Elmira Is Allegedly One Of New York's Most Haunted Small Towns

In one year alone, nearly 3,000 Confederate POW soldiers died at Elmira's massive Civil War encampment, which had a peak operation between 1854 and 1865. Poor living conditions combined with New York's brutal winters resulted in a shocking 25 percent mortality rate in the bunkers, primarily caused by dysentery, pneumonia, and hunger, and worsened by severe overcrowding. At one point, 10,000 soldiers were kept in an area meant for 5,000. Many of the deceased were unceremoniously buried in mass graves before later being transferred to Woodlawn Cemetery nearby.

Today, the camp is no more, although a partial reconstruction can be toured. However, many say that the traumatized souls who passed on at "Hellmira" never actually left the grounds, and that their presence can still be felt. What's more, they have been seen and even smelled as well. Ghost lights, unearthly whispers, and faint, tortured cries for help have all been reported in the area.

As the story goes, a witch was buried at Woodlawn before it was an official cemetery. On her headstone is a skull - the mark of someone cursed. It's said that when it rains, water courses down the skull's face in trails of blood. Stand too close to the unholy ground, and you might just feel the earth churning beneath you.

But the witch's grave isn't the only eerie thing here. Remember, Elmira's prison camp soldiers were reburied here, and while some souls remain trapped near where the original bunkers once stood, there are numerous reports of their spirits making an appearance at Woodlawn as well. Fortunately, now in a respectful resting place, those spirits are all said to be friendly, although unnerving. However, not all encounters at Woodlawn are with friendly WWII soldiers. In fact, if you feel a cold, skeletal hand on your arm as you walk through the grounds, keep some salt handy. You might be getting a little too close to a soul who would rather be left alone… and who isn't about to ask politely.

Perhaps no residence in Elmira has had as much spine-chilling paranormal activity as the historic Lindenwald Haus. Eerily, it is often said that more people have died here than in any other building in the region. With a history that includes everything from an orphanage to a safe home for WWII widows to a B&B, Halloween attraction, crematorium, and more, there's a lot of history hidden within these walls - and plenty of death to go with it. No one is quite sure who the spirits are that reside here, or from which era they originally came, but they have been known to make their presence impossible to ignore. Tales include disappearing tools, slamming doors, vague auras just out of sight… and the terrifying discovery of mysterious, child-sized footprints going up one of the main walls before ending abruptly.

Heading west through the quiet suburbs of Elmira, a series of gothic structures loom in the distance. Elmira College was established in 1855 as a women's college - the first in the country to grant science degrees to women and encourage their studies. But with literal centuries of history haunting the campus, it's no surprise that there are otherworldly beings haunting the school as well.

The stories are varied, and many have been exaggerated to legendary status. The infamous ghost of the nun searching for her long-lost sister, whose untimely death occurred on campus… the face of "Scary Mary" appearing unexpectedly in bathroom mirrors or her apparition flickering just out of the corner of one's eye... But there are a few hair-raising stories that have too much consistency to ignore.

Tompkins and Cowles Hall are the two buildings with the most paranormal activity on campus. In Tompkins, even long-time professors have heard mysterious footsteps echoing through the creaky, darkened halls and caught doors opening and closing on their own, although nothing malicious has occurred. However, it's also said that the building is actually split - with one side being "good" and the other being evil. The evil side plays host to more ominous spectral activity, including demon-like shadow figures and ghost lights moving from room to room.

In Cowles, the true and heartbreaking story of Edith Stewart has its own host of ghostly tales. As a young student, Ms. Stewart committed suicide by poison, rather than face her mother's wrath, and it is said that her spirit still haunts the halls of the school. She manifests as cold gusts of wind with no source and distant footsteps echoing in the stairwells. The subsequent closing of the building for nearly two decades for renovations came with its own supernatural lore as well, as workers and curious students noted strange happenings taking place behind the dropcloth curtains: knocking coming from within walls, strange symbols found drawn in the sawdust, and even a few reports of an unknown woman in white beckoning visitors further into the recesses of the building.

Like many a cursed place, it seems that Elmira's hauntings all have direct roots to the town's original prison camp - as though the horrific happenings that took place in the past tainted the very landscape itself. Windsor Avenue and West Water Street are both seemingly ordinary roads in an otherwise charming residential section of Elmira, but both had direct ties to the former prison camp - and as such, multiple houses here have gained eerie reputations.

The homes are often abandoned as quickly as they are occupied, with reports of a malevolent presence haunting the attic in one, and in another, the unearthly sound of an unwound clock chiming on its own. In a red brick house in the upper district, the ghost of a Union soldier has been making himself at home for years - leaving impressions on the bed and chilling the home to unlivable temperatures. In yet another residence, a series of violent personal attacks by a seemingly angry entity resulted in the renter leaving in a hurry. According to the individual, furniture was hurtled at him in a fury, and on several occasions, picture frames dislodged from the walls to fly directly at him.