Burkittsville

Burkitsville is a haunted town in Maryland that is home to Civil War ghosts and a strange bird-like creature. The town of Burkitsville was founded in 1824 by Joshua Harley and Henry Burkitt.

In 1875, the community was terrorized by a creature they called a Snallygaster. Locals described it as a half-reptile, half-bird creature with octopus limbs, and a metallic beak lined with razor-sharp teeth.

They said it flew over the town, swooping down to pick up its victims and carry them off. The earliest stories claim that this monster sucked the blood of its victims. It had enormous wings, a long pointed bill, claws like steel hooks, and an eye in the center of its forehead.

However, most of Burkittsville’s ghosts are men who lost their lives in the Civil War. The soldiers’ ghostly voices are still heard throughout the town.

A makeshift hospital was set up in the town tannery. Most of the soldiers who entered the hospital, never left it. During the civil war, many soldiers died in Burkittsville.

The tannery was torn down, but the site is still haunted by the ghosts of these soldiers. Anyone who parks his car there overnight may find the vehicle marked with footprints from soldiers’ boots, where the car was kicked or even trampled by the ghosts of marching men.

During the war, when the Confederate soldiers were retreating, they didn’t have time to bury their dead comrades. Instead, they paid a man named Wise to ensure the dead soldiers were given a proper burial.

Wise accepted the money, but then tossed the bodies in an abandoned well. Every night after that, Mr Wise was plagued by visions of a dead soldier. The ghostly soldier said his name was Jim Tabbs and demanded a proper burial for himself and his men.

Unable to endure the spectral visions any longer, Wise returned to the well and discovered that the last body thrown down the well had a name tag sewn into it’s collar. It read: “Sergeant Jim Tabbs”.

Terrified, Wise recovered all the bodies from the well and buried them in a cemetery. He was never troubled by visions of dead soldiers again.

The Blair Witch

Burkittsville gained notoriety with the release of the The Blair Witch Project movie. The poor town of Burkittsville suddenly found itself overrun with Blair Witch groupies, wandering around in the woods, trying to find the ‘real’ places where the story had happened.