Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Creatures people keep reporting and nobody has caught.
Bowie, MD
Governor's Bridge is one of the locations most closely tied to Maryland's Goatman legend, the half-man, half-goat creature said to stalk the woods and roads around Prince George's County. The 1912 bridge itself is closed to vehicle traffic, so use the nearby public natural-area access and do not enter neighboring private property or wander the area after posted hours.
Stories a place tells about itself, passed down and still repeated.
Brandywine, MD
A small cemetery and surviving steps are all that remain of the Church of the Atonement, built in the 19th century and demolished decades after services ended. The isolated burial ground has accumulated witch and ghost folklore over the years; access is awkward near the railroad, so use only legitimate approaches and never cross active tracks unsafely.
Baltimore, MD
Elijah Bond patented the talking board that would become the Ouija board in 1891. His grave in Green Mount Cemetery was unmarked for decades until researchers installed a new headstone in 2008 with a full Ouija board carved into its reverse side; visit only during cemetery hours.
Baltimore, MD
The family that gave Fell's Point its name once had a burial ground here, now reduced to a tiny graveyard squeezed between later Baltimore buildings. Very little remains above ground, and uncertainty over what happened to some of the burials has helped make the small plot a recurring stop in neighborhood ghost lore.
Burkittsville, MD
Stop on Gapland Road, West Main Street, put the car in neutral, and it appears to roll uphill. The slope is an illusion — the surrounding land hides the true horizon, so a gentle descent reads as a climb — which has never once stopped anyone trying it with a bottle of water. A public road, so pull over sensibly and watch for traffic.
Kingsville, MD
This rough boundary stone has stood beside Bel Air Road since the early 1800s and carries a biblical warning cursing anyone who moves a neighbor's landmark. It sits beside private commercial property near the roadside, so view it without blocking traffic or treating the surrounding land as public.
Leonardtown, MD
Local legend says Moll Dyer was driven from her home on a freezing night in the late 1600s after townspeople accused her of witchcraft, and that her frozen body was later found against a large rock. The stone associated with the story was moved in 2021 to Tudor Hall, where it is displayed outside the St. Mary's County Historical Society.
Hotels, theatres, prisons and back roads with a reputation.
Baltimore, MD
The Admiral Fell Inn occupies a collection of historic Fell's Point buildings associated with the neighborhood's long maritime history. Guests and tour guides have attached numerous ghost stories to its rooms and corridors, while the property continues to operate as a hotel.
Frederick, MD
This long-running walking tour uses downtown Frederick's wars, executions and local tragedies as the background for documented paranormal stories. Tours depart on scheduled evenings from the Market Street area and require a ticket or reservation.
Annapolis, MD
Annapolis ghost walks take visitors through the old waterfront and colonial core for stories involving historic taverns, pirates, former residents and reported hauntings. The current tour meets around Market Space on scheduled evenings, so this is a ticketed tour rather than an always-open attraction.
Glenn Dale, MD
Opened in 1934 as a tuberculosis sanatorium for Washington, D.C., Glenn Dale later served other patients before closing in 1982. Its abandoned hospital buildings have become a major source of local ghost stories, but entering the structures is prohibited; view them only from legal public roads and trails.
Savage, MD
Historic Savage Mill dates to the 19th-century textile industry, and its organized ghost tour mixes mill history with reports of footsteps, apparitions and a mischievous child spirit. Tours require tickets and run on scheduled dates, so the haunting experience is limited even though the commercial mill complex is otherwise open.
Kingsville, MD
This one-lane covered bridge dates to the 1860s and still carries traffic across Little Gunpowder Falls. Local legends attach hanging apparitions, stalled vehicles and stranger creature stories to the bridge, but it remains an active narrow roadway, so do not stop a vehicle inside it or block traffic.
Real events too strange to have made the textbook.
Aspen Hill, MD
Established in the early 20th century, Aspin Hill is one of the country's oldest pet cemeteries and contains tens of thousands of animal burials alongside a smaller number of human graves. Elaborate markers memorialize dogs, cats, birds and other pets, and the cemetery is open for respectful daytime visits.
Baltimore, MD
A tiny 19th-century family cemetery survives improbably in the middle of a modern Baltimore neighborhood, a remnant of the much larger property once owned by the Biddison family. Most graves date to the 1800s, and neighborhood volunteers have periodically cleared vegetation from the otherwise easily overlooked burial ground.
Colmar Manor, MD
The fields near old Bladensburg became a notorious place for settling political and personal disputes with pistols during the 19th century, earning the nearby stream the nickname “Blood Run.” More than 50 duels are associated with the area, and a marker now interprets the history from the public grounds.
Savage, MD
This bright iron bridge is the last surviving example of Wendel Bollman's once-influential railroad truss design. Built in the 19th century and later moved to Savage, it now carries a pedestrian trail across the Little Patuxent River and can be walked through freely.
Thurmont, MD
Iron production began at Catoctin Furnace in 1776 and relied in part on enslaved labor before the industrial village expanded through the 19th century. The surviving furnace stack, historic village, trails and Museum of the Ironworker now interpret both the industry's technology and the lives of the people who worked there.
Suitland-Silver Hill, MD
Cedar Hill Cemetery contains a surprising group of 1930s faux-bois concrete sculptures by Dionicio Rodriguez, made to resemble gnarled trees, logs and rustic wooden structures. The cemetery also contains a mass grave connected to the deadly 1906 Terra Cotta railroad wreck, giving the grounds an unusually layered history.
Small, specific collections run by people who care far too much.
Baltimore, MD
Rather than concentrating on conventionally trained artists, this Baltimore museum is devoted to self-taught and visionary creators. The campus is packed with giant sculptures, mosaics, kinetic pieces and objects made from unexpected materials, making the exterior alone an OddWay-worthy stop.
Baltimore, MD
George Herman “Babe” Ruth was born in this Baltimore rowhouse in 1895, just a few blocks from what is now Camden Yards. The restored house operates as a museum containing Ruth memorabilia, photographs and exhibits covering his life and baseball career.
Boonsboro, MD
This eccentric small-town collection ranges far beyond local history, with Civil War weapons sitting alongside Egyptian material, carved bullets, unusual medical and military objects, and a bouquet made from human hair. Tours operate on selected weekends from May through December or by appointment.
College Park, MD
The museum stands beside the world's oldest continuously operating airport, where the Wright brothers trained military pilots beginning in 1909. Exhibits cover early flight, unusual aircraft and the airport's long experimental history, with active aircraft often visible just outside.
Baltimore, MD
Edgar Allan Poe lived in this tiny Baltimore rowhouse with members of his family from roughly 1833 to 1835. The preserved house now operates as a museum devoted to Poe's life and writing, with period rooms, exhibits and artifacts connected to one of America's most enduring masters of the macabre.
Baltimore, MD
Completed in the 19th century, the Peabody Library's soaring atrium is lined with multiple tiers of cast-iron balconies and hundreds of thousands of books. Often described as a cathedral of books, the historic research library is open to visitors during posted public hours when not closed for events.
Giant objects, odd monuments and things built for no clear reason.
Baltimore, MD
Built between 1907 and 1911 for the company behind Bromo-Seltzer headache remedy, this clock tower was originally crowned by a giant glowing blue medicine bottle. The bottle is gone, but the tower now contains artist studios and a Bromo-Seltzer museum, with scheduled access to the clock room.
Boonsboro, MD
Discovered during quarry work in 1920, Crystal Grottoes developed into Maryland's only commercial show cave. Guided tours descend into chambers filled with stalactites, flowstone and other formations, so visitors must enter during the attraction's operating season and tour hours.
Germantown, MD
A huge spherical water tank has been painted as a remarkably detailed globe of the Earth, turning a piece of utility infrastructure into a giant roadside planet. It is best viewed from nearby public roads and areas around the Montgomery College Germantown campus rather than approached as an attraction with its own visitor entrance.
Ellicott City, MD
Maryland's original Enchanted Forest storybook park opened in 1955 and eventually closed, but many of its giant fairy-tale structures were rescued and restored at Clark's Elioak Farm. Visitors can now wander among pieces such as Cinderella's pumpkin coach and the Old Woman's Shoe during the farm's seasonal operating dates.
Glen Burnie, MD
A 34-foot-tall yellow crash-test dummy stands outside Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration headquarters as an oversized traffic-safety mascot. Installed in 2012, it is a permanent outdoor photo stop visible from the public MVA complex.
Frostburg, MD
A church congregation began planning a full-scale Noah's Ark beside Interstate 68 after its pastor said he received a divine command to build it in 1976. The enormous steel skeleton remains an unfinished landmark decades later; view it from legitimate public roadside areas and do not enter the construction property without permission.
