Maine is famous for its rich wildlife and quaint seaside towns. It's known for it's seafood, scenic coast, and charming lighthouses. However, the state also has a dark side. These Maine urban legends are without a doubt, 100% spooky. It turns out those charming lighthouses, requiring centuries of care from men living in isolation, really set the stage for some freaky ghost stories.
These creepy stories from Maine make it very clear why almost every Stephen King novel takes place there. There's dark woods, abandoned cemeteries, dangerous roads, and hundreds of deaths. There's even haunted pianos, lake monsters, and curses which have stood the test of time. Maine is, without a doubt, one of the most haunted places in New England.
Maine urban legends are unique, from the dark and tragic to the unusually whimsical. Few states have so many benign and artistic ghosts who may even play piano or perform opera for you. If you want to get a handle on creepy Maine, check out this list of New England haunts.
This is one of the oldest lighthouses in Maine, standing high above sea level on an isolated and barren rock. It's said to be haunted by the ghost of a former caretaker and his wife, who were driven insane by isolation. The caretaker came to the island with his wife, and had a piano brought there to ease the monotony of life on the island. Unfortunately she could only play piano from sheet music and had only one piece of sheet music. She played the same song over and over until her husband took the piano apart with an axe and turned the ax on his one-song wife. Tourists swear they've seen their ghosts and can hear her playing piano to this day.
In the 1500s, a tribe of Native Americans lived on Saco Island and worshipped a river monster. One night, two white sailors paddled over to the island, kidnapped a mother and her child, and threw them off the falls for fun. The sailors thought they would survive, but they did not. The woman's husband happened to be the tribe shaman, and put a curse on the water. He asked the river monster he worshipped to kill three white men a year. The waterfall has since been replaced with a dam and hydroelectric power station.
The auditorium on the University of Maine at Farmington campus is said to be haunted by a spectral opera singer. The auditorium is dedicated to opera singer Lilian Nordica, and it's said that you can hear her ghost performing there to this day. She still sings from the stage.
A few years ago a group of preteens dared their friend to lower into an abandoned well behind an old barn in Sabattus. This well was in a forgotten cemetery and reportedly haunted. Trying to impress his friends, the boy accepted the dare and was lowered down into the well on a tire tied to rope. After he fell silent in the well, his friends pulled him up to discover that he had aged years in minutes. His hair was white. The boy now babbles and cackles from the country mental institution where he is kept.
The Pocomoonshine Lake Monster is a 30-60 foot long serpent that many people have claimed to have witnessed in the lake. It was first documented by Europeans in 1882, but is actually an old Algonquin folk tale. According to legend, an Algonquin shaman and Micmac chieftain once had an argument and decided to settle it by turning into monsters and battling in the lake. One turned into a giant snail and the other a 40 foot long serpent. The snail won and tied the dead serpent around a tree next to the lake. The trails of the serpent have been spotted on land ever since.
According to historic records, a gruesome murder occurred at this lighthouse in the 1890's and the ghosts can still be heard and seen today. A local squatter got in a fight, and after being confronted by a Sheriff's deputy, he shot and killed him. The squatter then tried to turn himself in to the lighthouse keeper at the time, Thomas Orcutt. Orcutt was so alarmed that he turned him away. The squatter then killed himself out of grief and guilt. The ghost of the murdered deputy is just one of the many spirits that haunts this lighthouse.
