The Most Haunted Places in Tennessee

Ranked

1. 1. Siam Steel Bridge Site (Watauga River, Elizabethton) Elizabethton · Outdoor / Natural Site · Family Comfort: Moderate

   HauntBound identified three distinct published accounts at this outdoor site, across three kinds of published source. Three later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include cold spots and objects moving.

   3 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 1977-1999 · retold in 3 later publications

2. 

   2. Loretta Lynn Ranch (Hurricane Mills Plantation) Hurricane Mills · Haunted House / Historic Home · Family Comfort: High

   The plantation mansion at Hurricane Mills was built in the 1870s by the Anderson family; Loretta Lynn and her husband bought it and 1,450 acres in 1966 for $220,000, and Lynn lived there until her death in 2022. She described a Woman in White on the balcony and in the cemetery, said to be Beula Anderson, who died of grief after losing an infant. Her son reported Confederate soldiers pulling at his boots while asleep.

   7 original accounts · retold in 3 later publications

3. 

   3. Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary Petros · Prison / Reformatory · Family Comfort: Not Recommended

   Brushy Mountain opened in 1896 in the aftermath of the Coal Creek War and operated for 113 years before closing in 2009; James Earl Ray, convicted of assassinating Martin Luther King Jr., was held there and escaped in 1977 before being recaptured after 54 hours. In 1982 white inmates holding guards hostage killed two Black prisoners, one of the prison's worst episodes. Investigators touring the cell blocks report being touched, scratched, pushed, and growled at.

   4 original accounts · retold in 4 later publications

4. 

   4. Tennessee State Capitol Nashville · Museum / Historical Site · Family Comfort: High

   Architect William Strickland and building commissioner Samuel Morgan feuded throughout the Capitol's construction; Strickland died in 1854 and was interred in the building's northeast vault, and Morgan, who died in 1880, was placed in the opposing southeast vault. Local lore holds their argument continues after dark, with police reportedly sent to investigate bickering and finding it empty. Visitors report a Confederate guard near the flagpole and a woman in antebellum dress in the cupola.

   4 original accounts · retold in 3 later publications

5. 

   5. Old South Pittsburg Hospital South Pittsburg · Asylum / Hospital · Family Comfort: Not Recommended

   Founded by four physicians in 1959, the 68,000-square-foot South Pittsburg hospital served Marion County for nearly four decades before closing in 1998; it has since reopened as a paranormal research center. Investigators report a seven-foot shadow figure near the former surgical areas on the third floor, an interactive presence known as 'Buddy,' believed to be a child, on the second floor, and disembodied voices and giggling recorded throughout the building.

   1 original account · documented across 2 decades, 1998-2023 · retold in 8 later publications

6. 

   6. Orpheum Theatre Memphis · Theater / Performance Venue · Family Comfort: High

   HauntBound identified three distinct published accounts at this working theater, across four kinds of published source. Four later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include apparitions and objects moving.

   3 original accounts · retold in 4 later publications

7. 7. Chapel Hill Ghost Light Chapel Hill · Outdoor / Natural Site · Family Comfort: High

   Chapel Hill's ghost light has been reported along the L&N railroad tracks since the 1940s, a lantern-like light that approaches observers before vanishing. Local tradition ties it to Skip Adjent, struck and killed by a train on June 8, 1942, and to a second account of a signalman killed near Duck River trestle while warning of washed-out track. Witnesses describe the light accelerating toward them and, in one 1977 incident, leaving scratches on a car.

   2 original accounts · retold in 2 later publications

8. 

   8. Greystone Mansion Knoxville · Haunted House / Historic Home · Family Comfort: High Private, not open to visitors

   Coal magnate Eldad Camp built Greystone between 1885 and 1890 and lived there until his death in 1920; WATE-TV bought the property in 1965 for $75,000 and spent $1.5 million restoring it. Station employees over six decades report being pushed down a staircase, hair pulled, cold breezes, and the smell of frying bacon with no kitchen in use, activity most often attributed to Camp but showing signs of a woman, a child, and another man.

   2 original accounts

9. 9. Sensabaugh Tunnel Kingsport · Outdoor / Natural Site · Family Comfort: Moderate

   HauntBound identified one distinct published account at this outdoor site, across six kinds of published source. Four later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include apparitions and cold spots.

   1 original account · documented in 1994 · retold in 4 later publications

   Contradicted by physical evidence A local folklore blog offers a mundane explanation for part of the tunnel's ghost-story soundscape: a real local resident known for skilled animal-call mimicry, amplified by the tunnel's acoustics, is credited with producing some of the crying and wailing sounds reported there.

10. 

    10. Bijou Theatre Knoxville · Theater / Performance Venue · Family Comfort: Moderate

    HauntBound identified two distinct published accounts at this working theater, across three kinds of published source. Six later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include apparitions and cold spots.

    2 original accounts · retold in 6 later publications

Superlatives