The Horrific History Behind 6 Abandoned American Landmarks

While some landmarks retain the glory and standing of time passed, others fall into disrepair, neglect, and eventually abandonment. Some of these abandoned landmarks may seem creepy due to their ruined buildings and infrastructure but often those reputations come from misinformation, legends, or unsightly aesthetics. Other abandoned landmarks, however, seem to retain a horrific edge when considering the histories behind their locations. Though thousands of historic locations dot the American landscape, some abandoned American landmarks have a truly horrific history behind them.

As evidenced by this list, many of the abandoned American landmarks that retain some sense of dread deserve that kind of reputation. Places like the Athens Lunatic Asylum or Letchworth Village endured a despicable history of patient neglect, abuse, and even murder. Other abandoned places feature dark pasts that involve untimely deaths, black magic rituals, or other elements of darkness. In this article, we will explore six abandoned American landmarks with a horrific history behind them. (For more general attractions, discover the most underrated attraction in every state.)

To compile a list detailing the horrific history behind abandoned American landmarks, 24/7 Tempo consulted a range of history, entertainment, and news publications including 10 News, Explore.com, and VisitMercerCounty.com. Next, we selected abandoned landmarks with a dark or tragic history. After that, we confirmed aspects of each location using sites like US105FM.com and WKRN News 2.

Some places flourish before falling into disrepair; others seem to be cursed long before development begins. When entrepreneur Conley Snidow bought the waterfront property next to Lake Shawnee in West Virginia in 1926, he had no idea the land held a bloody, vicious history. A century and a half earlier, Native Americans slaughtered settler Mitchell Clay's children at the site, scalping two and taking the third back to their village to be burned at the stake. Heartbroken and furious, Clay sought revenge. After enlisting help from his neighbors, Clay found several members of the Native American raiding party and killed them.

Though blood was burrowed deep into the ground, the area seemed to be on the up and up when Snidow bought it in 1926. Aiming to provide entertainment for the people of Mercer County, Snidow built the Lake Shawnee Amusement Park. It featured attractions like a Ferris wheel and swing ride and became a popular location among local families. Over time, it grew to include things like a swimming pool, dance hall, concession stands, a race track, and overnight cabins. During Snidow's ownership, however, more than one tragedy befell the park. Two people drowned during the intervening years, and a young girl died on the swing ride in 1966. Upon failing a health inspection, the Lake Shawnee Amusement Park closed a year later in 1967.

After that, the abandoned amusement park passed through various hands, serving as the site of fishing tournaments and off-road motorsport competitions. When construction crews uncovered Native American artifacts, archeologists from Marshall University took over and made extensive digs into the land. Soon, they uncovered graves containing the skeletons of 13 Native Americans, mostly young children and the elderly. Sensing an opportunity, the owner Gaylord White began hosting weekly ghost tours of the abandoned theme park. Since then, many visitors have reported seeing the ghosts of children wandering the property.

Gothic and imposing, the Tennessee State Prison opened on Feb. 12, 1898. Situated just outside of Nashville, the prison took years to build as each stone structure was handmade. It had a capacity of 800 inmates but wasted no time stuffing the prison with as many souls as possible. Twelve hundred people faced incarceration there on opening day, often jammed with others into 6-by-8-foot cells designed to hold one person.

It served as a grim punishment for prisoners. Conditions made life at the Tennesse State Prison hard for inmates and guards alike. Lacking air conditioning or much insulation, the facility remained hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Over the years, the Tennessee State Prison played host to both the infamous and famous. At one point, cell block three held Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassin, James Earl Ray. Thanks to its impressive architecture, the prison also popped up in numerous pop culture artifacts. Not only were films like "The Green Mile" and "Walk the Line" shot there, but the prison also shows up in several music videos.

In 1992, a federal lawsuit ruled the Tennessee State Prison to be overcrowded and unsanitary, forcing it to close. While it no longer houses inmates, the property remains technically open and used by the Tennessee Department of Corrections. Besides the annual Run the Green Mile 5K on the surrounding property, the Tennessee State Prison is an abandoned American landmark. The complex's future was questioned after a 2020 tornado destroyed much of the remaining prison buildings.

Another abandoned American landmark, the Athens Lunatic Asylum in Ohio, operated between 1874 and 1993. During those years, it served as kind of a catch-all facility, hosting Civil War veterans, children, and the mentally unwell. While not entirely self-sustaining, the asylum functioned as an independent community where patients worked its greenhouses, farms, dairy, and livestock facilities.

By 1950, the Athens Lunatic Asylum (which shuffled through various names) featured 1,800 patients and served as the town's largest employer. Thanks to shifting attitudes toward the mentally ill and innovations in medicine to treat mental illness, the asylum fell into disrepair by the 1990s. A few years before, the state of Ohio deeded the property and renamed it The Ridges. Then, it transferred ownership to Ohio University. It currently serves as the Kennedy Museum of Art. Over the years, however, the property gained a reputation for unseemly medical practices and paranormal sightings.

For one, the asylum became known as one of the premier spots for lobotomy procedures in the mid-20th century. Though this barbaric practice fell out of favor, it gave the asylum a dreadful reputation. Furthermore, the facility's three adjoining cemeteries hold the bodies of some 1,900 people. Only a number marks most graves, and accessing patient information requires a difficult state-approved process. As such, the asylum and its history remain cloaked in mystery. While unproven, more than one visitor has claimed to see ghosts wandering the grounds. (For other unique locations, discover underrated attractions in every state you don't want to skip.)

When Letchworth Village opened in 1911, it served as an institution for the physically and mentally disabled. Situated in the hamlet of Thiells in Rockland County, New York, the facility grew to include over 130 buildings across hundreds of acres. While it sought to provide care for the disabled of all ages, reports of improper care and insufficient funding began surfacing in the 1920s.

The state touted Letchworth as an ideal center for the disabled but it quickly proved to be something of a nightmare for patients. Food, water, and supplies were scarce, and many visitors reported seeing child patients appearing sick or malnourished. Already overpopulated a decade after opening, workers crammed most residents into small dormitories. Many of the doctors and nurses considered the children to be lost causes. As such, many were left to their own devices, or worse, subject to cruel medical testing.

Its bad reputation grew after Irving Haberman published a set of photographs in the 1940s detailing the unkempt facilities and mistreated patients, often cramped into dirty, horrific rooms. Though Geraldo Rivera detailed the dreadful conditions of Letchworth Village for an ABC News program in 1972, the facility continued to rot. Instead of fixing the Village, state apparatuses slowly shifted patients to other facilities. Once the institution closed in 1996, it truly became one of the abandoned American landmarks with a horrific history. Though nearby residents made a brief attempt to convert the facility into a golf course, the plans died on the vine. Nowadays, the decaying buildings serve as a sobering reminder of the terrible circumstances many Letchworth Village patients faced.

Much like the previous entry, the Forest Haven Asylum served as a horrific institution before devolving into one of America's abandoned landmarks. Situated in Laurel, Maryland, the facility opened in 1925 as a state school and hospital for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Once called the District Training School for the Mentally Retarded, Forest Haven encompassed nearly 300 acres of land featuring 22 buildings.

It remained under the radar for its first 50 years. By the 1970s, however, many reports surfaced detailing the facility's abysmal conditions. Indeed, constant reports detailing abuse and other neglect caused the Justice Department to monitor the asylum between 1989 and 1991. It found numerous deaths from aspiration pneumonia, among other, more grim, accounts. Many prior residents reported widespread sexual, mental, and physical abuse at the facility. Some gave accounts of corporal punishment involving the use of belts, switches, and even baseball bats. Furthermore, many patients mysteriously lost their teeth while housed at Forest Haven.

Workers buried residents who died from such punishments in an unmarked mass grave on the property. Over time, researchers found some 389 individuals buried without headstones or markings. The majority were only discovered after erosion exposed the mass burial. Due to such horrific abuse and practices, the families of six victims settled a lawsuit with Forest Haven in 1994 for $1,075,000. Nowadays, Forest Haven sits abandoned and heavily patrolled by the United States Park Police. Even so, it has become a sought-after location for urban explorers.

Many cemeteries serve as peaceful resting spots for the deceased. Others, however, become abandoned American landmarks with a horrific history. Take the Maxdale Bridge and Cemetery in Killeen, Texas, for example. Built in the 1860s, the cemetery served as burial grounds for pioneer settlers and veterans from several wars including the Civil War. In 1914, the Maxdale Bridge was constructed to connect the cemetery with a farm road on the other side of the Lampasas River.

Since then, rumors, stories, and legends have grown to make the Maxdale Bridge and Cemetery one of the most eerie landmarks in the country. Some say a man hanged himself on the river that flows under the Maxdale Bridge. Others say a school bus full of children rocketed off the bridge, killing everyone on board. Many suggest if you stop your car at the bridge, turn off the lights, and honk your horn, strange things occur. Either a man hanging from one of the bridge tresses appears or small handprints materialize on your car windows. Furthermore, speculation abounds regarding satanic activity at the site. More than one person has reported seeing pentagrams painted in the area. Other accounts mention groups of people dressed in black emerging from the cemetery.

Though the Maxdale Bridge became a Texas historic landmark in 1990, it remains hard to reach. After countless reports of vandalism, authorities closed the bridge to the public citing safety concerns. Considering the nearby town of Maxdale contains less than a dozen residents, the Maxdale Bridge and Cemetery might be the most desolate and haunted abandoned American landmark. (For locations lost to time, explore legendary landmarks in the U.S. that no longer exist.)