Author Betsy Gaines Quammen believes in ghosts. In college, she and her roommates shared their rented house in Colorado Springs with one. Florence, as the spirit is named in Gaines Quammen’s new book, This Haunted Land: Reckoning with Ghosts and the Stories That Shape America (Torrey House Press; September 2026), really spooked the college housemates at first. But as time went on, Gaines Quammen learned more about Florence’s tragic history, and she began to talk to the spirit as she might a friend. By the time Gaines Quammen moved out of the haunted house, she was at peace with Florence, and the feeling was mutual.
The chapter reflects a theme that appears again and again in Gaines Quammen’s new book: Ghost stories are our way of dealing with unsettled history. And to find peace with our troubled pasts, we must learn about them first. Each chapter explores different legends and hauntings, whether it be a ghost bird in the woods of Arkansas, spirits of travelers of the Underground Railroad route at a bed and breakfast in Cincinnati, Ohio, or a haunted theater in the idyllic mountain town of Telluride, Colorado.
“This is just not some ghost story book; I’m really trying to look at ghosts and what they tell us about American history,” said Gaines Quammen. “And I’m a historian, so I can’t help myself.”
Outside called up Gaines Quammen to learn more about ghosts, her new book, and the haunting of America.
OUTSIDE: This Haunted Land is made up of a lot more than ghost stories; it’s about an often dark and unresolved history in America. Were you already aware that it would be a richer book when you went into it, or did you initially set out to simply tell ghost stories from across the country?
Betsy Gaines Quammen: My first two books [American Zion and True West] were about extremism, so I really did think doing a ghost book would be a fun next project. I love ghost stories. I just think they’re wonderful to hear, and I wanted a more light-hearted project. But I began to see that ghost stories, the ones I was collecting, were reflective of an unsettled country. Some of the issues that I’d worked on when I was looking at extremism were the same things that I was coming across studying ghost stories. These chapters are still very much unresolved, unreconciled, and they do create a culture that is untethered from the past. I’m not sure I had put that together before I started the book, but it became very clear as I was writing.
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