10 Haunted Places to Visit During Your Next Trip to Alabama

Everyone loves a good ghost story. That's what makes authors like Stephen King, Bentley Little and Robert R. McCammon so popular. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the South. A combination of old traditions, Civil War history and African religions brought to America by slaves presents a rich tapestry rife with ghosts and hauntings.

We start our tour of "These Haunted States of America" in Alabama. "The Heart of Dixie" is home to 4,447,100 people and a number of ghosts including a phantom hitchhiker, a pipe-smoking sea captain, a mysterious student known as the Red Lady and the face of an accused arsonist etched into the window of a courthouse. So, the next time you're in Alabama, here are 10 haunted locations to visit.

1. CARROLLTON: Pickens County Courthouse

In 1876, Henry Wells, an African-American man who lived alone outside of the town limits was blamed for the November 16 fire that burned down the Carrollton Courthouse. He was quickly arrested and jailed in the attic of the building that was to be the new Carrollton Courthouse. A lynch mob gathered to demand that Wells be delivered up for their brand of justice. It was a February afternoon in 1878 and a thunderstorm began to gather over Carrollton. As the mob bickered with the sheriff, Wells peeked out of the window at the top of the building. At that moment, a lightning bolt struck the building where Wells stood, killing him instantly. His face and expression was etched into the windowpane by the bolt and no amount of effort, scrubbing or solvents have been able to erase it from the glass. According to local legend, when thunderstorms roll through Carrollton, you can see the ghost of Henry Wells staring out from the window.

2. DECATUR: Highway 11

In 1934, Lonnie Stephens was falsely accused of killing his girlfriend. He was found guilty and while working on a chain gang, managed to escape. However, while trying to catch a ride hitchhiking, Stephens was struck and killed by a passing car. The real murderer was not discovered until a number of years later, but by then Stephens was already dead and buried. Lonnie's ghost is still on Highway 11, trying to get flag down cars. His ghost is most often seen in the middle of the northbound lanes, arms out before him, pleading for help between Decatur and Huntsville.

3. DEMOPOLIS: Gaineswood

General Nathan Whitfield built this impressive and imposing mansion in 1842, and it is still haunted by the ghost of Whitfield's sister-in-law by his second wife, Evelyn Carter. While living at Gaineswood, Evelyn died of an unknown disease, but because she died in the middle of winter, she was unable to be buried properly until the ground thawed in the spring. She was placed in a pine box and stored under the stairs in the cellar until it was warm enough to properly inter her. However, it would seem that Evelyn has been less than pleased with the delay, as her ghost immediately began to haunt the Whitfield's mansion shortly after her placement under the stairs. Even after having been buried, her footsteps could be heard in the hallways and she can be heard singing her favorite songs from the cellar. Today Gaineswood is a private residence, so permission from the current owners must be obtained before entering the premises.

4. LIMESTONE COUNTY: Louisville and Nashville Railroad Tracks

An Alabaman Robin Hood haunts the railroad tracks and surrounding forests near the towns of Piney Grove, Elewy and Nymph. He is "Railroad Bill" a train bandit whose ghost has been seen in the area for nearly a century. He was a tall, broad African-American with a toothy smile who was famous for providing the poor in the area with food and money. Authorities tried numerous times to catch "Railroad Bill" but each time he managed to evade capture, some say by turning into a dog.

5. MOBILE: Smallwood House

The house where an old see captain committed suicide is haunted by his pipe-smoking ghost. When the William Smallwood family moved into the captain's former home, they were often disturbed by loud bangs, by sudden thuds and what sounded like someone falling down the stairs. Then the ghost began to appear in the garden behind the home and in the home itself. Often, the smell of pipe tobacco was too much to stand and eventually the Smallwoods moved out. Today, the Smallwood house is a private residence, so permission from the current owners must be obtained before entering the premises.

6. MONTGOMERY: Huntington College

Pratt Hall has been haunted by the "Red Lady" for a number of years now. A red-obsessed student from New York, this young lady was always dressed in red and had even decorated her room on the fourth floor in shades of red. Alone and homesick, the young woman never made any friends among her classmates and one day she was found in her room, dressed in red, beneath her red blanket, with her wrists slashed. After her death, red light was seen flashing and pulsating from her room and her shade, clothed in red wandered the hallways and rooms of the fourth floor frightening students.

7. MOUNTAIN BROOK: Old Brower Residence

A haunted Steinway piano can be found in the Old Brower Residence. Its resident: Dr. William Mudd Jordan, a prominent and beloved doctor. The doctor had always wanted to learn to play the piano he had bought for his children, but only ever mastered two pieces by the time he died at the age of 78 in 1951. The piano was kept in the family, passing eventually to the doctor's great-grandson, Dr. William Jordan Brower. Then, in the early 1970s, the elder doctor's descendents began to hear the same two tunes being plunked out on the old Steinway piano at night: "Stars and Stripes Forever" and "Maple Leaf Rag" ... the only two songs Dr. Jordan was ever able to master in his lifetime. Today, the Brower house is a private residence, so permission from the current owners must be obtained before entering the premises.

8. NEWTON: Choctawhatchee River Bridge

In the bank of the Choctawhatchee River is a shallow hole that, according to local legend, is haunted. Fill the hole in during the day and by the next morning, it will be empty once again. Highway workers once filled in the hole, and then pitched their ten atop. The next morning they awoke to find that the whole had been emptied and swept clean. Locals blame the ghost of Bill Sketoe, a former Methodist pastor, for the strange doings. He was hanged as a traitor to the Confederacy by a group of vigilantes on December 3, 1864. He was, in fact, innocent. However, that did not stop the vigilantes, and neither did the fact that the limb of the tree from which Sketoe was lynched bent so that his toes touched the ground. The quickly dug a hole beneath Sketoe's feet and the pastor slowly died. Soon afterwards, however, the men began reporting having seen the pastor's ghost. Eventually, all six men met a violent end. There are still reports of locals having seen Sketoe's restless and vengeful spirit. The oak tree was located where the old bridge crossed the Choctawhatchee River on the road from Newton. The hole is still there, next to the new concrete bridge. It is about thirty inches wide and eight inches deep. Bill Sketoe's grave is in the Mount Carmel Cemetery.

9. TROY: Old Barfoot House

From 1932 to 1937, the frightening apparition of a man with dark hair and high forehead, dressed in black pants and a white shirt began appearing to the family living in the Old Barfoot House. He regularly appeared in the living room and walked through the house to one of the back bedrooms where he would disappear. Family members would often wake to see this phantom standing at the foot of their beds silently staring at them. It is believed that this frightening phantom is the ghost of Tom Johnson who was hanged for the ax murder of two elderly widows on March 31, 1899, from gallows that were - at the time - located in from of the Barfoot Home. Today, the Barfoot house is a private residence, and permission from the current owners must be obtained before entering the premises.

10. TUSCALOOSA: University of Alabama

The ghost of Dr. Eugene Allen Smith, a former professor of geology who enjoyed giving tours of the building to school children, is apparently still on the job in Smith Hall. For more than twenty-five years, students and professors have reported hearing footsteps and the disembodied voices of children on the second floor.

Elsewhere on the University's campus, the ghosts of three Union soldiers haunt the Little Round House, known today as the Jason Shire. In April 1865 they were discovered and killed by a student while searching the building for whisky. Later the building became home to a senior fraternity - the Jasons - who were known for their painful initiation rituals. Many credit these intense rituals and the attendant powerful emotions for the return of the three Union soldiers to the building.

Up Next on our Haunted Road Trip across America: "Haunted Alaska, Second in a Series of 'These Haunted States of America': 10 Haunted Places to Visit during Your Next Trip to Alaska."