Ohio River Ghost Stories

Posted: 04.11.2025 | Updated: 04.11.2025

While many in Cincinnati may be drawn to the waters of the Ohio River for their spring break, few understand the importance of the expanse in which they frolic. This immense tributary supplies over five million with drinking water, providing countless people with this life-giving resource. Yet, it has become a place of death and decay for others. 

The Ohio River spans a wide breadth, lapping many states with its watery reaches. As it coils between states, it has touched many lives, some for the last time. Many haunted places exist along the Ohio River, lending an aura of mystery and darkness to this haunted American river. 

Read on to encounter some of the weirdest tales involving this snaking river. Are you thirsting to hear some of the Buckeye State’s spookiest ghost stories in person? Book a spine-tingling Cincinnati ghost tour with Cincinnati Ghosts.

What Haunted Places Are On The Ohio River? 

The Ohio River covers a vast distance of 981 miles, bordering or passing through six states. Its massive expanse begins in Pittsburgh, where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers converge. From there, it flows for nearly 1000 miles, ending in Cairo, Illinois, where it joins the Mississippi River. 

Along its meandering path, it passes through many cities, carrying a strange and turbulent history within its waters. Murders, spooky vessels, and odd happenings haunt its serpentine route, from sightings of Mothman in Point Pleasant to ghost ships. 

An Ohio River Ghost Ship

A strange and desolate site exists in a muddy creek near Cincinnati. Marooned in the murky waters of Boone County, Kentucky, an abandoned ghost ship rusts under nature’s relentless gaze.

This Ohio River ghost ship, commonly known as the Sachem, has seen its share of history over its 120-year existence — surviving two world wars and countless voyages. But, how did this vast vessel end up in a creek 25 miles north of Cincinnati, left to corrode away to time? All in all, the story is as winding as the Ohio River itself.

Built in 1902, the 175-foot-long steam-powered ship was intended for use as a grand yacht, originally launched by a railroad tycoon as the Celt. Yet a life of luxury was not in the cards for this enduring vessel. 

Amid WWI, the US Navy repurposed the ship, rechristening it the USS Sachem. Furnished with new equipment, the repurposed luxury vessel was tasked with sinking German U-boats and counteracting torpedoes. When World War II approached, the craft returned to warfare, retitled as the USS Phenakite. 

After the war’s end, the ship fell under the ownership of Circle Line Sightseeing Tours and spent the next few decades carrying passengers around New York City. In the 1970s, it was removed from the fleet and left abandoned. 

A Cincinnati man named Robert “Butch” Miller later bought the massive boat in 1985, repairing it and navigating it to a small waterway off the Ohio River. It has lain here ever since, decaying in what seems to be its final resting place.

What ghosts might lurk behind its jagged metal and decrepit floors may never be known, as the ship remains too perilous to enter in its dilapidated state. Instead, it has become just another ghost ship of the Ohio River.

The Silver Bridge Collapse in Point Pleasant

In 1967, a great calamity wreaked havoc on the small river town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. It was during the afternoon rush hour of mid-December that the Silver Bridge collapsed into the Ohio River, plunging 64 people into its icy depths below.

Only 18 would make it out of the water alive, leaving a death toll of 46, two of whom were never found. Most terrifying of all were the sightings that plagued the town of Point Pleasant before the tragic event. 

Accounts of a red-eyed, winged entity plagued the city for a year before — strangely diminishing after that fateful December day. Did the elusive Mothman move on to another town along the Ohio River to foretell another tragedy? Only time will tell.

Murder on The Ohio River

A brutal event scarred the winding waterways near Lawrenceburg, Ohio, on a summer evening in late August. The odd tale began with a Cincinnati wedding in which 17-year-old Eva Dickinson married 19-year-old John Keys in the bride’s family home. 

Down the Ohio River, they descended on their honeymoon, drifting leisurely towards St. Louis atop a shanty boat with two other men: Bert Rusk and Billy Fee. However, only three would return that fateful August night in Lawrenceburg. Several witnesses watched the foursome depart the shanty boat, boarding a skiff to fish on the Kentucky side of the river. 

Screams and gunshots followed, and only three members made the return trip to shore. Days passed, and soon, a naked body was drawn from the waters. Gunshot wounds disfigured the man’s chest and head, and a large slash traced his neck. 

The body was later determined to be Billy Fee, seemingly slain by his companions. The surviving trio were soon arrested, yet no retribution ever came. The men blamed one another for the crime, and Eva’s story shifted repeatedly as to who was responsible. 

It appears Billy Fee continues to lurk in the waters near Lawrenceburg, spiteful at the lack of justice for his murder. Ghostly reenactments of the crime have been said to reoccur nightly, with shrieks, gunshots, and groans punctuating the evening air. 

The semblance of Billy Fee also appeared on a rock, where a spectral duplicate of his face seemed etched in the stone. According to stories, it can be found on the Kentucky side of the river at the cursed site where Billy Fee met his end. 

The Ghost-Riddled Majestic

The century-old Sachem isn’t the only phantom vessel to haunt the waters of the Ohio River. Anchored along the edges of the waterway in Huntington, West Virginia, an aged barge sits littered with ghosts. Reported to be so haunted as to earn the title “the ship of death,” this vessel harbors numerous spirits stuck within its creaking walls.

Of all the haunted places along the Ohio River, this former hospital is one of the eeriest. The peculiar vessel, now known as the Haunted Majestic, once served as a hospital barge during World War II. Over 300 men are said to have died while on board the ship. Some of its doctors saw more men dying in a single day than they had in their entire careers. 

The two-story military hospital was assembled from two barges fixed together. The Majestic saw the devastating aftermath of the Battle of Normandy, with 3,000 injured souls being listed on its patient list.

Faced with an overwhelming flood of patients, tough decisions needed to be made. Doctors and nurses were forced with harrowing decisions, choosing who to save and who to leave to the clutches of death. 

Paranormal investigations on the ship have revealed many restless souls still aboard, many of whom do not realize they are dead. They remain seemingly trapped, unable to journey on or disembark the barge on which they died. 

Each Halloween, the ship opens its doors as a fright-filled attraction, operating as a floating haunted house. Occasionally, tickets to paranormal investigations are sold as well, allowing visitors to witness the ship’s ghostly activity firsthand. 

Haunted Cincinnati

In the Great Flood of 1937, the banks of the Ohio River swelled so dreadfully that hundreds died throughout the tri-state region, and the city of Cincinnati was plunged into darkness as the power went out. One wonders whether their souls continue to be carried within the Ohio River’s many tributaries and waterways, drifting endlessly across the land. Remember, if you are ever on the water and feel a chill drift down your spine, it might be one such lost soul. 

Keep reading our blog to discover more haunting history throughout the Queen City. For more spooky content, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok. 

Are you looking to delve even deeper into this city’s ghostly lore? Book a haunted Cincinnati ghost tour with Cincinnati Ghosts and journey into this city’s darkest corners.

Sources:

• https://ohioriverfdn.org/ohio-river/quick-facts/ 
• https://www.wlwt.com/article/ghost-ship-of-cincinnati-from-edison-to-madonna-the-storied-past-of-marooned-ohio-river-ship/36703825 
• https://www.kentuckyliving.com/lifestyle/uniquely-kentucky/the-ghost-ship 
• https://allthatsinteresting.com/history-uncovered/mothman 
• https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/citywiseblog/cincinnati-curiosities-the-haunted-ohio-river/ 
• https://therealwv.com/2023/10/26/experience-the-paranormal-history-of-the-haunted-majestic/
• https://therealwv.com/2023/10/23/the-haunted-majestic-a-scary-good-time-on-the-ohio-river/
• https://www.wlwt.com/article/cincinnati-under-water-a-look-back-at-the-flood-of-1937/8643507