About a year ago, I wrote about Dumas Beach, a beach in India that’s rumored to be haunted. That video was supposed to be a list video, but there was so much on Dumas Beach I decided to just make it its own thing. With summer on the horizon again, I thought I’d revisit the topic of haunted beaches, just in case you want some spooks and spirits to go with your sunblock and umbrellas. Let’s talk about 5 creepy haunted beaches across the world.
1. Higbee Beach
Ah, New Jersey. It gets a bad reputation, but the Garden State has brought us some pretty cool people, like Frank Sinatra, George R. R. Martin and the Jonas Brothers. But a beach on the state’s southernmost tip is home to some darker things.
Higbee Beach in Cape May, New Jersey, was once home to a hotel called The Hermitage. When owner Thomas Higbee died in 1879, he wanted to be buried on the beach. And he got his wish — temporarily.
In 1937, either Higbee’s wife or his niece died — different sources said different things. But whatever their relationship, she decided before her death that she wanted Higbee buried with her instead. So his grave was moved to a church in the city — though it was supposedly ordered to be filled with sand from the beach.
But Higbee may not have wanted to be moved from the beach he worked on in life. Witnesses have spotted a ghostly man wandering the beach at dusk, either wearing a coat or a tattered pants and shirt, depending on the version. Sometimes he has a black dog with him and he’s also reportedly been spotted chasing a ghost slave. Other ghosts include early settlers to the area and tribespeople.
2. Omaha Beach
Our next topic concerns something a bit more serious, as Omaha Beach is the site of a real, documented event. This 10 mile stretch of beach in Normandy, France was the site of the famous D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. Estimates for the number of Allied forces killed are as low as 4,000 and as high as 12,000. For the Germans, it’s between 4,000 and 9,000.
In modern times, one visitor who claimed to go there at night said they felt like someone was watching them. A week later, they talked to other group members who’d gone with them, only to realize they’d all felt the same way and nobody had spoken up. Several other visitors who went on different occasions have reported a similar feeling, presumably when there was nobody else in the area — other than the people they came with.
A Reddit user who visited the area on his honeymoon said he took a photograph in pitch black with the flash on. When his new wife looked at the photograph later, she thought she saw a face in the darkness. Take a look at the photo for yourself and decide what you believe:
3. Baker Beach
This mile long beach in San Francisco offers a view of one of the city’s famous locations, the Golden Gate Bridge. But it’s also just a few miles away from another famous location, Alcatraz — and both these landmarks are rumored to be haunted themselves. Perhaps being so close to so much paranormal activity has given Baker Beach some ghostly visitors of its own.
As the story goes, a ghost woman loves to sing by the shore. But don’t be fooled into thinking you’re just getting a free concert when you see her. Her voice is so hypnotizing, she’s said to put visitors under a spell and drag them into the ocean — similar to the sirens of Greek mythology. I haven’t seen any theories on who this woman is or why she haunts Baker Beach. Maybe she actually died on the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz or another nearby location. Then again, if that was the case, why wouldn’t she just haunt those places? Maybe she loved beaches in life and wants to spend her afterlife there as well.
There are also reportedly a lot of disappearances here. A quick Google search comes up with plenty of results for people who went missing in the Bay area in general, but it’s not clear if they’re related to the alleged hauntings of Baker Beach.
4. Coquina Beach
On the southern end of Anna Maria Island in Bradenton Beach, Florida, just over 50 miles south of Tampa, lies Coquina Beach. There used to be a hotel on the island that reportedly catered to tourists, but closed when it faced too much competition from other, similar hotels in the area. But the area where the hotel used to be might have a ghostly visitor.
Witnesses have reported seeing a man here, wearing all black and walking around the picnic tables that now occupy the area. Now I know what some of you are probably thinking: How on earth is this a ghost story? Isn’t this just some creeper? And shouldn’t someone call the police?
I thought the same things too when I first heard this story. But then I thought about it. This man has presumably been showing up for awhile now, and surely someone did call the police on him at some point. But what did the police find? If they did manage to talk to the man and tell him to leave, wouldn’t that be part of the story? No, if this was just your run of the mill weirdo, surely he would have been discovered as such by now.
Other paranormal reports include disembodied voices near the water and shadowy figures on the beach. There’s also the ghost of an old man who seems disoriented and disappears if you try to approach him.
5. Jenny Dixon Beach
I’ve made at least one video in the past discussing the famous vanishing hitchhiker legend. The story is usually the same: A young, beautiful woman hitches a ride late at night, only to disappear in the car on the way to their destination. In my research on that video, I somehow missed the legend of Jenny Dixon.
This ghost woman reportedly haunts an area near the beach, on Wilfred Barrett Drive in New South Wales, Australia. Like the others, she doesn’t talk much on the ride and disappears before you can drop her off anywhere. Another version says she disappears when the driver passes nearby Noraville Cemetery.
Local legends tell the story of Jenny Dixon’s alleged but brutal end: She was killed by five men she hitched a ride with in the 1950’s or 1970’s. Frankly, the lack of an accurate year or even decade says to me it’s probably not true, but let’s keep going.
Jenny was found on the beach shortly after being attacked — she was still alive, but died soon after. Before dying, she vowed to get her revenge. Her attackers were never caught, but over the next year, they all died under unusual circumstances. Before dying, at least one of the men told family members he’d been seeing a mysterious girl.
Some versions of the story say the beach was named after Jenny Dixon. Others say it was named after a ship called the Janet Dickson that wrecked along the shore. There were no deaths in this particular accident, but many other shipwreck victims in the area weren’t so lucky. Do their restless souls still occupy the beach?
One reported haunting along the beach is that of a ghost woman who wears 1800’s-style clothing and approaches visitors with outstretched arms. Some say she looks like she’s asking for help; others say she looks like she’s beckoning you to join her. It’s been theorized that either this woman or her son died in one of the many shipwrecks along the beach. But it doesn’t look like anyone will get a chance to ask her; it’s clear by her physical form that she’s a ghost, so most visitors are too scared to even try to approach her.
So those are all the haunted beaches I have for you today. Let me know in the comments if you’ve ever been to one of these beaches, or to any other beach where you believe you’ve experienced paranormal activity.
I am staying in San Francisco this month (August 2021} One of the things I've enjoyed doing is taking the bus to the Golden Gate Bridge Toll Plaza and going to Baker and Marshall's Beach. Tuesday or Wednesday of this past week was cloudy and windy, but I decided to go to the beach. I had my lunch and sat reading my book for a couple of hours. It was windy and overcast and it was a higher tide so there wasn't a lot of sand between the water and the rocks. At low tide the week before it was possible to walk along the beach to Fort Point, which is directly below the bridge, although it's fenced o…