Paranormal Road Trip: Destination York with J.E. Taylor

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.

This week's stop is York, Maine and our special guide is J.E. Taylor author of The Ryan Chronicles series, including new release ANGEL FURY.

York's Top 5 Spooky Places

Most of my books have, at a minimum, cameo appearances in York, Maine.  For the past seventeen years, my family spends our summer weekends and vacations in York. With such a rich history of ghosts, shipwrecks, even cannibalism and death, my characters just seemed to migrate towards the town we love so dearly.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few haunted places and some of the more... odd places in York, Maine.

1. Museums of Old York

If you take a tour of the Museums of Old York and you may run into the friendly “White Witch”, who is said to be the spirit of a woman hung for witchcraft.  Along with sightings of the white lady, there has been other supernatural activity reported around these museums, including chilly breezes, things moving on their own and doors opening of their own accord.  It’s rumored that even the children at the daycare across the street from the museum have said a nice lady in white has played with them during recess.  How creepy is that?

2. Old York Cemetery

Near the Museums of Old York stands Old York Cemetery which contains the grave of Mary Nasson, another witch who was executed and buried there in 1774.  Her gravestone has an image of her carved onto the crown, and a stone slab lies over the grave. If you’re thinking of tempting fate and removing that stone slab, legend states it was put there to keep Mary from rising from the grave.

3. Boon Island

There hasn’t been any reports of ghost sightings on Boon Island, but the history surrounding this landmark make it noteworthy to add here.  Boon Island houses New England’s tallest light house six miles off the shore of York, Maine. However, before the light house was built, ships routinely crashed into the desolate outcrop of rock.  The most notorious of shipwrecks was the British merchant vessel, Nottingham Galley which crashed on the island in December of 1710.  Ten of the fourteen crew members survived the crash and stayed alive for twenty-four days without shelter or fire.  The only food source was the dead crew members. After the ten remaining crew members were rescued, their cannibalistic survival story made the island infamous.

4.  Wiggly Bridge

While the Wiggly Bridge isn’t haunted or particularly spooky, the winding path through Steedman Woods can be, especially at twilight, and this is where I envisioned the opening scene in Saving Face – the sixth book in The Steve Williams Series.   The Wiggly Bridge is advertized the world’s smallest suspension bridge and its name is appropriate because it does sway and wiggle as you walk across it.

5.  Pleasure Ground

And just because it is such an oddity and actually makes me smile, I’m including Pleasure Ground – Tiny Figures in Hartley Mason Park.  This is a four by eight foot rock with bronze figures on top of it.  Yes, I realize this isn’t spooky at all, however, it does spark some weird story lines in the mind of a horror writer, like what if these figures were once real people who had a spell cast on them and were now forever encased in bronze?

There are a couple of other noteworthy places in nearby locations, like Kittery and Ogunquit that boast ghost sightings.  At the Ogunquit Playhouse you might see ghosts of Revolutionary War soldiers, and in  Kittery, if you visit Golden Girl Point on Appledore Island, you might see the ghost of Blackbeard’s mistress.

Thank you J.E. for giving us such a haunting tour of York! 

Learn more about J.E. Taylor and her books by visiting her website.  You can add The Ryan Chronicles here on Goodreads.

What did you think of J.E.'s picks for spooky places?

On our last Paranormal Road Trip we visited Dark World with Toni Sweeney.  Next time we will be visiting Savannah with Elaine Calloway.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!