The Burned-Over District — Fox Sisters Site

On March 31, 1848, sisters Kate and Maggie Fox claimed to make contact with the spirit of a murdered peddler in their Hydesville farmhouse through a system of raps and knocks — launching the American Spiritualism movement that swept the 19th century. The farmhouse was moved to Lily Dale in 1916 and later burned, but the original foundation site remains a pilgrimage destination for Spiritualists worldwide. Visitors report unexplained knocking sounds from the earth at the foundation site and a feeling of heightened awareness that sensitives describe as a 'thinning of the veil.'