Send us a text

Before it was known as America’s most haunted hotel, the Crescent was a failed resort, a fraudulent hospital, and the site of untold suffering...

Perched high in the Ozarks, the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, is often called the most haunted hotel in America. But beneath the ghost stories lies a far darker truth: a cancer “hospital” run by a dangerous conman, a series of mysterious deaths, and over a century of shadowy legends.

In this episode, we trace the Crescent’s tangled past—from its opulent 1880s beginnings to the nightmarish Norman Baker years and the paranormal investigations that continue today. Who died here? What lingers? And why do so many people still believe?

Follow State of the Unknown as we uncover the story behind one of the South’s most chilling legends.

📲 Follow on Instagram and Facebook: @stateoftheunknownpodcast

⭐️ Rated 5/5 on Apple & Spotify — thanks for your support!

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast mapping the haunted highways, hidden legends, and supernatural stories tucked into the corners of America’s 50 states.

🎙️ New episodes released every other Wednesday.

🕯️ If you enjoy the show, follow wherever you listen and leave a review—it helps others find these forgotten stories.

Send us a text

The Crescent Hotel in Arkansas is often called America’s most haunted hotel.
In this preview, Robert Barber introduces the chilling legends, dark history, and ghost stories that have surrounded this mysterious mountaintop hotel for over a century.

🎧 Full episode coming soon.
📲 Follow @stateoftheunknownpodcast on Instagram and Facebook for updates and bonus content.

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast mapping the haunted highways, hidden legends, and supernatural stories tucked into the corners of America’s 50 states.

🎙️ New episodes released every other Wednesday.

🕯️ If you enjoy the show, follow wherever you listen and leave a review—it helps others find these forgotten stories.

Send us a text

Dive into the first witch panic in America set in Hartford, setting the stage for dark accusations and executions.

Before Salem, there was Hartford. In 1662, the Hartford Witch Trials ignited fear, accusations, and executions—becoming America’s first witch panic.
This forgotten chapter in colonial history reveals eerie parallels to later events in Salem, and exposes the cultural fears driving 17th-century hysteria.

🎧 Listen as Robert Barber uncovers the chilling origins of America's earliest witch trials.

Background Music Attribution (Creative Commons):

• Dark Cave Background 2.wav by SolarPhasing – https://freesound.org/s/490585/ – License: Attribution 4.0
• Digging 1.wav by Alexbuk – https://freesound.org/s/541904/ – License: Attribution 4.0

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast mapping the haunted highways, hidden legends, and supernatural stories tucked into the corners of America’s 50 states.

🎙️ New episodes released every other Wednesday.

🕯️ If you enjoy the show, follow wherever you listen and leave a review—it helps others find these forgotten stories.

Send us a text

Long before Salem, Hartford, Connecticut was gripped by America’s first witch panic.
In this preview, Robert Barber sets the stage for the 1662 trials that sparked fear, accusations, and executions—revealing a dark and often overlooked chapter of colonial history.

🎧 Full episode drops soon.
📲 Follow @stateoftheunknownpodcast on Instagram and Facebook for updates and extra lore.

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast mapping the haunted highways, hidden legends, and supernatural stories tucked into the corners of America’s 50 states.

🎙️ New episodes released every other Wednesday.

🕯️ If you enjoy the show, follow wherever you listen and leave a review—it helps others find these forgotten stories.

Send us a text

In 1955, a small farmhouse in Kentucky became the site of one of America’s most bizarre UFO encounters.
The Sutton family claimed they were terrorized by small, metallic-skinned creatures—what we now call the Hopkinsville Goblins.

In this episode, host Robert Barber investigates the timeline of the incident, the military response, and the long legacy of this rural legend.

👽 Alien visitors? Mass hysteria? Or something stranger still?

🎧 Listen now—and if you enjoy deep dives into paranormal folklore, follow State of the Unknown and leave a review. It helps more than you know.

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast mapping the haunted highways, hidden legends, and supernatural stories tucked into the corners of America’s 50 states.

🎙️ New episodes released every other Wednesday.

🕯️ If you enjoy the show, follow wherever you listen and leave a review—it helps others find these forgotten stories.

Send us a text

n 1903, the town of Van Meter, Iowa, was terrorized by a mysterious winged creature that defied explanation.

Was it a cryptid, a mass panic—or something else entirely? Robert Barber unpacks the eyewitness accounts and legends behind one of Iowa’s strangest unsolved mysteries.

🎧 Listen now to uncover the truth.

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast mapping the haunted highways, hidden legends, and supernatural stories tucked into the corners of America’s 50 states.

🎙️ New episodes released every other Wednesday.

🕯️ If you enjoy the show, follow wherever you listen and leave a review—it helps others find these forgotten stories.

Send us a text

In 1892, a family in Rhode Island was dying one by one. Locals believed something—or someone—was feeding from the grave.
When the coffin of 19-year-old Mercy Brown was opened, what they found sparked one of the most chilling vampire legends in U.S. history.

Host Robert Barber uncovers the real story behind New England’s vampire panic, tuberculosis, and the ritual that made Mercy a legend.

🧛‍♀️ Love dark history and forgotten folklore? Follow State of the Unknown and share this episode with someone who still checks behind the closet door.

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast mapping the haunted highways, hidden legends, and supernatural stories tucked into the corners of America’s 50 states.

🎙️ New episodes released every other Wednesday.

🕯️ If you enjoy the show, follow wherever you listen and leave a review—it helps others find these forgotten stories.

Send us a text

In rural Wisconsin, something strange stalks the roads.
Witnesses have reported a towering, fur-covered creature with glowing eyes and canine features—a beast some believe to be a werewolf.

In this episode, host Robert Barber dives into the 1990s Bray Road sightings, local lore, and the possibility that something primal still hunts the countryside.

🐺 Listen now—and follow the show for more American legends that blur the line between myth and reality.

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast mapping the haunted highways, hidden legends, and supernatural stories tucked into the corners of America’s 50 states.

🎙️ New episodes released every other Wednesday.

🕯️ If you enjoy the show, follow wherever you listen and leave a review—it helps others find these forgotten stories.

Send us a text

In the heart of Massachusetts lies a stretch of land filled with curses, cryptids, and unexplained encounters.
Known as the Bridgewater Triangle, this region has been home to ghostly sightings, UFOs, Bigfoot reports, and strange disappearances for decades.

In this premiere episode, host Robert Barber explores the history of the triangle and the legends that still haunt it.

🎧 Follow State of the Unknown for immersive explorations into American folklore—and don’t forget to leave a review.

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast mapping the haunted highways, hidden legends, and supernatural stories tucked into the corners of America’s 50 states.

🎙️ New episodes released every other Wednesday.

🕯️ If you enjoy the show, follow wherever you listen and leave a review—it helps others find these forgotten stories.

Send us a text

What if America’s strangest stories weren’t just legends… but coordinates?

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast mapping the supernatural, the unexplained, and the forgotten mysteries tucked into the quiet corners of all 50 states. Each episode dives deep into a single location-based legend—cryptids, hauntings, cursed places, and events that can’t be explained.

Blending investigative storytelling with immersive sound and atmosphere, this show doesn’t just ask if the stories are true… It asks why they won’t go away.

State of the Unknown is a documentary-style podcast mapping the haunted highways, hidden legends, and supernatural stories tucked into the corners of America’s 50 states.

🎙️ New episodes released every other Wednesday.

🕯️ If you enjoy the show, follow wherever you listen and leave a review—it helps others find these forgotten stories.