Inside Long Island’s spookiest spot — and brave ghostbusters investigating it
Haunted houses, trails, and spaces with tell-tale signs of paranormal activity are hiding in plain sight throughout Nassau and Suffolk Counties — and it’s the Long Island Paranormal Investigators’ goal to search them all. Heather Khalifa and Alex Mitchell for New York Post
Long Island may be known for its heavy traffic, but there’s something far more chilling than the Long Island Expressway lurking in Melville’s woods.
Mount Misery — a stretch of rugged trails and dense forest along Sweet Hollow Road in West Hills County Park — is considered by many to be the most haunted place on the island. The Long Island Paranormal Investigators (LIPI), who have explored over 70 eerie locations across Nassau and Suffolk counties, say this spot is in a league of its own.
“If you get a full moon on the fall equinox, it’s like the gates of hell open up here,” said LIPI founder Mike Cardinuto. “You’re guaranteed to experience something.”
For 15 years, LIPI’s team of 30 volunteer ghost hunters has divided Mount Misery into research zones, investigating strange sounds, temperature shifts, and unexplained energy spikes. At one site, Cardinuto says a chilling voice once came through their walkie-talkies: “They’re here. Help me out. Please. Let me out.”
The team reports shadowy figures, sulfuric “rotten egg” smells, sudden equipment failures, and an eerie green glow that seems to appear from nowhere. Locals have had their own encounters. Melville resident Stacey Broggy says her dogs often panic at a certain point on the trail. “One day she just started freaking out — and always in the same place,” she recalled. “Then my other dog did it too. That’s when I knew something was off.”
Mount Misery’s ominous name comes not from ghosts but from its unforgiving terrain, which early settlers found nearly impossible to farm. Still, decades of ghost stories have given the site a supernatural reputation. Teenagers test the legends by parking under the Northern State Parkway overpass, shifting their cars into neutral, and waiting for “ghost children” — said to have died in a long-ago bus crash — to push their vehicles forward.
Cardinuto notes that the story borrows from a real 1938 tragedy in Utah, where a bus was struck by a train. But Mount Misery’s mysteries don’t need embellishment. During one LIPI investigation, Cardinuto said his name was called repeatedly through an AM radio device — and when he asked what the spirit wanted, the response came: “To die.”
While Halloween is their busiest season, Cardinuto insists the strange activity happens year-round. At the historic Rogers Mansion in Southampton, he said, a lightbulb suddenly shattered after a team member asked, “If you want us to leave, give us a loud noise.”
Other investigations have led to encounters with shadowy “black masses” at Sagtikos Manor in Bay Shore — once visited by George Washington — as well as unexplained noises at Katie’s Bar in Smithtown and the abandoned Kings Park Psychiatric Center.
Not all spirits are hostile, though. During a winter 2025 investigation at the Nathaniel Rogers House in Bridgehampton, The Post witnessed a rare moment of apparent friendliness. After hours of static, a researcher asked through the AM sweeper, “Are you trying to tell us something? Are you hungry too?” A voice replied clearly: “Great question.”
“We all freaked out,” Cardinuto said with a laugh. “That was really cool.”
So if you ever find yourself on Sweet Hollow Road on a moonlit night — and the air suddenly turns cold — maybe think twice before asking who’s there. You might actually get an answer.
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