Copyright University of South Carolina 1988
Cloth and paperback editions published by the University of South Carolina Press, 1988
Ebook edition published in Columbia, South Carolina,
by the University of South Carolina Press, 2013
Enlarged edition of Appalachian Ghosts published by Doubleday & Company, Inc.,
Garden City, New York, 1978
Photographs by Bruce Roberts
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 12 13 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print editions as follows:
Roberts, Nancy, 1924
Ghosts of the southern mountains and Appalachia.
Enl. ed. of : Appalachian ghosts. c1978.
1. GhostsAppalachian Region. I. Roberts, Nancy, 1924
Appalachian ghosts. II. Title.
BF1472. U6R63 1988 133.1'0975 8820836
ISBN 0-87249-597-3
ISBN 0-87249-598-1 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-1-61117-358-1 (ebook)
CONTENTS
Hendersonville, North Carolina
Adams, Tennessee
New Market, Virginia
Decatur, Alabama
Fort Mountain, Georgia
Smoky Mountains, Tennessee
Campbellsville, Kentucky
Middleway, West Virginia
South Mountain, Maryland
Hill Country, West Virginia
Ducktown, Tennessee
Talcott, West Virginia
Grant Town, West Virginia
Black Mountain, North Carolina
Flatwoods, West Virginia
Grant Town, West Virginia
Ducktown, Tennessee
Mountains, South Carolina
Ghosts of the Southern Mountains and Appalachia
Night of the Hunt
Hendersonville, North Carolina
In the North Carolina mountains south of Asheville and nearer Hendersonville, it was a good hunting night. You might even go so far as to say, it was the best of all nights and the worst of all nights for after it, neither dog nor hunters would ever be the same again. It is too bad, because this particular dog was his owners pride and joy.
It was the time of year when it began to get dark early but wasnt too cold, and the sky was full of shifting clouds. Wheeler and his friend, Tom McDuffy, were riding along in Wheelers old blue Ford pick-up along Highway 25 south of Hendersonville. String Bean, a black and tan coon dog, was in the back, and to hear Jim Wheeler tell it, no dog ever lived that was this ones equal. He began to explain to his inexperienced friend how the hunt goes.
Coons like dark nights and they tree better on nights like this instead of just heading for a hole in the ground, explained Jim who had been trying to talk his friend into going with him for a long time.
Tom, it gets into your blood and in the fall when the darkness begins to come early, you think about walking through the leaves, seeing your breath make smoke curls in the night air and watching the sky hoping the moons not going to come out and light up the whole woods.
What are we trying to do, though?
Well, the purpose of coon hunting is to tree the coon.
Yes, I know that but to me String Beans no different from other dogs, You act like hes human.
What are you talking about. String Beans won more coon hunt trophies than any dog in North or South Carolina either. I did hear onetime there was a dog over in Tennessee that had won just as many; but that may have been String Beans grand-daddy. Tennessees where all the great coon dogs come from, though.
What makes one of these great coon dogs youre talkin about?
Well, Ill tell you. They got to be able to run all night and they got to have a nose that can tell the trail of a coon from a possum.
What else?
Now, take String Bean, when hes after a coon nothing in heaven or earths goin to distract him. A deer could start buck dancing right in front of him and hed pass on by. But the main thing about a good dog is his bark. As soon as String Bean picks up the scent hell bark to let me know and then, as he chases the coon, hell bark every couple of minutes to let me know which direction hes running in. Thats his trailin bark.
What kind of bark does that one sound like?
Well, its not his regular bark. You just get so you know it. Then when hes got the raccoon treed hell give out a series of continuous barks. String Bean can just about talk to me, said Jim proudly.
By this time the two men had reached a side road north of Flat Rock where they turned off. They bounced down the rutted dirt road, skirting pot holes, for several miles on the way to their favorite hunting spot. The woods they were headed for was just the other side of the old Culpepper place not far from Pisgah Forest. When the pick-up rolled to a stop, Jim let String Bean out of the back of the truck and started talking to him.
Youre gonna have a good time tonight, String Bean. The weathers just right for us and that coon. Only the silhouettes of the bare tree branches could be seen against the dark sky. Gnarled limbs of oak trees gestured awkwardly overhead, a few beeches still wore some of their bright brown leaves and the big tulip poplars stood like white skeletons in the night. The hunters adjusted and lighted their carbide lamps fixing them to their caps. String Bean watched and waited. He knew the night was his and there would be coons out there just for him.
At last they were ready to take the dog off his leash. With a Go get um! from Jim, String Bean was off. For a few seconds his paws could be heard hitting the carpet of old leaves on the ground as he circled about in the woods, then the rustling sounds faded and the men were left in the darkness and quiet of the Carolina woods. They were far enough away from Hendersonville so that there was no reflection of lights in the sky nor a sound to be heard from the distant highway. It was like being the last two men alive.
The carbide lamps made them look almost like coal miners in some dark, deep tunnel rather than hunters. Actually, it was past the season when you could shoot raccoons and neither man carried a gun. They were there to hear the dog run, to get away from their wives for an evening and for something else they couldnt have put into words if they tried. Perhaps, it was to experience that awesome feeling of being remote from civilization, out there alone in the woods on this ink-black night.
Whatever each mans thoughts were, they were interrupted by a bark. String Beans voice floated back saying he had found the trail of a coon. Jim and Tom stood leaning against the truck. Now they would wait until the dogs bark indicated he had the coon treed. When it came they would make their way to him while String Bean would give out almost continuous barks to keep the coon in the uppermost branches and the hunters on course to the tree.
