Point Lookout State Park

Point Lookout Lighthouse, where the Potomac meets the Chesapeake, sits on the graves of 3,384 Confederate prisoners who died at Camp Hoffman during the Civil War. Dr. Hans Holzer's 1980 investigation recorded 24 distinct voices inside the building, and dozens of witnesses from park rangers to Maryland's future Secretary of State have seen Civil War soldiers, a vanishing elderly woman, and the ghost of lighthouse keeper Ann Davis, who may have saved a resident's life from beyond the grave.

Dr. Hans Holzer recorded 24 distinct voices inside Point Lookout Lighthouse on January 14, 1980. One of them said, "Fire if they get too close to you." Another, captured by investigator Sarah Estep, answered her question "Were you a soldier here?" with a young man's voice: "I was seeing the war." Holzer left Maryland and told anyone who'd listen: "That place is haunted as hell."

He wasn't wrong. The lighthouse sits on a desolate spit of land where the Potomac River dumps into the Chesapeake Bay, and the ground beneath it holds the remains of roughly 3,384 Confederate prisoners who died at Camp Hoffman between 1863 and 1865. The camp processed over 52,000 men in canvas tents on 40 acres. Author Edwin Warfield Beitzell described it as "a story of cruel decisions in high places, a story of diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid and typhus, of burning sands and freezing cold in rotten tents." By 1865, the death rate exceeded 28%.

The lighthouse predates the prison camp by three decades. James Davis lit the beacon in 1830 and died two months later, leaving his daughter Ann to tend the light. She kept it burning until her own death in 1847, and staff believe she's still keeping house. Her voice has been recorded saying "This is my home." Visitors see a woman in a white blouse and long blue skirt standing at the top of the stairs. When resident Laura Berg's space heater caught fire one night in the 1970s, mysterious lights appeared and woke her up in time to escape. Berg credited Ann with saving her life.

Berg, who later became Maryland's Secretary of State, lived in the lighthouse during that decade and grew used to the company. Heavy boots walked up and down the hall after dark. Two transparent figures stood in the basement. Her mother was shaken awake by a voice calling "Helen," her name, though nobody living was in the room. A friend visiting one weekend saw a woman in a blue dress who vanished mid-step.

Park Manager Gerry Sword had his own catalog of encounters during the 1970s. He heard snoring from the empty kitchen. His German Shepherd barked and lunged at something invisible on the old Civil War road, over and over, on different nights. Three identical candles on a table burned at wildly different speeds, and one snapped in half while still lit. Sword eventually wrote to Dr. Holzer and invited him down to investigate, which kicked off the famous 1980 study.

The most frequently seen ghost is a ragged Confederate soldier who sprints across the road near the old smallpox unit. Ranger Donnie Hammett watched the same figure bolt toward the woods multiple times, always on the same stretch of road, always running away from the hospital. Hammett also met an elderly woman searching for graves along the shore. He turned away for a moment. When he looked back, she was gone. Later research showed a family cemetery once stood at that exact spot.

A photograph taken at the lighthouse shows what looks like a headless Confederate soldier leaning against a bedroom wall. That image ended up on display at the New York Institute of Technology. Another famous shot captures Laura Berg holding a candle with a bedraggled Civil War soldier standing directly behind her, clear enough to make out the details of his ragged uniform.

EVP recordings from the lighthouse are extensive. Named spirits include "Kena" (captured in the basement), "Mary" (a breathy female voice in the living room, recorded by Robert Hall on October 30, 1999), and one disturbing message: "Loraine was killed by John." Barbara Woodel recorded a scream on March 1, 2008, picked up by two separate devices. More recent investigators have captured drums, chanting, banging, whistling, and voices pleading "Help me" from empty rooms. A child's voice in the parking lot said "Come out and fight" on February 15, 2010.

The water adds its own layer. In October 1878, the steamer Express sank during a storm and Officer Joseph Haney washed ashore. People near the lighthouse hear knocking on doors with nobody outside and find mysterious puddles forming, as if someone soaking wet had just walked toward the bay. The USS Tulip exploded in 1864, killing 47 sailors. Eight bodies washed up near the lighthouse. Fishermen still hear calls for help from the water.

The lighthouse hosts Paranormal Nights, when small groups investigate from 9 PM to 2 AM. Point Lookout has been featured on Weird Travels, Mystery Hunter, and TLC's Haunted Lighthouses. It's closed to the public the rest of the time, which means most visitors experience the park itself: the campground, the beach, the bay. Whether they experience the 3,384 buried soldiers is between them and the soldiers.