Visiting Sacred Heart Cemetery late at night was practically a rite of passage for many Seminole County youth, especially for those who were coming of age in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

The cemetery, located on the outskirts of Konawa, has been the subject of urban legends and local folklore for decades. Now the legend is even larger, as a recent poll says it’s the scariest graveyard in Oklahoma.

Ahead of Halloween, Choice Mutual (choicemutual. com), a life insurance agency that specializes in final expense insurance, surveyed 3,004 Americans asking a simple question: Which graveyard would you be least prepared to visit alone at night?

Sacred Heart claimed the top spot on the list.

Once the site of a 19th-century Catholic mission destroyed by fire, this small cemetery is said to glow faintly on clear nights. Locals report chanting in the woods and the sound of church bells that haven’t rung in over a century. Few stay long enough to verify it.

A recent social media post by former Seminole resident Michael Dollar sparked the memories of many who dared to visit the spooky spot in their youth.

“Having been out there at night with teenage friends, we saw unexplained floating lights. Of course, we were scared. Sounds like sad things happened there,” Paula Briggs posted.

“Many Sunday nights after church, that was our destination—or the round house barn. One night a security guard at Konawa came out and asked us to leave. He said he used to scare kids, but that made them come back even more,” Carolyn Green recalled.

“Been there many times. I’ve seen some pretty scary stuff out there,” Lori Hansen posted.

Seminole High School graduate Mark Cunningham said he remembered going there as a teen to “look for a tombstone.”

Here’s the rest of the survey results on the scariest cemeteries in Oklahoma: Rose Hill Burial Park, Oklahoma City Perfect rows, trimmed lawns, nothing out of place — and that’s what makes it worse. The open fields stretch forever, and the lights from the city barely reach the gate. On windless nights, you can hear gravel shifting somewhere far off, like someone pacing with all the time in the world.

#3. Fort Reno Cemetery, El Reno Part of a 19th-century military fort, the cemetery holds soldiers, Native scouts, and prisoners of war. Visitors have captured cold mists and orbs near the headstones, but it’s the low hum of voices in the prairie wind that makes people turn back toward the gate.

The top 10 scariest graveyards in the country were: #1. Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, New York The scariest graveyard in America? Yes, that Sleepy Hollow – Washington Irving is buried here, and some claim his Headless Horseman still rides through on misty nights. Lantern light glints off the Hudson, hooves echo on the bridge, and every rustle in the trees feels a little too deliberate. The line between fiction and folklore is never quite settled.

#2. Gettysburg National Cemetery, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Beautiful, solemn, and saturated with ghosts, Gettysburg’s cemetery stands on ground that still feels alive with movement. Visitors have heard distant cannon fire, smelled gunpowder, and seen men in blue pacing through the fog. The line between battlefield and burial ground never really hardened here – it just blurred.

#3. Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Los Angeles, California By day, it’s a celebrity landmark, but by night, the glamour fades into something stranger. Groundskeepers tell of voices drifting from the mausoleums and a phantom woman seen pacing near the lake. Even in death, old Hollywood knows how to keep an audience – and some say these spirits still crave the spotlight.

#4. Pine Hill Cemetery (“Blood Cemetery”), Hollis, New Hampshire Probably New Hampshire’s most notorious haunt, Pine Hill is nicknamed “Blood Cemetery” for Abel Blood, whose name and eerie gravestone carving supposedly glow red under the moon. Visitors swear the angel’s hand points up by day and down by night. Even the bravest ghost-hunters tend to leave before midnight.

#5. Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone, Arizona It’s tourist-friendly by day, but after dark, Boothill’s bravado gives way to something colder. The wind hums through tilted wooden crosses, and some swear they’ve heard bootsteps crunching the gravel long after the gates close. Buried here are outlaws, gunfighters, and innocents caught in between – all reminders that Tombstone’s Wild West never really went quiet.

#6. Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum Cemetery, Weston, West Virginia Behind the vast stone asylum lies a quiet memorial field where former patients were buried without names – only numbers once marked the ground. The markers are gone now, but visitors still speak of faint singing and a trace of antiseptic in the still air. It isn’t the asylum’s echoing halls that feel most haunted – it’s the hush that lingers just beyond them.

#7. St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans, Louisiana Crumbling walls, candlelight flickers, and crypts stacked like chess pieces in the humidity – it’s the most famous haunted cemetery in America for a reason. Visitors whisper about the spirit of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, whose tomb is marked by mysterious Xs. Entry is only by guided tour, including a few that brave the night.

#8. Old City Cemetery (Historic City Cemetery), Sacramento, California One of the oldest municipal cemeteries in the South, Old City mixes beauty and unease. Guests say voices drift from the Pest House Museum after midnight, and lamps turn on by themselves. It’s part graveyard, part museum – and both parts seem to breathe.

#9. Salem Cemetery, Winston-Salem, North Carolina Set behind the Moravian church buildings, Old Salem Cemetery is hauntingly orderly – identical flat stones, no grand markers. According to legend, residents often say a woman in gray glides silently through the rows at night, stopping where her child once rested. It’s peaceful in daylight, but at dusk the stillness hums.

#10. Old Hill Burying Ground, Concord, Massachusetts A small coastal cemetery overlooking the Cape Fear River, it’s lined with seashells and stories. Mariners have seen lanterns swaying among the graves on foggy nights – lights that vanish the moment anyone calls out. The tide seems to breathe with the place.

Infographic showing the 150 scariest graveyards in the country “You don’t need to believe in ghosts to feel something in these places,” says Anthony Martin, founder of Choice Mutual. “Cemeteries are where stories outlive the people who told them – and that’s what really makes them haunting. The fear is just the surface; underneath it is memory.”

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