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We recently asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about the mysterious, cult-like, bad-vibes towns they came across in the United States. And I’m not exaggerating when I say there were A LOT of responses. Here are the sketchiest ones:
Note: Apologies if your hometown is on this list…but everyone’s experience is personal, and who knows, maybe you agree with what these people experienced?
1.City of Refuge/Miracle Village, Florida — “It’s a community for registered sex offenders. Tucked away in the vast, quiet stretches of South Florida, Miracle Village stands out for reasons that make you blink twice. Built in the 1960s for people who worked on sugar cane fields, it now houses a population you won’t find gathered anywhere else. Florida’s hardline laws push people convicted of sexual offenses to the margins, and these margins lead straight to Miracle Village. It’s a place where they’re allowed to exist, one of the very few places that’ll have them. Here’s where it gets sticky, though. The town offers a shot at redemption, but at what cost? Some folks think cramming everyone with the same past into one place is a ticking time bomb. But life there? It’s quiet. Almost too quiet. The village’s isolation serves two purposes: keeping the residents out of sight and giving them some peace, a sanctuary of sorts. It’s eerie and leery.”
2.Hillsboro, New Mexico — “Took a wrong turn going to Albuquerque on Christmas Eve. Google Maps said it was a straight line to the connecting highway, and it was…over and through a mountain. The road had sharp turns and steep dropoffs with no rails. It was getting dark, and fog started to settle in — puddles on the road would soon be ice. We were very low on gas, and the hairpin roads were too small to turn around. Cell phone reception dropped off. Thank God we rolled into Hillsboro…or not. Nothing was open. Not a soul in sight. We found a cop car sitting under a lamp in the tiny town square. I got out of the car to approach him, and when I got close, I saw the cop was a mannequin! Oh, hell no. I ran to the car, and right then, two teenagers walked out of the fog. Out of desperation, we asked how to get to the main highway. They showed us a road and we coasted on empty away from that creepy town and down the mountain. The Hillsboro has eyes!”
—Anonymous
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3.Vidor, Texas — “I was born in Beaumont, near Vidor, as was my father. Vidor has always been a sundown town, and we avoided it if at all possible. When we lived there (mid-1970s), they still had signs posted saying, ‘N-word, don’t let the sun set on your head in Vidor.’ I’m sure they are still there.”
A sundown town refers to a community in the United States that historically excluded nonwhite people — especially Black Americans — through formal laws, unofficial policies, intimidation, or violence. The term comes from signs that were often posted at town or city limits telling non-white people to leave by sundown.
4.Antelope, Oregon — “Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. He started a cult, tried to take over a town, poisoned the city (not the entire city), and had armed guards. Just Google the name. Too much BS to remember all the things he tried to get away with.”
Popularized by the Netflix docuseries Wild Wild Country, the Rajneeshees (followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) founded a commune called Rajneeshpuram in central Oregon during the ’80s. They fought with locals for many years, and there was even an internal assassination attempt on Bhagwan’s personal doctor.
5.Howell, Michigan — “It’s a (not-so-former) Klan town. Not so much creepy in the background vibes, but blatant white supremacy and racist cult vibes for sure.”
—Anonymous
6.Yelm, Washington — “It’s where the Ramtha School of Enlightenment ‘cult’ is headquartered. I visited a bookstore that was all new age and had Ramtha-related items, and I bought a bookmark with just a picture of the eyes of the leader, J. Z. Knight. Weird place. “
—Anonymous, 43, Maine
7.Orange City, Iowa — “Everyone is Dutch and Christian, they don’t accept you into the community unless you join the church. Main Street has fake fronts on all the buildings to make them look Dutch. When I lived there, I was in middle school, and they pumped canned music through the town on loudspeakers. You could be arrested for mowing your lawn on Sunday. It was freaky.”
—Anonymous
8.Rutland, Vermont — “A friend and I stopped at the Yellow Deli in Rutland before we had any idea who it was run by. We dealt with several people who were so ridiculously polite and friendly that it was actually kind of creepy; my friend and I joked that they must be in a cult. I got the ‘Deli Rose’ sandwich. I don’t support the Twelve Tribes cult that runs the place, but that was hands-down the best sandwich I’ve ever had. I don’t know what kind of secret ingredient they put in it, but I’ve tried over and over, and I can’t replicate it. Now that I know who they are, I can’t go back, but that was roughly fifteen years ago, and I STILL think about that delicious bastard two or three times a month.”
9.Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona — “They’re sister cities and Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints strongholds. Thirty years ago, it was like stepping into The Twilight Zone. People would watch you as you drove down the street by peeking out their windows, but as soon as you looked back, they would close the drapes. The police would come up and drive slowly behind you until you left town. Those who were out and about would look at you like you were the spawn of Satan himself. Children were never riding bikes, playing ball, or doing kid stuff. They looked like mini adults with worried looks on their faces.”
—Anonymous
10.Eureka, California — “I was there on a cloudy April day, and the vibe alone scared me despite being with a large group of people. When we went to a coffee shop, the people inside stared us down like we didn’t belong. They were all pretty quiet and shady. There was unfinished construction on every block, and overall, the town had a ghost town feel, and strangers looked at you from what felt like every angle. I’ve never had such strong feelings about a place before, but I know I’m not going back there ever again.”
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11.Heritage USA — “The theme park founded by televangelist Jim Bakker and his wife Tammy Faye. Also, it was not me, but my younger brother (no longer with us). In the mid-’80s, my brother returned to school as a journalism major at the University of South Carolina. One of his assignments was to write a story about the newly opened theme park. So, one weekend, off he went. He later told me that the whole time he was there, he felt like he had to keep looking over his shoulder because he felt like a couple of guys were going to come up behind him, grab him, and say, ‘You don’t belong here.’ Wish he was still here to tell you himself.’
—Anonymous
12.Mount Vernon, Washington — “Walked into a Christian bookstore in the early 1980s. In the back they had Nazi books and, being Hispanic, I got a very creepy feeling.”
13.Skidmore, Missouri — “Look up Ken Rex McElroy, read about his murder, and then go visit the town.”
Ken McElroy was known for “terrorizing” the town of Skidmore, Missouri, in the 1950s. Over many years, he was accused of several crimes, including assault, theft, rape, and others. He gained notoriety as the “town bully.” He was eventually convicted of attempted murder in 1981 but released on bond not long after. It was reported that residents got so “fed up” with his crimes that they organized an “extrajudicial killing,” shooting him to death as he exited a bar in July 1981.
14.Burbank, Washington — “My ex-boyfriend and I went camping at Hood Park, which is just right outside of Burbank. We went into town to get some beer and went to the only bar they had in town. There was not a soul out in the streets…it looked totally abandoned! We walked into the bar, and all three of the patrons turned around to stare at us. We felt so out of place. It was soooo creepy. We left a bit earlier than we had planned.”
15.The Salton Sea, California — “It’s an inland lake in Imperial County that was formed when an irrigation canal burst in the 1920s, letting the Colorado River flow into the below sea level desert. It’s smelly, fly-ridden, and slowly dying due to poor environmental management and farm irrigation regulations. It is so polluted that the area has the highest rates of asthma in the US. In the 1950s and ’60s, there were resorts and casinos built, and it was full of fish, swimming, boating, and life. All the resorts and casinos are abandoned and crumbling now. Everything is salt crusted and the meth labs have taken over the area. In the winter, there are modern-day hippies and RVs camping on the abandoned concrete slabs in ‘slab city,’ left over from a World War 2 military training ground. If you drive through, people stop to look at you like you’re an alien. The surrounding desert is filled with trash and coyotes. It’s the weirdest area in Southern California.”
16.Worthington/Kittanning, Pennsylvania — “Racist. Racist! RACIST!!! Look up Worthington billboards and you’ll see what I mean. The most racist guy owns a gas station that has cheaper gas than anyone else, so everyone goes to him, and he uses his profits to display the most vile things. He got in trouble for displaying Swastikas, but after a half-ass apology, went back to displaying them. The whole town excuses his antics.”
—Anonymous
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17.Wasioja, Minnesota — “I grew up in a previously abandoned house in Wasioja. It is a tiny unincorporated town that fizzled out after the Civil War. The house I lived in was a boarding house for seminary students, who lived there for three years before they went off and were killed almost immediately in the war. All around the town were rings of trees planted in yards in honor of those men who had died. The railroad bypassed the little town, and with all the men gone, everyone moved away. All that was left in the ’80s when I was a kid were a few old bristly pioneer types and a bunch of old buildings that were built in the 1860s. It was kind of like a time capsule that never wanted to be one. The whole village felt ‘off.’ I always felt like someone was watching me wherever I went. My parents ended up flattening the house I grew up in, and got out of there. I moved a few hours away.”
18.”Rhyolite, Nevada — Pulled into this ghost town in the early ’90s with a friend to check it out. Someone who apparently had taken up residence immediately started shooting at us. We left as fast as we could.”
—Anonymous
19.Gholson, Texas — “It’s the town that weed built. It has a river running through town, and you could see weed growing on the riverbanks as you float by. The community is just now starting to integrate. Fifteen years ago, you did not catch a person of color living in the town proper. It is common to see a man beating his wife or kids at the Dollar General or the gas station. People pick up and eat roadkill. The mayor of the town is rumored to be a Branch Davidian, and he brags about attending Trump events when he is not fighting on the internet with misspelled words and handmade memes.”
—Anonymous
20.Pella, Iowa — “Super conservative, religious culty vibes. People here live in a bubble where they think their views are the same everywhere. They are stunned when opposing views are expressed. So much so that those who don’t agree are afraid to speak out. Plus, there is a small ‘members-only’ church with guards at the door to prevent non-members from entering.”
21.Savannah, Georgia — “I’ve been there twice (4 nights total) while on a drive to Disney, and it looks so creepy. Shit ton of gun stores, smoke shops, and strip clubs. And the highest rated hotel? Paint literally peeling off the walls.”
—Anonymous
22.Monticello, Mississippi — “Dated a girl from there, and aside from the inbreeding that went on, the whole town seemed ‘too happy.’ I can’t describe it. False cheeriness, like the townspeople had something to hide. It felt very surreal. Years later I learned it was near where they had The Valley Of The Kings cult, where the leader and his son were sexually abusing minor-age members of the congregation.”
23.St. Francisville, Louisiana — “It has the honor of being named at least at one time, the most haunted place in America. I grew up there, and there are definitely creepy places there. There’s Myrtle plantation, where I myself have seen some stuff. From apparitions in the windows to voices within walls and hallways, this place is definitely haunted. Also, the battle of Port Hudson, the longest battle of the Civil War, was fought nearby, and most of the current town served as a cemetery for the battle.”
24.Buffalo, New York — “I visited for work once. It’s a legit decent-sized city, but the downtown area was completely devoid of life. No cars, no people on the streets. It had apocalypse vibes. Weird.”
—Anonymous
25.Seabrook, Washington — “Stayed there a couple times, just a very odd movie set kinda vibe. You feel like you’re being watched every minute.”
—Anonymous
26.East St. Louis, Illinois — “This city has the worst vibes in the Midwest. You cross the Mississippi River over a bridge from the beautiful, modern metropolis of St. Louis, with its Gateway Arch welcoming all, to the lawless, burnt-down, post-apocalyptic remains of East St. Louis. It feels like the only businesses in town are strip clubs, maybe a few gas stations. The whole area feels like the US headquarters for human trafficking and drug/arms dealers to meet and exchange best practices. Not very ‘cult like’ but extremely sketchy nonetheless. It always felt like we were taking our lives into our hands when we crossed over that bridge to the East side. Apparently, it was a nice place to live until a little after WW2. “
—Anonymous
27.Kohler, Wisconsin — “They provide you with all the amenities, but they own your soul. Plus, all the leaders there are swingers. You will love all the secrets you stumble upon there!”
—Anonymous
28.Atchison, Kansas — “People have cult-like rituals. For example, there was a high school graduation involving people taking mushrooms and basically worshiping of oak leaves. Weird stuff. They also have a fear of outsiders, and many homes are proclaimed to be haunted.”
—Anonymous
29.Twentynine Palms, California — “It would be a great location for a David Lynch-esque vampire film if you catch my drift.”
30.Brattleboro, Vermont — “My son and I were there for a college interview and tour. We went to dinner at a local restaurant. When we walked in, the whole place stopped talking and looked at us. I didn’t want to seem nervous about it, so I said nothing. Halfway through dinner, my son said, ‘Is it me, or is everyone staring at us?’ They continued to stare throughout dinner. I don’t know if it’s because we were dressed up, brown, or outsiders. He ended up going to that college, and a woman who owned a B&B told me that it was like that for her for years when she first moved there. She was from Brazil.”
—Anonymous
31.Finally, Maine (in general) — “‘Town’ is too broad a word, but if you ever drive through Maine at night, you suddenly understand why Stephen King sets all of his novels there. Maine is mostly dense evergreen forests dotted with farmland, even on the coast, and outside of the interstate, most major roads/highways have no streetlights. The darkness is all-consuming. It’s a tangible, oppressive feeling that is just so unsettling. If you’re lucky, you’ll have the moon. If not, it’s just you, the trees, an endless highway with maybe a house every 10 miles and another car every 20, and the beams of your headlights.”
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Is there a creepy US town you’d add to the list? Tell us about it in the comment or via the totally anonymous form below, and who knows, maybe there’ll be a part two!
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