The Most Mysterious Place in Every State: the Southwest

This list is part of a package on the most mysterious places in every state. See the full list.

The American Southwest is a land of extremes, with vast deserts, jagged mountains, and remote plains where it’s hard for humans to thrive. That mix of open spaces and isolation is fertile ground for plenty of legends to thrive.

Many Indigenous groups have lived throughout the Southwest for thousands of years, and their stories, rooted in spiritual and cultural lessons, add meaning and weight to the region’s unusual geographical features. When European explorers and later settlers arrived in the Southwest, parts of those stories were passed along, creating plenty of mysterious places with hybrid cultural myths and experiences. The intense desert climate, with blinding heat, cold nights, sudden storms, and skies so dark you can see every star, only amplifies the sense of mystery.

From Texas bayous to Arizona spires, the Southwest is one of the most mysterious parts of the United States.

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Arizona | Oklahoma | New Mexico | Texas

Texas: Caddo Lake

• Location: 245 Park Rd 2, Karnack, TX 75661
• How to visit: Most people visit through Caddo State Park, though there are various airboat tours, kayak rentals, and businesses around the shore

The tiny town of Marfa usually gets listed as Texas’s most mysterious place, but real experts know that Caddo Lake, a 25,000-acre flooded bayou, holds even more mysteries. The lake has a tragic history, including a steamboat fire in 1896 that claimed 64 lives. Combine that with the lawlessness of the early 1900s, when the area around Old Monterey was rife with outlaw activity, and it’s no wonder there are tales of everything from ghost boats to phantom sounds on the foggy lake. And that’s not even mentioning the mysteries around the lake with more scientific roots. It’s inspired a relatively recent (and not too shabby) film.

Folklore or not, the lake is objectively spooky at dawn and dusk, with black water, heavy mist, and barren cypress trees draped in long, gray-green curtains of Spanish moss. Toss in the native alligators, plus the labyrinth-like channels of canals and sloughs, and even a simple boat ride can easily make you feel like you’re in another world.

Oklahoma: Shaman’s Portal

• Location: US-270, Beaver, OK 73932
• How to visit: Beaver Dunes State Park is free to visit, with campsites open year-round

Shaman’s Portal at Beaver Dunes State Park is often called “Oklahoma’s Bermuda Triangle.” It’s a 300-acre expanse of shifting sand where legends mingle with unexplained science and strange coincidences. While the Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City may be the state’s most famous haunted spot, Beaver Dunes draws those fascinated by mysterious vanishings and unexplained flashes in the otherwise dark night.

Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado wrote in his 1540s journals about losing three men who reportedly vanished in the dunes. Supposedly, this was after ignoring warnings from various Wichita and Pawnee Indigenous guides, who saw the area as a sacred place filled with dangerous powers and accessible only to trained shaman. Since then, the park’s dunes have spawned tales of additional mysterious disappearances, odd magnetic readings, strange flashes of light, and sightings of “Men in Black” and military operations. There are frequent tales of UFOs, and rumors of a portal to another dimension. It’s said that archaeologists — including Mark Thatcher, of Oklahoma State University — have conducted research here, only to be run off by government officials.

The rumors about the remote, arid dunes are always swirling. But even if you don’t believe there’s a supernatural connection, there’s one creepy thing about the dunes that is very much fact: the rapidly shifting sand can quickly swallow evidence and remains, making it difficult to find or track anything lost (or purposefully hidden) in the landscape.

Arizona: Weaver’s Needle in Superstition Wilderness

• Location: Superstition Mountains (near Apache Junction)
• How to visit: There are a few possible hiking routes to the base of Weaver’s Needle, ranging from eight-mile scrambles to more established 12-mile hikes. Most start at the Peralta Trailhead in Tonto National Forest.

Weavers Needle, a 1,000-foot-high volcanic spire towering in the center of Superstition Wilderness, is tied to Arizona’s most enduring legend: the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine. According to local stories, the Needle’s shadow points to the lost but still rich mine, luring treasure hunters and inspiring tales of sudden disappearances, strange accidents, and people getting lost or dying in the surrounding wilderness canyons.

Hikers and paranormal enthusiasts have reported odd echoes, unexplained chills and voices, and shadowy figures in the area. Though no formal scientific study confirms supernatural activity, the area’s confusing geology, dangerous terrain, and extreme heat may explain many of the missing persons cases and mysterious happenings.

New Mexico: Dawson Cemetery

• Location: Dawson, New Mexico
• How to visit: What remains of the town is on private property, but the cemetery is open to the public

In 1906, the Phelps Dodge Company bought the five-year-old Dawson coal mine and further developed the town of Dawson. The town thrived for about seven years until a mine explosion killed 261 miners and two rescuers in 1913. Another 123 died in an explosion in 1923. The cemetery for the town of about 9,000 expanded for the bodies, and Phelps Dodge marked the graves with white iron crosses. The company didn’t shut the mine down until 1950, and it took the town with it — literally. Buildings were torn down or relocated, though the cemetery stayed where it was.

Reports from visitors to the cemetery in this ghost town include phantom helmet lights weaving between headstones, ghostly figures in period clothing, and the faint echo of shovels or picks striking rock. The Dawson cemetery really puts the “ghost” in ghost town.