State file · KS
Haunted places in Kansas
What are the most haunted places in Kansas? The best-known are Sallie House, Fort Leavenworth and Stull Cemetery.
Kansas ghost lore clusters along its eastern edge, where the Missouri River towns of Atchison and Leavenworth were among the first places settled in the territory. Atchison has built a thriving Halloween economy around the Sallie House and its Victorian mansions, while Fort Leavenworth – the oldest permanent settlement in Kansas – has a library’s worth of stories told by the military families who live in its historic quarters.
- 3 hauntings
- 12 recorded sightings
Haunted places in Kansas
Sallie House
A brick house in Atchison said to be haunted by a little girl who died on a doctor’s table – though no record shows she existed. Its fame began in 1993. Widely reported
Fort Leavenworth
Founded in 1827, Fort Leavenworth is called one of the Army’s most haunted posts, with ghost stories in its old quarters, the Rookery and its cemetery. Regional legend
Stull Cemetery
A country churchyard near Lawrence that became a “gateway to hell” after a 1974 student-paper Halloween story. The legend is fiction; the graves are real. Hoax / debunkedThe ghost lore of Kansas
The history that feeds the stories is the frontier itself: the Santa Fe and Oregon trails, the violence of “Bleeding Kansas” in the 1850s, cattle towns, and the Army posts that policed the plains. Kansas is also home to one of America’s most famous modern legends, the “gateway to hell” at Stull Cemetery near Lawrence – a story that can be traced to a 1974 student newspaper article and has brought decades of vandalism to a small farming community.
Ghost hunters head to Atchison’s booked tours and overnight investigations and to the Frontier Army Museum’s October walking tour at Fort Leavenworth. Cemeteries such as Stull’s are active burial grounds: visit only in daylight, and never trespass.
Ghost-hunting hotspots
- Atchison
A river town that promotes itself as the most haunted in Kansas, with the Sallie House, the Dilgert House and other bookable haunted buildings.
- Leavenworth
The town beside the fort, with Victorian homes, a famous federal penitentiary and a long frontier history.
- Lawrence
The University of Kansas town, sacked in Quantrill’s 1863 raid, with campus ghost stories and the Eldridge Hotel’s reputed resident ghost.
- Dodge City
The old cattle town and its Boot Hill, where Wild West history and ghost walks meet.
Timeline
- 1939End of the Finney family’s ownership Sallie House
Finney family occupancy ends after the death of Agnes Finney True; her brother Charles dies in 1947 and the house is let to tenants. Nothing in the house’s documented history records a child named Sallie.
- 1945Execution of German prisoners of war Fort Leavenworth
Fourteen German POWs convicted by military courts of killing fellow prisoners are hanged at the fort in July and August and buried in the back row of the U.S. Military Prison Cemetery.
- 5 November 1974“Legend of Devil Haunts Tiny Town” Stull Cemetery
The University of Kansas student newspaper publishes the article that launches the legend, claiming the Devil visits Stull twice a year.
- 31 December 1992The Pickmans move in Sallie House
Tony and Debra Pickman move in with their infant. Over the following months they report escalating disturbances, including scratches on Tony’s body.
- 1993Sightings takes up the case Sallie House
The syndicated paranormal series contacts the family and goes on to feature the house in several episodes through the mid-1990s, making it nationally known.
- 1994The Pickmans leave Sallie House
The family moves out. The house is afterwards used mainly for tours and investigations rather than as a home.
- 1999Halloween crowds reach hundreds Stull Cemetery
Around 500 people are reported at the cemetery on Halloween. Vandalism, stolen headstones and trespassing lead to fines, patrols and a fence.
- 2002Old church torn down Stull Cemetery
The ruined stone church at the centre of the legend is demolished.
- 6 October 2008The Army writes up its haunted posts Fort Leavenworth
An official Army feature calls the Rookery one of the most famous haunts in Kansas and lists the apparitions residents have reported.
- 15 October 2009A family describes life in the Rookery Fort Leavenworth
The post newspaper interviews an officer’s family who describe vanishing objects, footsteps and a man’s face in a doorway during their stay in the quarters.
- 17 January 2015Ghost Adventures episode Sallie House
The Travel Channel series airs an investigation at the house, one of many TV appearances that sustain its reputation.
- October 2024A legend fading Stull Cemetery
The Kansas City Star reports that the legend has lost momentum since the church came down, with historians tracing it to “hearsay” and the sheriff’s office still stepping up Halloween patrols.
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