Alan Brown - Haunted Tennessee: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Volunteer State

To my daughter Andrea and my son-in-law Kenny, who have given me another reason to love Memphis

Copyright 2009 by Stackpole Books

Published in 2009 by
STACKPOLE BOOKS
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Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

FIRST EDITION

Cover design by Caroline Stover

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brown, Alan, 1950 Jan. 12

Haunted Tennessee : ghosts and strange phenomena of the volunteer state / by Alan Brown ; illustrations by Heather Adel Wiggins.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8117-3540-7 (pbk.)

ISBN-10: 0-8117-3540-0 (pbk.)

1. GhostsTennessee. 2. Haunted placesTennessee. I. Title.

BF1472.U6B7435 2009

133.109768dc22

2008040678

Introduction

T ENNESSEE IS A MULTIFACETED STATE , WITH LARGE CITIES AND SMALL towns; mountains, forests, and fields; and rivers and lakes. Tennessee is known as the Volunteer State, for the large number of soldiers the state provided during the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, but from a historical perspective, it is also, as the Cherokee chief Dragging Canoe put it, the Dark and Bloody Ground. Ghosts seem to be found everywhere in Tennessee, from the bucolic small towns to the weathered historic districts of its metropolitan centers. Tennessee is indeed a haunted state.

Tennessees storied past is populated by a number of iconic figures, many of whom are now said to haunt the places where they once lived or visited. Andrew Jackson, they say, made a return visit to his beloved Hermitage toward the end of the nineteenth century. Jackson also plays a prominent role in what has become one of Tennesseesand Americasgreatest ghost stories: that of the Bell Witch. Patrick Cleburne, one of the Confederate generals who fell at the Battle of Franklin, can still be seen standing on the porch where his body was placed awaiting burial. Hank Williams, the undisputed king of country-western music, is said to haunt the Ryman Auditorium, where he performed for the Grand Ole Opry. If the photographic evidence can be believed, Elvis Presley can still be seen staring out of one of the second-floor windows of Graceland. Strong personalities, it seems, tend to make a lasting impression on the landscape.

The majority of Tennessees ghosts apparently emerged from the conflicts that left their bloody imprint on the history of the state. The ghosts of Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Indians who perished aiding the British in the Revolutionary War and fighting the settlers in the nineteenth century stride proudly through many of the states oldest and most enduring legends. Many soldiers who died in some of the most horrible battles of the Civil War, such as Shiloh, Stones River, and Franklin, are believed to haunt many of the antebellum homes that were converted into makeshift hospitals. And it seems that some of the most dedicated spirits are still at their posts, defending old forts and standing watch in the trenches of the battlefields. Even country music legend Loretta Lynns mansion in Hurricane Mills is reputed to be haunted by the Confederate soldiers buried on her property.

Some of Tennessees most moving ghost stories focus more on personal misfortunes, however. The tragically premature deaths of little Nina Craigmiles in a carriage accident and wealthy Adelicia Acklens infant twins have generated ghost stories that are just as likely to evoke tears as goose bumps. The suicides that are memorialized in the campus lore of many of Tennessees colleges and universities remind us that simply growing up and living on ones own can be too daunting a task for some young people.

Tennessees rugged terrain is also said to be home to some mysterious creatures. In the colorfully named Suck Lick Creek and Flintville, a Bigfoot-like being has been seen loping through the foothills. In October 1950, a number of UFOs reportedly streaked through the night skies of Oak Ridge. And a half-human, half-feline creature called the Wampus Cat has stalked through the nightmares of Native Americans and residents of the region for generations. Ghosts, it appears, are not the only fearsome beings in Tennessee.

If the preceding paragraphs have not convinced you that Dragging Canoe was correct when he called Tennessee the Dark and Bloody Ground, read on. I think you will find that the old Cherokee chiefs pronouncement was more accurate than he ever realized.

Central

Tennessee

C ENTRAL T ENNESSEE LIES IN THE HEART OF THE N ASHVILLE B ASIN , or Central Basin, which drains toward the northwest. The region includes Nashville, the state capital and second largest city in Tennessee. The basin is also an agricultural region whose rolling meadows and fertile fields have made it one of the wealthiest parts of the state.

Bigfoot, the Man-Beast

Until the 1970s, Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, was considered by most people to be a quasimythical beast that inhabited the great forests of Oregon, Washington, and California. In 1972, the release of The Legend of Boggy Creek, a low-budget docudrama about Arkansass Fouke Monster, forever altered the nations perception of the giant humanoid creature. People were now ready to believe what Southerners had known all along: that Bigfoot-like monsters have been sighted south of the Mason-Dixon line for years. And Tennessee is one of the Southern states reputedly home to Bigfoot.

One of the first reported sightings of Bigfoot took place in the spring of 1974 along South Lick Creek Road in Williamson County. Two boys were riding their minibikes out in the country, looking for bait to go fishing. They parked their bikes on the roadside and walked down a path toward a pasture where cattle were grazing. After a few minutes, one of the brothers began to feel uncomfortable. He sensed that he and his brother were being watched. Suddenly the boys stopped dead in their tracks. Off to their left, approximately forty yards from the main road, was a hairy, manlike creature. It was crouching in a small patch of mayapples, raking its arms along the ground. The animal saw the two boys but did not appear to be disturbed by their presence. Later, the boys described the creature as standing between five and six feet high, with medium brown hair, a low gorillalike head, and long arms. Terrified, the boys ran away as fast their legs could carry them, slowing down just long enough to glance over their shoulder at the monster, which continued picking around the patch of mayapples.

Several even more frightening incidents reportedly took place in Flintville, about seven miles west of Chattanooga. For more than twenty years, residents of Flintville were terrified by a beast that carried off livestock and left behind sixteen-inch footprints and a pungent odor. One man swore that a seven-foot monster chased him through the woods, screaming and howling. In 1976, a frantic woman told police that a giant, hairy monster pounced onto the roof of her car and jumped up and down. It also broke off the cars antenna. That same year, Jennie Robertson was doing housework while her four-year-old son, Gary, was playing outside. She immediately stopped what she was doing when she heard him scream. As Jennie ran outside, her nostrils were assailed by a terrible odor that reminded her of dead rats. Then she saw something that caused chills to run up her spine. A seven- or eight-foot beast that was covered with hair was loping across the yard toward her son. Just before the monster grabbed Gary, Jennie scooped up the frightened child in her arms and ran back inside the house. While she locked the doors, she noticed that the creature had melted into the woods. She called the police and, in a trembling voice, reported her sons near abduction. The police spent most of the night combing the woods for the creature, which screamed if they got too close and threw rocks at them. The sixteen-inch footprints the police found the next morning convinced them that the woman had had an actual encounter with Bigfoot.