Eerie whispers of sinister Carolina ghosts, tormented apparitions, and vengeful children cast a chilling spell that transcends the bounds of familiar haunted realms like Charleston, Wilmington, and Asheville. In the shadows, concealed from casual eyes, lie tales of mesmerizing malevolence.
As we journey forth, prepare your innocent ears for the disquieting narratives of five obscure sites haunted by forgotten echoes in North and South Carolina. Will you brave the boundaries of the spectral plane?
What appears quaint in the daytime turns sinister at night…
Sticks And Stones May Break My Bones…
Glencoe Mill Village, 2320 River Rd, Burlington, NC 27217
https://www.visitalamance.com/listing/glencoe-mill-village/310/
If you take a leisurely daytime drive through the historic district of Glencoe Mill Village, you’ll likely be enchanted by the well-preserved, brightly colored row houses that line a quaint, unassuming street in Burlington. After dusk? We would strongly advise you to stay away.
Residents report that if you stop and honk your horn, angry ghosts will come speeding out of the abandoned homes to hurl rocks and broken glass bottles at your vehicle. Such harrowing encounters date back to nearly a century ago when the area – known colloquially as Munchkinland – was home to a family of five children (several of whom were born with severe congenital disabilities).
The Massey children were taunted relentlessly by neighbors and passersby to the point that the eldest brother Pete left piles of rocks for them to throw back at their mockers. Despite a diminished frequency of sighting deranged children at night, strange and surreal things continue to happen in Glencoe Mill Village. Only the boldest ghost hunters should dare to explore this spooky street and the many other haunted locations in Burlington and the surrounding Alamance County.
What's that shadow lurking behind you? It's just your ghastly dinner guest here to join you!
Carnage At The Country Squire: Dine With Your Friendly Neighborhood Carolina Ghost
The Country Squire Restaurant, Inn & Winery, 748 NC 5 Hwy, State Rd 24 Bus #50, Kenansville, NC 28349
https://www.countrysquirewinery.com/winery.html
Beware of darts shooting through the air as you step gingerly into the Scottish tartan-adorned entrance to the Country Squire Restaurant. No, the chef isn’t having a bad day, but perhaps you should be worried about the disgruntled spirits roaming the floors of the 460-seat restaurant, inn, and winery.
How is it that one of the best vineyards in Duplin County is also one of North Carolina’s most notorious haunts? Paranormal investigators have been scanning the site for decades to capture audio recordings and thermal images of a gang of eight to ten ghosts dating from the American Revolution days to the present.
Witnesses have attested to hearing disturbances like slamming doors and rattling chains, while others have spotted floating apparitions and macabre faces. While the building now entertains thousands of oenophiles and foodies annually, it has received less acclaim for the recorded deaths on site. There’s hardly a room in the dimly lit tavern – including the bathroom and dance floor – where members of the owners and guests alike have met their end.
The last known portrait of the Lawson Family — the ghosts of which are reputed to haunt the second floor of Madison Dry Goods
Mysterious Massacre In Madison: This Carolina Ghost Is Featured On Netflix
104 W Murphy St, Madison, NC 27025
https://www.madisondrygoods.com/
An unassuming country store at the core of Madison is home to one of the most grotesque familicides in the history of the Tar Heel State. In the initial swirl of the Great Depression, Charlie Lawson gunned down his wife and children before taking his own life. To this day, no one knows the motive behind the heinous crime.
After numerous whispers of ghost sightings – children staring blankly from the top of the banister, startling thuds and slams, and jumbled yet commanding warnings to vacate – Netflix documentarians and paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren took it upon themselves to cross into the spirit domain on the upstairs level of Madison Dry Goods.
Curious to learn what they found? Watch 28 Days Haunted on Netflix – a nod to the length of time it requires to cross the threshold of the human world to the spirit realm – or peruse the old funeral parlor in the Madison Dry Goods Museum yourself.
Move over, Jason Voorhees. Carolina ghost Becky Cotton is here to haunt!
Languishing At Lake’s Bottom: Carolina Ghost Gets The “Last Laugh”
Slade Lake, 200 Water Works Rd, Edgefield, SC 29824
https://www.exploreedgefield.com/place/slade-lake
Known by local storytellers as Edgefield’s Devil in Petticoats, Becky Cotton was captured in Kings Mountain, NC, after she clobbered her husband to death with an ax. Incensed by his failure to defend her father, who was killed over a land dispute, Becky beguiled the all-male jury and married one of the trial jurors who acquitted her!
So much for a “happy” ending…legend has it that Becky ended the lives of a roster of husbands in grotesque manners – such as driving a needle through one’s heart and poisoning another with deadly nightshade in his tea.
It is unknown how Becky lugged her husband’s lifeless body from the murder site to the murky waters of “Beck’s Hole” at Slade Lake. To this day, however, Edgefield locals report peculiar noises and sightings from where Cotton deposited her former flame and where she was bludgeoned by her brother with an enormous boulder. Today, Edgefield maintains one of the lowest crime rates in the Palmetto State, despite its storied violent origins.
The notorious Greenville Tuberculosis Hospital, before it was demolished to make way for Herdklotz Park.
Swinging At The Sanatorium: Carolina Ghosts Want To “Play” With You!
Herdklotz Park, 126 Beverly Rd, Greenville, SC 29609
https://greenvillerec.com/parks/herdklotz-park/
So, you built a children’s playground…on the grounds of a former tuberculosis sanatorium? Only in the Carolinas. From the 1930s to the 1950s, scores of infected locals were relegated to the Greenville Tuberculosis Hospital to remain quarantined until they perished. After flames mysteriously engulfed the massive building in 2002, the city opened a sprawling park and recreational facility on top of the site where so many met the end of their suffering.
Herdklotz Park is one of the most beloved kid-friendly places in Greenville, SC. Families can hike along a half-mile walking trail, picnic at the shelters, and enjoy panoramic vistas of Paris Mountain and the Greenville horizon.
However, more frightening noises can be heard and seen between unbridled bouts of laughter and hurried steps of children running across the pavement. Agonizing shrieks and ominous bell tolls. Floating orbs. Other echoes possibly originating from those who succumbed to tuberculosis, which, at the time, was the leading killer of young adults.
Are you an expert on the haunted history of South and North Carolina? We’d love to hear some of your favorite haunts, the ones that are sure to make your hair stand on end! Share your encounters with fellow paranormal enthusiasts on the Carolina Traveler Facebook group – if you survive to tell the tale, that is!
