THE STORY
Reported Haunting
Fort Jefferson is associated with numerous ghost stories, including the alleged spirit of Dr. Samuel Mudd and the mysterious "Man in the Wall." Visitors have reported phantom footsteps, whispers, cold spots, shadow figures, unexplained voices, moving doors, and apparitions in nineteenth-century clothing.
Fort Jefferson is the massive nineteenth-century coastal fortress occupying Garden Key in Dry Tortugas National Park, roughly 70 miles west of Key West. Its history includes military prisoners, disease outbreaks, isolation, deaths, and its use during and after the Civil War. Southern Most Ghosts describes reports of footsteps echoing through empty corridors, whispers, unexplained voices, cold spots, doors moving on their own, shadowy figures, and feelings of being watched. One of the best-known legends is the "Man in the Wall," an unidentified yellow-fever victim supposedly sealed inside part of the fort after his death. Stories describe scratching, moaning, dragging footsteps, and a gaunt apparition near the alleged location. Another tradition concerns Dr. Samuel Mudd, imprisoned at Fort Jefferson after treating John Wilkes Booth. Some visitors report seeing a nineteenth-century male figure or hearing phantom footsteps attributed to Mudd.