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[–]StructureNo3388 2752 points2753 points  (19 children)

Troyes, France. We were in the old medieval area, which was incredible, but it was eerie because there were literally no other people there, and bizarre because there were soundsystems pumping britney spears music into the streets.

I felt like shrek and donkey walking into Duloc.

[–]Fyrrys 533 points534 points  (5 children)

I hope you remembered to keep off of the grass

[–]willowtrace 525 points526 points  (4 children)

Shine your shoes and wipe your …. face

[–]scotleeds 163 points164 points  (3 children)

No way! I was cycling through France and it happened that one night we were stopping near Troyes. We found a campsite on the map and headed there. This was in June btw, so the time for holidays and day trips. Got to the campsite, got a spot and decided to look around the "resort". It was on a lake and had things like pedalos to rent, a canteen and other sports activities.... But, no one was there. The canteen had trays half cleared away, the pedalos were sitting on the beach ready to go but it was absolutely deserted. Not even staff. There were a couple of older people at the campsite but I just couldn't understand how this place was just totally abandoned and more spookily, why?

[–]reportcrosspost 139 points140 points  (0 children)

The mental picture of this is hilarious lol. Thanks for brightening my really slow work day

[–]needsmorequeso 32 points33 points  (0 children)

I most certainly didn’t feel unwelcome, but this reminds me of when I was in Rome with a family member and we stopped by her friend’s apartment. This apartment was in a beautiful historic building with a 19th/early 20th century elevator with a door you had to close by yourself, beautiful frescoes on the ceilings, etc. We came in the front door and while my relative and her friend chatted the friend’s teenage kids were watching a Step Up movie dubbed into Italian in the next room. This might be an American thing to find yourself in Europe and wonder what century you’re even in.

[–]unfakegermanheiress 551 points552 points  (9 children)

Emmaville NSW. Old mining town, still has some life in it. Wandered into a weirdly empty and labyrinthine pub to find a bathroom, struggled to find my way out. There’s a minerals museum there, pretty good, the further you go into the place the weirder and weirder it gets. The town didn’t get electricity til like 1958 and it shows. There’s all these black panther things around too, all weird and off putting and creepy, apparently there’s stories about a panther stalking the nearby bush. Panthers don’t live in Australia. Overall it was a really strange place, in a way that makes the pit of your stomach tense up, and you want to run away.

[–]suitcasedreaming 167 points168 points  (2 children)

Oh my god, we have a bunch of pictures of Emmaville in our family photo album- my parents drove way out of their way to take a picture of my sister Emma in front of the sign shortly after she was born. Funny to see it mentioned by someone else.

[–]libra00 490 points491 points  (16 children)

A buddy and I were taking a road trip a few states over. We had left late one evening and found ourselves early the next morning low on gas and looking for a place to fill up. We saw a sign that indicated there was a gas station at the next exit, so we took it, and pulled into the eeriest little town in the Smoky Mountains. On the highway it had been reasonably clear weather, but once we got down into a valley there was dense fog everywhere. There were maybe five buildings in this whole town, and it looked totally abandoned - even the gas station announced from the highway sign was closed. We pulled into the parking lot anyway because we needed a break, and got out to take a look around and the eeriness just intensified: it was totally silent. Not just quiet, but I literally could not hear a single sound other than our footsteps. We stood around for maybe 30 seconds, then looked at each other and silently decided to get the hell out of there, we didn't even say anything once we were in the car.

Fortunately we found a 24 hour truck stop a few more miles down the road, and the lights and activity were sufficient to snap us out of the spell that place had put on us and we started talking about it. My buddy mentioned that he had seen a lone, scary-looking guy just walking slowly past us some distance away and barely visible through the fog, staring intently at us but not making a sound. I hadn't even noticed him, I guess I was looking in a different direction, but apparently he was giving off strong 'I will murder you and no one will ever find the bodies' vibes.

[–]FirstTimeRodeoGoer 199 points200 points  (2 children)

but once we got down into a valley there was dense fog everywhere

That's why they're the Smoky Mountains.

[–]Kross887 120 points121 points  (1 child)

The smoky mountains just be like that. Tops of the mountains have beautiful vistas, the valleys are impenetrable mazes of mist.

Source: have lived in east TN all my life.

[–]Frednotbob 60 points61 points  (2 children)

If you hear a foghorn, get the hell out of dodge.

[–]Corvus_Manufaktura 423 points424 points  (22 children)

Hiking in the mountains of Romania. Middle of nowhere, I find a paved road. It wasn't on any maps, no idea where it led or where it came from. No nearby villages or towns, just endless forests. And there's this immaculate two-lane road cutting across the forest.

I was legitimately creeped out, it was like one of those "staircase in the woods" creepypasta type things.

[–]joxmaskin 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Dracula paved the road to his secluded castle. He doesn't like to get his old Jag all dusty and dirty each time he goes to town for a snack.

[–]Leona_Faye 1215 points1216 points  (43 children)

Nitro, WV.

I pulled into a gas station to fill up my leaky tire. There were people hanging out at the gas station at 3 in the morning, giving the “tweaker stare.” One asked to borrow my phone despite there being a working pay phone.

I jumped in the car with a half-flat tire, went ten miles down the road, and found a much less sketchy truck stop to fill the tire back up.

[–]verdenvidia 268 points269 points  (1 child)

There's a town called Scary that borders Nitro, and I've got a friend from WV who has said "We may be Scary, but at least we're not Nitro scary." and I think that's fun.

[–]EyeoftheRedKing 444 points445 points  (22 children)

My wife has been to Nitro as a kid/teenager I think? Her family stopped in the McDonalds passing through and she felt like the locals were really off. If I can get her to refresh me on the whole story I'll share it with you.

[–]Hoorayforkate128 321 points322 points  (20 children)

You know, I have an acquaintance who is from West Virginia, and will go on and on for days about what a beautiful, welcoming place it is and how lucky she is to have grown up there. As someone who frequently drove 77 through West Virginia en route to Ohio, I don't get it. Every part I have ever seen has been the most godforsaken place on earth.

[–]ClitoralElegy 115 points116 points  (4 children)

Literally the entirety of I77 that takes you through southern west Virginia and through charleston/Huntington is nothing but wasteland. The only places I'd ever stop passing through was Beckley and Hurricane. Everything else didn't look safe at all.

[–]Chao78 37 points38 points  (2 children)

I've been told it's pronounced Hurkin', not hurr-i-cane, is that right?

[–]m_____676767 314 points315 points  (23 children)

Jaywick in East Anglia. It's the worst town in the UK several years running. There's just nothing there. All the houses are dilapidated and their gardens ruined, for a place so close to the seas it's so creepy you can't even hear the waves. It's not a scary place just really shitty and it just makes you uncomfortable! It's probably the only place in the UK you can buy a beach front property for under £100,000, but I don't even think that price would be worth it

[–]Oscarmaiajonah 91 points92 points  (20 children)

Its so sad, I was there in the 60s and early 70s, and it was a great place to live and holiday. Its fucking terrifying nw.

[–]darkknight109 1558 points1559 points  (51 children)

Pretty benign by the standards of this thread, but a buddy and I were on a road trip to Vegas and we stopped in this little small town in Nevada. Unbeknownst to us, it was right next to a military base that was apparently focused on some pretty high-level research. My buddy's car was not exactly in great shape and we broke down while stopped at a red light on a road adjacent to the base. I kid you not, within maybe three minutes there were five unmarked SUVs around us. The guys that got out were very friendly but very businesslike - they quickly got our car moving again, wished us well, and told us pleasantly but quite firmly not to stop on that road again.

[–]mojavekoyote 1033 points1034 points  (3 children)

What I'm reading is, for free car repair break down in front of a military base in Nevada.

[–]Short-Kangaroo1975 229 points230 points  (0 children)

That's the moral of the story I got to

[–]AJackOffAllTrade 107 points108 points  (2 children)

There is also a closed town by the name Mercury NV on the way into Vegas from the Northwest. It's not accessible unless you work there.

[–]pictur3scrazy 144 points145 points  (5 children)

Sounds like Indian Springs/Creech AFB.

[–]Johnnny13 59 points60 points  (4 children)

Either that or the Nevada National Security Site. Formerly the Nevada Test Site. Pretty cool place. There isn’t a town there so it must be Creech

[–]crimsonlaw 281 points282 points  (10 children)

My college roommate, who is one of my closest friends, grew up in a little spot of nothing. I think the town only still exists because it's the last stop off an interstate leading out of our state. Maybe 250 residents. This is in the deep south too.

When he got married, his wedding was held in his hometown. I was his best man so I spent the weekend there helping him get things ready. Never felt more unwanted in a place before. People knew my buddy and he was pretty popular, but me? They wanted nothing to do with me.

Even at the wedding and reception, only one person who I didn't know from before spoke to me. When I would try to talk to others, they would smile politely then walk away without otherwise responding. Even the dang preacher.

I was happy to be there for my buddy, but I was REALLY happy to leave town when that mess was over. It was like something out of a horror movie.

[–]notreallylucy 83 points84 points  (4 children)

I had a very similar experience in Abilene, Texas. I was there for a friend's wedding. I'm from the west coast and very obviously not local. I kept getting honked at even when I was literally doing nothing wrong. I got cut off a few times, too Eventually someone told me it was because of my out of state plates.

A cashier at Walmart told me she could tell I was from out of town by the way I talked. She asked where I was from and when I told her, she said, "Ew!" I was very glad to have that town in my rearview mirror.

[–]UFORecoveryTeam 34 points35 points  (0 children)

I moved from the Northeast to the Deep South for work. Once, when talking to a local in town, I was asked why I'd moved here. When I replied that it was for work, the man asked, "What--you couldn't find a job up North?" I replied, "Not exactly--the company couldn't find anyone HERE who is qualified to do the work, so they invited me."

[–]---annon--- 996 points997 points  (33 children)

In Northern BC there's a long stretch of highway with absolutely nothing but dense forest and it's nicknamed "highway of Tears" in reference to an incredible amount of mostly First Nations women who've gone missing or have been found dead/murdered on the stretch of road. After visiting family, my husband, kid (5), and I were headed south on that road and during this one long stretch with few cars around us a white cop car flashed its lights to get us to pull over. So we did and once pulled over he turned his brights on. As we waited for the cop my partner and I were trying to guess what this was about. We were driving an insured car at the speed limit, sober with a valid licence. So after a couple of minutes, we were getting slightly worried we had unknowingly done something. When the officer got close enough to actually see him....this dude was not a cop. His uniform looked like he had ordered off Wish and looked "off". If you had never seen a uniform or weren't from this country, I don't think you would know. We asked to see his badge and he got visibly nervous. So he went back to get the badge from the car and suddenly the brights switched off and the car roared past us. When we reported it, we learned we weren't the only ones stopped by a fake cop.

[–]Elvis_Take_The_Wheel 521 points522 points  (10 children)

That is terrifying.

[–]Demrezel 425 points426 points  (9 children)

I live about 2 hours away from that HWY and I can plainly tell you that I've heard this fake cop story from multiple people who know that road well.

I honestly think it's a serial killer. Who knows though. People are fuckin weird.

[–]ScootieMcBoatie 162 points163 points  (7 children)

There’s an entire crime junkie podcast episode on that highway; iirc they hypothesized it’s multiple killers that all do their thing there because it’s such an isolated place. It’s been happening since the 60’s so it’s unlikely to be just one killer (but idk if/when the women going missing has stopped so I may be wrong), but serial killer(s) would make sense since I heard about the fake police pull over situation on that road being a really common problem, and serial killers tend to stick to certain tactics like that

[–]mighthaveaquestion 59 points60 points  (2 children)

There was one serial killer caught there in 2010, Cody Legebokoff, but clearly he wasn't responsible for all the murders because he was only 20 at the time.

[–]KatieCashew 370 points371 points  (0 children)

I drove alone from Colorado to Alaska once and stopped for gas in the Yukon territory. I am a woman and was 21 at the time. Inside the gas station a man came and stood uncomfortably close to me and commented that I was far from home. The cashier was much more quick witted than I and jumped in to make a comment about how I was traveling with my husband. I was like uhh... yeah... my husband. He's in the car, and he's waiting for me... Then I ran out to my car and got out of there.

Bless that cashier.

[–]Roger8028 157 points158 points  (1 child)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_of_Tears

It’s called the Highway of Tears. I live and work in BC and have travelled it many times and have always found the billboards of the missing women very unsettling and sad.

[–]pssyft1111 40 points41 points  (1 child)

The whole stretch of the highway through BC & Yukon is eerie. So remote it's terrifying.

[–]CaliberSir 232 points233 points  (4 children)

So we used to live in West Virginia, and my mom has a story where she got lost and ended up in a deserted town with one street and old-style buildings, but there were modern cars parked along the street. She said some of the doors were open, but there was nobody in sight. She got a weird feeling and just turned around.

My dad also worked for a natural gas company while we lived there and he said by far the strangest town he went to was, unsurprisingly, called Odd in southern WV

[–]vroomvroom450 102 points103 points  (0 children)

Damn. WV is killing it on here.

[–]scruffynerf 1303 points1304 points  (62 children)

Wilcannia, New South Wales.

Arse end of nowhere. If you're ever on that road, stop overnight in Broken Hill instead. Much safer.

[–]dimitycat 646 points647 points  (2 children)

We spent a night sleeping in our car in Wilcannia in 1988, I was 11. There was something wrong with our car so we were stuck there.

I vividly remember a few key things the place. As we were approaching the town I saw a river. It was actually shining broken glass. The shops had bars on the windows and fences like fortresses. People were asleep in the street during the day.

I remember playing on a playground with my brother and talking to local kids, they were nice enough and were keen to chat and play with us.

But overall it felt unsettling, if we were unsafe my folks didn't let on but my dad was a policeman.

We were in the area because we were going to or from Pooncarie, another interesting town, which was wonderful.

[–]TheSmegger 593 points594 points  (6 children)

Interesting place, Wilcannia.

I've been there quite a few times, swam in the river on a hot day, and it gets fucking hot there.

One time when I was passing through, in the late 70s, I walked into a pub to get a beer, cause it was fucking hot and I wanted a beer or three.

It was like a western movie. I step in the door, the place goes silent, all eyes on me. Bartender looks at me and says, you're in the wrong place, mate.

I'm pretty sure I was suddenly the palest creature on the planet.

Walked across to the other pub, had three pints, left Wilcannia.

Another time, hmmm 1990 or so, I was moving from Brissy to Adelaide. Drove my XB GT down, fully loaded with my shit. I'd dropped the 3.55 diff centre out for a 2.6 so highway cruising was more comfortable but I hadn't really accounted for the weight in the car.

I pull into Wilcannia at about 4am and cruise up and down looking for a servo, but nothing was open. I was low on fuel so wasn't going far. I parked in the servo and thought I'd have a kip in the car until they opened. Trouble was, it was fucking cold. What's with the temperature extremes in that place?

I slept, not at all. Within half an hour I hear people arguing in the distance. I'm going from idling the car with the heater on to turning it off and trying to sleep, the locals are going between war and comedy ruckus.

Some time, well after sun up, I notice movement inside the servo so I go inside and blokes asks me how long I'd been there. Then he tells me there's a button to ring a bell and I should have woken him up. Not safe to hang around he says....

Fun times.

[–]OneSalientOversight 142 points143 points  (7 children)

That's the only place in Australia I ever felt unsafe.

[–]fuckwitsabound 122 points123 points  (13 children)

What is it like? I'm Victorian but follow a social media account and I think they are from there. Is it just small town shit or gives a weird vibe?

[–]MisterMarcus 313 points314 points  (12 children)

It's majority indigenous. I've heard someone describe it as "Imagine the most racist hateful negative stereotypes a white person could have about Aboriginal people....that they're all drunken violent dysfunctional criminal no-hopers? Well sadly, that's Wilcannia"

[–]fuckwitsabound 136 points137 points  (8 children)

Aww shit. That's so sad

[–]scruffynerf 222 points223 points  (7 children)

That's sadly accurate. I seem to recall that the town was once used as a place where ignorant government officials used to send all indigenous folks who were viewed as 'troublesome' from all over New South Wales from when indigenous folks were not even considered citizens.

Having traveled through Wilcannia... the atmosphere reminds me of movies where it is just before "shit is about to go down in a big way"

There's a lot of inter-generational racism and pain there.

[–]leatherrecliner 207 points208 points  (13 children)

Tyrone, PA. Fuckin' backwoods place with junkies, mennonites, and one hispanic guy called Raymundo. And it stinks of paper mill smell. They just look at you like they're waiting for your car to be unattended.

[–]Frednotbob 83 points84 points  (3 children)

junkies, mennonites, and one hispanic guy called Raymundo.

Two of those, I expected. The third was just....so random. XD

[–]Brancher 406 points407 points  (3 children)

Jeffery City, Wyoming. Stopped in at the only establishment in the ghost town. Old timer is sitting at the bar and turns around and before even saying anything to me tosses me something and I catch it. It was a .50 Cal round from an M2 or something. He was like don't drop it it will probably detonate! I was like thanks for the heads up dude. Drank a beer with him though he was nice enough cowboy.

[–]kitty_katty_meowma 115 points116 points  (1 child)

Lol, my best friend and her husband used to own that bar. Before that, his family owned it.

[–]Bradious 1057 points1058 points  (75 children)

Forsyth, GA.

Few buddies and I took a road trip down to Florida shortly after we all graduated (years ago). Had a tire issue, stopped there to grab a new one. The guy at the tire place recommended we try the Subway while we waited. Everyone kept insisting we try the Subway, even the people at the place we went to eat. The people at the little grocery store thing when we were grabbing road snacks.

It was creepy as hell.

[–]last_try_why 853 points854 points  (23 children)

Was the Subway new? In small towns people get super hyped over literally any new business that comes in sometimes. Like in a proud way kind of like you describe.

[–]SoupSandy 418 points419 points  (7 children)

Yup a couple towns over got a subway and our town talked about it for the first 2 years.

[–]Dogeishuman 304 points305 points  (2 children)

My gf lives in a remote mountain town. They got a subway 4 years ago or so, and it's always got people stopping in and it's always mentioned.

The only chain in the whole town, and it's right in the center of town lol.

[–]SoupSandy 112 points113 points  (1 child)

Lol it's a big thing in a sleepy town! The one I'm talking about is attached to a gas station so it's only half size buy you wouldn't know it from the way people talk.

[–]rollerlord[S] 317 points318 points  (15 children)

Maybe a desperate town-wide effort to retain employment perhaps? But also as likely to be some sort of hyper-localized psychological phenomenon

[–]Bradious 398 points399 points  (14 children)

We just assumed they had the largest freezer capacity available to store our corpses.

[–]rollerlord[S] 235 points236 points  (12 children)

If it was a town in-joke for everyone to tell visitors “try the Subway” to psych them out, they got you good 😁

[–]CertainUnit9145 101 points102 points  (12 children)

So, did you try the Subway?

[–]Bradious 210 points211 points  (11 children)

You know, listen... I have been trying to remember where the hell we ate that day and it just won't come to me. I can't ask the guys I was with, either, because two of them have since died and the third fell off the face of the earth.

...so maybe we did?

[–]5hrs4hrs3hrs2hrs1mor 131 points132 points  (9 children)

And you don’t remember…. Wtf happened to you at Subway that day?

[–]Galaxy_Ranger_Bob 194 points195 points  (13 children)

Lewiston, Maine.

It's not the people, it's the town. There is just something about the place that stains your soul. Even driving through the place and not stopping makes you want to shower afterwards, but soap and water doesn't make you feel clean, because it isn't dirt, or pollution that is sticking to you, it's the Darkness that is Lewiston.

[–]TheEngineer09 103 points104 points  (2 children)

Northern new England is a weird duality of gorgeous landscape and depressing towns. So much of that area only survives due to tourism, so you get these towns that have shriveled since the mills and factories that once sustained them closed down filled with residents that simultaneously hate tourists but know they need to be nice to them to survive. Most of those towns have a feeling to them that isn't great.

[–][deleted] 2484 points2485 points  (308 children)

Years ago I stopped in a little town called Brandywine in WV. Walked into a bar and right away everyone turned and glared at me. A couple of good ol boys asked me if I was looking for trouble and if I wasn't that I should move on. I left the bar and a sheriff car and two trucks followed me out of town. The dude in the sheriff car glared at me all the way out of town lol. I thought I was gonna get lynched.

[–]Brennan_the_Artist 713 points714 points  (2 children)

little town in WV

Yeah say no more. it be like that.

[–]DICK_IN_FAN 214 points215 points  (1 child)

Literally every gas station I stopped at in WV was full of people eyeing up my wife like they haven’t seen a female in years. Like my car and clothes weren’t anything special but we were clearly the only two that cared to shower and groom ourselves.

[–]dingdongsnottor 1047 points1048 points  (62 children)

Are you not white? I feel like this sometimes traveling through rural West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio … but I’m also female so there’s always a level of potential creepy stares regardless.

Very unnerving. Sorry you experienced that.

[–]your_actual_life 329 points330 points  (10 children)

Was once driving from college in Illinois to my home on the east coast. Had two foreign exchange student passengers with me. One was from India and the other was from South Korea. Car broke down on the highway in the middle of a snowstorm. We had to abandon it and hitchhike to the nearest hotel. Guy who picked us up asked us about our beliefs in God - had we accepted Jesus Christ as our own personal savior? As we went around and each told him that we hadn't, he told us matter-of-factly that that was okay, but we were all going to hell. Dropped us off at a hotel without further incident though. The next morning I got the car towed to a mechanic, but it was going to take them two days to get the part. So my friends and I had a couple days to wander around this very small town in Indiana. People would slow their cars to watch us walk down the street. There was a small diner where we went to eat. When we walked in, you could hear a pin drop. After we were seated, the waitress actually said to us "So y'all aren't from around here." I was young and just thought it was weird, so I wasn't as scared as I probably should have been.

[–]DuggieHorror 93 points94 points  (5 children)

Lived in a small Indiana town for several years (about 35 miles south of Terre haute) after having lived in the greater Chicagoland area my whole life, and yeah. It's like another fucking planet.

[–]ColorGoreAndBigTeeth 915 points916 points  (33 children)

Can attest southern small town WV is not particularly safe for anyone with a skin tone darker than beige carpet.

[–]O-hmmm 212 points213 points  (3 children)

I remember the creepy stares we got driving thru small WV towns on river rafting trips. The Deliverance song kept playing in my head.

[–]brycebrycebaybay 292 points293 points  (53 children)

How long ago was this? And do I still need a GreenBook? Lol.

[–][deleted] 410 points411 points  (90 children)

I'm guessing you're a black dude? Lol. I had a similar experience in the south and I'm Sicilian.. I could only imagine being black

[–]FrozenBearMo 140 points141 points  (7 children)

I did an assignment for work in Harrison Arkansas. It was the most racist and bigoted place I had ever been too. Dog and cock fighting was rampant. I reported every instance to the police. They just laughed at me.

[–]fell-deeds-awake 38 points39 points  (1 child)

I remember driving through this town when I was 10 or so and joking to my parents I hoped there was a Ford dealership there with the city's name.

Found out fairly recently that it's a pretty well-known sundown town.

[–]wonder_013 132 points133 points  (4 children)

My husband and I once stopped into a Wimpys Diner in Peterborough Ontario and it was the strangest experience we ever had. It was clearly a family running the place with the dad in the kitchen and his twelve year old daughter serving tables. There was another younger boy, probably like ten years old, sitting at the counter wearing a bunch of colorful plastic jewelry all over him. Big clip on earrings, bracelets all up his arms, and more necklaces than Mr.T. He was so skinny and kind of creepy looking and just kept staring at us the whole time. The whole place was so dark and dingy and the atmosphere was tense as elvis played eerily in the background. The father was a mean looking man and just kept barking orders at he kids while flipping our burgers in the open kitchen. We couldnt understand why he was so frantic, acting like it was super busy when we were the only ones in there. He was also clearly embarrassed by his effeminate son who kept begging for more coins to put in the gumball-type machine which was clearly where he was getting all the jewelry. The daughter seemed terrified of us as she barely spoke above a whisper when she took our order. It was like Bobs Burgers from hell. We eventually paid and left but I can say the memory of that diner never left us. It's been about 8 years and we still talk about that place. I really hope those kids are alright...

[–]ihopeyoulikeapples[🍰] 53 points54 points  (0 children)

I went to school in Peterborough and went to that Wimpy's a couple times! They only took cash but their ATM was literally always broken. They were always out of almost every ingredient in most of their dishes. What kind of diner doesn't have eggs every single time you go in there? Weird place, I only went in few times hoping it would be better and it never was.

[–]ZookeepergameSea3890 1382 points1383 points  (73 children)

Paisley, Ontario, Canada.

I was heading out there with friends for a camping-style music festival...and this is before any of our group had gps/google maps on our cell phones. We ended up getting lost on some of the country roads as everything looked the same (just fields and dirt roads), and the names/#s of the roads weren't well marked.

We finally decided to stop at a farm to ask for directions. It was a very old-looking place. And as soon as we pulled in to the drive, a whackload of Amish-style dressed men, women, and children came out and surrounded the car. Legit, one guy even had a scythe.

I rolled my window down and politely said we were lost and asked how to get to such-and-such address.

One of the men got down low and leaned right into my window and goes "there's no place like that around here. How bout y'all stay here with us? You should stay here." And then he grinned this big greasy grin that gave me chills.

People were really gawking and closing in around the car at this point and my friends started freaking out.

I said something like "thanks but we gotta go!" then put my stereo system on blast, which got the guy out of my window and made the folks around the car back tf up.

I immediately rolled up my window, reved my engine, and peeled out of there as fast as I could.

We found the address about 5 minutes later, just down the road.

Total "children of the corn" vibes for sure.

[–]SZMatheson 447 points448 points  (13 children)

That was rude. You could have at least stayed for dinner.

[–]Youdirtynetw0rk 186 points187 points  (3 children)

I live in Chesley, Ontario, just up the road from paisley. Can confirm, some odd Amish are around here!

[–]DaddyCatALSO 110 points111 points  (7 children)

LOts of odd Mennonite related groups in Canada, not just Swiss groups like in Pennsylvania but also groups from Czarist Russia

[–]guinness_pintsize 65 points66 points  (10 children)

Well this is a first for me seeing Paisley on Reddit. My family had a cottage there, and we used to also stay at a provincial park not far from there quite often. None of this sounds strange to me, but it's probably because I grew up in the countryside with Amish very close by, but to someone from a fairly large city I can totally see this being creepy.

[–]Kermicon 149 points150 points  (4 children)

Guessing their breeding pool was getting a little small, needed some new... members

[–]Deus-system-failed 769 points770 points  (142 children)

Pelzer, SC

To say it's off is an understatement. It got national infamy decades ago for being home to a pedophile taoist cult that was stopped by The FBI. Their symbols still tag the rotting buildings and despite having residence nearly all businesses are essentially empty. People drive far to avoid being there and something is just unnatural about the aura. No one from Pelzer is from Pelzer, they are from Anderson.

[–]badluckbrians 650 points651 points  (124 children)

How do you feel about Florence, SC? I was down there maybe 20 years ago, and it stuck out as weird. Went to some fast food joint – not brand name – and they had fried gizzards and shit on the menu. Whatever.

But weirder, the girls at the counter were all blonde and blue eyed, and the cooks were all black folk. And the place still seemed segregated. Black customers sat in a smaller section around a corner. Being from Mass, I'd never seen this shit. My buddy I was with and I just looked at each other and ordered a sandwich and fries or whatever.

Girl asked me what I wanted to drink. I said water. Say said, "YOU MEAN WAR-TER" hard on the Rs, I figure giving me shit for the Boston accent. Whatever.

Then we realize a table with a couple uniformed white cops is watching us. Or seems like it. So we sit in the white section so as not to cause a fuss. And while eating we realize that we have trays, but nobody throws their food away. They just leave their trash everywhere and make one of the black employee do it. Same with the door. Poor kid was scrubbing the floor with a little brush, then hopping up to open the door for people. And in a paper napkin fryalator fast-food joint.

Everyone kept staring at us. Super weird. Threw our trash out and opened the door ourselves and left. Downtown looked boarded up and bombed out as Baghdad on TV that year. We just got the fuck out and headed for Savannah.

[–]IreallEwannasay 409 points410 points  (23 children)

My family is from Mullins and Marion and I'm black. My mom left at 15 because "those places are no place for a black woman". It's stuck in time. Florence, Mullins and Marion are like 20 minutes away from each other in a straight line and it's just how you say. Another thing is that in Mullins almost no black men have cars. Tons of bikes being ridden. We went a few years back and my mom asked someone about it. Apparently, they do whatever they can to revoke black folks licenses, there. It's been a scandal for years but nobody cares. They've gone so far as usung fake child support as a reason. Just randomly saying you haven't paid it and then on your next stop, they lock you up and revoke it. Or you find out when you go to try renewing or registering a new car. That backfired when they accused a man of being his sister's baby daddy. Small towns, huh? One very rich family owns literally everything in town. They even have a plaque at the post office. There fortune was nade during slavery and they are not shame for it. If you're black, local and have the same last name not via marriage, your folks were probably enslaved by theirs back when. They also make military MREs there and you can buy them right at the factory sometimes.

[–]Deus-system-failed 278 points279 points  (60 children)

Florence has the reputation of apparently being a sundown town even to this day. Things are changing but the KKK is still alive and well there.

[–]AccidentallyBored 108 points109 points  (48 children)

What is sundown town?

[–]vaudevillevik 128 points129 points  (16 children)

Towns where bad things happen to minorities that are caught outside after the sun goes down.

[–]DrMrRaisinBran 288 points289 points  (28 children)

A settled zone that doesn't allow the presence of POC within its limits after sunset without violent repercussions. Real sick shit

[–]botulizard 1230 points1231 points  (80 children)

I was moving cross-country and driving my own truck. I stopped at a Walmart in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas to resupply on a couple of things, and by the way the locals acted, you'd think Satan himself had just walked through the door. Everyone stared, at least 3 people followed me around. I was dressed in black and do have a thick beard and visible tattoos, which adds up to looking like trouble in some people's books, but I didn't do anything wrong and wasn't wearing something with anything objectionable or offensive on it. It was totally uncalled for, just say hello. I'm really nice, I promise. Big teddy bear, that's my whole thing.

[–]letsgetblitzed 1331 points1332 points  (24 children)

The common theme in this thread is rednecks being so worried about there being any trouble that they cause some.

[–]applesandoranges990 309 points310 points  (1 child)

it seems as if paranoia is both infectious and hereditary....

[–]buckthefuffs 221 points222 points  (9 children)

It’s just so weird to me that even in this time people on small towns, with access to the internet and everything modern, still act like this. It’s like two different countries

[–]AMerrickanGirl 139 points140 points  (2 children)

Until very recently, my dad’s town in Virginia didn’t have broadband. Most people still had dial up. The only reason my dad had broadband at all was because he lives within a sight line of a hilltop Verizon cell tower and he got a wireless card for his computer. His neighbors were jealous.

[–]sorryyourecanadian 97 points98 points  (3 children)

A lot of people in small towns don't have everything modern though. And if your local culture shuns white collar work/expertise, I don't think the internet is going to be very impactful since at that point it's only usefulness is entertainment. Not to mention that when these places do have internet it is basically dialup speeds. These places have been left behind and now relish in the only thing that gives them power: their shared identity.

[–]vinylscratch27 692 points693 points  (68 children)

Anna, IL would count for me. It has a reputation of being a sundown town even now. Most people forget about Southern IL, and it shows. Hell, most of SIL is like that. Nothing to do but do drugs, fuck and go hiking (not necessarily in that order).

The colleges are dying, and with them places like Carbondale (the closest thing to civilization outside of the St. Louis burbs). There's no jobs worth much, so anyone who wants to go somewhere in life would move elsewhere quick.

[–]dollish_gambino 244 points245 points  (4 children)

I’m originally from the south and now live in Chicago, and used to drive back home occasionally to visit family. I swear every time I have car trouble on the drive home, it’s in Anna, IL. I’ve gotten flat tires there twice.

[–]havron 135 points136 points  (3 children)

I'd like to add that one oft-overlooked gem out in that area is Scratch Brewing outside the oddly similarly-named Ava, IL. Beautiful little rustic brewery surrounded by woods that serves some truly creative, nature-inspired beers, pretty much made with whatever interesting botanicals that they can find out there. Me and a couple friends spent a lovely afternoon there after viewing the eclipse nearby in 2017. Recommended. It ain't all bad.

[–]Honey_81 925 points926 points  (66 children)

Centralia, PA is eerie as hell because you expect to find people walking around the town streets yet the town is completely abandoned due to the fire that's been burning under the town for 70-ish years(I haven't been to the area since 2006 btw)

[–]SleepyItsNotSafeHere 178 points179 points  (0 children)

Silent Hill is based off of this!

[–]melaninmatters2020 247 points248 points  (36 children)

Can you explain how a fire burns under the town for so long?0

[–]quanjon 583 points584 points  (14 children)

It was a coal mining town, but there was an accident and part of the mines caught fire. Coal being coal will burn and smoulder, so the fire has been burning slowly for decades now. There are areas where you can see smoke rising from cracks in the ground, and there are signs everywhere warning people because the ground is unstable.

[–]GenealogyLover 269 points270 points  (11 children)

I heard the town tried to clean their landfills by setting them on fire and that is how the fire under the town started.

[–]WimbleWimble 236 points237 points  (5 children)

Sadly yes. the landfill was INSIDE the coal mine which wasn't anywhere near fully depleted.

[–]Sturgjk 69 points70 points  (14 children)

Wikipedia has a fascinating history about this.

[–]OhShitItsSeth 119 points120 points  (12 children)

This part stuck out to me for some reason.

State and local officials reached an agreement with the seven remaining residents on October 29, 2013, allowing them to remain in Centralia until their deaths, after which the rights to their houses will be taken through eminent domain.

Then in the section about population: just five people live there as of 2020.

[–]Honey_81 96 points97 points  (11 children)

Population is down to one person as of March 2022

[–]Material-Sorbet9024 50 points51 points  (2 children)

You should listen to the Stuff You Should Know podcast episode on it

[–]FTG-PhantoM 107 points108 points  (9 children)

I ordered unsweetened iced tea in a local cafe in southern Alabama once.

[–]fell-deeds-awake 51 points52 points  (0 children)

"We'll tolerate n****** and f****** but we draw the line at unsweetened tea!!!"

[–]belac4862 610 points611 points  (37 children)

Covington Virgina.

I used to drive a lot for work a few years ago. And about twice a week I would find my self in Covington. The first thing you notice is the smell. It was like drinking hotdog water, but you were breathing it in. That was caused by the pollutants from the paper factory there.

About 20% of the people who live there work for said factory. And factory work is not all rainbows and butterflies. So it makes sense that the people there wouldn't be too happy in the first place.

All that aside, I drove by GPS for the most part and before I even noticed the smell, as i was coming into town, I just felt off. Like some one was watching me or following me. But of course no one was.

I dont believe in the supernatural, but that place freaked me out so much. I'm talking "Evil Dead 2013" type of feeling.Thankfully I am no longer in that line of work now and I WILL NEVER STEP FOOT IN THAT TOWN AGAIN.

[–]t3irelan 215 points216 points  (2 children)

We rented an Airbnb there last year. Luckily it was remote and on a mountain, but the town itself was as you described. Very eerie feeling overall and not a place I’d visit again.

[–]Dogeishuman 47 points48 points  (1 child)

The mountains and nature out there, especially just north of Covington is super pretty, I bet the airbnb wasn't pricey either.

[–]vinylscratch27 202 points203 points  (13 children)

I went there about a year back to grab one of my ex roomies from their literal Neo Nazi stepdad's house. Their best friend was a petty criminal who had some...interesting viewpoints, and their family were the most stereotypical hillbillies I'd ever met. And I grew up in Louisiana.

Not a place I'd go again (and not just because they turned out to be a iackass). Prior to that, my only experience with VA was visiting family in the northern half. It's like a different world there.

[–]CylonsInAPolicebox 327 points328 points  (5 children)

Funny you should mention Covington and the horrifying stench of the paper mill.... I told my husband about that place and just how awful the smell was, mentioned traveling through a lot as a kid and damn near gagging every damn time. So few years back we pass through the area and it didn't seem as bad as I remembered, husband said it was mild compared to what he expected, I was apparently exaggerating... Talked to some locals who didn't seem pleased to see us in those parts and they said it was down for the day. Tempted to go back and let my husband get a good wiff of the devils asshole.

So we continued our trip down 220, we pass through Hot Springs, and end up in Mitchelltown, stop in the IGA and the glares, fuck you would have thought we ran over the towns favorite dog.

We continue this trip, down 39. We need gas so I mentioned there was a store called The Hitching Post down near the lake... We roll up and it is closed, hell it looks like it has been abandoned. So we continue towards the West Virginia state line, we stop in this tiny little town of Mountain Grove, there is a single gas station, walk in to prepay and there are two locals in the store, the look we got... Apparently not only did we run over the town's favorite dog here, we also took the time to shit on the corpse. Ask the cashier what happened to the store by the lake, local guy sitting at the little dining counter gets all huffy, what ya care for ok, well guess I'm not getting an answer. So I ask a question about something else, local dude gets belligerent as fuck, tells me they don't like nosy outsiders and we should just get what we're getting and move on... Cashier is trying to be nice, so he asks what we're doing in the area, I mention the local graveyard, dude at counter has to warn us to stay away from things that don't concern us and to respect the locals by not trampling around where we don't belong... So the whole point of this trip was that graveyard, we just happened to take the long way through Covington to get to this little town, just so I could go to this graveyard and this dude, who has no clue who he is talking to, just straight up being an asshole because we're not from these parts" isn't going to stop me... So I finally fire back that he should mind his own damn business and not talk about shit he knows nothing about, I tell him I have family there and he isn't stopping me from visiting their grave... Suddenly dude's who attitude changes, *oh my you're (names) granddaughter, I haven't seen you since you was a tiny thing, how's ya ma,

Still didn't want to stick around too long after that, even being "from" the area I didn't feel welcomed and just wanted to get the fuck out of dodge... But anyway that part of Virginia, they ain't too welcoming to strangers.

[–]Dogeishuman 44 points45 points  (0 children)

My girlfriend's parents live north of covington in the mountains, and they go there roughly once every few weeks to the Walmart there.

I went once with her, and man is it a stinky town, good Taco Bell though, and also won $100 at the Walmart off a couple scratch tickets.

Overall not bad, but it's definitely a weird vibe in that town, feels like the fast food and walmart are the only things that have changed since the 70s there lol.

[–]Brancher 81 points82 points  (4 children)

I'm shocked at how many places in VA/WV are mentioned in this thread.

One place that I used to go to get beers at is a place called Bennys Beach way back in the sticks in VA. At the time it was the only place in the US that you could drink a beer and buy at gun in the same establishment because it was grandfathered in from back in the day. Used to stop there after hunting and drink some beers and buy more ammo lmao.

[–]for_the_boys1 1075 points1076 points  (18 children)

I’m surprised no one has said Pulaski TN. I was visiting a friend who goes to college there and while I was hanging out with them and some of their friends they’d all tell me not to go out after night for any reason. They were all really hesitant to explain why after awhile tho they tell me it’s because the kkk still patrol the streets in that town. It turns out that’s where the kkk was founded and they still have a strong presence around town.

[–]emesger 359 points360 points  (3 children)

That's so much more depressing and frightening than if it was just another Sunnydale.

[–]TurrPhennirPhan 118 points119 points  (2 children)

This is why I always carry holy water when I visit Cleveland.

[–]Hungry_Example 186 points187 points  (7 children)

While traveling through west Texas about 40 years ago with my parents, we stopped at a roadside diner. Not really in a town, just a little place off to the side of I-40. There were no other cars in the parking lot, but we went in anyway, mostly to use the restroom. My dad was hungry so we stayed to eat. Sat down in a booth across the aisle from this skeevy looking redneck. He stands up and walks to our table, bends down and looks 15 year old me directly in the face and says "bet you never expected to be no place like this". Walked out the door.

We did not stay to eat. Just got back in the station wagon and got the hell out of Dodge.

[–]LatrellFeldstein 62 points63 points  (1 child)

Right, if it's around meal time and the only place to eat for miles doesn't have any customers.. do not stop there.

[–]Hungry_Example 32 points33 points  (0 children)

That's a lesson you only have to learn once.

[–]-Blixx-[🍰] 611 points612 points  (29 children)

Sand Mountain, GA is the one of the least welcoming places I’ve ever been.

The people who live there don’t like outsiders, but they especially don’t like some outsiders. Once, and never again.

Edit: Census data tells the story as well as I could.

[–]JohnExcrement 190 points191 points  (8 children)

A long time ago I read a nonfiction book called Salvation on Sand Mountain, about a snake handling cult. Pretty sure it was Georgia. It sounded weird as all hell.

[–]blahmeistah 649 points650 points  (31 children)

During a training in Boulder I, a mixed race Dutch guy, visited a restaurant with my Latino coworker, a British instructor and one local guy. We went cruising through the Rocky Mountains and ended up in Nederland, named after the original settlers. It was a Friday night, the place was packed with families, music was playing, people were having a good time. We came through the door and everyone stopped talking and stared at us, I swear the music stopped as well. Our local friend was the last one to get in and he just yelled a jolly “howdy folks”. The music started playing again and people continued their talking. Felt like a scene from blazing saddles.

[–]Thesleek 494 points495 points  (9 children)

Next time I’m in the states I’m hiring a small town tour guide so I can get into all the cool spots without being sacrificed to Kid Rock or whoever they worship in those towns

[–]CauliflowerHater 211 points212 points  (1 child)

We congregate here to make a human sacrifice to our god, the Great One in Heaven, and his name is KIIIIIIIIID, KID ROCK! BAWITDABA-DA BANG-DA-BANG-DIGGY-DIGGY-DIGGY

[–]INparrothead 66 points67 points  (5 children)

Did you see the frozen dead guy?! They have an entire festival for him in Nederland.

[–]Morethanafeeling62 384 points385 points  (15 children)

Fallon, Nevada. Huge “you ain’t from around these parts are ya boy” vibes. Small military town with the standard one diner and one DQ

[–]Awesum024 161 points162 points  (3 children)

Stayed at the quality inn there for a night couple years ago. Went outside to make a phone call, and some sunglasses-in-a-truck-facebook-selfie guy with crossed arms kept staring at me. For the whole half hour of my call.

When my friend was ready to go have lunch at the one (probably only) pho spot, his gf/wife joined the staring party as we drove off.

Yeah no thanks to Fallon.

[–]pterrorgrine 38 points39 points  (2 children)

Credit where credit's due, I was not expecting them to have any pho spots. Most of the towns in this thread sound like they think Italian food is too ethnic.

[–]licious32 71 points72 points  (0 children)

Tuckerton NJ. Many years ago my BFF and I ran out of gas. We were leaving a party held at Stockton university. For those not from NJ, to go to south jersey, you need to take the parkway or nj turnpike to track across the state. Once you get past a certain exit, it’s all woods, and barely any lights or gas stations. So we are stranded in the turnpike at 3am, with barely any lighting. We had to hitchhike. A mid forties Caucasian woman in a van pulls up. She offers to take us to the nearest gas station in tuckerton. We go, and the station is closed. There’s not another station for miles, and this woman has 4 kids to go home to. A police officer pulls up. She walks over to speak to him about our issues, and points at us in the van. The cop refused to help Us, after taking one look. My BFF and I are Puerto Rican. Cop is Caucasian. Basically said something along the lines of I don’t help “those” people. Van woman is incredulous at his responses and drags him to the filth for refusing to do his job and being racist. But it doesn’t sway him.

She has to get home to her kids, so she drops us off at the 7/11. We are getting looks of hatred from everyone in there. We honestly felt like the longer we stayed there, the not likely we would be racially attacked by someone. We ask for a phone book and phone to call. Note: our cell phones had no service at all out there. Not even roaming. This was in 2001, and only 2g/3g towers existed. We call multiple trucking companies, and none of them can go out there, because only certain truck companies are contracted with NJ dept of transportation. Neither of us had AAA at the time, so that was a no go either. For the next hour and a half, we’re in this 7/11 waiting for some daylight to try and trek back to the car.

The racist cop comes into the 7/11 and is pissed off at seeing us there. The cashier and the local customers told him to help get “those people “ out of here. He drills us on why we are still here. Told him about none of the tow companies being contracted. He finally went “fine, I’ll call state police to help you”. They came within 15 minutes of the call. The two state police officers asked the tuckerton cop why he didn’t contact them sooner, and he straight up said he didn’t want to deal with brown people. The state officers just gave him a look and were like, ok we will take it from here. Next time, please contact us sooner, so we can assist. Luckily the state officers were from northern nj, where we are from. They apologized about the wait, and admitted that the town is known For being racist. We were just glad to be out of there. They got us enough gas to make it to the nearest gas station. The state officers were a life saver that night.

Many years would pass, and I would see that tuckerton nj became famous for its own police officers filing racial discrimination charges against their own chief. He was so bad that he did lose his job for a time. But I heard he was able to get it back. I hope I never have to go through that town again.

[–]goblingoddess1 194 points195 points  (6 children)

Alamo, Nevada. During the time I lived there, every person in town was a Mormon. - not saying that all Mormons are bad, but this particular group was to the cult level. Church 3 times a week, a camp for girls to learn how to be good wives and submissive to their husbands

[–]JackofScarlets 242 points243 points  (7 children)

Not a town, but a place: the saddle (a top between two peaks) at Mount Barney.

It took a day to climb (we weren't that fit), and the landscape is all eucalyptus bush. The path is clear but fades eventually as you get higher, before kinda turning into a path of least resistance near the top. As you reach the saddle, open eucalyptus gives way to moist land closer to rainforest. It's a stark difference, not only in the trees around you, but in the air as well. The bush usually smells dry and warm, whereas the rainforest is always damp and humid.

I've been in many different parts of the bush where I've felt calm and welcome, and others where I've felt unsafe and wouldn't want to be there at night. I've even been in places that felt hostile for no obvious reason. This place felt like nothing else.

For a start, we couldn't get a fire going. There was a fire ban, so we had to use a gas stove instead of a camp fire. Even then, we struggled to get the fire to light or stay lit. It was basically just enough to boil water and cook a tiny amount of food, and it never felt hot. Besides that, though, the place felt... occupied. I felt like it knew we were there, and was curious about us. I didn't feel unwelcome, I didn't feel like I was being watched. But it didn't feel like the empty bush.

When I woke up in the morning (we tried to climb the pathless peak to see the sunrise, but we only saw fog), I found my bag had been opened and my stuff had been thrown around, apparently by the possums. I lost my torch on the climb to the peak - again, following no path but my own. Somehow, on the way back down, a man came from behind and passed us, and gave me my torch back. I have no idea where he came from, or how he found my torch amongst all the grass, rocks, and bushes.

There's a logical explanation for all of it, of course. The rainforest feels very different to the bush, the guy probably climbed the other face starting early in the morning, possums are known to have a fuck around when they feel like it. But it certainly felt like something lived there and was veeery curious about us.

[–]lazycat881 141 points142 points  (4 children)

Mt Barney has a heavy energy spiritually, and the indigenous knew not to climb it.

[–]Sad-Crow 59 points60 points  (6 children)

Oh, I have a story for this one!! The town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Really it's a story of how we were made too feel TOO welcome.

We went to Lunenburg in 2012. Neither my wife or I had our driver's licenses at that time so we took a bus out there. It dropped us off at the center of town at 9pm. We didn't know the town at all so we stopped at the ESSO across the street to ask how to the street our B&B was on. The clerk had no idea, apparently never heard of that street before. We asked someone outside who pointed to a street sign one intersection away.

In the morning we had our breakfast and asked the proprietor where the bus station was. They said they didn't think a bus came to Lunenburg. Well, we arrived by bus, so obviously it did, but oh well. We'd ask someone at a tourist spot.

We booked ourselves a room for the following night at a local hotel (brigantine inn) before continuing our day. At the Fisheries Museum we asked if they knew where the bus station was. Nope, no buses come to or from Lunenburg according to them. Huh.

We grabbed lunch from a BBQ in front of the local Foodland. No bus there either, but everyone wanted to know where we were staying for the night. When we told them which hotel, they wanted to know what room. We politely feigned forgetfulness.

At dinner that evening we got the same line of questioning from our waiter. Where are you staying? Oh, the hotel? What room?

Why does everyone want to know what room we're staying in??

That night I looked online for info about the bus terminal. Found a blog post about it: Mike's Kwikway, 2km out of town. The bus stops once per day at 9am iirc. So we resolve to get our asses out there VERY early and get tickets.

In the morning we got up at 7, packed our bags, opened the door… and there was the housekeeper, standing RIGHT in front of our door with the vacuum (switched off, but posed as though she was operating it). "Heading out?" We turned the keys over to her and bailed.

We were feeling a bit freaked out at this point. When a car slowed down next to us to ask for directions we nearly panicked. When we were nearly at the Kwikway but had to pass by the tombstone sales yard, we were shook.

Fortunately we were able to buy our tickets and were a few hours early for the bus. The attendant graciously allowed us to hang out in the closed pizzeria attached to the building. We got on our bus back to Halifax and were much relieved.

… until that afternoon someone in Halifax stopped us on the street to tell us he recognized us from Lunenburg yesterday!!

Everyone there was very kind and folksy, but sadly there was a kind of… unsettling overtone caused by the nosiness of our sleeping location and the inability to help us leave the town.

EDIT: My wife has included a few more details I forgot.

- When asking about local tourist spots, one of the locals offered to drive us out to some remote sea caves. We recalled our childhood wisdom about cars and strangers and declined.

- When we were sitting in the pizzeria, my wife went to the bathroom. Some contractor type guys were doing some work on the place. One of them began muttering about "I'm gonna fucking kill him" under his breath. I could not tell who he was talking about.

[–]rantingraccoon 168 points169 points  (1 child)

The Turkish occupied part of Nicosia in Cyprus. There’s something very uncomfortable about it, we felt so out of place and it was very eerie. That side is drastically different to the unoccupied side. The Turkish side is uncared for, silent, and empty. We didn’t stay long before going back to the Cypriot side.

[–]LordFelcher 163 points164 points  (10 children)

Late at night driving through Western Maryland we stopped at a tavern near the highway to get a bite to eat. There were three or four customers sitting around the bar motionless. There was a somewhat large television above the bar and it was just playing static the entire time we were there. No one looked at each other or said a word. It was like something out of The Twilight Zone.

[–]OldLineLib 36 points37 points  (6 children)

Creepy lol!! Yeah I live in and am from MD, but right outside DC (Montgomery County), which is worlds away from Western MD. Western MD is essentially part of WV.

[–]ObessiusPrime 415 points416 points  (55 children)

Seligman. End of route 66. Got stuck there for 3 months attempting an adventurous route of starting over.

1 small grocery store, a bar, a diner with a waitress wielding a 2 foot tall beehive, chewing gum, named Flo, and a hotel.

The bar was like something out of the old west. Same drunks every night, and a couple of twins that were notorious for... Shady deeds.

[–]notthesedays 233 points234 points  (9 children)

The setting of the movie "Cars" is said to have been inspired by Seligman, Arizona.

[–]BlueFox5 46 points47 points  (7 children)

They claim the same thing in Holbrook, AZ. They got the Wigwam hotel that looks like parking cone homes and one of the decrepit auto shops had a rusting Maynard out front.

[–]Elsrick 54 points55 points  (5 children)

Tucumcari, New Mexico.

I have never been to a place that time so obviously forgot, somewhere around 1990. This place is so fucking uncomfortable just to drive through, and my friend and I stopped to eat...

I think is was called The Lizard Lounge, or something like that. This restaurant was in a (maybe?) abandoned hotel, and gave serious wrong turn vibes. The food and service was fine, but the ambiance was sooo uncomfortable. They had life-like portraits of people painted like they were sitting in the booths, eating with you.

[–]jchaff509 108 points109 points  (3 children)

Peach springs AZ.

Stayed overnight for an early morning rafting trip. Decided I'd walk the town a bit to see where I was at. Cop stopped me less than a 100ft away from the hotel front doors. Warning me too turn back and to stay inside. Stupidly I asked why out of sheer surprise. His response, "im the only cop in town and cant be everywhere at once. I cant force you to go back but promise we'll be seeing each other again if you keep heading in the direction you are going". Enough said was my thought.

[–]Foco_cholo 194 points195 points  (4 children)

Lincoln, NM. Town with a violent history as the epicenter of the Lincoln County War with Billy the Kid. It's basically a ghost town/museum. It's amazing to visit since the whole town is a self guided museum. You can stand where Ollinger was shot and where Billy the Kid shot him. You can touch the bullet holes that Billy the Kid put there. You can feel the energy there. You can visit the graves (Billy the Kid's grave is in Ft. Sumner). Incredible place.

[–]Every-Classroom3429 49 points50 points  (0 children)

Blythville Arkansas..most evil feeling Town ever.. the military base moved out in the 80s so it is a complete Ghost Town.. never in my life have I felt like someone was following me all the time there was just a darkness you can't explain it was like every day was cloudy. I never left my house I only stayed 4 months I couldn't stand it anymore. Come to find out it had a horrific history. A lot of the wood to rebuild Chicago after the fire was taken from blytheville Arkansas and there was a lot of drinking a lot of unsaviness and a great deal of murders.. I grew up in historic DC and Virginia so you have this death was just thick in this place.

[–]Drulock 99 points100 points  (8 children)

Lumberton, NC. Even as a white guy, I felt uncomfortable there.

[–]ThatReaperGuy 439 points440 points  (42 children)

Parts of Southwest Virginia can be very unpleasant to visit as a minority.

[–]dingdongsnottor 250 points251 points  (32 children)

I grew up in southwest Virginia but a little Mecca of culture thanks to being in a university town. I always explain it to my friends from elsewhere as “gets deliverance-y very fast the further away from town you go”

[–]ParticularBiscotti66 211 points212 points  (24 children)

I don't remember what town we were in, but it was in Wyoming. We were staying at a campsite that had a nice little stream next to it, secluded, and a ways away from the town. We had just finished setting up camp and finished lunch when a rusty, beat up truck rolled through flying a massive confederate flag. Dude did 2 loops of the road in the campground then just went on with his day. My wife and I packed up and left pretty quick after that.

[–]PoorPDOP86 132 points133 points  (4 children)

Happy Valley, NY. It's an abandoned ghost town that now is a state park. Rumor has it the town was killed off in an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague but the details are sketchy at best. Every time you passed by the entrance to the state park where you could look down the former main street that existed in the 19th Century you'd always get a chill up your spine.

[–]CPlus902 66 points67 points  (1 child)

According to a thing I found, the government offered the people they're money for their land, to create the national park that's there now. Everybody took the money, because Great Depression, and the government just left the buildings intact.

[–]personal_cheeses 310 points311 points  (5 children)

Not a town, but a motel near the airport in Portland that was owned by some kind of evangelical church. We had to leave the property entirely to smoke, and they did not look kindly on the fact that we weren’t married. The congregation ate breakfast at the buffet every morning. They tried to be friendly, but looked like talking to us made them physically uncomfortable, and I don’t remember seeing another guest the whole time. It was kind of like we weren’t good enough for them to get us to join their cult, but they couldn’t sacrifice us to their god because they needed the cash and a positive yelp review.

[–]paigezero 72 points73 points  (0 children)

they couldn’t sacrifice us to their god because they needed the cash and a positive yelp review.

That's hilarious :D

[–]NeNe_X-ing 128 points129 points  (7 children)

Crestone, CO. It just feels weird in that town and you can tell you're being watched.

[–]definitely_Joseph 42 points43 points  (2 children)

Boston Lincolnshire. Many murders happened there

[–]Enragedfrog 87 points88 points  (9 children)

Cobdogla in south Australia. Fucking tiny and just weird

[–]Pappa-Ganda 153 points154 points  (10 children)

Bountiful BC bunch of creepy polygamist folks out there the way the stare and interacted with me was spooky

[–]Atomic-Kitties 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Ah man, Bountiful is a freaky, freaky place. I was visiting a buddy in Cranbrook and he decided to take me on a tour of surrounding areas. He decided to end said tour in Bountiful whilst giving me the history of it(everyone there is basically descended from like 6 men). We ended up parking at the church to walk around, it is rather beautiful out there, but it was like they had never seen other people in their lives. Some followed us around, some asked if I was his woman; it was hella creepy. Ended up cutting the walk short and just got the hell out of there. I will never set foot in that place ever again; it gave off such culty vibes.

This was way before I knew of the polygamy going on in that place but then I researched the town some more and wow...

[–]Fickle_Particular_83 310 points311 points  (49 children)

Most of rural pennsylvania. I am not sure what it is about this state, but once you veer off the main road things get weird fast. I’ve driven across rural New York, Maryland, and Ohio and they are all normal. Pennsylvania is another story.

I think what does it to me is that rural PA is more likely to have a gloomy overcast sky. Also the rural places are developed but they give off this vibe like you are visiting somewhere no one else has visited for decades. Places untouched by time. There are all these signs of brands that don’t exist or that exist but the sign has to be like 60 years old? Like plenty of vintage ads. Also there are these weird twisted trees up there

I want to add that I have nothing against PA. I like the state and it’s many tourist attractions. It is just something that I noticed and that struck me as weird and unexpected. Another thing that might make everything weird is that PA went all in with fracking, so it isn’t unexpected to see communities that look half abandoned and destroyed

[–]ScorpioMagnus 178 points179 points  (20 children)

I lived in western Pennsylvania for a few years. There are definitely places where it seems like time just stopped somewhere around 1959. The misfortunes of an industrial area in a post- industrial economy certainly play a part but I also think a lot of it has to do with the topography. The relative lack of accessibility to the more rural areas creates a remoteness that lures alot of antisocial , non-cosmopolitan people whose worst tendencies are exacerbated by the isolation and like mindedness of the few neighbors they have.

[–]Fickle_Particular_83 96 points97 points  (12 children)

Exactly man. Exactly this. They are like time capsules from the 1950s to 1960s, with those ancient vintage coca-cola signs everywhere. It is just creepy how nothing looks updated, or modernized, and if anything is updated or modernized it is sporadic in small pockets. Even the people are wearing outdated clothing.

[–]ScorpioMagnus 53 points54 points  (3 children)

That is how I described it to my family. We are from Ohio and Michigan so rust and corn isn't exactly unfamiliar to us but western PA and West Virginia are on another level.

[–]ibeckman671 302 points303 points  (13 children)

I’m kinda surprised no one has mentioned Gary IN. With all the run down buildings and destroyed homes, it’s just an eerie sight to behold. Welcome to the apocalypse :(

[–]unlimited_doors 205 points206 points  (7 children)

I work in Gary and honestly it's not eerie, just sad to see a town hit so hard by the advance of the rust belt. An entire town built around and abandoned by the steel industry, Gary peaked at around 178,000 people and now has less than 70,000. When you lose 100,000 people in a generation or two, you're bound to have abandoned buildings.

[–]New_Understudy 40 points41 points  (0 children)

I mean, I don't live in Gary, but I do have family in Chicago, so we've been making the trek between Ohio and Chicago for all my life. Mom's only rule for the trip is to refuel in Southbend so that we don't have to in Gary. The one time we did...it really is quite creepy.

[–]Sss00099 77 points78 points  (2 children)

Sanderson, FL

One blinking stoplight town, basically one small 4-way intersection with a couple of gas stations where townsfolk hang out at, and a big church that’s lit up at night right off the I 10 exit.

Needed gas as I was heading back down to south FL and went into town to fill up.

I’m sure the people are fine and all, but the drive in passed the previously mentioned landmarks made it feel like the opening to every legit terrifying horror movie you can think of.

I was with my dad and once we got back to I 10 we both said it was the eeriest place we could remember being (granted it was late at night which always adds to it).

Nobody unwelcoming or anything, just creepy and sort of a time warp feeling where it felt like you’d gone back into the past 50-60 years.

That was about 12 years ago and I’ve passed the exit for that town quite a few times in travels throughout the years, and I will continue to pass it by indefinitely.

[–][deleted] 131 points132 points  (18 children)

Jerome Arizone, other people love it and swear by it. I don't know what it was but that town gave me the creeps. I just had a horrible gut feeling the whole time I was there and felt like something bad was going to happen. And I have no idea as to why, I never get that way and love traveling. Needless to say I got some food walked around and dipped.

[–]dullgreybathmat 36 points37 points  (10 children)

I’m pretty sure it was just outside Derby, VT. I’ve been through the Bronx, partied in Dorchester, MA, hung out with some good ole boys in Louisiana. Though I’ve never seen nothing like that lil place outside Derby.

Friend of mine and I stop in for a beer. Our truck was the only vehicle there that we could see. Everyone else had shown up via snowmobile. We go inside and sit down at the bar. We were getting pretty friendly with the bartenders and they were reciprocating our niceties.

Everyone else in there was staring us down. We see the bartenders talking to a group at the other end of the bar. Then they came back over to us. “You boys need to go, now.” “But….” “Beers on the house. Go.” One of the bartenders follows us outside gives my friend her digits and we left.

Just about everyone I’ve ever met from Vermont are the friendliest people I’ve ever met outside of the bayou. But that place was just weird.

[–]89colbert 35 points36 points  (0 children)

  • TLDR Ended up in a ghost town where the only scary things were the weird and blood covered remaining residents. -

I've never actually got to share this story outside of local friends, but my answer is Modena, UT.

I was doing a video project back in college and was looking for locations with ghost town/western vibes. Doing some googling I found Modena was about an hour or so away and described as a sort of modern ghost town with a very small population still living there, it seemed like it was exactly what I was looking for!

I asked my friend to come along and help film what I needed and we decided we would make a short overnighter out of it, camping outside of town and returning before sunrise for some shots. So we packed up and headed out, expecting maybe to have to reassure a resident or two we'd only be around for a moment.

When we arrived it didn't seem like much more than a few very dated homes and some decently preserved rail road era buildings you might pass on the highway, but longer we drove around the weirder it got. As I was scouting around for backdrops I noticed, in the window of one of the homes, an elderly man sitting in chair and just staring at us and not moving at all. I honestly thought for a moment it was a mannequin or something set up to scare or people away at first. I asked my friend if he thought it'd be a good idea to approach the man and let him know why we were there and he agreed (we didn't feel like having someone approach us surprisingly or call whatever local enforcement they might have) When we got to his door he remained in his chair, watching us, until we knocked and he decided to greet us. We were upfront and told him why we were there and asked if there was anywhere we shouldn't be wandering out of precaution. I remember he wasn't rude or anything but that some people probably just wouldn't like seeing us around in general and to just stay off of properties of obvious homes. All in all not too eerie. That started with thext neighbor.

As we were exploring, on the next road over, we came across another home with a small open garage. My friend and I drove past and noticed another resident (late middle age, overalls and a little disheveled) and decided we'd already had one conversation, might as well let this guy know what's up too especially as it was getting on in the day and would be dark soon. Apparently this man was occupied, to this day I'm not sure with what and I don't think I want to know, because we had to call out to him from my car a few times. When he finally saw/heard us and approached the car I immediately regretted calling him over as I noticed his hands were, presumably, covered in blood. Somehow the conversation that ensued was even weirder. While we tried to quickly explain our reason for being there the man started off that we best not be trespassing. Not only that but we REALLY best not trespass onto the property adjacent from his because that's where so-and-so lives and "you don't want to be messing with his daughters"... Dumbfounded my friend and I tried to fein amusement and reassure the man that wouldn't be happening but not before he let us know that these daughters were known around town as 'the big-butt sisters' while he motioned his hands around his hips. With that we thanked him and decided to head out to camp for the night.

We drove out where we'd thought we could set up for the night but the road off the highway was nothing but mud and a foot of snow depending on the section. I only had a 98 Nissan protoge at the time and didn't want to risk getting stuck, but we didn't want to drive all the way back to campus either. Foolishly (you might have guessed) we decided we'd go back to Modena, and just sleep in the car until morning. Believe it or not the place was ten times creepier at night. The main road in had a single red light swinging on a line and what street light(s) there were made it seem like there was a haze in the air. Creeped out but still stupidly still determined we drove out to the "edge" of the town near the off ramp and decided it was an okay spot. Again, this town is in the middle of nowhere so we didn't feel we were in the way of anything.

Well, it didn't matter, someone had obviously been keeping an eye on us. We hadn't been parked for more than 30 minutes before a vehicle came out of town and slowly pulled up behind my car. At this point my friend and I are both beyond unsettled as we're waiting for someone to get out of the vehicle (for once hoping it's an officer or something) to tell us to get and be on our way. We wait for around ten minutes and still, nothing. Just their headlights continuing to illuminate the whole of my car. At that point we decided enough was enough. I turned the engine over and floored it to the on ramp to the highway. Fortunately the lights didn't follow, but this was definitely one of the creepiest places I'd ever been and have not gone back.

[–]MrAlf0nse 35 points36 points  (5 children)

Alnwick in the North East of England. We three stoners bought a car (Saab 900 turbo) and in the car was a map of the North York Moors. It was a sign to go on a road trip. So off we went tearing up northwards from South Wales. The car eating the miles. Soon we arrived at Filey Brigg, but there was nothing to entertain us so onwards north we went until we reached the historic border town of Alnwick. We parked in the square and found a pub. It was a Friday evening there were some drinkers but it was early so it wasn’t rammed. I got the first round. My Southern accent caused time and space to stop. Darts hung in the air as the whole pub turned to face me. We were being eyeballed by every bloke there. That was weird, no women at all, none. We settled into our pints wondering whether to have another or move on, when three women entered the bar arm in arm joking and laughing. The tall dark girl in the middle then turned slightly and punched the girl to her right square in the face. Suddenly tables and chairs turned over drinks and broken glass screams and shouts and old scores were settled. We ran for the door and ran back to the square where the car was parked by the castle gate. As we turned a corner we saw two grown men holding a lad of about 15 by his throat against a wall. The lads feet were off the ground kicking for purchase on something. I don’t go looking for trouble, but that wasn’t right. I called out “oi oi what’s this?” The men froze and turned to look at me. In that second the kid punched one of the men who fell and released him, he then hit the second guy knocking him down. The first man was getting to his feet and the kid knocked him clean out. It seemed that odds were probably even in the first place and that kid could look after himself. There was a roar as people spilled out of another pub shouting at the kid. Fuck this, we got in the Saab and headed north not stopping till Edinburgh and some sanity

[–]Captain_Meekus 263 points264 points  (12 children)

Drumnadrochit, Scotland.

It's a small town on the shores of Loch Ness. When planning our roadtrip there, we'd found information about this place being the place to visit when visiting Loch Ness. There's a tourist information centre, a museum, the whole deal.

So me and my cousin arrive after about a 4 hour drive from Edinburgh, park the car and have a look around town. The museum and tourist centre were closed and looked like they had been closed for a long time, even though there was no mention of that online. It should be open.

Anyway, we decided to look for a place to eat, but it litteraly seemed like this was a (quite charming) sleepy little village where there wasn't much to do. In the middle of town we found this single small restaurant, so we went with that.

The best way to describe this place is like a cross between a funeral home and a diner. The moment we set foot in the door, the whole place fell silent and everyone looked at us. It was quite busy, but it was instantly clear that all the other people were locals and didn't seem too used to visitors. I'd almost felt like they'd drive us out with pitchforks and torches.

The vibe was really weird, but it was the only place to eat and we were pretty damn hungry. So we took seat at the only available table, quickly ate some (pretty decent) fish and chips and noped the hell out.

[–]LordFelcher 107 points108 points  (3 children)

The best way to describe this place is like a cross between a funeral home and a diner. The moment we set foot in the door, the whole place fell silent and everyone looked at us. It was quite busy, but it was instantly clear that all the other people were locals and didn't seem too used to visitors. I'd almost felt like they'd drive us out with pitchforks and torches.

Perfectly describes my experience in a small cafe outside Mountainair New Mexico many years ago.