North Carolina ghost stories

Girl at the Underpass

Brown Mountain Lights

Early Station

The Vander Light

Girl at the underpass

Not long ago, but before interstate highways ran around towns and cities, a young man left Greensboro late one night to drive to his old home in Lexington. At that time, just east of Jamestown, the old road dipped through a tunnel under the train tracks. The young man knew the road well, but it was a thick foggy night in early summer and he drove cautiously, especially when he neared the Jamestown underpass. Many wrecks had taken place at that spot. He slowed down on the curve leading to the tunnel and was halfway through it when his eyes almost popped out of his head. Standing on the roadside just beyond the underpass was an indistinct white figure with arm raised in a gesture of distress. The young man quickly slammed on his brakes and came to a stop beside the figure. It was a girl, young, beautiful, resplendent in a long white evening dress. Her troubled eyes were glaring straight toward him. Obviously she was in need. He jumped from the car and ran around to where she stood motionless. "Can I help you?" "yes." Her voice was low, stranger. I want to go home. I live in High Point." He opened the door, and she got in. As they drove off, he said, "I'm glad I came by. I didn't expect to find anyone like you on the road so late at night." "I was at a dance." She spoke in a monotone. "My date and I had a quarrel. It was very bad. I made him drop me back there." He tried to continue the conversation, but she would say nothing more until they were into High Point. "Turn at the next left," she said. "I live three doors on the right." He parked before a darkened house, got out of the car and went around to open the door for her. There was no one there! He looked into the back seat. No one! He thought she might have rushed up the sidewalk and out of sight. Confused and undecided about what to do next, he thought it only reasonable to find out if she had entered the house. He went up the steps and knocked on the door. No one came. He knocked again. There was no sound anywhere. After a third knock, through the side panes a dim light appeared from the pitch-black hallway. Finally the door was opened by a white-haired woman in a night robe. "I brought a girl to this house," he explained, "but now I can't find her. Have you seen her? I picked her up out on the highway." "Where?" "At the Jamestown underpass. She told me she had been to a dance and was on her way home." "Yes, I know," said the woman wearily. "that was my daughter. She was killed in a wreck at that tunnel five years ago tonight. And every year since, on this very night, she signals a young man like you to pick her up. She is still trying to get home." The young man turned from the doorway, speechless. The dim light in the house went out. He drove on to Lexington, but never has he forgotten, nor will he ever forget, the beautiful hitchhiker and how she vanished into the night.

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Brown Mountain Lights

As mountains go, low-lying Brown Mountain in Burke County is not impressive. Yet it is one of the most famous mountains in North Carolina. On certain evenings soon after dark, when observed from the eminence of Linville or Wiseman's Gap, small but brilliant lights can be seen on it, bobbing up and down for a minute or so, then disappearing, then reappearing in another place until finally they are gone. They were first seen about 1850 long before the day of trains and electricity and automobiles. One legend tells of a girl who lived on the mountain with her father. Every night her sweetheart came from the village to see her, tramping through a forest of snakes and vicious animals. On the evening when he was to take her away to be married, she lighted a pine torch and went out to welcome him. He never came. But from then on, at sunset, she raised her flaming torch and darted from here to there on the mountain, hoping to come upon him. After her death the light of her torch still could be seen on stormy nights. Another legend concerns a wicked man named Jim, whose sweet-tempered young wife Belinda was to have a child. Jim was courting Susie and began to speak harsh words and be cruel to Belinda. One day neighbors noticed that they had not seen Belinda for some while. Jim said she had gone to visit her kinfolk, but the neighbors were suspicious when they discovered bloodstains on the floor of the mountain cabin. Their suspicions were further heightened when an indigent stranger drove away with Jim's horse and wagon. They believed the stranger had helped Jim kill and bury Belinda, and Jim was paying him off in this way. Soon afterward the lights appeared, bobbing up and down, seemingly to guide searchers looking for Belinda. Finally, under a pile of stones in a deep ravine they found the skulls of a woman and a baby. Jim left the county and was never heard of again, but the lights stayed on, reminding evildoers that their crimes will be revealed. Apart from the legends, scientists have provided many explanations for the mysterious Brown Mountain Lights, none of them satisfactory.

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Early Station

Much like the Maco Light, this story involves two trains that were never supposed to meet on the same track. And much like the Maco Light, the story has a tragic ending. Unfortunately, I do not know the specifics of this particular tale- such as (for instance) just why the place is called "Early Station". However, by all accounts you have a phantom train, lights and all, coming into Aulander, and it approaches the road crossing there as if its on mission, growing brighter and brighter until it suddenly disappears just before reaching the road. On the other (Aulander) side, you have a series of lights that look much like somebody is swinging a lantern or two, sometimes white, sometimes red, as though they are trying to warn the approaching train that the track is not clear. I've even had some folks tell me that they've heard the sound of the train wreck, although most of the stories include only the lights.

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The Vander Light

It was a dark and stormy night.... and Ticketmaster Archer Matthews found himself alone in the Vander Train Station. Looking down at his watch, he realized he had a little time before the next train rolled into the station, so he grabbed his lantern and his cigarettes and headed outside. Standing on the platform above the tracks in the misting rain, he suddenly thought he heard something across the tracks. Raising his lantern in one hand, he peered out into the darkness. But the platform was slicker than he realized, and he leaned too far over the edge, losing his balance and slipping to the tracks below. He was knocked unconsconcious, and as he lay on the tracks next to the station, the incoming train sounded off in the distance. The train's conductor slowed a little as he approached the Vander Station, but, not seeing any signal to indicate that a passenger awaited the train, and having no passengers to deliver to Vander that evening, he began to pick his speed back up again. Suddenly, up ahead, he saw what appeared to be a body lying on the tracks near the station platform. The conductor hit the brakes as soon as he could, but it was too late. Archer Matthews was killed instantly as the train barrelled across him. Today they say you can still see Matthews near where the old station used to stand, lantern in one hand and, if you look carefully enough, a cigarette in the other, out combing the tracks still in search of the noise that he heard that night.

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