20 Eerie Haunted Places in Oklahoma (including Haunted Houses!)
It’s that time of year: Spooky Season! I love the autumn, and – in theory – I love the idea of paranormal activity and experiencing whatever is Beyond life as we know it.
But I’ll admit: I’m a total weenie and don’t think I could ever spend the night in a haunted place. I don’t even like visiting haunted houses! As such, I have not been to any of these haunted places in Oklahoma because I just don’t need that kind of fright in my life. But, I know some of you might be adrenaline junkies who love jump-scares and creepy vibes, so I wanted to share these places anyway.
If you’re planning a trip to Oklahoma in the weeks approaching Halloween and love a good scare, read on. You’ll find a range of spooky spots across the state that you can visit and get the heebie-jeebies – or possibly have a paranormal experience of your own!
In this post, I promote travel to destinations that are the traditional lands of the 𐓏𐒰𐓓𐒰𐓓𐒷 𐒼𐓂𐓊𐒻 𐓆𐒻𐒿𐒷 𐓀𐒰^𐓓𐒰^(Osage), [Gáuigú (Kiowa), Wichita, Nʉmʉnʉʉ (Comanche), Tawakoni, Wichita, O-ga-xpa Ma-zhoⁿ (O-ga-xpa), Choctaw (Oklahoma), Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo) peoples. With respect, I make a formal land acknowledgment, extending my appreciation and respect to the past and present people of these lands. To learn more about the peoples who call these lands home, I invite you to explore Native Land.
This post was originally published in September 2021, and was updated most recently in July 2023.
1. Cherokee Strip Museum, Alva
First on our list is the Cherokee Strip Musem, one of Oklahoma’s scariest and haunted places, located close to an area known as “No Man’s Land”.
The lurking entities are the ghosts of botched patients from the former 1932 hospital building, which was there before the museum. When you walk through the rooms of the museum, it’s impossible not to feel the presence of someone breathing down your neck. To date, several people still report strange lights and shadows moving around in the building at night.
2. Fort Washita Historic Site & Museum, Durant
There are rumors that a female ghost, Aunt Jane, haunts the grounds of Fort Washita in Durant. Back in 1842, when the Civil War broke out, Fort Washita used to be Aunt Jane’s home. Everything was okay until thieves came to their home to rob her. When she refused to give them the money, she was brutally murdered by having her head cut off.
As the legend goes, people who get buried without their heads stick around searching for it. Nonetheless, Aunt Jane’s ghost seemed to have remained calm since her unfortunate death. But it didn’t last long. In the late 19th or early 20th century, her spirit allegedly possessed a child named Molly Stalcup, who lived near the fort and threatened to cut off all of the child’s hair. It’s said to have stopped when Mrs. Stalcup began praying.
Today, Fort Washita is one of the most popular Oklahoma spooky spots you can visit.
3. Edmond Central Middle School, Edmond
Spooky rumors have been haunting Edmond Central Middle School for years. The original building, built in 1956 on Section 36, used to be surrounded by the final resting place for a few folks in the late 1880s.
As one of the haunted places in Oklahoma, there are thousands of stories telling how ghosts dressed in Victorian-age clothing float through the ceilings of Central Middle School at night. There’s said to be another ghost who likes to turn on music, and some people even claim they have heard voices or footsteps.
4. Historic Fort Reno, El Reno
Cold spots, loud footsteps chasing you, and slamming doors. These are the events that have taken place in Historic Fort Reno, an area established in 1874 that served as a fort, remount depot, and German war prisoner camp during WWII.
Visitors claim that no spooky entities appear before them. Still, they do experience strange events like seeing creepy faces in the windows, water faucets turning on by themselves in the visitor’s center, and mysterious orbs showing up in photographs.
The good news is that if you want to do some ghost hunting in Historic Fort Reno, you can do it with professional paranormal researchers. This ghostly attraction has become one of the most popular Oklahoma haunted places. It offers tours where visitors are split into groups, given a lantern, and led throughout the grounds, buildings, and the cemetery.
5. Masonic Boys Home, Guthrie
The word “masonic” already elicits an eerie feeling when pronounced or read.
Located in the former state capital, Masonic Boys Home used to be an orphanage where up to a hundred children lived. The basement of this 1900’s orphanage is allegedly where an evil headmistress murdered several of the orphan boys.
The ghost of an orphanage’s staff member who committed suicide is said to haunt the building’s bell tower. But this is nothing compared to what visitors have experienced. Visitors have witnessed a woman walking down the main hallway, the ghost of a scared little girl, and the sounds of children crying and screaming.
6. Stone Lion Inn Bed & Breakfast, Guthrie
From the outside, the Stone Lion Inn Bed & Breakfast in Guthrie looks like many other luxurious hotels in Oklahoma. But the interior of this fancy hotel hides dark secrets.
Guests have claimed that they see a childlike figure running through the home. Others argue that they’ve felt a little child tuck them into bed at night, while other guests have complained about noisy children jumping up and down on the beds even though no children were staying at the inn.
All this made sense when we learned what happened years ago in this same building. Back in the 1920s, this was the home of Mr. and Mrs. Houghton and their twelve children. One day, their eight-year-old child, Augusta, became ill and died after a nurse overdosed her with cough syrup containing opium. To this day, the mischievous ghost has been seen and felt throughout the home by any who dares to visit the property.
7. Skirvin Hotel, Oklahoma City
Skirvin Hotel is another of the best haunted places in Oklahoma. The unusual event that guests have reported when staying in this early 1900s hotel would turn any skeptic into a firm believer in the spirit realm.
According to visitors, one can hear crying babies, things seemingly being moved around by themselves, and things that go bump in the night. But the scariest noises come from the 10th floor. As the legend goes, during the Prohibition era, Skirvin Hotel was a speakeasy. The original owner back then had an affair with a maid who became pregnant. To prevent a scandal, he locked her in a room on the 10th floor, and after she had the baby, she jumped from the 10th floor, killing them both.
8. Constantine Theater & Poncan Theater, Pawhuska & Ponca City
We can agree that theaters can have spooky vibes sometimes. But these two theaters in Oklahoma don’t just have the vibes. They are home to heart-stopping paranormal experiences.
In the odds of Constantine Theater’s patrons, the ghost of a beautiful young woman in a button-down dress roams around the stage and seats of the theater. Some argue she’s Sappho Constantine Brown, the daughter of George Constantine.
Pocan Theater is said to be the site of disembodied footsteps, disappearing apparitions, and the sound of Indigenous peoples’ drums. To top it all off, there’s also a stain on the ceiling resembling blood that mysteriously reappears whenever it is scrubbed clean or painted over.
9. Cain’s Ballroom, Tulsa
Built in 1924 in the heart of downtown Tulsa, historic Cain’s Ballroom has been host to thousands of musicians and performers throughout the years. It even was the site of Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys’ first regular radio broadcast.
As the legend goes, Bob Wills, himself loved this musical venue so much that when he died, his ghost made Cain’s Ballroom his new home! Joining him is a woman known as the lady in red. Both employees and visitors have reported seeing, hearing, and feeling the presence of this mysterious woman.
10. Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa
The strange occurred in the Gilcrease Museum has drawn crews of paranormal staff to investigate the place. Everything started in 1913, when the young Thomas Gilcrease, a multi-millionaire and oil baron in his early twenties, began collecting oil paintings, artifacts of the American West, and Indigenous peoples’ artwork. Indeed, he had great taste in art, as his collection is exhibited in Gilcrease Museum today.
It seems that his love of European and native Creek art collections was so strong, he refused to be separate from them when he died in 1962. Today, you will find him wandering the grounds of his original rock house or strolling along the museum’s garden pathways leading to his remains, housed within a mausoleum on the grounds.
The 11 Best Haunted Houses in Oklahoma
If you love a good scare but aren’t quite up for heading out to experience real paranormal activity, don’t worry: Oklahoma is home to some fantastic haunted houses too. Here’s a quick round-up of the best-haunted houses in Oklahoma; rest assured the creepiness is all manufactured… or is it???
- The 13th Ward Haunted Attraction, Broken Arrow – Each year, the family who runs the 13th Ward invites guests to submerge into a chaotic dimension, where anything can happen, from savage patients running uncontrolled to evil nurses haunting you. Note: This *might* be permanently closed but I wasn’t able to confirm.
- Nightmare Warehouse, Enid – There’s no escape once you enter Nightmare Warehouse. You’ll have to make your way through the 6,000 sq. feet of terror Nightmare Warehouse has prepared for you.
- Guthrie Haunts, Guthrie – Get ready to meet Chockel’s The Clown, ghosts, monsters, and other creatures that come out at night to haunt anyone who steps in this place at night.
- Haunted Castle Halloween Festival, Muskogee – A 60-acre Halloween theme park, Haunted Castle Halloween Festival hosts ranging from non-scary to extremely terrifying, from enchanted castles to spooky woods at night.
- Thunderbird Trail of Fear, Noble – After visiting the Thunderbird Trail of Fear, you’ll never be the same. This ghostly house features two haunted attractions only the bravest ones dare to explore.
- The Asylum, Nowata – The Asylum takes place in a 1940’s mental institution and is one of the most realistic, disturbing, and interactive haunted attractions in Oklahoma.
- The Sanctuary, Oklahoma City – This WWII psychiatric hospital begun by humanitarian Charles Labrie in 1917 was where German doctor Ryan Hammond’s experiments with humans went wrong. Just learning the hospital’s history will leave you frightened for days.
- Psycho Path Haunted Attraction, Sperry – Sperry hosts the annual Psycho Path Haunted Attraction, a theme park ride through over 40 acres of wooded wilderness on a custom-made Scareage vehicle. Do you dare?
- The Hex House, Tulsa – The legend surrounding the infamous Hex House in Tulsa is well-known. Created from the house is now a dark, walk-through attraction, complete with flickering lights and frightening rooms that make visitors wish they had never entered the place.
- Nightmare in the Country, Woodward – Nightmare in the Country has six different frightening attractions spread across a five-acre complex in Woodward. If you dare, you might meet the Killingers there, the alleged family of deviants that prey on travelers visiting Oklahoma.
Do you know of any other great haunted places in Oklahoma? Let me know in the comments!
