What are some mysterious, cult-like, bad-vibes towns across the USA?
byu/_Persona-Non-Grata inAskReddit

SkylieBunnyGirl
Powers, Oregon. Stopped in the diner for coffee once on a drive thru. I shit you not, like straight out of a movie, the other patrons just turned and quietly stared, not touching their own plates, until we left

TheRipsawHiatus
Some friends and I experienced the same kind of thing in a bar/bowling alley in Wisconsin. We decided to go out for bowling, and when we walked into the bar in the front it was like it went from bustling to very hushed and everyone was watching us. The bowling alley in the back was totally deserted and eerie. It was super awkward to be the only people playing, and I swear anytime we glanced behind us towards the bar we’d catch everyone staring. We all agreed it was one of the creepiest experiences we’ve had.

evileen99
Drove through Colorado City a few years ago. Creepy as hell. Giant barracks houses with dirt yards full of giant trash piles.

PirateJohn75
Clearwater, Florida

I had known it was the HQ for Scientology, but had never been there.

Last month, I was visiting family in Florida and my best friend lives a few towns over from Clearwater. He took me to a place that entailed driving through downtown Clearwater. It is impossible not to notice that every building had brand new paint, all the shops looked sparking clean, and there was not a soul to be seen.

All the neighboring towns had hundreds of people milling about, but Clearwater looked like a ghost town. It looked like the set of a Twilight Zone episode.

univek2020
It would be interesting if the guy/gal driving the Google Maps car through all these places could chime in with experiences.

Piqued_a_Pack
Driver of a mapping vehicle here. Most of the truly creepy small towns are down dirt/gravel roads, which typically aren’t mapped. I’ve worked every state except Hawaii and almost every Canadian province, and the only places that I’ve gotten the ‘maybe I should get back in my car now’ vibe from are a handful of small towns in Kansas. You could just feel the eyes the second your feet hit the ground, and not in the typically way you get used to being stared at in those vehicles. It was a palpable aura of unwelcome.

Dessert_Hater
Moscow, Idaho has an actual cult with thousands of followers. Their leader, a self-ordained pastor, has publicly stated he wants to take over the town and turn it into a theocracy. They are deeply misogynist (marital rape isn’t possible) and have a history of sexual abuse within their group (the leader defended a student of their “college” who raped his host family’s daughter, excommunicated the daughter, and then presided over the rapist’s wedding). Their members keep running for local office and failing, but they are buying up all the property in town and moving in people from all over the country to attend their private school, theology “college” and church. Moscow also happens to be the town where the 4 University of Idaho students were murdered in 2022.