from Beyond the Grave at Cabe’s Land Cemetery, Durham
CHAPTER 13 Angry Ghosts Fuel the Fire at Stagville Plantation, Durham
Haunted Tours in Greensboro, New Bern, Charlotte, Raleigh, and Asheville
CHAPTER 14 The Flying Photographs of Mary Turk at Mordecai Plantation, Raleigh
CHAPTER 15 Philosophical Debates from the Ghosts of the Horace Williams House, Chapel Hill
The Brown Lady of Chowan University, Murfreesboro
CHAPTER 16 Civil War Governor Still Working at the State Capitol Building, Raleigh
ESP and Parapsychology at the Rhine Research Center, Durham
CHAPTER 17 So Comfortable That Guests and Ghosts Never Want to Leave the Carolina Inn, Chapel Hill
CHAPTER 18 The Haunting Bentonville Battlefield Driving Tour, Four Oaks
CHAPTER 19 Prohibition and the Ghost of the Page-Walker Hotel, Cary
WEST CAROLINA – The Blue Ridge Mountains and the Foothills
CHAPTER 20 The Gentle Touch from the Pink Lady at the Grove Park Inn, Asheville
The Legendary Brown Mountain Lights
CHAPTER 21 Ghost Walking in Latta Plantation, Charlotte
Joshua P. Warren’s Asheville Tourism Center and Free Museum
CHAPTER 22 The Legend of Blowing Rock and the Green Park Inn, Blowing Rock
Mass Murderer Charlie Lawson, Germanton
CHAPTER 23 The Haunting Charm of Charlotte’s Fourth Ward and the Old Settler’s Cemetery, Charlotte
The Sad Preacher in the Chapel of Rest, Lenoir
CHAPTER 24 The Juxtaposition of Asheville, from Healing Resorts and Endless Views to the Mass Murderer of Asheville and the Haunted Gallows Trail, Asheville
The Inmates of the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad Tunnel, Dillsboro
CHAPTER 25 The Vanderbilts Who Never Left the Biltmore Estate, Asheville
The Mountain of Terror Haunts You Back
Haunting Theme Parks of North Carolina
The Mysterious Vortex of Mystery Hill, Blowing Rock
GHOSTHUNTING TRAVEL GUIDE
Visiting the Haunted Sites of North Carolina
Further Reading
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Welcome to America’s Haunted Road Trip
DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS?
If you are like 52% of Americans (according to a recent Harris Poll), you do believe that ghosts walk among us. Perhaps you have heard your name called in a dark and empty house. It could be that you have awoken to the sound of footsteps outside your bedroom door, only to find no one there. It is possible that you saw your grandmother sitting in her favorite rocking chair, the same grandmother who had passed away several years before. Maybe you took a photo of a crumbling, deserted farmhouse and discovered strange mists and orbs in the photo, anomalies that were not visible to your naked eye.
If you have experienced similar paranormal events, then you know that ghosts exist. Even if you have not yet experienced these things, you are curious about the paranormal world, the spirit realm. If you weren’t, you would not now be reading this preface to the latest book in the America’s Haunted Road Trip series from Clerisy Press.
Over the last several years, I have investigated haunted locations across the country, and with each new site, I found myself becoming more fascinated with ghosts. What are they? How do they manifest themselves? Why are they here? These are just a few of the questions I have been asking. No doubt you have been asking the same questions.
The books in the America’s Haunted Road Trip series can help you find the answers to your questions about ghosts. We’ve gathered some of America’s top ghost writers (pun intended) and researchers and asked them to write about their states’ favorite haunts. Each location they write about is open to the public so that you can visit it for yourself and try out your ghosthunting skills. In addition to telling you about their often hair-raising adventures, the writers have included maps and travel directions so that you can take your own haunted road trip.
People may think that North Carolina is nothing more than beautiful green mountains and miles of sandy beaches, but Kala Ambrose’s Ghosthunting North Carolina proves that the mountains are home to shadowy entities that are seen only for an instant before disappearing among the trees, and spirits that leave no footprints in the sands. The book is a spine-tingling trip through the state’s various regions with stops at inns, plantations, churches, lighthouses, historic sites, and cemeteries, and even a battleship—all of them haunted. Ride shotgun with Kala as she seeks out Civil War–soldier ghosts at Fort Fisher and the spirits of sailors who served aboard the USS North Carolina. Travel with her to Asheville’s Grove Park Inn, where the Pink Lady still roams the halls, or sit for a spell in the gardens of the Biltmore mansion and watch for the ghostly—and incredibly rich—members of the Vanderbilt family to stroll by. And can that swaggering spirit stalking the moonlit beaches near Beaufort really be the ghost of the infamous pirate Blackbeard? Hang on tight; Ghosthunting North Carolina is a scary ride.
But once you’ve finished reading this book, don’t unbuckle your seat belt. There are still 49 states left for your haunted road trip! See you on the road!
John Kachuba
Editor, America’s Haunted Road Trip
Introduction
WELCOME TO Ghosthunting North Carolina!
As your travel guide to the haunted state of North Carolina, it seems appropriate to let you know who is traveling with you on this journey. For as long as I can remember, I’ve seen ghosts. I was also born psychic, as well as an empath. As a child with these abilities, I didn’t quite understand what was happening to me. In large crowds or during the holidays, I would feel the intensity of emotions around me until I would experience severe stomachaches as I absorbed the emotional energy of the people around me.
Later, as I understood what I was experiencing, I learned how not to absorb as much of the energy. I also was able to define the energy that I was feeling, whether it was coming from a person who was upset, or if I was in an area that was holding a significant amount of negative energetic residue. I also learned how to detect if there was a noncorporal entity or spirit around me.
During this time, I also discovered that I had the psychic ability of psychometry, the ability to read the energy imprint that resonates from an object while holding it in your hand or touching it directly. I found that when I put an object in my hand, I could feel its connection to the person who owned it, and sometimes I would see an image of
