California Ranked Third-Creepiest State In America
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - A new study done by moveBuddha.com has ranked both the spookiest and creepiest states in America.
With Halloween creeping nearer by the day, it's easy to forget that spooky season goes well past October, and is a year-round affair for many parts of America.
Contrary to the popular belief that the East Coast is the most haunted region in America, states from all over the nation found themselves in the upper echelon of the rankings.
States were ranked on a series of factors, in three different categories - Spook Score, Creep Score and Boo Score.
Factors taken into account for each category included:
Spook Score
- Number of haunted places by population
- Founding date of oldest town or city
- Number of cemeteries by population
- Age of oldest cemetery
Creep Score
- Number of unsolved murders by population
- Number of abandoned buildings
Boo Score
- Number of Ghost Towns by population
- Number of reported ghost sightings by population
Good news or bad news - take it as you may - but California was ranked just the No. 28 Spookiest state in the United States, with a score of 7.20 out of 10.
Despite finishing in the lower-half of the nation as far as being haunted goes, they still have 1,070 reported haunted places, the most in the U.S. (the next closest is Texas with 696). Thanks to the massive density of California (39,538,223 people), that number is less impressive than say Kentucky, that has 370 haunted places to 4.5 million people.
They do reference a place of Los Angeles legend, The Cecil Hotel, known for the alarmingly high rate of deaths at the hotel, accompanied by some infamous visitors like Richard Ramirez.
California is also known for other spooky spots like The Whaley House Museum in San Diego, which is consistently rated as the most haunted house in America, and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles.
California has the 34th highest amount of cemeteries, a very underwhelming number compared to the top states - Kentucky: 43,184; North Carolina: 35,681; Virginia: 31,643.
However, even with their low Spook Score, The Golden State was ranked the No. 3 Creepiest State. This can easily be attributed to the number of unsolved murders in the state: 48,830. This was by far the most in the nation, with Illinois (31,376) and New York (30,316) rounding out the top three. California is the only state that has eclipsed 100,000 homicides, with 128,782. These numbers were drawn from 1980 to 2019.
Along with the insane rate of unsolved murders, is the amount of high amount of abandoned buildings in the state, with 53. This is the second-most, falling behind only New York (74). Again the population density ratio isn't as impressive as that of smaller states, giving California a lower score.
One particular abandoned location the study spotlights is the Lake Dolores Waterpark, also known as Rock-A-Hoola Waterpark, in Newberry Springs.
The park opened in the 1960s, but was closed by 1990 due to low attendance numbers. In an attempt to revive the waterpark, renovations began in 1998. Modeled after the 1950s, the park reopened as Rock-A-Hoola, but was again closed less than 20 years later in 2004.
Since then, the waterpark has sat baking in the California desert sun, subject to weather, graffiti artists and visitors, a desolate reminder of despite the "No Trespassing" signs.
California was one of the lowest ranking states on the "Boo Score" list, despite the 6,925 reported ghost sightings. This was second-most behind Texas (7,341) and far above the next closest in Ohio (2,891).
They also reported that California has the fifth-most ghost towns with 221, but the high population density again sends the overall score plummeting.
New Mexico came in as the No.1 Most Haunted State, thanks in part to the fact that the area has supposedly been inhabited since 9200 BCE. In that time there have been Native American massacres, the Wild West and many other incidences of the darker side of human nature - Not to mention the Roswell UFO Crash.
New York and Illinois came ahead of California as the top two Creepiest states.
If you would like to see the rest of the study, the full report can be found here.
