Blennerhassett Island

A mid-Ohio River island where wealthy Irish aristocrats harbored Aaron Burr's treasonous conspiracy in 1805, Blennerhassett Island is now haunted by Margaret Blennerhassett, who appears along the shoreline with a book in hand, smelling of roses, and was once found by campers reading their books outside their tent at midnight.

A group of campers set up their tent on Blennerhassett Island one night, lit a fire, and turned in. Rustling woke them. They unzipped the tent flap and found a woman sitting near their campsite, calmly reading one of the books they'd brought. She looked entirely real. Then she wasn't there.

That's Margaret Blennerhassett. She appears all over the island, usually walking the shoreline with a book in hand, dressed in white, smelling of roses. She seems unbothered by the people who see her, like a woman who just stepped outside for some air and hasn't gotten around to going back in. The fact that her mansion burned down in 1811 and she died in poverty in New York doesn't appear to concern her.

The history of this island is almost too much. Nemacolin, chief of the Delaware Nation, died here in 1767. In 1798, Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett (wealthy Irish aristocrats who had fled Europe under circumstances they preferred not to discuss) purchased the island and built a Palladian mansion that was considered the finest private residence west of the Alleghenies. Then Aaron Burr showed up.

In 1805, one year after killing Alexander Hamilton in their famous duel, the disgraced former Vice President pitched Harman on a scheme to raise a private army, invade Spanish territory in the Southwest, and carve out a new nation with Burr in charge. Harman said yes, backed it financially, and offered the island as a staging ground. By 1806, the conspiracy collapsed. Both men were arrested. Burr was tried for treason and acquitted. The Blennerhassetts were financially destroyed and never returned. The mansion burned in 1811.

The state reconstructed the mansion in the 1980s as a historical park. The ghosts seem to have come with the real estate.

Margaret is the most active presence, but she's not alone. Children visiting the island have reported seeing other children who weren't part of their group, small figures playing among the trees and along the riverbank before vanishing. One theory connects them to baby Margaret, who was born on the island but died in infancy. Others link the ghost children to the Delaware people who lived and died here during Nemacolin's time.

Ghost Hunters featured Blennerhassett Island in a 2022 episode called "Phantom Island." The TAPS team investigated the mansion and grounds and characterized their findings as significant. WBOY, WTRF, and WVNS all covered the episode. The island is also a regular stop on Parkersburg's ghost tour circuit, and the park has hosted its own paranormal investigation events.

You reach Blennerhassett Island by sternwheeler from Point Park in Parkersburg. The boat ride takes about twenty minutes. The reconstructed mansion is open for tours that cover both the documented history and the ghost stories, though the two tend to blur together here. An island where a Delaware chief died, Irish aristocrats plotted treason with a vice president who had just killed a Founding Father, and a woman in white reads campers' books at midnight doesn't need embellishment. The true story is weirder than anything a ghost tour guide could invent.