Overview
A dozen miles outside of Portland, tucked away in the southeastern corner of Maine, is the Smith Anderson Cemetery. This sleepy and tucked away area from the hamlet of Windham is home to what many believe to be the single most haunted graveyard in all of Maine. If famous resident author Stephen King was ever looking for inspiration on a new novel, then Smith Anderson will definitely bring the chills.
Is the Smith Anderson Cemetery Haunted?
The cemetery dates all the way back to the mid-1700s, which is the date of the oldest grave residing there. Two-year-old Elijah Wight, son of a minister, has a tombstone dating to 1744. While the historical date lines up with Elijah’s grave, the name of the cemetery comes from two different families. Reverend Peter Thatcher Smith and his family’s tombs make up a portion of this cemetery. The other comes from a former mayor of Portland, John Anderson, with his family holding a sizable crypt on the property as well. A crypt that some visitors have reported a mysterious banging noise emanating from. This surprisingly isolated cemetery at the end of a long dirt road has over 528 known graves, with possibly more covered by vegetation. Was it mentioned that the spirits here have a penchant for automobiles?
As old as the cemetery is, the number one most reported experience here has to do with visitors’ automobiles. People visiting the Smith Anderson Cemetery have walked around for only minutes only to return and find there cars suspiciously moved anywhere from five to ten feet. Parking is level, yet there is no reason why so many people report their cars mysteriously lurching forward. Other times, people come back and find all four of their car doors wide open. Nothing is stolen, no signs of breaking and entering; just doors wide open. To date, there is no plausible explanation for the cars being moved but one theory is that they are parked on top of unmarked and deeply buried graves and the spirits want them moved. Cars also have been known to stall out and not start with no known mechanical problems, but then suddenly fire up.
Spirit-wise, noises and supernatural specters are what other visitors encounter the most. People report noises that resemble battle war cries along with chilling, siren-like noises. A shadow figure has been reported to walk amongst the tombstone rows late at night. One of the most terrifying reports is that a small percentage of people have had something follow them home from the cemetery. Some have reported that spirits have followed them home and wreaked poltergeist havoc in the form of loud banging noises, items moving, and the unsettling feeling of being watched.
The Smith Anderson Cemetery is still totally accessible to visitors near the Windham area of Maine. As harmless as the spirits are in moving a car or opening a door, there is a paranormal contingent that may not be as genial. If and when visiting this cemetery, a quiet and respectful decorum is essential.
You can play Russian Roulette with this place if you want,If one of these spirits decides it wants to follow you home and send your life into turmoil,it will.Use extreme caution here,it’s no joke……Spoken by a non believer……until now
My daughter and I went to this cemetery yesterday after she had done a town historical tour with her school last year. She told me that the tour guide said if you knock on the Anderson crypt door they might knock back. I have never been a big believer in this stuff, so I knocked. I immediately got one, very light, quiet knock back. Both of us heard it and it scared the daylights out of us. We ran to our vehicle and left. If she hadn’t heard it also I would have played it off as just hearing things but we both heard the same thing at the same time. I have never had anything like this happen to me before.
This isn’t recent. It happened around 2006. When I was in elementary school, my friends and I decided to go ghost hunting there. At the time, I took everything my friends said with a grain of salt. They talked about people watching us or feeling something touch them. Everything changed when we went into the crypt. We sat down inside and turned on our devices. We had cameras and voice recorders, hoping to capture something paranormal.
After a few minutes, some of the cameras died, and a few of the recorders shut off at the same time. That alone felt strange. We left the crypt and looked back at it. As soon as we stepped outside, some of the cameras suddenly turned back on, including mine. I took a picture of the crypt.
In the photo, I saw the profile, almost like a silhouette of a face that looked like it was screaming. It was golden-white with spiky hair and an open mouth. The shape of the face is something I will never forget. Unfortunately, I can’t provide the image. After a long and messy divorce, my father ended up with that side of the family’s belongings, including the camera. But that is what I saw in the images I captured.
Some of my friends claimed they felt something touch them, and others said they saw someone out of the corner of their eye. I try not to focus on those parts because they were not things I personally experienced. After a while of exploring with my friends and their older siblings, we decided it was time to leave.
We all piled into my friend’s mom’s car to head home. I grabbed an oatmeal cream pie from the pocket on the back of the front seat and started eating it. As soon as we crossed the threshold of the cemetery, (leaving the tree line so there was field around us) the car suddenly died. My friend’s mom started to panic as the car slowed to a stop and the car completely died.. Then, all of a sudden, the locks started going up and down over and over again. My friend’s mom was freaking out and beginning to cry. Everyone eventually got out of the car and stood there watching the locks continue to move by themselves. Eventually they stopped. My friend’s mom called a police officer she knew, who came out and helped jump the car.
We sat there in the field until the car was running again and we could finally leave. I still don’t know what happened that night, but those are the facts of our trip. Part of me wishes I had seen more.