HauntBound Press Fact Sheet · Updated September 2026
The Most Haunted Places in Kansas
Kansas has 68 documented haunted locations in the HauntBound index.
Top 10 identified after source-level analysis of the 22 strongest Kansas candidates.
By the numbers
- Total documented
- 68
- Museum / Historical Site
- 14
- Other Dark Tourism Site
- 10
- Haunted House / Historic Home
- 7
- Family-friendly
- 64
- Bookable
- 20
- Oldest documented site
- The Rookery (Fort Leavenworth) (1832)
- Most-reported phenomenon
- apparitions
Ranked
- 1. Fort Riley (Custer House & Main Post) HauntBound identified six distinct published accounts at this military site, across five kinds of published source. One later publication retells those accounts. Reported phenomena include apparitions. 6 original accounts · documented across 4 decades, 1920-2017 · retold in 1 later publication
- 2. Sallie House This mid-1800s Atchison house doubled as home and medical office for a local physician, Dr. Charles Finney, who saw patients and performed procedures in its basement. In 1993, tenants Tony and Debra Pickman documented scratches appearing on Tony's body on camera along with unexplained fires; investigators have since described a nursery so consistently active that trained dogs reportedly refuse to enter it. The case has been featured on Ghost Adventures, A Haunting, Paranormal Witness, and Fact or Faked. 3 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 1992-2018 · retold in 11 later publications
- 3. Brown Grand Theatre HauntBound identified two distinct published accounts at this working theater, across four kinds of published source. Three later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include apparitions and disembodied voices. 2 original accounts · documented across 3 decades, 1907-1970 · retold in 3 later publications
- 4. Old Cowtown Museum (Murdock House) The centerpiece of this 23-acre frontier-Wichita museum is the 1874 home of newspaper founder Col. Marshall Murdock and his family, one of more than fifty original and reconstructed buildings on the museum's period streets. Visitors and staff report a taller shadow figure descending the staircase, disembodied voices, cold spots and brush-by sensations in the parlor, and, during one investigation, a candle said to lift from its holder. 3 original accounts · documented in 2022 · retold in 1 later publication
- 5. Old Fort Hays This frontier Army post, active from 1865 to 1889, garrisoned elements of Custer's 7th Cavalry and hosted Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody; during an 1867 cholera outbreak, hospital worker Elizabeth Polly nursed dying soldiers and walked evenings to a nearby bluff before she herself died of the disease. Locals report a glowing blue light on that hill, said to be Polly still searching for the grave she requested but never received. 2 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 1917-1950 · retold in 4 later publications
- 6. Hutchinson Public Library HauntBound identified two distinct published accounts at this documented site, across four kinds of published source. Six later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include a sensed presence and apparitions. 2 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 1975-2003 · retold in 6 later publications
- 7. The Rookery (Fort Leavenworth) Built in 1832 at Fort Leavenworth, The Rookery is the oldest continuously inhabited building on an active U.S. Army post and briefly housed George Custer in 1867, before his court-martial that year. Generations of officers' families have reported unexplained footsteps, objects moved without cause, and cold spots in rooms with no outside air source, including a 2010 account published by the Army itself describing one family's experience in the quarters. 4 original accounts · documented across 1 decade, 2000-2009 · retold in 1 later publication
- 8. New Century AirCenter Naval Air Station Olathe opened in 1942 and trained John Glenn among its first cadets before closing in 1970 and being redeveloped into today's New Century AirCenter. In the late 1950s or early 1960s a pilot died attempting a night landing in bad weather and crashed into a hangar wall; security guards there since have reported directional voices with no source, whistles, footsteps on empty catwalks, and locks and doors that will not stay put. 1 original account (known through later citation) · documented across 2 decades, 1950-1960 · retold in 1 later publication
- 9. Stull Cemetery HauntBound identified three distinct published accounts at this burial ground, across five kinds of published source. Seven later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include phantom sounds. 3 original accounts · documented in 1970 · retold in 7 later publications
- 10. Eaton Place (Carey House / Eaton Hotel) Built in 1887 as the Carey House by Wichita mayor John Carey, this hotel became infamous when temperance activist Carrie Nation stormed its barroom in 1900, smashing mirrors and bar decor with a hatchet; it was renamed the Eaton Hotel and converted to apartments in 1999. Legend describes a woman killed in the hotel whose case was never solved, said to walk the upper floors lifting phone receivers and disturbing roses left in the building. 1 original account · documented across 3 decades, 1886-1929
By city
- Wichita: 9 documented sites
- Atchison: 6 documented sites
- Lawrence: 6 documented sites
- Topeka: 6 documented sites
- Hutchinson: 4 documented sites
- Dodge City: 3 documented sites
- Leavenworth: 3 documented sites
- Hays: 2 documented sites
- Abilene: 2 documented sites
- Pittsburg: 2 documented sites
- 25 more across the rest of Kansas
Press images
- Fort Riley (Custer House & Main Post) US Army hauntbound.com/images/locations/kansas/fort-riley-custer-house-main-post/hero.jpg
- Brown Grand Theatre Paulmcdonald hauntbound.com/images/locations/kansas/brown-grand-theatre/hero.jpg
- Old Fort Hays IveGoneAway, CC BY-SA 4.0, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fort_Hays_Blockhouse_02.jpg hauntbound.com/images/locations/kansas/old-fort-hays/hero.jpg
- The Rookery (Fort Leavenworth) Mike Whye, photographer (Historic American Buildings Survey) / Library of Congress hauntbound.com/images/locations/kansas/the-rookery-fort-leavenworth/hero.jpg
- New Century AirCenter U.S. Navy hauntbound.com/images/locations/kansas/new-century-air-center/hero.jpg
- Stull Cemetery Gatsbydog3, CC BY-SA (Wikimedia Commons default), via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stull,_Kansas hauntbound.com/images/locations/kansas/stull-cemetery/hero.jpg
- Eaton Place (Carey House / Eaton Hotel) UNOBUDO, CC BY-SA 3.0, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carey_House_(Wichita,_Kansas)_1.jpg hauntbound.com/images/locations/kansas/eaton-hotel-wichita/hero.jpg
Images listed here may be republished with the credit shown; all other HauntBound images are not offered for press use.
Superlatives
- Oldest documented site: The Rookery (Fort Leavenworth) (Exterior viewing only) Documented since 1832.
- Most documented: Fort Riley (Custer House & Main Post) 6 distinct published accounts.
- Top haunted stay: Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview Overnight stays bookable.
- Most family-friendly: Spektrum Muzik (former Central Plains Novelty) Family Comfort rating: High.
Methodology
For purposes of the HauntBound Index, "most haunted" means the location with the strongest documented record of reported haunting phenomena. We evaluate the quantity, independence, persistence, and documentary quality of published reports. We do not attempt to determine whether paranormal phenomena are real, and we never count a source that only establishes a building's history as evidence of haunting claims. Repetitive coverage is subject to diminishing returns, so a story retold many times does not outrank a story independently documented. Rankings never consider commercial relationships.
The 2026 Index reflects sources identified and classified as of September 15, 2026.
Updated September 29, 2026: documented totals now exclude the private homes, operating hospitals and venues with nothing left to visit that were withdrawn on September 25 and 26. The ranked ten are unchanged.
Corrected October 5, 2026: Spektrum Muzik, the record shop named in this entry, has moved out of the former Central Plains Novelty building at 905 W. Douglas; the building's current use is unconfirmed.
This is a documentation ranking, not a visitation guide; sites not open to visitors are marked on their entries.