordings made during overnight visits, although the methodology has not been independently replicated.
Media Appearances
Point Lookout State Park preserves the site of Camp Hoffman, a Union prison camp that held more than 52,000 Confederate soldiers between 1863 and 1865. Visitors can explore the reconstructed Fort Lincoln earthworks, the Civil War Museum, the 1830 Point Lookout Light, and the beaches at the Chesapeake Bay / Potomac River confluence.
The Point Lookout Lighthouse is open to the public on scheduled open-house dates throughout the year. American Ghost Walks and other licensed operators offer ticketed evening ghost walks on a published schedule.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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