Home Is Where The Haunt Is

Here’s a list of things I like about lists:

1) They’re easy to compile.
2) They spark conversation.
3) They’re fun to cross out.
4) When you’re sitting in a coffee shop, working on a list, it looks like you’re writing a novel, even though you’re only reminding yourself to go to the bank and pick up the dry cleaning.
5) You can turn them into columns and blog posts.

There’s no shame in this. Some of the world’s most important writings have come to us in list form. (Consider the Ten Commandments, which is basically just a To-Don’t List, etched on stone tablets.)

So today I thought I’d share a list of someone else’s invention. My favorite Rhode Island-based list of recent vintage appeared in a book titled “Rhode Island Legends: Haunted Hallows and Monsters’ Lairs” by South County author M.E. Reilly-McGreen. It’s her list of the most unusual haunts in the Ocean State. Given that politics, weather and a midweek date on the calendar muted the annual New England Halloween festivities in many communities, I thought it would be worth passing along while the days are getting darker and the November landscape turns skeletal.

Here’s Marybeth’s field guide to Rhode Island legends:

ALIENS (BEST BETS): Wood River Junction, Providence, Newport County, Cumberland
BIGFOOT: the Great Swamp, South Kingstown
BLEEDING ROCKS: Indian Corner, Slocumville, North Kingstown
CLASSICAL GODS AND GODDESSES AT PLAY: Narragansett Beach, Narragansett; Worden’s Pond, South Kingstown
CRYING ROCKS: Child Crying Rocks, Charlestown
CURSED MATCHING THRONES: the Salt Chairs of Belcourt Castle, Newport
THE DEVIL: Devil’s Hole, Woonsocket; Devil’s Ring, Peace Dale
THE DEVIL’S HOOFPRINT: Devil’s Foot Rock, North Kingstown; Purgatory Chasm, Middletown
FAIRIES: Worden’s Pond, South Kingstown
FLESH-EATING VEGETATION: Roger William’s Root, Providence
GHOSTS OF FAMOUS HORROR WRITERS: Edgar Allan Poe, Benefit Street, Providence; H.P. Lovecraft, Barnes Street and Swan Point Cemetery, Providence
GIANT WOLVES AND BLACK SHUCK: Devil’s Hole, Woonsocket; Fort Wetherill, Jamestown; Wolf Rocks, Exeter; Wolf Bog, Peace Dale
HAUNTED ASYLUMS: the Ladd Center, Exeter
HAUNTED HOLY SITES: the Monastery, Cumberland
HAUNTED MILLS: Slater Mill, Pawtucket; Ramtail Factory, Foster; Mooresfield Road, Kingston
HAUNTED WEDDING VENUES: Sprague Mansion, Cranston
HEADLESS GHOST HORSE: Belmont Avenue, Wakefield
GHOST REGIMENTS: Route 138, Kingston; Hessian Hole, Portsmouth
GHOST SHIPS: Beavertail, Jones’s Ledge, Jamestown; Grave’s Point, Jamestown; the Seabird, Newport; the Palantine, Block Island
HEADLESS HUMAN GHOSTS: Indian Corner, North Kingstown; Mooresfield Road, South Kingstown
IT: Dark Swamp, Chepachet
JEWELRY-WEARING GIANT SERPENTS: Wilson’s Woods, South Kingstown; Carbuncle Pond, Coventry
MOANING BONES: Arcadia, Narragansett
ORBS: Charlestown
PIRATES’ GHOSTS: Gravelly Point, Newport
PIRATES’ TREASURE: Block Island; Sugarloaf Hill, South Kingstown
POSSESSED PAINTINGS: Kingston Free Library, Kingston
SAINTS’ RELICS: Rough Point, Newport
SEA MONSTERS: Block Island; Point Judith, Narragansett
SKELETONS IN ARMOR: Old Stone Mill, Newport
SKULKING MONKS: Belcourt Castle, Newport; Nine Men’s Misery, Cumberland
SOLDIERS’ SPIRITS: Hessian Hole, Portsmouth; Kingston village; Nine Men’s Misery, Cumberland
TRAGIC MAIDENS’ SPIRITS: Hannah Robinson, Hannah Robinson’s Tower and Rock, South Kingstown; Dolly Cole, Dolly Cole’s Brook, Foster; Angela O’Leary, Fleur de Lys House, Providence
VAMPIRES: Chestnut Hill Cemetery, Exeter; Mooresfield, South Kingstown; Plain Meeting House, West Greenwich; the Shunned House, Benefit Street, Providence
WAILING KNIGHT: Belcourt Castle, Newport
WAILING WOMAN: The Crying Bog, Narragansett
WANDERING WRAITHS: Dorothy’s Hollow, Narragansett
WEREWOLVES: the Great Swamp, Charlestown; Woonsocket; Watson’s Corner, South Kingstown
WITCHES: Benefit Street, Providence; Chestnut Hill Cemetery, Exeter; Hell Hollow, North Kingstown; Hopkins Hill, East Greenwich; Kettle Hollow, North Kingstown; Ministerial Woods, South Kingstown; Witches Altar, Narragansett; Westerly

What is your favorite haunted hot spot in Rhode Island?