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Dark Destinations is an online travel guide to macabre locations around the world. We cover Halloween events and attractions, paranormal hotspots, horror movie locations, gruesome museums, cryptozoology, sites of dark moments in history and more!
Recent Posts Tagged With 'historical locations'
Crazy Bet
As of today, it has been 109 years since the death of American Civil War Spy Elizabeth “Crazy Bet” Van Lew. During the war, Elizabeth was a young lady living in what had become the capitol city of the Confederate States of America (also known as ...
The Torture Tree
The month of September holds a number of dates associated with the historical tale of the Boyd-Parker Ambush – today is one of the few that actually has a positive note to it. On September 17, 1927, the Livingston County Historical Society dedicate...
Rediscovery of a Legend
24 years ago on this day, a joint American-French expedition located the wreckage of the famed-ship, the R.M.S. Titanic. The expedition was led by Dr. Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel and was funded by the United State Navy with the understandin...
They Went Out, but They Didn't Come Back
The Maritime Memorial Park in Astoria, Oregon was consecrated on this date (August 14, 1993) to pay tribute to the local lives that spent their careers at sea - some of which, never came home. Located directly under the Astoria-Megler Bridge (featur...
The Plane that Struck the Empire State Building
Given the hustle and bustle of New York City, it is not surprising to find a few stories have slipped out of the collective consciousness and been relegated to a few paragraphs in the trivia section of travel books. However, some forgotten events be...
Escape from Fort Delaware
In the early days of the American Civil War, the Union-run prisoner of war camp, Fort Delaware, still had a relatively low inmate population (still over half of what it would become only a year later) and few problems. It was run by Captain Augustus...
The Takeover of Cashtown Inn
The small community of Cashtown, Pennsylvania flirted with the events of the United States Civil War in late-1862 when a Confederate calvary briefly occupied the town, but it was short lived. It is possible that the citizens thought a similar scenar...
When Japan Struck the U.S. Mainland in WWII
On this date in 1942, a Japanese I-25 submarine surfaced just miles from the Northwest Oregon coastline using night as its cover and the soldiers inside ran to their battle stations. Their target was an area of land on the northwest corner of the st...
The Salem Saga
On June 20, 1970, the cast and crew of the popular television situation comedy Bewitched moved their production to the city of Salem, Massachusetts. The decision to suddenly shoot a series of episodes on location was necessitated by a fire that damag...
The Haunted Old West Ghost Town
On this date in 1863, the town of Virginia City, Montana was officially registered, although the townspeople originally opted for the name, Varina - a name that did not sit well with Union officials during the American Civil War. Varina happened to ...
The Incarceration of a Wild Bunch Member
112 years ago on this date, Henry "Bub" Meeks was arrested in Fort Bridget, Wyoming. While initially charged with a robbery charge, the authorities were more interested in Meeks for a crime that had been committed in the state of Idaho. Just under ...
The Mystery of the Stars and Stripes
On this date in 1777, the Second Continental Congress officially adopted the original 13-star version of the United States Flag. Not surprisingly, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation in 1916 that officially declared today as Flag Day, alt...
The Other Tragedy at Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. has a long and storied history. Originally built as the home to the First Baptist Church of Washington in 1833, it was converted to the theater, Ford's Athenaeum in 1861 after being purchased by John T. Ford. After...
No Justice in the Death of George Wythe
On this date in 1806, the so-called "Father of American Jurisprudence" passed away from arsenic poisoning. Wythe earned that moniker as the first professor of law at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, but he has other histori...
P.T. Barnum vs. the Brooklyn Bridge
Today marks the 125th Anniversary of a rather strange event on the world-famous Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, New York. On May 17, 1884, famed showman P.T. Barnum decided to unleash a public spectacle by leading a menagerie of his circus animals...
The Haunted Battleground of Shiloh
On this day in 1862, Confederate forces launched a surprise assault on Union troops near the Shiloh Meeting House in Tennessee. The resulting battle lasted two days and killed thousands of men and left many more wounded. Even the Confederate general ...
Tragedy on the S.S. Governor
The Admiralty Inlet near Puget Sound, Washington was the site of a tragic shipwreck on April 1, 1921. Despite clear weather, the pilot of the S.S. Governor confused the running lights of the S.S. West Hartland as the fixed lights of nearby Marrowsto...
The Haunted Tales of the S.S. Yongala
In 1923, two men were out fishing near Holbourne Island in Queensland, Australia. To their surprise, a ship emerged from a distance that was on course to pass the island. They described it as a passenger steamship that was covered in barnacles and ...
The Last Eruption of Mount Vesuvius
Since March 18, 1944, Italy's Mount Vesuvius has sat quiet - the longest quiet stage for the volcano in the last 500 years. While there are no immediate concerns of an impending eruption, officials remain on alert due to the high concentrations of h...
The Jack Bauer of the American Revolution
March 15 is known as Peter Francisco Day in the states of Virginia, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Who is Peter Francisco, you ask? Have you ever heard that joke that emerged following the popularity 24, that goes something like - "Superman wears...
The Return of the Immortal Six Hundred
On this date in 1865, a large group of Confederate soldiers were returned to Fort Delaware or Pea Patch Island on the Delaware River. Most had been incarcerated in the prison the previous year and had been taken south as a strategic military ploy. ...
The Mysterious Afterlife of Betsy Ross
Tonight on the Sci-Fi Channel, Ghost Hunters returns with an investigation of the Betsy Ross house in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Reports of paranormal activity inside the home have been reported by staff and visitors alike and vary from the overwhe...
Earthquakes, Vampires, and Slayers in Torrance
Two unconnected but lasting milestones on this date in history are shared by a high school in Torrance, California. On March 10, 1933, Torrance High School was heavily damaged by the Long Beach Earthquake, which jolted the area with a magnitude of 6...
The Irony of Salem
On March 1, 1692, the Salem Witch Hysteria really began to kick into gear as the Salem Witch Trials officially began. On this date Judge Hawthorne and Judge Corwin interrogated Sarah Osborne, Sarah Good and the slave Tituba. Those accused of witchcra...
The Haunting of Andersonville
On today's date in 1864, the Confederate Army founded Camp Sumter in Andersonville, Georgia. Camp Sumter also included a prison for Union prisoners of war. Like many war prisons of the time, there were very poor living conditions for the prisoners - ...
The Haunted Tombstones of Mount Holly Cemetery
Tucked away in the heart of Little Rock, Arkansas is a 20-acre cemetery that has often been called the "Westminster Abbey of Arkansas." The cemetery was established on this day in 1843 and is now the home to countless historical individuals that pla...
The Donner Party Legacy
On this date in 1922, 78-year-old Eliza Poor Houghton succumbed to heart disease. Although she led a distinguished life as a published author and wife of California Congressman, Sherman Otis Houghton, she is probably best remembered for the tragic w...
Fifty Years Since the Day the Music Died
Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the Day the Music Died. Around 1:00 am in the morning on February 3, 1959 a small plane crashed into a cornfield in Clear Lake, Iowa. Besides the pilot, Roger Peterson, there were three passengers on board the plan...
A Virtual Drive through Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery
As many of you know, Dark Destinations incorporates Google Maps as part of the site to help pinpoint our destinations geographically and assist in planning trips. The technology is made available through a Web developer API, which is not necessarily...
Jefferson Davis and the Anchuca Mansion
In January of 1869 (the actual day is unknown), former President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, spoke to the citizens of Vicksburg, Mississippi from the balcony of one of the town's mansions. The particular home was Anchuca M...
