Amusement parks are built to be place of thrills and entertainment, wonder and awe. They should give fond memories and bring smiles to faces. But, some parks are shrouded in mystery and misfortune, causing fear and shivers instead. In this list, we will discuss ten parks that have a past dark enough to ruin any fun.

10 Lake Shawnee Amusement Park

The rusted and overgrown rides of Lake Shawnee Amusement Park serve as a reminder of the failed West Virginia attraction, but its eerie past lives on in folklore for the area.

To start, the park was built over a Native American burial ground, with an archeological dig uncovering thirteen bodies, mostly children.^[1]

But that’s not the darkest history of the land.

In 1783, Mitchell Clay was the first European settler to make a home in the area, which was heavily inhabited by the Shawnee Native American tribe.

While Clay was gone to town one day, the Shawnees surrounded three of the Clay children, who were working in the fields. Bartley was shot first. Tabitha, hearing the gunshot, ran to her brother, where she was attacked and cut by a knife, her body dismembered. Both of their scalps were taken by the Shawnee group. Their brother Ezekiel was captured and burnt at the stake.

A historical marker on the road leading to the park commemorates their memories.

One could wonder if the tragic history of the grounds is the reason for the six deaths that occurred at the park, eventually leading to it being closed down in 1966, and many locals, including the park’s new owner Gaylord White, claim the park to still be haunted.

9 Holy Land, USA

With a Hollywood-style sign and a cross marking its entrance, Holy Land in Waterbury, Connecticut is hard to miss as you drive along Interstate 84.

Originally opened in 1960, the theme park contained replicas of famous biblical scenes, including the Last Supper, Garden of Eden, and an inn featuring a “no vacancy” sign. The park saw more than 50,000 visitors each year while it was open until owner John Baptist Greco closed the park in 1984 in order to expand it. Before he could reopen the park, however, Greco died, and the park was bequeathed to a group of nuns who maintained the grounds but never reopened it.

People still found a way in, though, and vandalism and trespassing occurred, destroying many of the parks statues and attractions.

In 2010, Chloe Ottman and her friend Francisco Cruz decided to explore the park. The two had been friends for a couple years, and Chloe clearly thought they were just in for a night of creepy fun and underage drinking at the old park. Cruz, however, had different motives, and after Chloe refused to have sex with him, he raped and killed her, stabbing her in the neck, under the giant cross before throwing her body and belongings in the woods.^[2]

Though he initially helped with the search to find Chloe, Cruz confessed to her death and led police to her body.

He was charged with capital felony, murder, and sexual assault and sentenced to fifty-five years in prison for his brutal act, leaving the park with a more sinister reputation.

8 Gulliver’s Kingdom

Japan is known for having some interesting ideas when it comes to parks and architecture, and one of their most interesting, and largest failures, was Gulliver’s Kingdom, located at the base of Mount Fuji.

The theme park, based on the Jonathan Swift book, cost $350 million to build and featured a forty-five meter long statue of Gulliver himself, with the main attraction being a bobsled ride, making it not exactly your typical amusement park.

The location of the park, however, makes it even stranger.

Right next to the park is Aokigahara Forest, better known as “suicide forest,” which is considered the second most popular suicide location after the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

The doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, the group behind the Sarin gas attacks^[3] on the Tokyo subway, also had their headquarters and nerve gas production facility in the nearby village of Kamikuishiki. Residents and park goers claimed they could smell the chemicals when they were on the park grounds.

The park was thoroughly demolished in 2007, leaving nothing behind except for the strange memories and photographs and the questions as to why anyone thought it would be a popular attraction.

7 Rocky Point Amusement Park

Rocky Point Amusement Park in Warwick, Rhode Island was one of the most popular attractions in the state, drawing crowds to its over twenty-five attractions and the famous Shore Dinner Hall and Palladium Ballroom. Most Rhode Islanders have a fond memory of visiting the park while it was open.

Through all the happiness and memories, there is a dark mark on the park’s past.

In August of 1893, Maggie Sheffield, a five-year-old girl, was killed by her father Frank while they attended the park. Frank had suffered a head injury shortly before Maggie was born, making him incredibly mentally unstable. Though it is not known exactly what made him flip on that late-summer day, after a meal at the Shore Dinner Hall, he took his daughter to the shoreline, where he smashed her head in with a rock, killing her.

Frank was found not guilty of his daughter’s murder due to reason of insanity.^[4] Maggie’s death is the only murder in the park’s long history.

The thrills of the park left Maggie’s murder quickly forgotten, and Rocky Point carried on for over one hundred years.

Unfortunately, due to financial issues, the park was forced into foreclosure and closed in 1995, ending over 150 years of family fun in Rhode Island.

6 Joyland Amusement Park

When it opened in 1942, Joyland was considered the biggest amusement park in the southwest, featuring a train, Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, Tilt-a-Whirl, and a roller coaster, it’s main and most infamous attraction.

The park would eventually grow to include a log flume ride, a haunted attraction ride, swings, bumper cars, and many other carnival-type attractions, as well as host concerts and outdoor festivals.

Though the park experienced a handful of ride-related deaths, the murder of a park employee would throw some shadows over the park in 1982. Michael King, an employee, would get into an altercation with four men, aged 17 to 21, after the men snuck into the park after hours. King was stabbed to death, and police arrested the men responsible, letting the two underage boys go, and brought charges up against Dwight Sayles and Victor C. Walker.

Sayles would plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and given five to twenty years in prison, with the eligibility of parole in eight years.^[5]

After the murder, the park would continue to operate and grow in size, adding another rollercoaster, but tragedy would continue to plague it. A park maintenance employee would be killed after getting hit by a rollercoaster and, in 2004, a thirteen-year-old girl would be injured after a thirty-foot fall from the Ferris wheel, which would lead to a series of financial issues and disputes that would eventually bring the park to close.

The 57-acres of Joyland were purchased in 2018 by Gregory and Tina Dunnegan, tent company owners who plan to bring new joy to the abandoned park by making it into an outdoor event venue for weddings, concerts, and traveling carnivals.

5 Kejonuma Leisure Land

Kejonuma Leisure Land was once a thriving amusement park in Tohoku, Japan, boasting the typical park rides such as a train, Ferris wheel, and carousel, as well as a driving range, and a campsite. Today, however, nature has taken over the structures, leaving the park to look like a ghost town, and ghosts are what it is more infamously known for.

The legend of the park begins with a beautiful woman who lived near the lake that sits on the site of Kejonuma Leisure Land, which was well-known for housing an abundance of snakes. The woman became pregnant, and when she gave birth, the baby was a serpent who escaped into the water. Every night, the woman could hear her serpent-baby cry, driving her mad, and she eventually committed suicide by drowning herself in the lake. It is said her and the baby’s cries can be heard at night.

The translation for “Kejonuma” is literally “ghost woman,”

With how superstitious the Asian culture can be at times, it is no surprise the story of Kejonuma Leisure Land is mentioned in every article about the park, but it did not stop nearly 200,000 people visiting the site each year while it was open, leaving many to question the validity of the curse.

The park officially closed in 2000, citing a drop-off in visitors due to Japan’s declining birthrate and economic crisis, but the notoriety of the curse keeps the legend of the park alive, and those interested can buy the park,^[6] as it is currently up for sale.

4 Dreamland Park

Dreamland Park began with a dark past that would continue to get darker. Built in the 1930s, the park would be open for less than two decades before it was shut down for rampant gambling and ties to the mafia.

Then, in 1969, Dreamland Park would make headlines again when two decomposing bodies would be found in the woods on the grounds of the park.

Due to the wooded and secluded area surrounding it, the park was a popular destination for couples to have a romantic drive and a little private time. On the night of August 12, 1969, Marilyn Sheckler, 18, and Glenn Eckert, 20, would set out for a drive to the park and never be seen alive again.

Their decomposing remains would be discovered feet from each other, in shallow graves, nearly two months later by state police. Autopsies would conclude that Marilyn had been raped repeatedly, and beaten, her head severely fractured, while Glenn had been shot in the forehead and side of the head and had also been beaten.

Investigators immediately suspected members of the Pagan motorcycle gang, as they had arrested ten members of the gang for beating and stabbing three men in the parking lot of Dreamland Park on the same night Marilyn and Glenn were last seen. Robert Martinolich, 22, and Leroy Stoltzfus, 24, would ultimately be arrested for the murders of the couple.

Martinolich and Stoltzfus would both be found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Each wold maintain their innocence and appeal their cases until they each died while incarcerated.^[7]

3 Magic Harbor

Just four miles south of Myrtle Beach, Magic Harbor Amusement Park had all the makings of a fun attraction — a roller coaster, bumper cars, Tilt-a-Whirl, arcade, hedge maze, Ferris wheel, and other all-ages rides, but it never really succeeded. Financial issues, changes in ownership, and deaths attributed to the park’s failure.

After the park closed on Labor Day, 1976, Franklin Loftis shot and killed the park’s owner Harry Koch and his sixteen-year-old stepson Carl Derk outside their trailer on the grounds of the park. Koch’s wife Carol survived the attack by hiding under the trailer. For years, the case went unsolved, making it the oldest cold case in Horry’s County history, until Loftis was charged. It was determined Loftis shot Koch over a wage and workman’s compensation dispute after Loftis, a carpenter for the park, was injured on the job.

Loftis was given two life sentences for the murders and was denied parole multiple times. Koch’s surviving wife had no desire to keep up Koch’s plan of expanding Magic Harbor, and the park went into foreclosure, was bought back by the bank, and then changed hands multiple times until it was sold to Geoffrey Thompson, president of the largest amusement park operation in Europe.

It seemed like the park’s luck was about to turn around with Thompson managing, but in 1984, tragedy would strike the park again.

Thirteen-year-old Sherri Lynn Depew was launched out of the park’s Black Witch rollercoaster. She died from her injuries, and her father sued Magic Harbor for $12 million, claiming negligence by the park for failing to supervise the ride properly.^[8]. Thompson tried to claim the girl had failed to stay seated and follow safety guidelines for the ride, but the bad publicity alone was enough to hurt the park’s reputation once again.

In the mid-1990s, the park was closed and the land was bought by the neighboring campground, resulting in all of the buildings and rides to be completely demolished.

2 Brandywine Springs

Brandywine Springs Amusement Parks was a Wilmington, Delaware attraction from 1886 to 1923, and a solid example of early twentieth century fun.

There was a castle house, train, wooden rollercoaster, restaurants, pavilion, and a magnificent archway leading into the park.

In 1916, tragedy would strike the park when Catherine Bouidecki was shot and killed and Areti Nichols was shot by Samuel Gongas, who then set fire to the park’s restaurant, railway, and photography gallery, as well as some concession stands. Gongas was infatuated with Bouidecki, who was a waitress at the restaurant, and was apparently upset she turned down his advances, prompting him to snap and kill her.^[9]

The park would close in 1923 when automobiles made it easier for people to travel and the park admission declined. Concrete slabs and muddy pools are all that remains of the amusement park today, but local historians are working on excavating and marking sites of where the major attractions stood, putting up signs and photographs to educate those who walk through the site.

1 Pripyat Amusement Park

Maybe the most horrific history behind an amusement park is one that never came to be.

Pripyat Amusement Park in Pripyat, Ukraine was supposed to open on May 1, 1986, but five days before its scheduled opening, the Chernobyl disaster occurred nearby, resulting in thirty deaths in the months following the explosion.

The park consisted of attractions, bumper cars, swing boats, a swing-carousel, and a Ferris wheel. The Ferris wheel still stands today, unfinished and towering over the scene of destruction and the bumper cars are the strongest area of radiation in the park due to the overgrown vegetation.

It is believed the park was opened early for one day, April 27, to calm people from the disaster before they were forced to pack up their belongings and be bussed out of the city, never to return.

Today, the whole city of Pripyat, including the unfinished amusement park, is a destination for “dark tourism,”^[10] guided tours through the Chernobyl ruins and abandoned towns.

Tracy spends her days writing and designing in a tourist town where she lives with her dog.

Most people will have at least one happy memory of visiting a theme park, a fairground or a zoo. Even water parks and aquariums can produce wonderful days out for families. But many people will also have some pretty crap days in such places – outdated, boring rides, long lines on hot Summer days and extortionate prices for a fried pickle on a stick (extra $4 for mustard). Some of us will even remember getting ripped off—you shell out $3000 to try and win a state-of-the-art minidisc player (batteries not included… and no longer produced), throwing rubber ducks at a revolving peg to try and hook on 3-in-a-row.

The events listed here go far beyond some dodgy, deep fried foodstuffs or a rigged carnival game. No, these are some of the most shocking, scandalous and tragic events that have happened at leisure parks, theme parks and water parks over the years. Some are relatively well known (especially if you live in the locality of the site), some are obscure. They are all awful.

10 Abandoned Amusement Parks With Horrific Histories [Disturbing]

10 The Luna Park Ghost Train Fire

An historic Australian funfair next to the world-famous Sydney Harbour Bridge, looking out over the waters, would be most young kids’ dream of a fun day out. Hell, most adults too! But back in 1979, Luna Park became the site of a nightmare.

A fire broke out on the park’s ghost train ride, which had been a draw for punters since 1935 when the park first opened, killing seven—John Godson and his sons, Damien and Craig and students Jonathon Billings, Richard Carroll, Michael Johnson and Seamus Rahilly.

An inquest found that the park’s operators were guilty of not implementing a proper safety policy, despite being warned to do so by the local council and the fire department months before the fatal blaze. The park was shut down and, despite backlash from fans and campaigners, remained so until 2004. The cause of the fire has never been conclusively determined.

One of the more worrying rumours to emerge regarding the mysterious fire emerged in 2007. An article in the Sydney Morning Herald claimed that infamous underworld figure Abe Saffron, known as “Mr. Sin” for his links to Sydney’s red-light district, burned down the ride in order to gain control of the seaside park. The story, allegedly divulged by his niece, was quickly denied by the source, despite the paper claiming it was gathered during a taped interview. Saffron’s son Alan, who died in April 2020, also believed his father was responsible, with his widow citing documents in her possession that proved as much.

9 The Poisoned Pool

Getting a mouthful of sea water is gross. A couple of accidental gulps of dirty pool water will make you feel queasy. One thing you do not expect at a water park is a glug of acid down your gullet.

That’s what happened at a park called Splashin’ Safari, found in Holiday World theme park, back in 2009. Guests got a dangerously high level of chlorine too. Officials at the Indiana park quickly fixed the issue, reporting that a water pump malfunction was to blame for the dangerous toxins entering the water, sending 24 people to hospital. Sales of their “I came to Holiday World and all I got was this stupid t-shirt… and a hole in my lungs” remain low.

8 A Series Of Dark Events At A Much-Loved Funfair

Much like Sydney’s Luna Park, the small seaside town of Porthcawl in South Wales has been entertaining tourists with various attractions for decades. There’s mini golf, a dinosaur park, lots of pubs, but the main thing to do in Porthcawl has always been the funfair. First set up to entertain American GIs stationed nearby during the Second World War, Coney Beach is a small fairground located on the eastern promenade—slap bang next to the long, pretty beach below. But the much loved and thoroughly nostalgic seaside resort has been the site of many dark tragedies.

In 1994, after a couple of non-fatal accidents on some of the rides, a 9-year-old boy died when riding the water chute. A gantry fell onto the track due to adverse weather, causing the ride’s carriages to come off the rails. More accidents due to shoddy maintenance and human error, as well as incidents of antisocial behaviour further blotted the park’s reputation over the next decade. One of the worst incidents occurred in 2004 when the park’s operators hired a registered sex offender—2 weeks after the man had received a court order barring him from being around kids.

Tragedy struck again in 2007, this time the park was the setting for a phenomenon that affected the whole county—the ‘Bridgend Suicides’. A spate of suicides in the county between 2007 and 2009, totalling in 26 individuals taking their lives, all save one by hanging, far above the average expected for the period by an order of magnitude. One of the individuals who died was found hanged in one of Coney Beach’s unused warehouses.

7 “Racist” Rides Defended

There is a lot of furore in this age of cultural warfare around the subject of race. Whether or not you believe the term ‘racist’ has been weaponized in order to lambast anyone who simply holds counter-narrative opinions or that the word itself has been devalued and redefined in such a way as to render the accusers racist themselves, it is hard to defend the presence of rides like these ones found in Danish and Dutch fun fairs—they are objectively racist depictions of black and Asian people – surely nobody would miss them if they were scrapped? some people did indeed stand in favour of keeping these rides in operation. Why? For some, it was freedom of speech. For others, it was nostalgia.

The criticism did not go totally unheeded. Despite promises made by the park in Holland to update some of the more dated stereotypes on display, there was no plan to change the ‘Monsieur Cannibale’ ride, where gusts sit in a huge cooking pots, below the figure of a stereotypical ‘African Cannibal’ with a spoon through his nose. Whatever side of this you may fall on, there isn’t much doubt that these sorts of depictions are remnants of a by-gone era, and not an intrinsic part of Dutch or Danish culture.

6 The Death Of Debbie Stone

Many people today scoff at the excesses of ‘health and safety’ culture run amok. It is true that extreme measures are often taken in the name of ‘safety’ (or lawsuit-dodging), hampering fun and even, in some cases, freedom. But there was a time, not all that long ago, that the very notion of health and/or safety being something to consider in the workplace would get you laughed out of the smoke-filled office. Dangerous working environments were common, even at the ‘happiest place on earth’.

In 1978, 18-year-old employee Deborah Gail Stone was crushed to death between the moving parts of a ride called ‘America Sings’. The ride was a rotating ride where guests watched animatronic animals sing about America’s musical tradition. On July 8th, just 9 days after the ride first opened, Stone tried to navigate her way between the moving tableaus. She got trapped between a moving wall and a stationary one as the ride was resetting to begin another rotation, getting crushed to death. Her screams were heard by guests as the robot animals began to sing. By the time workers shut down the ride and got to her, Debbie Stone had died from her injuries.

Stones family managed to settle a wrongful death suit with Disney. The company first installed safety lights in the area Stone died as a safety measure. This clearly wasn’t good enough; Disney installed break-away walls which would allow a means of escape should anyone else fall between the walls some time later.

5 Heinous Unsolved Crime At Legoland

Back in the Summer of 2016, two six-year-old girls were groped by a pervert whilst they played in the tower of a pirate themed play area called ‘Castaway Camp’ in the Berkshire theme park. Two suspects were arrested a few months later but were quickly cleared of any wrongdoing. The perpetrator of this heinous crime remains at large.

The fact that this incident occurred at what is ostensibly England’s foremost child-orientated attraction makes it even more alarming—Legoland should be a kiddie’s paradise. How this perfidious sex-crime committed at a theme park that is always teeming with visitors and peppered with CCTV cameras could remain unsolved years later is truly awful.

4 A Sole Orca

People used to love attractions like SeaWorld. The documentary “Blackfish” changed the image of such parks forever – SeaWorld has made some changes and is certainly moving in the right direction, despite still digging its heels in on certain issues.

Beyond the famed chain of ocean life parks, many smaller parks still operate, and are often worse with regards to the way they treat the animals they hold. Take ‘Lolita’, an orca from the pacific northwest who was been in captivity since her capture in 1970. She currently resides in Seaquarium in Miami, FL, the only orca at the park. Orcas are one of the most emotionally tuned mammals, relying on family interaction. The fact that this animal has remained in isolation, forced to be gawped at for no good reason (what’s better – staring at a sad, imprisoned animal or a rollercoaster?) is nothing more than a remnant of a past that we’re slowly leaving behind. For ‘Lolita’, still stuck and alone, this is no comfort at all.

3 The Dead Man In The Haunted House

We have all heard the urban legend of the corpse in the theme park attraction (which turned out to be true). This story from Hong Kong, however, wasn’t a long-forgotten mummified body in a park attraction – this body was fresh.

Ocean Park opened a Halloween attraction called “Buried Alive” back in 2017 – the haunted house-style attraction was set to give visitors the experience of “being buried alive alone, before fighting their way out of their dark and eerie grave”. One 21-year old man, however, didn’t find his way out. Much like the case of Debbie Stone, the young man found himself in a restricted area. He was struck by a mechanical coffin and was rendered unconscious. The man was confirmed dead when he arrived at the local hospital some time later. The local government immediately closed the attraction.

2 The Pony Guy

State Fairs have been much-loved institutions in the US since the mid 1800s (when the city of Syracuse played host to the first annual New York State Fair in 1849). One thing that you can rely on is crazy, super calorific fried foods like funnel cake, elephant ears or, if the Minnesota State Fair gets back up and running, a Halo Cone—a swirled cotton candy and blue raspberry soft serve ice cream on a cone, all enveloped in a cloud of cotton candy and covered in Fruity Pebbles cereal. Indulgent food is expected. So too are animal-related attractions—pony riding, petting zoos, agricultural shows. What shouldn’t be expected is a serial killer stalking the park, working on one of these attractions. In 2019, this is exactly what happened at the Tennessee State Fair.

Carnival worker James Michael Wright worked with the ponies at various fairs in the South-Eastern US. He not only tended to the animals as he went from fairground to fairground, he also killed young women. He is currently awaiting trial, having confessed to the murder of 2 women – 22-year-old Elizabeth Vanmeter from Carter County, Tennessee and 17-year-old Joycelyn Alsup from Cobb County, Georgia. Wright is also accused of killing 25-year-old Athina Hopson but has not yet admitted to involvement in her disappearance.

1 A Zoo, Gardens And A Museum! What’s Not To Like?

A lot—there is a lot not to like. Mumbai’s Jijamata Udyaan (formerly known as ‘Rani Bagh’) is a gem or both horticulture and architecture. It is not a gem of animal welfare, however.

Local animal rights activists have long criticised the zoo for their awful record – cramped conditions, neglect and the transfer of animals wholly unsuited for the climate to the park (Humboldt Penguins, accustomed to the long coastline of Chile, now living in a small enclosure in an Indian zoo. They live for 20 years!)

But don’t fret too much for these animals and the awful conditions they are subjected to. Once they die, experts at the park will stuff them and put them on display in the taxidermy museum. So, it’s all good, then…

10 Insane Rides From The World’s Most Dangerous Amusement Park

About The Author: CJ Phillips is a storyteller, actor and writer living in rural West Wales. He is a little obsessed with lists.

The easiest way to introduce this list would be to write something along the lines of “Theme parks: everyone’s favorite pastime!” But what if your adventure park had a dark, haunted secret?”

Most paranormal investigators agree that places with high traffic, like hotels, clubs, and hospitals, are more likely to have ghosts. Even if the reasoning veers toward the pseudo-scientific, it’s hard to dispute that more hotels are haunted than mere apartment buildings.

Considering that Disney World had 8.5 million guests in 2021 alone, theme parks definitely fit the “high traffic” descriptor. Though many parks boast a haunted house attraction or Halloween festival, true hauntings can also be found. This list will cover ten different theme parks with ten different ghost stories, spanning tales from the standard ghostly fare to harrowing urban legends.

10 Dorney Park

One of the staples of a horror-movie carnival, outside of creepy clowns, of course, is the sort of uncanny calliope music associated with carousels. It doesn’t help that some carousels have been around for a full century. At Dorney Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania, one can find such a carousel, the Antique Carousel, built by the Dentzel Carousel Company in 1921.

The carousel doesn’t just entertain Dorney Park patrons by day, however. Legend says that a white-dressed ghost can be seen riding the Antique Carousel after dark as haunting music plays. Some even claim that the ghost is none other than the wife of the carousel’s legendary architect, Daniel Muller. He carved a horse specifically as a gift for her, leading Mrs. Muller to become obsessed, even after the grave… if the legends are to be believed, that is.^[1]

9 Universal Studios, Los Angeles

The Hollywood-themed resort destination, Universal Studios, can be located in none other than sunny Los Angeles, California. And though the “Visitor’s Entertainment Center,” the original open-to-the-public park, was built in 1965, the grounds on which the park was built were first used back when silent movies were still popular.

With a history so rich, it’s easy to imagine that Universal Studios has its fair share of ghosts. Some say that the ghost of actor Lon Chaney can be seen dressed as the Phantom of the Opera. In addition, some claim to see the ghost of an aviator, which may as well be the spirit of a man who fell to his death from a plane in 1915. The apropos “Terror Tram” Halloween attraction even leaves after-hours employees with tails of children giggling and footsteps coming from nowhere.^[2]

8 Gulliver’s Kingdom Theme Park

This next theme park will be the first on the list to receive the “abandoned” designation. Gulliver’s Kingdom Theme Park, once located near Mount Fuji Kawaguchi-machi, Japan, was only open for four years before closing its doors in 2001 and leaving the park to the elements. However, every abandoned structure was removed in 2007.

One of the most eerie-looking remnants is a 150-foot (45-meter) long statue of Gulliver himself, tied to the ground and rotting away, though eerie-looking ruins do not “a haunting” make. For the brief six years of ruin, urban explorers did report odd sounds of laughter and shapes moving from shadows. Not for naught, the abandoned park can be found right next door to Aokigahara, Japan’s infamous “Suicide Forest.”^[3]

7 Six Flags Great Adventure

The theme park, Great Adventure, was built in 1972 near Jackson, New Jersey, and was purchased by the Six Flags company in 1977. Though the park is one of the most lucrative in the Six Flags chain, it was quite often historically the victim of many unfortunate circumstances. Perhaps most infamous was the tragic fire of the Haunted House attraction in 1984, which claimed the lives of eight teenagers.

Though the attraction has long since been removed, the attraction that took up the newly-vacant lot, the Autobahn Bumper Cars, has experienced a bit of paranormal activity. Employees claim to hear odd clicking noises after-hours, as well as disembodied conversation and laughter. Claims also include seeing odd shapes out of the corner of their eyes.^[4]

6 Six Flags New Orleans

Possibly one of the most infamous abandoned theme parks was also once a part of the Six Flags chain. However, intense flooding from devastating Hurricane Katrina caused the Louisiana theme park, Six Flags New Orleans, to close for good in the August of 2005. To this day, the park has never been reopened, and though the property is heavily guarded by police, urban explorers still penetrate the fences and come back with frightening ghost stories.

While poisonous snakes and fire ants plague trespassers far more often than ghostly activity, some report odd sounds, such as the laughter of children or the starting-up of a motor, which shouldn’t be possible with a park cut off from the power grid. Like so many other parks on this list, explorers also often see shadowy figures out of the corners of their eyes^[5]

5 Kings Island

The next entry is one of the younger parks on this list. Kings Island, built near Cincinnati, Ohio, only finished its construction in 1972, though it would borrow a large number of rides from the nearby Coney Island after the park closed due to fears of flooding. Unlike Coney Island, however, Kings Island made the mistake of building too close to a 19th-century cemetery

Some witnesses claim to see a young girl in a 19th-century blue dress roaming the parking lot before disappearing. Others claim to see a white-clad boy roaming near the wooden coaster, Racer, earning him the admittedly quickly-thought-up name of “Racer Boy.” Riders even claim to see him haunt the tunnels before disappearing as soon as the ride’s trains make contact.^[6]

4 Dadipark

The next park on this list can be found near Dadizele, Belgium, though “can be” is a tad bit incorrect because, much like Six Flags New Orleans, Dadipark is also currently abandoned. Built by a priest by the name of Gaston Deweer in 1950, Dadipark had a strong religious theme to draw in tourists visiting a nearby Basilica. However, the park closed its doors in 2002 following a tragic accident in which a young boy lost his arm.

Unlike Six Flags New Orleans, however, the ruins of Dadipark were far easier to explore, and drunken teenagers would routinely haunt the abandoned location. According to a large swath of paranormal investigators, however, the teenagers weren’t the only ones haunting it. Though the ghostly fare mostly consists of odd sounds and shadows, those with equipment have picked up electromagnetic fields and disembodied voices—if that sort of tech is to be believed.^[7]

3 Cedar Point

Located on a peninsula just outside of Sandusky, Ohio, Cedar Point is one of the U.S.’s most prolific theme parks. With Lake Erie as its backdrop, it’s hard to call the peninsula’s vistas anything but stunning, which is why the historic Hotel Breakers was built in 1905. However, the hotel has a haunting reputation, and many claim to hear ethereal crying and footsteps. Poltergeist activity has even been witnessed in Room 169, where the legend says a distraught woman by the name of Mary hung herself.

On top of that, the aforementioned Antique Carousel at Dorney Park once did a stint at Cedar Point, also garnering reports of a Lady in White. However, other sources indicate that the same figure also haunts the Midway Carousel toward the front of the park, which also just so happens to have been carved by Daniel Muller.^[8]

2 Walt Disney World

Finally, this list comes to the pièce de résistance of theme parks; Disney World itself. This complex of four theme parks, two water parks, and countless resort amenities began its existence in 1971, though with a name as prolific as “Disney,” urban legends are bound to pop up among a resort boasting 39 square miles (101 square kilometers) of acreage.

Disney World is host to countless paranormal legends, such as the apparition of a maintenance worker lurking in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Then there are the creepy shadowy apparitions in the abandoned River Country water park. A slew of poltergeist occurrences at Disney’s Hollywood Studio’s Tower of Terror reportedly stem from a deceased “bellhop” cast member or the haunted dummy puppet found at the end of the ride.^[9]

1 Disneyland

If the Floridian Disney park takes up the penultimate spot on this list, it should come as no surprise that the original Californian rendition should take first place. With a history sixteen years older and a location in Anaheim that Walt Disney himself actually visited, the list of paranormal Disney experiences deepen.

The most notable story involves the apparition of a little boy found within the on-the-nose Haunted Mansion attraction. The story goes that a mother poured her son’s ashes on the ride, an uncomfortably common occurrence for the Haunted Mansion. People often report seeing a red-haired man in the line of Space Mountain, who even strikes up a conversation with park patrons, before disappearing on the roller coaster before their very eyes.^[10]