Haunted Carolina Trivia Quiz

Answer: Brown Mountain

The Brown Mountain Lights, viewed from Wiseman's View near Morganton, NC, are the South's most famous Ghost Lights. Seen from the time when only the Cherokee lived in the Western North Carolina Mountains, the lights are colored balls that dance across the peaks.

The rest of these lights involve ghosts that haunt railroad tracks with a lantern. Old Maco Station Light, near Wilmington, NC, is said to be a conductor, beheaded when a train derailed, looking for his head. The Summerfield Light tale, from SC, tells of a wife seeking her husband, a conductor beheaded in a train derailment.

The Vander Light, near Rutherfordton, NC, is the tale a passenger who fell off a train while smoking a cigarette. He was run over by the train, and now seeks his head with a lantern. See how similar these Ghost Light tales are?

Answer: The Edgecombe Banshee

The tale goes that the miller was warned that the British were coming but refused to leave his mill. He was seized, bound, weighed down, and thrown into the Tar by three of the soldiers - but not before he warned them that the Banshee would avenge him.

After dark, the soldiers' blood ran cold, as a great wailing began. The form of a woman wearing a black veil rose out of a black mist. Two of the soldiers were lured into the water to drown. The other soldier went mad and ran off. His body was found the next day floating face-up in the exact spot where Warner had been thrown in! The Wedol is from the movie 'The Thirteenth Warrior'.

It was the black mist from which the fiends came out of. Sirens are usually seen, not in the Tar, but the upper pools of the Frech Broad River.

The Mer-Wraith I just made-up!

Answer: Boojum

There are different tellings of Boojum, but this one comes from a friend of mine, who heard it from her grandmother, a life-long Haywood County resident. Boojum was a hairy, ape-like creature about 8 feet tall. He spent his days gathering gemstones which he gave to a local woman named Maggie. Maggie took the gems, but she wanted nothing to do with Boojum.

In another telling, the woman is called Annie, and she and Boojum live happily ever after. In any case, everyone agrees that Boojum gathered and hoarded great stockpiles of gems. Fortune hunters, in the early 1900s, actually flocked to Haywood to search for Boojum's stash.

Answer: Red clouds at night

Gracious, I hope everybody knows that seeing a buzzard wearing a bell around its neck, loud clanging in the ears, and constant mournful howling of a dog, are VERY bad omens or 'signs'! But, my Grandmother always used to say, "Red clouds at night, Sailors' delight", meant good weather.

Answer: White screech owl

It was a huge white owl, and the tale goes that he was so scared, his red moustache turned white! Supposedly, he went to town to sell some property against her wishes. When he returned home, she had hung herself. A huge white owl was perched above the body - and like Poe's raven, it did not intend to leave!

Answer: Blue Lady

Supposedly a young girl named Caroline was killed in a hurricane on Hilton Head in 1898. Since then, the Blue Lady has haunted The Old Light House. Her weeping figure is only seen during hurricane season. The Pink Lady is Asheville, NC's most famous ghost tale. Since around 1918, the Pink Lady has haunted the Grove Park Inn.

She turns off and on the lights and water and whispers to guests. The Gray Man of Pawley Island, SC, warns residents of coming storms. The Gray Lady of Camden, SC, is the ghost of a young French nun who walks through time to warn her relatives of coming disasters.

Answer: Unexplained opening door

I bet you have heard this one yourself! First told me by my brother, I have heard this tale many times.The family name differs, and the exact location of the house is unknown. The story goes that at night, the door to the storage room would suddenly fly open. Tools hanging on pegs inside the room would leap from the walls. Every night this happened.

It was not caused by trains running by next to the house, because the door opened even on nights that trains did not run. Engineers could not explain it. Finally, the West family flees the house for good, like many other families who have lived in the house.

In another version of the tale, the Wests find bundles of old money in the room, and then they leave to live happily ever after. The House of the Opening Door is one of our most often told spook house tales.

Answer: Phantom horseman

In the clouds above the corner of Bull and Blanding Streets, there was seen a giant figure of a horseman. While everyone watched, the horse reared and raced off. After it was seen again the next day, a panic ensued. Some thought it the white horseman was one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse foretold in Revelations.

Others thought, later, that the Phantom Horseman was Gen. Wade Hampton, a SC Governor from 1876-1879, warning them of the coming world war. The figure was said to be so detailed that the reins and saddle on the horse was visible.

Answer: True

I really just had to laugh when I saw the Bloody Bones spook listed in a book on NC folklore. It seems that my six boy cousins lived near a swamp, and their mama used to scare them into bed with the threat of Bloody Bones gonna get 'em. Well, they were both rowdy - and smart, so her threat did not bother those boys at all.

But it scared the dickens out of me - because they just had to pass it along!

Answer: False

No, even though the devil figures into many, many NC folk tales, no such law exists. Kill Devil Hill in Kitty Hawk, Devil's Courthouse near the Shining Rock Wilderness Area, Devil's Head near the summit of Chimney Rock, and the Devil's Tramping Ground near Siler City, are just a few that come to mind.