Point Lookout State Park

Prior to the Civil War, Point Lookout was a peaceful resort featuring a hotel, cottages, and a lighthouse built in 1830. In 1862, the Union government leased the peninsula to build Hammond General Hospital, a state-of-the-art medical facility designed with pavilion wards branching like spokes from a central wheel. Following the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, Union authorities established Camp Hoffman adjacent to the hospital to house the sudden influx of captured Confederate soldiers.

Designed to hold ten thousand prisoners, Camp Hoffman rapidly became severely overcrowded, housing over twenty thousand men simultaneously at its peak. Inmates endured extreme weather without adequate clothing or permanent shelter, living in canvas tents on low-lying sandy ground subject to flooding and freezing marsh winds. Contaminated water wells and poor sanitation sparked deadly outbreaks of dysentery, typhoid, smallpox, and scurvy. By the time the camp was decommissioned in June 1865, over fifty-two thousand men had passed through its gates, and more than four thousand Confederate soldiers had died.

Following the war, the military structures were dismantled, and much of the original prison land eroded beneath the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. In 1964, Maryland established Point Lookout State Park, preserving over one thousand acres including the historic 1830 Point Lookout Lighthouse, earthwork fortifications, and a memorial cemetery containing a mass grave where thousands of Confederate dead were reinterred.

Point Lookout is steeped in haunting ghost lore born from the immense suffering of thousands of Civil War captives. The most famous ghost stories revolve around the historic Point Lookout Lighthouse, built in 1830. Keepers and paranormal investigators have reported encountering the ghost of Ann Davis, the lighthouse keeper's wife who died in 1847, as well as several spectral keepers. Mysterious footprints leading through locked rooms, disembodied voices on tape recordings, and the sudden smell of rotting marsh water or tobacco pipe smoke are frequently cited.

Another enduring legend tells of a spectral Confederate soldier who wanders the sandy shoreline near the site of the former prison pens. Visitors and campers report seeing a tall, emaciated figure dressed in tattered grey garments walking slowly along the beach at dusk. According to local folklore, the spirit approaches unsuspecting park guests and asks for help finding his lost boots or direction back to Virginia before fading into the bay mist.

Along the causeway road leading into the park, drivers have reported encounters with the 'Ghostly Hitchhiker'—a young man in Civil War attire standing on the shoulder of Route 5. Those who stop to offer him a ride report that he enters the vehicle silently, only to vanish from the back seat as the car crosses over the bridge into the park grounds.

Point Lookout State Park is considered an exceptionally active site for electronic voice phenomena (EVP) and visual apparitions. Professional paranormal investigations led by researchers like Dr. Hans Holzer and various research organizations have recorded hundreds of audio clips containing disembodied voices speaking phrases such as 'fire,' 'get out,' and 'water.'

Inside the Point Lookout Lighthouse, staff and visitors have reported hearing footsteps walking up the spiral staircase, doors opening and closing unassisted, and sudden dramatic temperature drops. Photos taken outside the lighthouse frequently capture translucent figures standing in upper windows or leaning against doorframes in military coats. Park rangers patrolling the grounds at night have witnessed spectral campfires glowing on uninhabited stretches of beach where the prison tents once stood.

At reconstructed Fort Lincoln, visitors report hearing phantom rifle fire, drums, and military commands echoing across the earthen ramparts on quiet evenings. Campers in the park's wooded campsites frequently report feeling an overwhelming sense of dread, hearing disembodied weeping, and witnessing shadowy figures standing between trees after midnight.

Point Lookout State Park covers 1,083 acres across a narrow peninsula bounded by the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. Topographically, the land is flat and low-lying, characterized by sandy beaches, tidal marshes, pine forests, and coastal dunes.

Architectural features include the 1830 Point Lookout Lighthouse, a two-story brick keeper's dwelling with an integral light tower topped by a lantern room. The park also includes reconstructed earthwork fortifications at Fort Lincoln, a reconstructed section of the Civil War prison pen wall, and a museum complex. The Point Lookout Confederate Cemetery features an eighty-five-foot granite obelisk monument erected by the federal government to honor the 3,384 Confederate prisoners buried in a mass grave on-site.

Point Lookout State Park is located at 11175 Point Lookout Road (Maryland Route 5) in Scotland, Maryland, at the southern tip of St. Mary's County. The park grounds are open daily from 6:00 AM until sunset year-round. Day-use entry fees apply per vehicle, with increased rates during summer weekends and holidays.

The park offers extensive recreational amenities, including 143 wooded campsites, a 710-foot fishing pier, a boat launch, swimming beaches, picnic areas, and nature trails. The Civil War Museum and Marshland Nature Center operate seasonally. The historic Point Lookout Lighthouse is preserved by the Point Lookout Lighthouse Preservation Society and opens for public tours on select days.

Point Lookout's intense and enduring haunted reputation stems directly from the horrific historical reality of Camp Hoffman, where over four thousand Confederate prisoners perishing under appalling conditions of starvation, disease, and exposure. Decades of rigorous documented investigations, compelling electronic voice recordings, and consistent visitor sightings of spectral soldiers along the shoreline and phantom caretakers inside the 1830 lighthouse have firmly established Point Lookout as one of the most famously active paranormal locations in the Mid-Atlantic region.