HGB Ep. 612 - Haunted Historic Cary Homes

Moment in Oddity - Raining Meat (Suggested by: Chelsea Flowers)

We have all heard bizarre stories of strange objects falling from the sky. From frogs, to fish, to sharks. Umm, hello, Sharknado? Typically these strange occurrences are attributed to waterspouts picking up the critters and then depositing them, sometimes miles away. Even Diane once had the experience of a fish falling out of the sky and landing right next to her. Although that was one fish and I am sure that the bird of prey that dropped it was ticked about losing its lunch! Back in March of 1876 there was a very strange event that occurred over Olympia Springs in Bath County Kentucky. According to a New York Times article, chunks of meat showered down on Allen Crouch's property as his wife was outdoors making soap. Mrs. Crouch stated that, "The sky was perfectly clear at the time and the meat fell like large snowflakes." Most of the pieces were around 5x5 centimeters. The following day, two men showed up to taste the meat-rain, even though much of it was spoiled by this time. The unidentified men proclaimed that the meat had either the flavor of venison or mutton. Pieces of the meat were preserved. A few months later, a report was published in Scientific American, that the substance was actually nostoc which is a type of cyanobacteria that can float in the air, unseen until it rains. It then swells up forming a jellied mass and falls to the earth. It is also known as 'star jelly' and 'witches butter'. However, once nostoc takes on its gelatinous form, it has a green color to its mass as it is a blue-green algae. It does not resemble meat. In addition, Mrs. Crouch had stated that it was a clear day, no rain involved. The man that declared the 'meat snowflakes' as being of cyanobacteria origin also shared samples with a histologist who said it was likely the lung tissue of a human infant or a horse! Seven samples were examined. Two were determined to be lung tissue, three were muscular tissue and two others consisted of cartilage. Ultimately, Dr. Kastenbine wrote in an 1876 edition of the Louisville Medical News, that the creation of the meaty shower was projectile vulture vomit. Vultures can often eat up to 20% of their body weight when given the opportunity. It has been recorded that they can projectile vomit up to 10 feet in distance and have been known to do so when startled as a defense mechanism, or when needing to take sudden flight or gain altitude. Whatever the reason that created this event, chunks of meat raining down onto the earth not only is disgusting, but it certainly is odd. 

Haunted Historic Cary Homes 

Cary is a town west of Raleigh in North Carolina that routinely shows up on lists as a desirable place to live and is known as the gourd capital. Railroad companies found it desirable too and this became a town built by the railroad. Cary also was a center of manufacturing with many factories opening up. The town attracted all types from robber barons to bootleggers and some of their historic homes still remain and feature ghost stories and legends. Join us as we explore the histories and hauntings of these Cary homes! 

Cary, North Carolina got its start as a railroad village. The Tuscarora and Catawba people lived on the land until European settlers came to the area. Disease decimated the Native Americans numbers. A man named John Bradford set up a homestead and called it Bradford's Ordinary. He built an inn and opened it in the 1750s. Two other men owned land in the area and their names were both Nathaniel Jones. By the early 19th century, the settlement had a gristmill and sawmill and in 1854, the North Carolina Railroad came. This would be the year that Bradford's Ordinary would become an official town under a man named Allison Francis Page, or Frank Page, who named it Page's Station. He is considered the founder of Cary and he added another sawmill and a general store and built his home that he named for himself, Pages. When Page opened the post office in 1856, he named the town Cary for Samuel Fenton Cary, the head of the Sons of Temperance in the state. The population didn't really grow until after the Civil War and most of this centered around the railroad. There were a few factories opened as well and the town was incorporated in 1871. Since Page believed in temperance, as port of the incorporation, it was written into Cary law that no whiskey couldn't be sold in town and most other spirits were added in 1889. The prohibition law would remain until 1964. This left the city wide open for bootlegging, which was rampant. And it had its share of shootouts. But the city also became an educational hub. The Research triangle Park was a place where IBM established a strong presence in 1965. And for our gamers, you've probably heard of Epic Games behind little games like Fortnite, they are headquartered in Cary. Many successful men came to Cary to build their factories and they also built their homes. 

The Cotton House

We'll start with the Cotton House because...beer. The Cotton House Craft Brewers call the Cotton House at 307 S. Academy Street home now. This had once been known as the Pasmore House because William Pasmore had it built in 1900. He had married Cassandra Wilson in 1856 and they had seven children. Two tragic deaths occurred here involving William's daughters. The second death was horrific. Stella died in 1906 at the age of 31 from typhoid. She was a beloved teacher at the Cary High School. 

In 1902, Mary Pasmore was 42 years old and the Roxboro Courier reported, "Awful Death in Flames. Raleigh, N.C. Sept. 5th. Miss Mary Passmore, aged 42, of Cary, suicided last night by burning. She was found wrapped in flames in an outhouse and died at eleven o'clock last night. She declared before she died that she set fire to herself because she was tired of living." William himself died in 1901 at the age of 63, so he didn't have to experience his daughters' deaths. Imagine his poor wife. Later, his son William would be arrested for public intoxication in Cary, which took some effort since it was a dry town. The house eventually became a boarding facility for some of the very first students at Cary High School. In 2018, the brewers had a name, but not a house, until they found the Pasmore House. They renamed it and renovated into a tap room and brewery. Two of the original fireplaces were exposed and they added a 25-foot Prohibition-era bar with an Italian marble top. Walnut fixtures hang from the ceiling and the bar back and tap handles were all fashioned by local carpenters and woodworkers. There is also a 1910 piano on the premises. People claim that there are spirits left over from the school boarding house days and perhaps even the Pasmore daughters are here. 

Katherine Loflin is a historian in the town, has written the "Hidden History of Cary," and hosts the ghost tours in town on a trolley. She has brought guests through the Cotton House on tours and says that on those tours they have captured audible word responses. Disembodied footsteps are heard and employees and patrons have reported seeing full-bodied apparitions. We should mention that the street the brewery is on, Academy Street, has the apparition of a horse connected to it. This horse is also heard on the nearby Ambassador Loop near the Page-Walker hotel. It isn't aren't often seen, but people hear the ghost galloping and it is thought to be connected to the Civil War. Peggy Van Scoyoc write in her 2006 book Just a Horse Stopping Place, “this horse could be heard coming up that street galloping and just going as fast as he could go, but nobody would ever see any horse.”

The High House

Unfortunately, the High House no longer stands, but may still have a female apparition hanging around the site. The house had stood on the left side of High House Road and was built by Tingnal Jones sometime between 1760 and 1765. The house stood two stories and had high ceilings. Fanning Jones inherited the house from his father Tingnal and he lived in it until 1822. He sold it to a Raleigh lawyer named Nathaniel Green Alford in 1833. The Williams family owned it next and when they moved out in early 1900, the house was left abandoned. There is no record of it after 1930 and we could find nothing about a demolition record. The house seems to have just disappeared, but more than likely just collapsed. Leander Williams had been born in the house in 1883 and he told his daughter Margaret of a dream he had. This dream was about valuables being buried in the hearth of the house and apparently his mother had the same dream. So they returned to the high House that they had abandoned and found the hearth torn apart. As to where this treasure had come from, perhaps it was from an earlier occupant. Fanning Jones was considered a scoundrel in Cary. He was on the side of the Tories during the Revolutionary War and he put together a group that murdered and pillaged. So perhaps this was some of his loot. Hauntings were reported about the house dating back to the Revolutionary War. The ghost of a woman was seen in the house and walking around outside of it. One of the legends told about her is that two men were in love with her and one day, one of them killed her in a fit of rage during a fight. Another legend claims that the woman is Fanning Jones' wife. She died a few years after their marriage in 1799. The Raleigh Register reported on September 8, 1806, that she was found "in a grove far from the house, depraved of all reason, where it is supposed she had been praying (having been very religious for some time past). She remained in the deplorable condition till her death on July 27, 1806." Robert Hoke Williams wrote of his father's experience with the female ghost and this is shared in a document called "The Ghost of High House" available from the AAFA Library. (Document) 

The woods where High House had stood had ghost stories connected to them as well. An 11-year-old boy reported in the 1860s that he saw a woman wandering in a field in broad daylight and she was heading towards the house. He assumed it was his mother returning from church, so he ran to the house to greet her and found no one in the house. His parents didn't return until later in the day. And in the 1870s, a young girl was staying in the house and awoke at night and asked her dad for water. He took her out onto the front porch and handed her the water dipper. She looked past him with wide eyes and started screaming. The father turned to see a woman standing very still in the dark front yard and the feeling he got was of something not human. They rushed back into the house for fitful sleep and left early the next morning for Raleigh. This female ghost appeared to three generations of the Williams family and is still seen in the Black Creek Greenway to this day.

Nancy Jones House

The Nancy Jones House is located at 9321 Chapel Hill Road and was built in 1803, making it the oldest known residential structure in Cary. Where it stands today is not where it started. It was moved in 2021. The two-story house was built in the vernacular Federal style architecture with chimneys on both sides and a one story addition on the back with the kitchen. The rear second story was a later addition as well. The double-tier Italianate-style front-gabled porch was added in 1880. Four of the rooms had Federal-style three-part mantels with reeding. The walls had paneled wainscot and flush-board sheathing and the floors were made from heart of pine. Many rooms in a Federal style house were called shed rooms, which means they functional rooms like a laundry room or kitchen which were typically found at the back of the house. They were usually very simple. This was built by Henry and Nancy Jones to run as a tavern and stagecoach stop, but probably not an inn, so they lived in the house as a residence. The land underneath had been owned by Henry's father, Nathaniel Crabtree Jones. Fun Fact: There were so many Nathaniel Joneses in the area that they all took to having middle nicknames to identify themselves, so there was also a Nathaniel White Plains Jones. And another interesting fact is that there was a practice where fathers would let their sons build on land they owned, but wouldn't give the land to their sons until their death and this was done to convince sons to stay close to home and not "Go West, young man." Henry had been previously married and had a daughter named Eliza. He and Nancy would have five children together. Henry died in 1841 and Nancy continued to run the business and live in the house for another 30 years, so that is why it carries her name. 

By the Civil War, the area around the tavern was called Jones Station. Union troops camped out on the property as they went to and from Bennett Place in Durham. Sherman's troops marched through North Carolina and they Raleigh to Jones Station. North Carolina governors would stay here and President James K. Polk once stayed as well. Nancy's youngest son Adolphus wrote to his half-sister Eliza in 1874, “Mother will be 91 years old in a few days… She retains the faculties of her mind pretty well but her physical powers are gradually giving way. She walks about the yard and garden – sometimes she walks over to a near neighbor’s house.” 

Nancy died in 1876 and Adolphus inherited the house and he opened it as a school. Adolphus later sold to S.R. Horne and then the house passed through several hands. The Heater family lived in the house during the Great Depression and when their well drilling business went bankrupt, they sold the chandeliers from the house. Thomas and Audrey Stone owned the house from 1935 until 1991, when Audrey passed away. She put forth the effort to get the house on the registry of historic places in 1984. She welcomed people for tours as well. Other families lived in the house. Kent Henley rented it in the late 1990s. Then Sri Venkateswara Temple owned the property. The town of Cary got ownership of the house in 2019 and moved it in 2021. It is still undergoing renovations to be used as offices. Peach brandy was very popular in Cary and Henry Jones apparently made his own and he wrote in a letter to his daughter Eliza in 1836, "You wish to know my method of making Peach wine; In the first place I beat and press the peaches as late in the Evening as possible in Order to give the liquor as little chance to ferment as possible, which it will be sure to do in warm weather, next morning have a good clean tight Barrel ready, with about Eight gallons of Brandy in it before you begin to put in the peach Juice…” The letter goes on after more explanation to say, “I never added Sugar to any I ever made, but am Satisfied it would be the best, say one pound to 10 gallons I think would be enough…".

Margaret Heater always maintained that the house was haunted and she had many experiences in the house when living there. She claimed to hear disembodied footsteps and when she would yell for her father to help her, he would look around for whoever had been walking around and never found anyone. The Heater family also couldn’t keep the doors locked. They would lock everything up tight at night and find the doors unlocked in the morning. Families that lived in the house after the Stones claimed to hear strange noises they couldn't explain and disembodied footsteps. Kent Henley heard the strange creaks and such as well, but he always maintained it was just the wind.  

The Matthews House 

The Matthews House is located at 317 W. Chatham Street and is this large beautiful white house with black shutters that was built in 1915 by lumber magnate Joseph Cephus Matthews. After the house was no longer a private residence, it hosted several businesses including a floral shop, dress shop and a salon. Carroll and Sheila Ogle bought the house in the early 2000s and they refurbished the house to be an events center, specifically for weddings. They added a Grand Ballroom and a commercial kitchen. Carroll passed away and Sheila eventually sold the house in 2016 to the Chung family who renovated the house further and continued the wedding business and they partnered with Southern Harvest Catering.

Paranormal Investigator Katherine Loflin told the News Observer in 2023, “We think we get a lot of Bob. Bob seems to have stuff he wants to tell us.” Her group, City Doctor Productions, believes that they contacted up to 50 spirits during one ghost hunt at the house. The Bob that she was referencing was Bob Strother, a prominent resident in the town who ran a floral shop and was known for his Christmas decoration displays. He died in 2019The News Observer joined the investigators and reported, "Upstairs in the master bedroom, Al Parker had volunteers try out the spirit box, which involves wearing headphones tuned to a rapidly changing AM/FM receiver flicking through stations every half-second. For this otherworldly exchange, Parker fired off questions while the volunteers, headphones on, barked out whatever words arrived through the airwaves - radio or spectral. Is anybody here with us right now? Robert was the answer. Is that Bob Strother? Bob, are you here with us tonight? Escape was the answer. How many people are here with you? 51 came the answer. Does it bother you that we’re here?" During a previous investigation, the investigators got the following words during an ESTES Method session: smoke, fire, powers that be and rip-off. Katherine Loflin wondered what these words could mean and when she dug into the history, she found out that Bob had planned to buy the Page House and renovate it in 1971, but he was unable to do that because the house burned to the ground. A caretaker at the house was to blame as he tried to extinguish a small fire started by a spark with a rag that he dropped on a can of gasoline. But Bob actually believed that the fire had been set on purpose by some people who didn't want him controlling what they felt was the historic heart of the town and he told this to the Cary Historical Society during an interview he did with them. Loflin said, "Until somebody acknowledges that Bob got a little screwed, that might be why Bob’s sticking around." 

One of the other spirits here is a little girl named Janelle and she seems to be connected to a painting of what is believed to be her and this painting has a tendency to fall off the wall on its own. Loflin has been trying for several years to get to the bottom of who this little girl is and we hope one day that she is successful.

Old houses always seem to have interesting stories. Cary's historic homes have interesting stories and could quite possibly be haunted. Are these historic Cary homes haunted? That is for you to decide! 

HGB Ep. 548 - Haunted Outer Banks Series - The Upper Islands

Moment in Oddity - House in the Clouds (Suggested by: Jenny Lynn Raines)

In Thorpeness, Suffolk, England, there is a structure that was built in 1923 to receive water pumped from the Thorpeness Windmill. Its founder, Glencairn Stuart Ogilvie designed it as "a fantasy water tower in a fantasy village". What is unique about this structure is that it was turned into a residential home which was incorporated to improve the look of the water tower. The mock Tudor and Jacobean style structure incorporates a residential living space approximately 70 feet from the ground level. The water tower originally was able to hold 50,000 imperial gallons, however during WWII the tower was unintentionally hit by friendly gunfire from anti aircraft guns. Once mended, the water tank saw a reduction in capacity down to 30,000 imperial gallons. By 1977, the main water tower was no longer needed to supply the village. It was then removed, allowing the House in the Clouds to be fully transformed into a home. The residence boasts five bedrooms and three bathrooms with a total of 85 stair steps from top to bottom. The structure is very unique and has been featured in the media many times, but a several story home built around a water tower, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - The USS Indianapolis and the Atomic Bomb

In the month of July, on the 26th, in 1945, the USS Indianapolis arrived at Tinian Island in the Mariana Islands with unassembled atomic bomb parts. The ship was sent on a high speed voyage from San Francisco out into the western Pacific ocean with no one on board knowing what the cargo consisted of. The voyage took 10 days and arrived at the island after the Manhattan Engineer District built special bomb assembly buildings, loading pits, and other facilities at the base. Already prepared was a 37 member team of scientists and specialists who were in charge of last minute experiments and tests, thus resulting in the final assembly of the uranium bomb. Only four days after its delivery, the USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine with a loss of almost 900 lives. On July 30th, the target insert, projectile, and initiators were assembled in the bomb. On August 5th, after consultations with meteorologists to determine that weather predictions were favorable for a visual bombing, the mission was given the 'go ahead'. Consequently, on August 6th, 1945, the bomber Enola Gay took flight and rose to 31,000 feet, deploying the bomb over Hiroshima at 8:15am. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese died either from the initial blast or later from radiation poisoning, with the majority of deaths reported to be civilians. Nagasaki was later bombed on August 9th leading to the surrender of Japan on August 15th with Japan signing the instrument of surrender on September 2nd, 1945.

Outer Banks - The Upper Islands

The Outer Banks are a vast ecosystem that have supported life for millions of years. Humans have been here for centuries. Key moments in American history are connected to the Upper Islands of the Outer Banks from the disappearance of the Roanoke Colony to the Wright brothers' first flight. There are numerous haunted locations and legends in the Upper Islands. On this second episode of our Outer Banks Series, we are going to explore the history and hauntings of the Upper Islands! 

Just north of Hatteras Island is Bodie Island with the Bodie Island Lighthouse. There are two stories behind the name of the island. One is that a man with the last name Boddy had settled the area. A more interesting story claims that so many bodies washed up on the island from shipwrecks that it just made sense to call it Bodie Island. Bodie Island isn't really an island as over the years it has connected to other northern barrier islands to make a peninsula. The government decided to build a lighthouse here in 1837 because this area had lost more vessels than any other area along the Outer Banks. The lighthouse was completed in 1847, but because a man who had no experience in building lighthouses had been put in charge of construction. The lighthouse was leaning within two years. A second lighthouse was built in 1859, but it didn't last long either as the Confederates thought the Union would take it over during the Civil War and they blew it up. The third and current lighthouse was built in 1871. Bricks from Baltimore and iron from New York was used to construct the distinctive lighthouse. A keeper's quarters duplex was built and the first order Fresnal lens was lit on October 1, 1872. Because the lighthouse was remote in those early days, the keeper's wife and children would stay on the mainland. The light was electrified in 1932 and the NPS took over its operation in 1953. The lighthouse is hard to miss at 156 feet and with its horizontal black and white stripes. The lighthouse itself is not haunted, but the keeper's cottage has some stories. People claim to hear knocking coming from the other side of the bricked in fireplace. This usually happens around 4:00 pm. There are also stories that a young female ghost haunts the area, possibly one of the bodies that washed up here. She is seen in period clothing and likes to follow visitors around, occasionally showing up in photos.

Many indigenous tribes called the Outer Banks home. These were the Secotan, Poteskeet and Chowanoke. They would head out to the eastern banks in the summer for fishing and then move back inland to places like Roanoke Island and the mainland during the winter. Early relationships between the indigenous people and European explorers were good. In 1584, the English attempted to colonize Roanoke Island for the first time. Roanoke Island is across from Bodie Island. Governor Ralph Lane founded Roanoke Colony and it wasn't long before they needed more supplies. Sir Richard Grenville was bringing a resupply and he was delayed, so Lane threw in the towel and headed back to England. Grenville finally made it to the colony two weeks later and he left the supplies and a small detachment of men. 

The second attempt to colonize Roanoke came in 1587, led by John White. The original plan by Sir Walter Raleigh was to set up the city of Raleigh in Chesapeake Bay. Grenville's men had become pretty desperate by this time because they needed supplies, so when White showed up to check in on them, they forced White to stay there and Roanoke Colony was re-established. White needed to get supplies, so he promised to be back in 1588, but White wouldn't return until 1590 because of the Anglo-Spanish War. He found the settlement still there and it had clearly been fortified, but all of the settlers were missing. The only clue left as to where they had gone was the word "CROATOAN" carved into the stakewall. White assumed that this meant they had gone to Croatoan Island. He couldn't investigate that theory because of rough seas and he headed back to England. His granddaughter was born at Roanoke Colony and was the first English person born in this New World. Her name was Virginia Dare and the county where Roanoke Island is located is named for her, Dare County. We still don't know what happened to the 115 colonists that disappeared.

Manteo is the main city on Roanoke Island. They do offer a ghost tour here, but it wasn't available the night we were in the area. There's a good reason for the tour because several locations here are haunted. Manteo was incorporated in 1899 and was a bustling trade center. In the mid 1980s, the town was renovated for a 400th anniversary party and Princess Anne came to dedicate the Elizabeth II, a representative 16th-century sailing ship like what the colonists would have used to come to the island. There are several hotels on the island and a few of them are reputedly haunted. The first is Roanoke Island Inn. The inn overlooks the harbor of Shallowbag Bay and has over 1.5 acres of gardens. Asa Warren Jones built the inn as his home in the 1860s. It eventually became a boarding house in the early 1900s. Through the generations, the same family continued to own the house and each would expand the house. The post office for Manteo was once housed in the inn and one of the postmasters there was named Roscoe Jones. The Roanoke Inn opened in 1990 with eight rooms under John Wilson and Billy Parker. Lauren and Jason Borland bought the inn in 2017. 

The spirit at the inn is thought to be Roscoe. He was laid off from the post office and he was absolutely devastated. He begged to keep his job to no avail. He walked home, smelled the roses growing near the front porch one last time, walked up the stairs to his bedroom and locked himself in. He never left the room again and his wife took to leaving a meal for him on the table and he would come down when everyone had gone to bed, to get the plate of food. Roscoe passed away a few years later, never having spoken to his family again. Neighbors started claiming to see Roscoe leaving the inn in his postal uniform. The apparition would disappear when it reached the post office. Some people would see the apparition return to the inn as well. Two of the rooms that had previous been Roscoe's room have had prankster activity. One couple reported that their jewelry had been played with. Boxes and other items have been thrown around on the third floor and screams and disembodied footsteps have been heard coming from that floor as well.

The Tranquil House Inn has a great view of the Roanoke Island Festival Park and sits on the historic water front. The inn has a Nantucket styling to it with custom cypress woodwork and stained glass. Donnie Just and his father Don had owned the inn since 1993 and then Mike and Holly Harrington purchased the property in 2020. Mike had proposed to Holly there in 2005. The inn had originally been located across the street, but a fire in the 1930s destroyed it, so it was rebuilt here. The desk manager had been Carolyn and she told Peggy Schmidt who wrote "Ghosts of the Outer Banks" that the first floor had the most activity. One morning a guest staying on the first floor approached Carolyn when she was alone and asked her if anything strange had been reported in her room before. Carolyn didn't get a chance to respond before the guest told her that she had seen a female apparition that very morning. She awakened to see the ghost standing by her bedside. This spirit was in period clothing and every time the guest tried to get up, the spirit would push her gently back down. The guest got really annoyed and yelled, "Stop!" and the spirit disappeared. Carolyn said that other guests reported disembodied whispers in that room. Other rooms have had their televisions turning on on their own. They checked wiring and found no issues, so they bought all new TVs. That didn't solve the issue. Another time, a couple approached Carolyn and and told her there was a ghost in their room. She asked how they knew and the man said that the night before he went to the bathroom and he made sure to put the toilet seat down. His wife had him trained properly. He was the first person in the bathroom the next morning and he found the toilet seat up. As he looked at the seat, he watched as it slammed down.

The charming Victorian White Doe Inn was opened near the turn-of-the-century and is named for the legend about Virginia Dare and the White Doe. It is said that Virginia grew into a beautiful woman with fair skin, blonde hair and gray eyes. She caught the eye of two Native American men in the tribe that had rescued her and her mother from the Roanoke Colony. One was a warrior and the other a medicine man. Virginia fell in love with the warrior and the heartbroken medicine man used his magic to turn Virginia into a white doe. The only way to snap her out of the spell would be to hit her with a magic arrow. Warriors would hunt for the white doe, but it was elusive. One day, the Medicine Man decided he needed to find the white doe because he was afraid she would be killed. He wasn't aware that the warrior who was his competitor in love was hunting the white doe too. The Medicine Man found the white doe and he fired his arrow. At the same time, the warrior had found the doe and fired his arrow as well. The Medicine Man's arrow turned the white doe back into Virginia and the warrior's arrow hit and killed her after that. Now it is said that her spirit still haunted the island as a white doe. The white doe speaks with a woman's voice.

Ok, so that is a legend, but the haunts at the White Doe Inn seem very real. The Meekins family had lived in the Outer Banks since before the American Revolution. Theodore Meekins came to Manteo from Rodanthe on Hatteras Island. He married Rosa P. Midgett in 1896 and the couple had seven children. They purchased a lot in 1904 and built a house with the help of Theodore's brother-in-law John Wilson and local carpenter Joe Dailey. They built the three-story Queen Anne style house in Manteo using a photograph that Rosa had found of a house she liked. The home had seventeen rooms when completed. This is the largest house on Roanoke Island. Meekins became a magistrate and also served in the North Carolina State Legislature from 1945-1947. Meekins also built the Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station near Rodanthe, which is one of the most famous life-saving outposts in the history of the US Coast Guard. Meekins died in 1952 and his son Theodore Jr. inherited the house, which passed onto his wife Goldie when he died in 1959. Everyone called her “Miss Goldie.” Eventually, the house was too much for Goldie and she sold it in 1993 to  David and Tonia Roberts who turned it into a bed and breakfast. The current innkeepers of the inn are Bob and Bebe Woody. There are nine rooms and a gourmet breakfast is served in the mornings. Both employees and guests have had strange experiences at the White Doe Inn. Lights and electronics turn on and off by themselves. A small door behind the staircase opens and closes on its own. Guests will here it periodically at night and go to check about the sound. They won't find anything but the closed door. But when they walk away, it opens again slowly. 

There's a haunted theater in Manteo too. The Pioneer Theater was built in 1918 by the Creef family and they owned it until 2023 when they closed the theater. It was purchased in February of that year by the Basnight and Hatchell families and they retained the name and paid homage to the Creef family. The theater hosts movies, music, theater and events. There are rumors that members of the Cleef family haunt the old movie theatre. People in the theater have had their cell phones knocked out of their hands.

Back on the road and off Roanoke Island to the Outer Banks islands again brings us to Nags Head. This village was founded in the 1830s as a tourist colony. Francis Nixon brought his family here shortly before that, looking to avoid malaria in the area where they had been living. He encouraged other friends to visit as well. The huts where the fishermen and ship salvagers lived on Nags Head were soon replaced by beach cottages. The Bankers weren't upset about this development as it brought a new form of income. They sold vegetables and seafood and took people on tours aboard horse-drawn carts. Hotels were built in 1838. A boardwalk was built in 1850 to the beach and there was a Pavilion where music was played and a bowling alley was built. During the Civil War, the Union marched in and commandeered hotels to use as headquarters. The city was incorporated in 1923. Hurricanes hit in 1899 and 1933 and World War II brought danger near the shore. One story on how it got the name Nags Head claims that "nags" was for the ponies there and that ship salvagers put lamps on the heads of their nags to get ships to crash into the shoals. The real story is probably that some shipwrecked sailors named it after a place they had come from in Europe.

The Oasis Suites Hotel is located at 7721 S. Virginia Dare Trail. This originally was a waterfront restaurant that was also named Oasis. Violet Kellem was the woman who opened that restaurant in 1950 and she had an ingenious plan for getting people to flock to the restaurant. This was perhaps the 1950s version of Hooters. The waitresses wore white Bermuda shorts and shirts, blue ties and aprons and no shoes. The servers were provided on-site housing. The specialty at the restaurant was lace cornbread, which was like a crunchy hushpuppy served with lots of butter. The Oasis closed in 1980 and was reopened as The Dock by Warren Jones. In 1990, Violet's grandchildren bought the restaurant and renovated it and opened it as The Oasis once again. The Hatchell Family bought it in 2003, but the restaurant burned to the ground in 2004 and that was it for the original restaurant. The Hatchell's decided to rebuild, but this time they would open a hotel. This is a boutique hotel of suites with kitchens and ghosts.

When the restaurant was still open, a group of four fishermen approached the building late one fall evening thinking that the restaurant was still serving because they saw lights on, but the doors were locked. When they looked in the windows, they saw a black tails and tie party going on. It was strange because there were no cars parked outside. The men peered in again and suddenly the party was gone. No one was inside. Another ghost that haunted the restaurant was an old sea captain with a long wiry beard in a blue sailor's cap and long blue coat with three big black buttons. His full-bodied apparition was seen occasionally running in slow motion from the grill to the freezer. Other times he just stood staring.

There was also the spirit of a monk that had the total monk hair and robe that appeared once to the restaurant manager named Ron. Seems he was just passing through. And then there was this female ghost with red hair and blue eyes in a pink 1950s-style dress. She liked to appear and scare the staff. Ron also claimed that a spirit may have saved his life. This was in March of 2004 when the fire erupted that destroyed the building. A flammable liquid was used for renovating the floors near the grill and it caught fire. Ron got everybody out except for one person. When he realized someone was still inside, he ran inside and immediately heard a very loud male voice say, "You have three seconds to get out!" Ron ran out and saw with relief that the employee was outside. Then the building became entirely engulfed. 

Nags Head Woods is supposed to be haunted as well. In the woods there is a small, yellow hunting cabin that people claim had been the home of the Goat Man. He obtained that name because he raised goats. One night some local teens decided to antagonize him, but they didn't find him at home so they killed his goats. The man sought revenge and chased down the teens with an axe, which he threw. He missed them all. It is said that through the years, he took on the look of a goat. He was a half-man and half-goat. Legends claim that he chases people at night through the woods. There's not just a Goatman in this 640 acres of wetlands, but also a witch. Peggy Schmidt conveys the story in "Ghosts of the Outer Banks." (p. 21) There is also a woman who was walking her dog and saw a man approaching her. Her dog got his hackles up and started barking, which immediately put her on guard. The man continued to come towards here and then she noticed he was wearing an old sea captain's uniform and then he disappeared.

The Eagles Aerie Club FOE #4506 is located at 2706 S. Croatan Hwy. They moved in to the building in November of 2017. Before the Eagles obtained the property, this was a variety of restaurants. There had been FireFly Restaurant, Almost Eleven Restaurant, and Mykonos Restaurant and Bar. Staff at the restaurants reported wine glasses flying off counters and some wine bottles doing the same. Shadow figures were also seen and the bathrooms would sometimes lock themselves.

We arrived in Kill Devil Hills next and even though we're always taught that the Wright Brothers conducted their flying experiments in Kitty Hawk, it's actually Kill Devil Hills where their National Memorial is located. This is where most of the people in the Outer Banks live. It's very commercial here, so if you are looking for a peaceful beach vacation, this might not be the area for you. The town was founded on the site of Orville and Wilbur's first controlled, powered airplane flight, which happened on December 17, 1903. The breezes coming in off the Atlantic were perfect and there was a big sand hill for them to fly the airplane off from. After each test, they would have to hike up the sand with the plane. Locals helped them carry the planes. They eventually planted the grass to make it easier. There was no town here so the brothers built simple wooden buildings to use as workshops and living quarters. The Wright Brothers National Memorial was dedicated in 1932. Kill Devil Hills got its municipal charter in 1953 and there are a few legends about how the Town got its unique name. One claims that cargo ships carrying rum would sometimes wreck along the coast and the rum cargo would wash up ashore on the sand hills and locals who found the rum said it was strong enough "to kill the devil." The more interesting story claims a man tried to extort money from the Devil and he trapped him in a pit at the top of the hill that the Wright Brothers had built. A huge granite pylon sits in the spot today as part of the memorial.

After we visited the memorial, we headed the four miles up to Kitty Hawk to the Black Pelican restaurant to have lunch. Kitty Hawk was named for the Algonquin Chickahawk, which means "a place to hunt geese." We picked it because we read it was haunted. This is a large restaurant tucked right behind the sand dunes leading out to the beach. During the late 1800s, this was one of seven lifesaving stations along the Outer Banks, Old Station Six. The Station Keeper here was named James Hobbs and he didn't get along with one of the surfmen in his charge named T.L. Daniels. No one knows if there was an animosity here because Daniels disrespected Hobbs' wife or if Daniels was just generally unruly, but Daniels ended up dead from a gunshot wound. His body was found on the floor near where the front desk of the restaurant lobby sits today. There were no police to report the crime to and nobody at the station liked the guy. So a decision was made to bury the body at sea and clean up the station and that's what the crew did and Hobbs never faced any punishment and that might be why Daniels' spirit is still here. Disembodied footsteps are heard and doors have closed all on their own. People sometimes see blood on the wall. This is that kind of thing that keeps reappearing and then disappearing. Some staff have reported seeing the ghost of Daniels. Male bartenders claimed that they got pushed by something they couldn't see. Unfortunately, our server was new and she hadn't had any experiences yet.

Currituck was named by the Native Americans who fished and hunted here. The name means "land of the wild goose," which was fitting because there was an abundance of geese here during migration. The name carried over for the Sound and the county where the town of Corolla (kuh rah luh) is located. A herd of feral Banker horses call this home. The town had originally been named Jones Hill after an early settler, which was later changed to Whalehead. A post office was established in 1895 and the name was changed to Corolla at that time after the petals of a flower. Development really didn't happen until the 1960s with a big burst in the 1980s.

Corolla features the Currituck Lighthouse, which is the fourth and final lighthouse in the Outer Banks. The lighthouse rises 162 feet and was built from red brick that was left unpainted. It opened in December of 1875 and became automated in 1939. The lighthouse still has its original Fresnal first order lens. This lens replaced an incandescent oil vapor lamp that replaced a Funck's hydraulic float lamp that was fueled with lard oil. A system of weights rotated the huge lens until electricity came to the lighthouse. A keeper would have to crank the weights by hand every two and a half hours. Visitors are allowed to climbs its 220 steps and the Outer Banks Conservationists own it. The lighthouse keeper's house is still here and its reputedly the North Room that is haunted. One of the lighthouse keeper's daughters died while playing on the beach. The North Room had been her room and people think somehow it ended up cursed. A friend came to stay at the house and slept in that room and contracted an illness that she eventually died from. A wife of a lighthouse keeper came down with TB and she quarantined in that room until she died. Now people who go into the room say they get an uneasy feeling and some even become physically ill. Disembodied voices are heard in the room sometimes and sheets have occasionally been tugged.

The Whalehead Club is located at 1100 Club Road and was built in 1922 by Edward Collings Knight Jr. who was a conservationist and waterfowl hunter. The hunting lodge was built in the Art Nouveau style. During World War II, it was used as a training base for the US Coast Guard. This brought hundreds of sailors to Corolla and they built support buildings and barracks. The next iteration was a boys' correctional school and then it was a rocket fuel testing site. In the 1990s, the building was restored to its original condition and is open to visitors. The 21,000 square foot building is open for historic tours and ghost tours. The smell of cigar smoke has been detected, especially near the portrait of Edward Knight. The first story of this occurrence was in the 1960s when families of the corporation testing the rocket fuel were staying there. A daughter went to her parents room and said she smelled smoke. They searched the house and when they got to the dining room they saw smoke coming out of the portrait of Mr. Knight. It was as though the cigar he held in the picture were real. There is the ghost a young girl here who once tried to grab another young child down in the basement. When an adult went to go see who was in the basement, there was no one there. A staff member once heard disembodied footsteps coming up behind them on the basement stairs. The basement is said to be the most haunted area. A visitor claimed that something grabbed his leg when he was walking on the second floor alone. Pots and pans have banged themselves together in the kitchen. Doors open and close on their own. One of the reasons it might be haunted here is because dead bodies from shipwrecks were brought to get them off the beach.

And finally there is the legend about the portrait of Theodosia Burr. Theodosia was the only child of Aaron Burr. Aaron Burr was a Founding Father and the third Vice President of the US, serving under Thomas Jefferson. He had been a lawyer and served as an officer during the American Revolution. Burr is probably most famous for having a duel with Alexander Hamilton in which he mortally wounded Hamilton in 1804. His daughter Theodosia was born in 1783 and was named after her mother. The Burrs would have three other children, but two were stillborn and one died at age three. Burr and his daughter were very close and he made sure she had a good education. He considered her to be a confidante. She married Joseph Alston in 1801 and they had one son who died in 1811. Theodosia was aboard a schooner named Patriot that was sailing off the Carolinas in 1812 when it was either hit by pirates or became shipwrecked. 

What happened to Theodosia is an ongoing mystery. And this was added to by the discovery of a portrait on the Outer Banks fifty years after Theodosia disappeared. In 1869, Dr. William Pool was visiting Nags Head when he was given a portrait of a young woman as payment for his services. No one knew the woman, but the Doctor knew the portrait was valuable. The fisherman who gave him the portrait said that a young woman had drifted ashore near Nags Head and that she didn't know who she was and all she had with her was the portrait. The fisherman had cared for her and he asked her to be his wife. The portrait hung in their cottage. The doctor had helped the fisherman's wife and when the doctor tried to take the portrait, the elderly wife jumped from the bed howling that the portrait was her's and then she ran into the ocean. The portrait washed up on the shore the next day. Dr. Pool took the picture home with him and it hangs today in the Lewis Walpole Library. The portrait is known as the Nag's Head Portrait of Theodosia Burr. Peggy Schmidt adds a twist to this. (p. 65)

The entire Outer Banks is a fun, relaxing and beautiful place full of history and what seems to be a lot of haunts. Are any of these locations in the Upper Islands of the Outer Banks haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 547 - Haunted Outer Banks Series - The Lower Islands

Moment in Oddity - Castle-like Structure Part of Canadian Home (Suggested by Michael Rogers)

In Edmonton Alberta, Canada there is a unique home which garners the attention of tourists, if not the locals themselves. It is considered a South Side landmark and was established in 1983. A Scottish dentist, Ken Wallace, added on to the two car garage area above his Lendrum home. The addition appears castle-like, complete with suits of armor. The space is a bonus room of sorts and it housed Wallace's collection of antique furniture and has stained glass windows. The homeowner used the lower portion of the building as his dental office, but he desired additional space where his daughters could play. They were the reason why he added the castle themed portion to his property. When Dr. Wallace retired, he sold his home to his oldest daughter who now works as a dental hygienist out of the home. They even have an old dental sink in the front yard. Wallace's youngest granddaughters enjoy playing in the castle area while his teenage step-granddaughter hangs out there with her friends. The castle like structure may catch tourists' eyes but apparently the interior is equally interesting. According to the Edmonton Journal, "There's a fireplace, along with two huge antique sideboards and an antique sofa, plus a row of throne-like chairs. A small spiral staircase leads to a loft, and an even smaller staircase from there ends at a tiny solarium with a trap door that opens out to the top of the garage." The castle is decorated for the holidays yearly and the family celebrates Christmas within its walls. Castles are all unique in their structure, but finding a castle as a second story addition in a modern day neighborhood, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - First Air Conditioner Created

In the month of July, on the 17th, in 1902, the first air conditioner was invented. AND BOY ARE WE THANKFUL FOR THAT! The inventor's name was Willis Carrier and he became known as the "Father of Air Conditioning". Carrier came from modest beginnings, but with his determination and creative problem solving methodologies, he created an innovation that performed what once was thought to be impossible. Controlling the temperature of an indoor environment prior to Carrier's invention often relied upon the architecture of a home. A building could utilize large windows and high ceilings for cross ventilation, while deep eaves and large trees would shade porches to help keep the structure cooler. Even cupolas held a cooling purpose allowing heat to escape the highest point of a home. In 1902, Willis Carrier was working at a publishing company in New York where the temperatures and humidity were a huge problem. The fluctuations in heat and humidity throughout the day would cause the paper that was being printed upon to grow and shrink, thus resulting in poor quality images. Willis submitted his air conditioner drawings to the publishing company which marked the birth of air conditioning with humidity control. This led authorities in the field to standardize four major functions that A/C must perform: control temperature, control humidity, control air circulation and ventilation and cleanse the air. After a few years of refinement and testing, Willis Carrier was granted his US patent in 1906 with the description of "an Apparatus for Treating Air".

Haunted Outer Banks - The Lower Islands

The Outer Banks stretch for 200 miles from southeastern Virginia to Shackleford Banks in North Carolina. The Atlantic that borders its eastern side is known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic because of the hundreds of shipwrecks that have occurred here. We traveled much of this stretch on our recent road trip and took in many of the sites while learning about the history and legends of this area. A key figure in history connected to the Lower Islands of the Outer Banks was Blackbeard the pirate. He came to his violent end here. There are numerous haunted locations and legends in the Outer Banks. On this first episode of our Outer Banks Series, we are going to explore the history and hauntings of the Lower Islands!

We took a road trip up through the Outer Banks here in June of 2024. Our first stop in the Outer Banks after leaving Charleston was Okracoke Island. The island is 16 miles long and bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and Pamlico Sound. The Cape Hatteras National Seashore makes up most of the island, so the beaches are protected. The only way to get on the island is via boat and there are ferries that will take you and your car to the island from three locations: Hatteras Island, Swanquarter and the one we took, Cedar Island. You have to make a reservation for the Swanquarter and Cedar Island ferries and they do cost money. The Hatteras Island ferry is free and runs on a first come, first serve basis. They also have introduced an express ferry that is for people on bike or foot. The Cedar Island ferry dropped us off in the heart of the tourist area of the island. There are lots of places to eat and shop and if you are interested in fishing charters or the beach, this is the spot for you.

Okracoke was first inhabited by Native Americans and some of them were the Croatoan. Most indigenous people just visited the island for fishing though. The original name was Wococon and eventually the W was dropped and different spellings morphed into Okracoke. The spelling we all know today made its official appearance on a map in 1852. One of the most infamous and colorful characters to call Okracoke home was Edward Teach, whom most of us know as Blackbeard. Okracoke was one of his favorite places to hideout and it would be here that he would come to his end during a naval battle in the Okracoke Inlet. This was on November 22, 1718. British naval Lieutenant Robert Maynard was tasked by the Virginia Governor at the time to track down Blackbeard. Maynard took two small sloops to Okracoke following a tip he had gotten that Blackbeard was anchored there. They found the pirate in an inlet that faces Pamlico Sound that is called Teach's Hole today. Blackbeard had tied one on the night before, or rather, tied on a lot the night before and he was in no condition for a fight. When he saw the sloops he started a running battle, meaning he was heading straight for the two sloops which were at the channel's mouth. The ships came close enough that Maynard and Blackbeard were able to have a conversation. This basically went with Blackbeard trying to make a deal with Maynard to just let him go, no harm, no foul. But Maynard was specifically here for Blackbeard and told him so, so Blackbeard got a glass of wine and drank damnation to Maynard and his men and said he would neither take nor give quarter. Then Blackbeard fired on the other sloop, killing the commander and several men. Several men on Maynard's sloop were wounded as well. Maynard decided to take a chance and play Blackbeard. He retreated to his quarters hoping to get the pirate to come to him. Blackbeard lashed his ship to the sloop and boarded with his men and they were quickly ambushed. It was a quick and harsh fight and when the smoke cleared, Blackbeard lay dead. His men were either dead or wounded. Maynard removed Blackbeard's head, put it on the bowsprit and took it back to Virginia. Blackbeard's body was thrown into Teach's Hole where legend claims it took a couple laps around Maynard's sloop. People believe that Blackbeard's ghost wanders Okracoke Island. 

There are many historical sites to check out on the island, which we definitely did after visiting the Pony Pen. These ponies on Okracoke arrived here via a shipwreck. These were Spanish mustangs that managed to make it to the island and now their descendants are kept in the Pony Pen. They used to roam free on the island, but as more and more people came and cars arrived, it got too dangerous for the horses. These horses are very unique. They have an unusual number of vertebrae and ribs and they have a distinct posture and size, which is why they are referred to as ponies. The National Park Service has cared for them since 1959. Then we went back into the main part of the island and visited the David & Alice Williams House. The house was built in 1900 and is a two-story house with a large veranda. It was built for David Williams who was the first Chief of the U.S. Coast Guard station on Ocracoke. The house was moved from its original spot to this one near the ferry dock, so that it wouldn't be demolished. It's now a museum and gift shop and home to the Ocracoke Preservation Society. There are various displays from seashells to stuff on Blackbeard to the original occupants of the house. I overheard the woman running the gift shop mention something about the place being haunted. Here is us talking to her about that. (Okracoke Shop)

The woman on the bike on Howard Street was actually part of a story named "Mad Mag." The author that the woman at the store was telling us about is Philip Howard. His great-great-great-great-great grandfather, William Howard, bought the island in1759 and the Howard family has lived and died on this island for decades. Philip wrote two books of history and ghosts stories and he started the ghost tour on Okracoke. He is retired now, but his daughter has taken up the reins and we joined her for a ghost tour. The family owns a shop called The Village Craftsmen where local artisans sell their wares. Right across the street is the family's cemetery. We shared a reel on Instagram of the cemetery in June while we were there. There are over 80 cemeteries across the island. Most are surrounded by fences, not to keep the people out, but to keep the bodies in. The water table sometimes would bring coffins up out of more shallow graves during flooding. 

Many of the people who lived on Okracoke in the early days were schooner captains or sailors. There was no ferry to bring people and supplies. Many of these captains would sail to other ports and one of these men was Captain John Simon Howard. He went to Maine and brought back a young Margaret Eaton with him. They married and as Mag got older, she got quirky. She would decorate the trees with hanging flowers and other things and began making herself elaborate hats. Now while these endeavors were creative, Mag was actually slipping into mental illness. Her husband came home one day to find that she had chopped one of her toes off with a meat cleaver. Another time, John came home and found a cat in the stew pot. Mag was 52 when John passed away in 1923. We'll pick up Philip's story on pg. 115 in "Howard Street Hauntings and Other Stories."

We headed over to the Okracoke Lighthouse. The lighthouse is a 77 foot tall white tower that was built in 1823 by architect Noah Porter. The solid brick walls were five-feet thick at the bottom and two-feet thick at the top. The interior isn't very big and the spiraling stairs in the middle can no longer be climbed. The original light was basically silvered reflectors that magnified the flame of a whale oil lamp. A Fresnel lens replaced this in 1854. In 1929, the oil lamp was replaced by an incandescent bulb and in 1946 the lighthouse became fully automated. Lighthouse keepers stayed in a house near the lighthouse that was expanded through the years. Despite the Okracoke Lighthouse being one of the oldest lighthouses in the country that is still in use and having keepers die on the premises, there are no hauntings reported at the lighthouse. But there is a haunting connected to Captain Joe Merritt Burrus. He was serving one winter in 1917 when his supplies ran low. The food wasn't as big a concern to him as was his chewing tobacco. He ran out and had to chew boat caulking. Anyway, Captain Joe retired and died in 1951 and its said his spirit haunts the cottage he moved into after retiring. Howard recounts the following in his book Howard Street Hauntings about a conversation Captain Joe's nephew had with a woman who had purchased the cottage. (p. 16)

We visited the British Cemetery, which is the final resting spot for four sailors from HMT Bedfordshire, which was torpedoed on May 11, 1942. These were the only bodies recovered from the attack. Many hurricanes have blown through the island with the most recent being Dorian in 2019. These storms have changed the topography of the island. And there have been many man-made changes. In earlier years, the island was separated by two streams called Big Gut and Little Gut. This divided the village into two groups called The Creekers and The Pointers. This wasn't about political class or station in life, but rather, about location. And a friendly rivalry developed that continues to today, even though the Navy filled in the creeks in 1942 when they dredged to make it easier for their ships to get around. Other things that changed the island is that people really like to move the houses around.

We stayed at the Pony Island Inn, which was in the middle of the village and enjoyed some great food and local brews at 1718 Brewing. Night came and we headed off to the Village Craftsmen and Philip's daughter Amy took us through the village and shared several of the haunted locations with us. The former Odd fellows Hall is one of the places that has been moved around on the island and is the last Greek Revival structure on the island. It was just undergoing some refurbishment when we stood outside of it and no one is sure exactly what its next iteration would be. This two story building was built in 1901 by Charlie Scarborough who bought the property from James and Zilphia Howard. This became Ocracoke Lodge No. 194 Independent Order of Odd Fellows. the lodge was on the second floor and the first floor was used as a public school. The building was sold as a private residence in 1917. During World War II, the upper floor became home for Naval Officers. After the war, wings were added to the building and it was opened as the Silver Lake Inn. This was one of the island's first modern hotels with running water, electricity and indoor plumbing. This became the social center of the village. Years later, the business became Island Inn. It closed under foreclosure in 2010 and was reopened again, but closed again in 2015. The Ocracoke Preservation Society bought the building in 2018 and removed it from the wings and placed in a new spot on new pilings in 2021, which is how it still is today. The building is said to be haunted by a ghost called Mrs. Godfrey. A guest told Philip Howard the following story in his book "Digging Up Uncle Evans." (p. 31)

The James Henry Garrish House was another stop for us. This was a home built by a descendant of one of the original settlers to the island, Henry Garrish. When James passed in 1947, the house was sold out of the family. The house was rented out as a summer rental and renters started reporting odd activity. Pictures on the walls would be hanging upside down. The house was remodeled and added onto with an L-shaped addition of three rooms. A rear porch was enclosed and turned into a hallway, which made the interior of the house get a little weird. Amy explains that to us and shares the haunting experience of one man who stayed in the house. (Amy Garrish House)

The beaches are amazing here. And speaking of them, there is a haunting connected to the beach. This is from Philip Howard's book "Howard Street Hauntings and Other Stories. (p.75) And our final story for Okracoke is really cool and features a ghost ship. (p. 91)

The next morning we headed to the ferry for Hatteras Island early. There are seven towns that make up the island of Hatteras: Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Frisco, Buxton, and Hatteras. There have been humans on the island since at least 500 AD and some historians believe that the colonists from Roanoke might have ended up here eventually. European settlers arrived in the 1700s. The island was originally called Hatterask for the indigenous people that were there first. During the Civil War, the Confederates built two forts on the island. The Union army won its first victory in The Battle of Hatteras Inlet and they would control the island. Freed slaves came to the island in 1862 and lived in a barracks there that became known as the Hotel De Afrique. This was the first safe place for escaped slaves in North Carolina and was part of the Underground Railroad. Ferry used to be the only form of transport to the island, but the Bonner Bridge was built in 1963 and that made it so people could drive to the island. That bridge was replaced with the Marc Basnight Bridge in 2019. US Lifesaving Stations soon dotted the island and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was built. The US Weather Station in Hatteras would receive the initial telegraph that the Titanic was sinking.

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was unfortunately completely surrounded by scaffolding when we visited. Although for us it was easy to envision what it looks like without the scaffolding because it has the same black and white candy-cane striping as the St. Augustine Lighthouse. This is the tallest brick lighthouse in the world, rising to 208 feet. This wasn't the first lighthouse here. The first was built in 1803 and made from sandstone and rose 90 feet. This lighthouse was a complete failure as its sandstone color blended in with environment and the tower was too short. In 1853, 60 feet were added to the tower so it stood 150 feet. The top portion was painted red with white at the base. A first order Fresnal lens was added as well. In the 1860s it was decided a new lighthouse was needed This one was completed in 1870 and had been built on a floating foundation because of the high water table. Six foot by twelve foot yellow pine timbers were laid crossways below the water table and granite rock layers were placed on top of the timbers. The base is octagon-shaped and made from brick and granite and painted red. The black and white pattern of the tower was added in 1873. It's a beautiful lighthouse. 

The lamp was electrified in 1934. Beach erosion  forced the closer of the lighthouse and the beacon was moved to a skeletal steel tower the following year. By 1950, the beach had built back up and the lighthouse was reopened, but the beach would erode again and an ambitious decision was made. The lighthouse was going to be moved. The museum had an entire room dedicated to this undertaking and amazingly, the lighthouse was moved 2,900 feet to its present location over 23 days in 1999. On top of that, the oil house, Principal Keeper's Quarters, Double Keepers' Quarters and dwelling cisterns were all moved. The U.S. Coast Guard maintains the light, while the National Park Service takes care of the lighthouse and buildings. This lighthouse is haunted by a ghost cat. It matches the lighthouse as it is said to be black and white. The cat appears as a full-bodied apparition that rubs on visitors legs and they quickly realize it is a spirit when they reach down to pet it and it disappears. There are also a couple stories of a male apparition named Bob who wears a yellow raincoat.

There is also a mystery story connected to the lighthouse and Hatteras Island. In January of 1921, a five-masted commercial schooner named the Carroll A. Deering was found run aground  just off Cape Hatteras. This isn't strange considering that the Outer Banks is the Graveyard of the Atlantic. What was strange is that the ship was missing its entire crew of twelve. The life boats were gone. When the Coast Guard boarded the ship, there was no question that the crew had left in a hurry. Food had been prepared, but was untouched. The sails were set and the boat was in good condition until it was torn up by the Diamond Shoals as it sat off Cape Hatteras. The crew and life boats were never found. What had happened to them? Did bad weather force them from the schooner? Did pirates attack? Did some other crew of men force them from the ship? To this day, no one knows, but there are theories. We don't think pirates were involved because why wouldn't they take the ship for themselves? If there had been a mutiny on the ship, surely the mutineers would have taken the ship. A message was found by a man in a bottle off the North Carolina Coast in April 1921. It read, "Deering captured by oil-burning boat." After that, newspaper ran with stories that a Bolshevik plot to steal cargo and ships had hit the Deering. Many of our listeners probably wondered if the man who found that message was being honest and he wasn't. He later admitted that he wrote the message. Even though the Bermuda Triangle wouldn't be a thing until several decades later, people have wondered if it was responsible. A Coast Guard captain had the time had the most reasonable answer. He believed the ship had become stuck in a storm and the crew decided to row the nine miles to shore aboard the lifeboats, but the ocean was too rough and the boats didn't survive. 

Many listeners have heard of the Gray Man of Pawleys Island and we have covered it for a Moment in Oddity. This is a figure that is a harbinger of doom. Well apparently, Hatteras Island has a Gray Man as well. The legend goes that a man named Gray was killed by a sudden storm near Cape Point. Now whenever a storm is threatening the area, the Gray Man shows up on the beach between Cape Point and the Hatteras Lighthouse. In 1966, a hurricane was on the outskirts of Cape Hatteras and heading that way. The Coast Guard went out to warn residents to leave or batten down the hatches. After they were done, one of the newer Coast Guard members spotted a man down on the beach. This figure appeared gray and was waving its arms and pointing. Before one of his fellow guardsmen could stop him, he ran towards the beach to help this person. Just before he reached the man, the man disappeared. The Coast Guardman looked all around like, where did this guy go. When he got back to the rest of the crew who were waiting for him in a vehicle, they informed him that what he had just seen was the Gray Man of Hatteras. A picture was captured of the Gray Man during Hurricane Isabel in 2003.

One of the most well known legends connected to Hatteras Island is the story of Hatteras Jack. Hatteras Jack was apparently a white dolphin and sailors claimed he had the soul of a sailor who lost his life at sea. The treacherous waters were hard to navigate, of course, and the story goes that Hatteras Jack was good at guiding ships to safety. The dolphin would circle a ship to get its attention and then lead the way when it was safe. Some ships would blow their fog horn to call Hatteras Jack. After he guided a ship to safety, he would jump through the air and even walk on his tail as if celebrating. As time passed, technology improved and the need for Hatteras Jack went away and he seemed to go away too. People believe that the sailor's soul was now at rest.

The Lower Islands of the Outer Banks are both beautiful and crowded during the summer season. Many people love to spend their summer vacations here. And then there are the Bankers who call the Outer Banks home. Both residents and visitors have experienced strange things. Are any of these legends based in fact. Are the Lower Islands of the Outer Banks haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 476 - Haunted Smoky Mountains

Moment in Oddity - Sea-Cat Passports (Suggested by Darren Girard Koch)

In the summer of 2021, an old black and white photo started making the rounds on social media. The picture featured an old black and white photo of a cat on what appears to be a passport. The name of the passport holder is listed as "Herman the Cat" and his occupation is recorded as "Expert Mouser". The social media postings generally state that around the turn of the 20th Century, "sea-cats" needed their own passports. These days many people take their fur-kids abroad and are required to have proper documentation and health clearances to do so. What likely gave this story legs, or four paws, was an old article run in the New York Times on January 15th, 1943. It featured Herman's quote/unquote "passport" even including his stamped pawprint and it read, "With port precautions being what they are, even the cat must have his identification card". Although there has been no evidence found that sea-cat passports were actually a thing, the fun idea of such a necessity for that time, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Birth of George Pullman

In the month of March, on the 3rd, in 1831, George M. Pullman was born. George Mortimer Pullman was an American Industrialist born in Brocton, New York in 1831. In 1845, Pullman's family moved to Albion, New York for his father's work on the Erie Canal. George loved to watch the packet boats travel the canal when he was young as they carried mail and passengers. In 1864, he developed his first railroad sleeper or "palace" car after the design of the packet boats. When President Lincoln was assassinated, Pullman arranged to have his body transported from Washington, D.C. to Springfield, Illinois using one of his Pullman sleeper cars. This brought George national attention due to the hundreds of thousands of people who lined the train's route to pay their respect to the deceased President. Shortly thereafter, orders for his sleeper car began pouring in. Eventually Pullman introduced a sleeper car with an attached kitchen and dining area and the company hired African-American freedmen as Pullman porters who became very well known and widely respected for their elite service. As his company grew and production increased George decided to purchase 4,000 acres south of Chicago to establish Illinois' first company town. The aptly named town of Pullman, Illinois is today a historic town which hosts a walking tour with stops at key sites to learn about this model industrial community and its stories from a bygone era.

Haunted Smoky Mountains (Suggested by: Jennifer Billingham)

The Smoky Mountains carry a certain mystique about them and since they are a part of the Appalachian Mountains, the Appalachian culture has enhanced them with a rich folklore. But it wasn't just the Europeans who felt the peculiar ethos of the region. Native American tribes have long shared stories of the supernatural and incorporated pieces of their mythology into this land. This is a gorgeous area that many people enjoy for its natural beauty, but few probably know about the spiritual side of this ground. Join us as we share the history, legends and spirits of the Smoky Mountains!

The Smoky Mountains are also known as the Great Smoky Mountains and/or the Smokies and are a part of the Appalachian Mountains that rise along the Tennessee and North Carolina border. If you have seen them in person, you know why they carry that moniker. Early morning clouds and mist really do make it look like the mountains are covered in a blanket of smoke. It's something everyone should have on their bucket list. This is home to 187,000 acres of old growth forest and much of this has been protected since 1934 by the National Park Service as part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This National Park is THE most visited park in America with over 11 million visitors every year. The park is also an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The forest here is home to a large black bear and salamander population.

The Smokies have a human history that stretches back to prehistoric Paleo Indians. This was Cherokee territory until the French and Indian War when settlers came to the mountains. The Americans launched an invasion of Cherokee territory during the American Revolution because the tribe had aligned with the British. American forces burned many villages. By 1805, the Cherokee had ceded the Smokies to the U.S. government, however; some did manage to stay on the Eastern band. They eventually bought back land from the government. What had happened here is that the Cherokee were removed under the Indian Removal Act and sent West on the Trail of Tears, but one Cherokee in the Smokies named Tsali fought the removal and he gathered a small group with him. Eventually Tsali was captured and executed and the group he had with him was offered the opportunity to live if they would renounce their Cherokee tribal citizenship and become US citizens. They did and that is why the Eastern Band is still here. Forts were built and then many settlers eventually immigrated to the area and became the Mountain People, some of whom were loggers, others were moonshiners and there were farmers who would grow sorghum and corn.

Once the government started buying up land in the Smokies, it was just a matter of time before the Mountain People would be run off. Logging would come to a stop as well. The animals would now be free to roam safely. One of the unfortunate casualties of humans in the area was that the cougars who had once called this home, were all hunted out by the settlers. If you hear a story of a cougar sighting in the Smokies it is just that, a story. Any modern day claims have been proven to be hoaxes. The highest peak is Clingmans Dome and there is an observation tower atop it at 6,643 feet. The Civilian Conservation Corps built most of the trails, infrastructure and fire towers. The cities that surround the park are Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Each of these cities has hauntings and so could be considered part of the haunted Smokies. We knew we wanted to include the legends directly connected to the park, but what about places in these cities? We decided to include a couple of those.

Jennifer - who suggested this location - loves the area and has visited many times from the time she was a child. She wrote, "There is so much energy in these areas! But there was one site a couple of years ago we unexpectedly visited that was up a steep hill that we abruptly came upon, and the energy just intuitively forced me to stop and tell my son and husband 'no' and not to go in further. It didn’t feel right and we felt watched after that as we walked through the woods more. Maybe our minds were getting a little too into themselves, but there was definitely an energy shift after that!" So, needless to say, we were intrigued as to what we would find. 

Devil's Courthouse

With locations like the Devil's Courthouse, it's no wonder that many people feel a certain mystical air about the place. The Devil's Courthouse is located at Whiteside Mountain in North Carolina and early settlers gave this craggy rockface of soapstone that name because it looked like the Devil himself. Legends went on to claim that he actually held court in a cave beneath the cliff. Beliefs about this cave go further back to the Cherokee who claimed this was the home of Tsul 'Kalu - or Jutaculla as Europeans came to spell it - who was a slant-eyed giant with a voice like thunder who carried arrows made from lightning. He danced in the cave and carried out judgements there. In Cherokee mythology, he was in charge of the hunt, so he would be invoked in hunting rites and rituals.

Spearfinger

The Cherokee have another piece of creepy folklore. The Cherokee have a female monster they call U'tlun'ta, which means "the one with pointed spear." The more common name for this creature is Spearfinger and that is because she has a sharp finger on her right hand that seems to be made from obsidian. She uses it to cut her victims. Spearfinger had stone-like skin and blood stained her mouth because she ate the liver of her victims. Spearfinger sounded like thunder when she walked because she crushed rocks beneath her feet and her voice echoed through the Smokies. Spearfinger could shapeshift into family members of her child victims. Her favorite spot was to walk the trail that joined Chilhowee Mountain and the Little Tennessee River. The Cherokee believed that she lived on Whiteside, which was a thunder mountain. Said to roam Noland Creek Trail and Whiteside Mountain, Spearfinger may be one of the creepiest Cherokee folklore traditions.You might want to stay clear of these haunted places in the Smoky Mountains as Spearfinger is one frightening spirit to encounter. This mythology represents the belief that the Cherokee had that shapeshifters stalked the mountains. 

Wampus Cat

And where there is a National Park, there just has to be a cryptid or two, right? The Wampus Cat is a mythological creature in the legends of the Cherokee. There was a Cherokee woman who was curious about the secret and sacred ceremonies of the elders. It was forbidden for her to watch, but one night she snuck into a spot where she could watch such a ceremony and she was caught. Her punishment was a curse that turned her into a half bear, half cat. She was left to roam throughout the years, searching for livestock and whining into the night. People claim to hear that whining around their campsites. And many people have seen the golden glow of the Wampus Cat's eyes. They have described the animal as looking like a mountain lion, but with six legs instead of 4. Others describe a more amphibious creature.

The Enchanted Lake

The Cherokee called the Smokies the “Land of Blue Smoke.” One of their favorite places here was Atagahi, an enchanted lake that humans cannot see. This is a sacred place meant for the creatures of the forest. They like to swim in it because the waters heal their wounds and sickness. A young Cherokee man really wanted to see the lake, so he spent days fasting and praying. The spiritual devotion paid off and when he went out into the forest, the lake emerged and he saw its stunning violet color. Then he saw groups of animals and waterfowl coming to the lake and it was the most beautiful thing he ever saw. He set up a pile of rocks to mark the spot. The winter came and was brutal and the Cherokee began to starve. The young man knew that the Enchanted Lake would make a good place to hunt, so he set off to find his marker. When he got there, he saw a bear and he shot an arrow into the animal's heart. The bear fell into the lake and was immediately healed. It climbed up on the shore and angrily yelled that the young man had betrayed the animals. Several other bears came out of the forest and they all descended on the hunter, killing him. The Cherokee eventually found the young man's body in the snow, but the lake was nowhere to be seen. It is said that sometimes people who are standing on top of Clingmans Dome can see a morning mist rising from the magic lake.

Cades Cove

Cades Cove is a broad and lush valley that is surrounded by mountains with lots of wildlife. For hundreds of years the Cherokee hunted this valley. Europeans settled here in the early 1800s and they built three churches, log houses, barns and a gristmill. They lived here for 100 years before the National Park was established. One interesting part of the community were their weaner cabins, which were small cabins built for a son to take his new bride to live that was far enough away from his family for privacy, but they still could get help if needed. Most families willingly sold their land to the government for the formation of the park, but some had to go to court several times before finally losing their land or signing a life-lease. By the end of the 1940s, no one was left in the community.

Mavis and Basil Estep lived in a two-room cabin in Cades Cove. Mavis had been born during a thunderstorm and so she always had an extreme fear of lightning and she was afraid she would be struck by lightning. Thus, she never allowed her husband Basil to buy them a metal bed. Mavis eventually died some time later from a persistent illness, but before she passed she made Basil promise that he wouldn't sell her beloved handmade quilts and that he wouldn't put any of them on a metal bed. Basil promised he wouldn't, but things changed after he remarried a much younger woman. Her name was Trulie and she was too big for Mavis' wooden bed, so Basil bought them a metal bed. Trulie got cold one winter night and asked Basil if they could put one of Mavis' quilts on the bed and Basil said "yes." This particular quilt was nicknamed the Cussing Cover because Mavis had made it using one of Basil's red flannel shirts that he had worn during their first fight. A thunderstorm rumbled that night and sure enough, a flash of light burst down through the house and knocked Trulie out of bed. She could smell ozone and charring and when she rolled over, she saw that Basil had been charred to a crisp and yet, the quilt had no marks upon it. Legend claims the quilt was sold to a collector.

People claim that Cades Cove is haunted. There have been tragedies and there have been murders. The gravestone of Gregory Russel reads "Killed by North Carolina Rebels." Pictures have captured orbs in the cemeteries and cabins, but the creepiest photo captured a woman's face coming out of the wall of the Primitive Baptist Church. She has sometimes been seen as a full-bodied apparition and sometimes just a face. And although the buildings are abandoned, people claim to feel as though they are being watched by something they can't see.

Roaring Fork Motor Trail

The Roaring Fork Trail has a hitchhiking ghost named Lucy. The story claims that Lucy died in a cabin fire in the early 1900s. A short time later, a man named Foster was riding his horse through the forest when he spotted Lucy. She was beautiful and appeared to need help. It was winter and cold and she was barefoot. He offered her a ride on his horse and gave her his coat. He got her nearly to her cabin when she jumped off the horse and said her father wouldn't understand. Foster ran into Lucy several times and fell in love with her and so he asked Lucy about talking to her father. She would always refuse and run off.  He was persistent and so he asked some of the neighbors what they knew about Lucy and where her home was and they told him that a Lucy had died in a fire many years before and that her family had left the area. Now travelers in the area along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail claim to see Lucy still looking for a ride. Now apparently this cabin didn't burn to the ground and was repaired and rented out as the Cabin on Roaring Fork. One family that had stayed there were pretty messy and they had left stuff all over the kitchen and table before going to bed. When they awoke in the morning, they found the table set and everything cleaned up.

Garden Plaza Hotel (Formerly Holiday Inn)

The main road through Gatlinburg is US-441 and along this route was the Garden Plaza Hotel, which used to be the Holiday Inn. Back in the 1980s, this hotel was the scene of a horrible crime. In July of 1980, two teenage girls from Crestwood, Kentucky decided to take a trip to Gatlinburg. They got separate rooms, 401 and 413 on the fourth floor of the Holiday Inn. The girls went out to dinner at a local steakhouse and lounge called The Rafters where they met a local drifter. They were seen leaving with the man and the next day, the girls were found murdered at the hotel. One was found in a stairwell that lead to the roof and the other was found in her room lying on the floor next to the bed. The drifter was found and arrested. At least that is according to one story. Other stories claim that one girl was drowned in a bathtub and the other was dragged to the roof and strangled. Whatever the case, these two girls did indeed end up murdered and now people claim that the hotel is haunted. Room 413 is the main location for much of the paranormal activity. People claimed to hear odd noises in the room like bangs, screams and even shrieks. There is also the sound of unseen people running in the hallway. And there is also running on the stairs. Activity was so bad that the Garden Plaza Hotel stopped renting out Room 413. Another spirit at the hotel was said to belong to Alvin who had been a longtime employee. He liked to hang out in the kitchen. His activity was of the poltergeist kind and usually entailed utensils flying through the air. But that all changed with the demolition of the hotel. A Hampton Inn was built in its place and we aren't sure if any of the spirits are still there.

The Greenbriar Restaurant

The Greenbriar Restaurant is probably the most haunted location in Gatlinburg and is found off the beaten path at 370 Newman Road off of Highway 381. When one enters, the first room you see is an entry into what had been an old hunting lodge established in the 1930s. A woman named Blanche Moffet had built the cabin lodge and named it The Greenbrier Lodge.  Her main customers were hunters and other travelers looking to get away from the city. She also ran part of the lodge as a boarding house for men working in the area. Blanche had a room upstairs and she also had women traveling alone stay up there while single men bunked downstairs. This lodge ran similar to a bed and breakfast as Blanche made breakfast for guests in the morning. The first in-ground pool in Gatlinburg would be installed by Blanche at the lodge.

Actors and actresses who attended the University of Tennessee in nearby Knoxville stayed at the lodge starting in the mid-50s all the way up until the mid-70s as they performed in plays at the Hunter Hills Theater in Gatlinburg.  This amphitheater was one of the first in the Southeast and provided entertainment during the summer months. After nearly fifty years in business, Blanche was getting tired and in 1980 she decided to sell. Dean and Barbara Hadden became the new owners and their six children helped turn the former hunting lodge into a restaurant. The Haddens decided to lease the property out in 1991 shortly before Dean passed away. The people who leased it didn't do well and shut the restaurant down fairly soon after opening. Barbara decided to reopen the Greenbriar in 1993 and today her son David, his wife Becky and their son Jordan run the establishment. Everything we read about this place gives it great reviews for atmosphere and food. It is an upper-end restaurant, but well worth it. 

And there's even more for us to love because the restaurant is reputedly haunted, a claim made by employees and patrons alike. Employees claimed to have seen the ghost of a lady by the name of Lydia. The story is pretty typical. She was spurned at the altar. One can only imagine the heartache and anger that she suffered. Lydia had stayed at the Greenbriar Lodge the night before her wedding and it was there that she had slipped into her wedding gown before the ceremony, so she returned there after being abandoned. She went to the second floor landing, tossed a rope up over the rafters and hanged herself. The legend claims that she was buried in a nearby unmarked grave. The groom apparently got what was coming to him when a mountain lion killed him in the mountains when he went hunting.

Sightings of Lydia began shortly after her death with her awakening a caretaker at the lodge with her mournful cries. She kept repeating, "Mark my grave, mark my grave." The caretaker had to endure several nights of this before he decided to go out and place a marker on the grave. After that was done, he never saw Lydia again. But the same cannot be said for the employees and patrons of the restaurant. Owner Becky Hadden said, "Today, the ghost of Lydia still roams the old Greenbrier Lodge, now our Greenbrier Restaurant. Her spirit is often seen on the stairs of the second floor landing. Guests who eat here claim to see her small, sad figure wandering around from time-to-time." Murfreesboro Post journalist Dan Whittle wrote an article in 2014 about visiting the restaurant. Dan wrote, "Jason, our table server, confessed he's never seen 'Lydia,' but that fellow Greenbrier work associates 'have witnessed food items being knocked off food shelves in the restaurant pantry. And some diners have seen Lydia, in the form of a petite young girl, on the stairs in this old building.'" 

Lydia may not be the only ghost here. The lodge's pool was eventually filled in with concrete, but not before a little boy drowned in it. Apparently, the spirit of this little boy likes to hang out at the restaurant. Customers have felt his presence near the bar, especially under it and he likes to play on the staircase. The employees have placed some jacks under the stairs to give the boy something to play with. A medium has also told the Greenbriar that there is an older man who sits in the back corner of the restaurant who gets quite grumpy when it is loud in the establishment.

Wheatlands Plantation

Sevierville is located in the foothills of the Smokie Mountains in Tennessee. The Wheatlands Plantation is here near a trail that had once been the Great Indian Warpath. The man who founded Sevierville, John Sevier had followed this path in 1780 to engage in a battle with the Cherokee whom were defeated at the Battle of Boyd's Creek. The battlefield is where the Wheatlands Plantation was built. This was originally known as Boyd's Creek Farm and was established by Timothy Chandler. When he died in 1819, his son John inherited the property. The original farmhouse burned to the ground in 1823 and John built the two-story Federal-style plantation house that still exists today. The Queen Anne style porch and windows were added in 1889. He named it Wheatlands and it became one of the largest farms in Sevier County covering 4,600 acres. The farm raised livestock and grew buckwheat, sweet potatoes, hay, oats and corn. The work was done by fourteen enslaved people. John also started a distillery where they manufactured 6,000 gallons of whiskey.

During the Civil War, the Union took over the plantation and used it as a Winter Quarters for the Tenth Regiment Cavalry out of Michigan and the 8th division from Western Pennsylvania. The location allowed them to run raids into Sevierville, Gatlinburg and Newport. After the war, Chandler began paying the former slaves who were now emancipated and decided to stay on at Wheatlands. Chandler not only paid them, but upon his death in 1875, he left them a section of land on the south side of the property that became known as The Chandler Gap and a strong black community grew up in this area long into the 20th century. The Chandler family held onto the plantation for eleven generations, finally selling it in 2011 to Richard Parker and John Burns who restored the house and opened it to the public for tours. Although based on what we could find, it has been closed for several years now and may even be owned privately. 

There are many original structures here including the house, a smokehouse, the summer kitchen with dining hall, and loom house. Unfortunately, the distillery burned in the late 1930s. Much of the interior is original as well with hand-planed railings and windows. The mantel have hand-carved details and entablatures, which are the flat parts of the mantlepiece. Many houses of the time had the standard parlor hall layout, but this one had a central floor plan. The smokehouse was built in the early 19th century, and was made from hewn logs with a board and batten door.

There are so many reasons for this house to be haunted. First, we had that initial Revolutionary War battle and the bodies of 27 Native Americans killed during that battle were put into a burial mound on the property and there are two graves for Revolutionary War soldiers. We have also heard that there may have been up to 50 to 69 slaves buried on the property. This was a Civil War headquarters. And John was a Freemason who purposefully built the house on top of a giant geode. There are also claims that the house has seen 70 deaths, some from murder. One of these murders was of a father by his son who used an iron poker to do the deed. Apparently, the father was jealous that his mother had skipped over him and left the estate to his son upon her death. There is a bloodstain that remains on the living room floor and no amount of cleaning has ever been able to get rid of it. Two women died on the staircase, one from falling and another had a heart attack. Fifteen people died of natural causes in the master bedroom.

People who took tours claimed to hear strange sounds like the yells of a man, thudding noises and a sickening gurgling noise. Almost as though a murder is playing out in a residual manner. Several members of the Chandler family that died in the house are thought to still roam the house in the afterlife. People have even seen apparitions in the gardens. Children who had been enslaved are seen still playing on the property and even play hide and seek with visitors. The spirit of a young girl in a blue dress is seen in the house, many times on the stairs.  Other disembodied voices are heard and there are shadow figures.

The Destination America show Ghost Stalkers visited the plantation in 2014. This was hosted by Chad Lindberg and John E.L. Tenney. Chad was doing an EVP session in the cellar and he captured a voice saying, "Hi." John thought he saw a figure in the master bedroom. The Gamma Radar recorded a lot of energy in there. And then it went completely dead. Chad got tapped on his shoulder and felt really cold in the master bedroom. John was in the parlor where the murder happened and he got a scratch on his abdomen that was noticeable. This may have been in the same place where the father had been stabbed.

The Smoky Mountains are an incredibly beautiful part of America. We've driven through them, but never had the chance to actually hang out for a while and clearly, based on all these legends and haunting experiences, this is a place ghost hunters need to check out. Are the Smoky Mountains and all these locations haunted? That is for you to decide!