Brown Mountain Lights

The Brown Mountain lights appear along the ridge of the mountain located in North Carolina, the lights move erratically and are usually seen from a distance but disappear once you start to climb it. No one according to the legends has really pin pointed what they are, but the sightings have been going on for some time, long enough for the Cherokees that inhabited the area have stories about them.

 At two places on the Blue Ridge parkway you can see the lights and there are two stories attached to the phenomenon. The first is that it was a war between two Native American tribes where at night the women would go out and look for their husbands taking large torches, with their husband’s dead they keep roaming the area looking for them and that is why the lights are seen.

 The other story is that it was winter and that a little girl had gone missing, her father went out to look for her. Both of them died and to his day he continues to search the area for her.

 With no homes or roads built on the mountain it’s not a place to go and sit to work it out, it seems like a very haunted land for this reason. In 1922 there was some research done into the lights, they decided the lights were a result of misidentified train lights, fires or even mundane stationary lights however according a marker on the Blue Ridge Parkway this may not be the case, shortly after the start of the research a flood knocked out power and train lines and yet they continued to appear.

 For those of you that may be unfamiliar with Brian Dunning’s skeptoid this is the podcast/write up he has done on the matter. http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4226

Little Peoples Village

Middlebury, Connecticut has a little village in the woods on the side of an abandoned road, DamnedCT explain the directions and as such I leave interested parties their link too. The village is a number of small three to five feet houses that are now in varying states of degrees, they are part of what was one a mini village on a train ride for an amusement park, Lake Quassy Amusement Park, when the trolley line for the park stopped nothing was done to maintain the “throne” and mini buildings for the village but here goes with the interesting factoids as such.

So here we go with the tales, one story is that a man and his wife were living peacefully in Middlebury when she started to report seeing Fairy type folk in the woods. She demanded her husband created them a place to live and slowly as the enchantment left so did the sanity of the people and eventually their lives.

Another version says a man that lived alone succumbed to hearing the voices of the little folk, he built their village but was driven insane by their talking. Eventually the voices moved into his head and he killed himself.

Either way the stories of this small amusement park feature have now evolved into the gruesome stories above along with tales of the haunting spirits of the little people in the area. Of course if you want to hang around to investigate it’s said that if you do decide to stay too long you could go insane too, who knows…

DamnedCT

Amusement Park

 

The Biltmore Estate

1914 saw George W Vanderbilt die from complications for his surgery he had for appendicitis, his wife was extremely distressed by this. She would sit up late at night in the Library, in front of the large marble fire place and though he was never there she would talk with George freely. The servants felt that she was loosing her mind.

 Perhaps not so much though as it’s said that you can feel his presence in the Billiard Room and the 2^nd floor Oak Sitting Room a favourite place of his. It’s said at night you can catch her soft voice talking with George and workers at the site over the years have reported apparitions, voices and even screams.

 Another slightly disturbing report is of a headless orange cat. As an animal lover I am not to sure I’d visit the area between the Gardens and the Bass pond thanks to that. It’s not just the cat however, there are also reports of swimmers voices echoing through the pool room in the dead of night. Insane laughter is also said to be heard from the drain at the bottom of the pool (or maybe it needs cleaning who knows!) either way keep close to the guide if you venture to investigate the place.

Lydia and her bridge

Jamestown, North Carolina, US Highway 70 Underpass is also known as Lydia’s Bridge. The ghost of a beautiful young lady has been said to appear just outside of Greensboro since 1923. She stands next to the underpass in a white evening gown, frantically waving her arms and asking for them to get her to an address in High Point. She says she has had car troubles having come from a dance in Raleigh and then as they get close she disappears.

 There are now more stories for this that slowly add to the myth/legend of her haunting to do with the ideas she was on her way home and a car hit her so she now hutches back from the bridge. The girl always says her name is Lydia, address and that she needs to get home but nothing more. Whatever the story the death remains in the year of 1923 so at least that seems a little consistent but what else is there?

There are two bridges around the area, one is a newer one that has been built up for trains to cross, and there is a lot of graffiti on it. The other is a more hidden one 40ft away, the original bridge that they talk about and this is Lydia’s Bridge. Of course all of this is still nothing more substantial than an urban legend for me, especially as there is another bridge nearby that was possibly also used. And why do the kids feel a need to shove pentagrams on them?

More fuel for a legend but yet there is a reference for a death is for Guilford County, High Point. The death certificate is for Lydia Jane M who was born in 1904, she died December 31^st 1923 from injuries she sustained in a motoring accident. Whilst not actually evidence it certainly corresponds with the date and could explain where the story came out. A little more digging however shows that this is not necessarily correct either, another blogger here has apparently done some homework and found that the lady was 76 years old and not involved in an accident.

 Like many of these stories there’s nothing more than a ton of old legends, possible vague memories from locals and not a whole heap else. But if you can correct me on it and give me more I’d love to see it.

I received an update on the “About” section of my page and so I have left it here in addition:

I am Mchael Renegar, author, and 27 ear veteran ghost hunter. You can catch me in an interview about “Lydia’s Bridge” in NC next month on the show MONSTERS AND MYSTERIES IN AMERICA. You have info here about one Lydia Jane M. who is allegedly the girl killed. This is false. Any death record with this info s a fake. Only ONE Lydia died in all of NC on December 31, 1923. This was Lydia Jane McCarthy, and she was a 76 year old widow. And her death certificate says nothing about a “motoring accident…” Ms. McCarthy died of heart failure. I have seen the actual record, and have a certified copy.
In fact, we accounted for EVERY woman with the first, middle, even last name Lydia who died in NC between 1900 and 1940, 2 years AFTER the first reports of a ghost. NOT A SINGLE ONE FIT. The closest was a Lydia Fields, who was struck by a car in 1921. But SHE was also a widow, and 64,
NO ONE named Lydia EVER died at either underpass out there. Period. In my original research for my first book, I talked to some old people who DID remember a fatal crash in the 20’s… but the girl killed was NOT named Lydia. They thought it was something lie Mary, Mary anne, Marrianne, or something lie that. Couldn’t recall a surname. You can catch theories on that show.
Fact though… This Mary Jane M. does NOT exist, unless they are trying to pass off the old lady McCarthy as the girl.
Michael Renegar, Author of ROADSIDE REVENANTS, TAR HEEL TERRORS, and co author of GHOSTS OF THE TRIAD.
CoFounder, Camel City Spirit Seekers

In March, 2015, the name of the girl killed was finally revealed, found in old newspapers and a death certificate. Annie L. Jackson died in a car wreck at the location @ 10PM on Sunday, June 20th, 1920. Recently, we finally uncovered the fact that her middle name was LUDIA, same as Lydia. She was NOT a teenager headed home from any dance, and did NOT live in High Point. The facts are covered in the just released book, by Michael Renegar (me) and Amy Greer from CaryPress International: Looking For “Lydia” The Thirty Year Search For The Jamestown Hitchhiker…

Polybius

Well let it not be said I am anything but a little out of date when it comes to the Men In Black! And despite it being old it sounded pretty darned interesting. An Urban Legend about video games and MIB sounded just too fun to walk past. The game is named after Polybius the Greek historian, and for those more academic probably know of the Polybius Square.

So in 1981 the game was released into the world, and it made players go insane, suffer horrific nightmares or even led to suicidal tendencies. Now apparently a short time after being released this game disappeared  there’s little proof I can find that says it existed, however it is said to be a Tempest-like game (gamers that ones over to you).

The game turned up in several suburbs of Portland, Oregan in 1981m it was popular to the point of addiction (gah Tetris you stole my soul! ) and there would be lines formed around the machines, some of which could end up in violent outbursts over who played next. Supposedly they were also followed around by Men in Black who were interested in the effects of this game. Some players supposedly stopped playing and then end up complete anti-gaming activists.

Looking for more information? The creator is supposed to be Ed Rotberg, and in the legend the name of the company is Sinnesloschen, or close to that, which they say to be either some secret organisation or a codename for Atair, either way they say the gameplay is like Tempest (shoot ’em up) and contains subliminal messages.

Think it might have died down? Well apparently not! In 2011 someone claimed to have found an arcade machine with it on in Newport, Oregon but soon after the reports surfaced it disappeared. In October 2012 it was apparently in a lineup of games in Barcade, Brooklyn, New York… whilst claimed to be an original it was soon given up as a Halloween joke.

 A website mash up for Polybius – Enter at your own risk etc etc, you can download a copy of the game apparently. Perhaps I will! If this blog should end abruptly… *winks*