South Carolina

SC Another big chair whose praises are yet unsung . It is a big wooden porch chair advertising a mom and pop store and fishing bait emporium, located on U.S. highway 25 North, just outside of Traveler's Rest, and Marietta, South Carolina

SC Behtune has the only bridge in the world that crosses the same river three times and the river does not fork. The Lynches river forms a large S at the place where US Highway #1 crosses the river one mile north of Bethune,SC

SC Bomb Crater. There is a small aircraft museum in Florence, near the airport. It has various airplanes and helicopters, and other things such as a NASA mission control computer, Saturn V rocket engine (!), and a news item stating that the Air Force once dropped an ATOMIC BOMB on Florence ! Actually, the bomb was dropped in 1958 on Mars Bluff, accidentally, by an Air Force B-47. The nonnuclear material exploded, leveling a farmhouse and leaving a crater -- now a swamp pond.] SC

SC Edisto Island, off Highway 17, a man has a double bed mattress hanging as a hammock in front of his house. This has been a "tourist point of interest" for fifteen years. SC

Cayce - Airport High School - the 300 corridor is haunted by the school's first principal.

Charlestown - Charleston Naval Base - the ghost of a slave girl is spotted in a clump of trees here.

Charleston - Yeoman's Hall - Mary Hyrne haunts this building where she once lived.

Georgetown - Belin Methodist Church - from the porch you can see ghost ships that sunk years ago.

Hilton Head Island - Baynard Plantation - William Baynard's funeral procession can be seen passing by the ruins of the home and his tomb.

Summerville - Summerville light - The Story goes that a woman had a husband that was a conductor for a railroad company in Summerville...and he worked nights. At midnight every night, people could always see her there, waiting by the tracks with his lunch and a lantern...waiting for him to stop to eat. One night, he never showed. She was told that the train had derailed or crashed, and he was beheaded and , of course, killed. Although they buried his remains, she would never accept the fact that he was gone, and so, she went to the tracks at midnight with her lantern and walked up and down, waiting for him. People of course began to think she was crazy, but she continued this nightly ritual until her own death. Mysteriously, the light never stopped coming. This is what my mother told me happens at her visit to THE SUMMERVILLE LIGHT:

When you go to the tracks, just before midnight, you can hear all the sounds that are usually heard at night, crickets chirping, frogs croaking...the breeze blowing....but for some odd reason, and this has been the case for every person who has seen THE LIGHT...at midnight, the sounds suddenly just cease. As if a presence has quieted them momentarily. Then you can see it, usually its far off, a light and nothing else...coming your way. If you stick around, THE LIGHT will chase you, as it did my mom and her friends. They tried to jump in their car and leave and the light came upon them swiftly, and they heard a BUMP on their car, as they sped away. When at a safe distance from the sighting, they got out and looked, and there was a dent on the car, where the lantern hit it.

Pawley's Island - The gray man who comes to warn residents of an impending disaster such as a hurricane. If you see him, your residence will be spared!

Murrells Inlet - Hermitage - (believe to be an Inn) this is a ghost of a young lady named Alice who comes back to her former home looking for her lost ring.

Greenville - Route 107 - this is a ghost of a young man named Larry Stevens (commonly known as The Hitchhiker) who's plane crashed on Route 107 during the 1950's. People have seen a man on dark and rainy nights walking along Route 107 and disapearing.

Daufuskie Island - The Beatty House - a ghost of a elderly man haunts this house.

Hilton Head Island - The Old Lighthouse - The ghost of a young girl named Caroline (commonly known as The Blue Lady) haunts this lighthouse where she died during the hurricane of 1898. The Blue Lady is most reported during the hurricane seasons. People say they 've gone or rode by the Old Lighthouse and would hear a women sobbing.

Newberry - Old Buncombe Rd. - a ghost of a very white dog haunts this road and frightens anyone who comes through here.

Georgetown - Litchfield Plantation - the ghost of the former owner (he is also a doctor) is said to haunt his home.

Pawley's Island - All Saints Episcopal Church - Alice of the Hermitage is said to have been seen haunting her gravesite. It is about 10 miles south of her home, just off Hwy 17.

Anderson - Sullivan Music Center of Anderson College - a ghost of a lovely young girl haunts this building. People say she is there because she is waiting for someone.

Chester - The Chester Little Theater - Many strange and unusual things have taken place there including unexplained noises and apparitions.

Spartanburg - TB Hospital - Originally a sanitorium for people stricken with the disease. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people died within its walls. Strange occurances have been reported.

Spartanburg - South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind - Haunted by the ghost of Martha Walker. Walker was the tough, stoic woman who took over running the school for a few years during the Civil War. Her ghost is said to still roam the halls of the school's historic main building checking rooms to make sure the students are o.k. Students, Faculty, Alumni and even the schools current female President all say they have experienced Martha's presence.

Charleston - The Dockstreet Theatre - best known as the most haunted place in Charleston. It is haunted by two ghosts the nameless ghost was supposed to have been a prostitute. The other ghost (That has a name) is supposed to be the father of John Wilkes Booth, the man that shot Pres. Lincoln

Catfish - Riverbend road - n.c. hwy 16.- There is an old Indian burial ground If you go down the road about 3 miles and turn off in the field you will find an old dirt road with a chain blocking the drive. People say they see lights down there and that weird things happen to their vehicles when the lights come near.

Edisto Island- Parker's Ferry Road
Edisto Island Hwy 1 There is a straight road called Parker's Ferry Road that has a church at the end. If you pull up into the church's driveway, turn your headlights out, honk 3 times, then pull back out into the road facing the way you came. A circle of lights will come at you. Supposedly, it has something to do with a battle fought near there.

Blacksburg-White Wolf Rd- Near Kings Mt. St. Park- "White Wolf Hollow"-.
Two things have happened there. The first is a Klan killing of a black man and his white wife. People have seen the girl in her white dress there. The second is the mysterious torching of a man's truck back in the 60's. The man was shot execution stile near the truck. The truck's headlights have been seen as it has driven the road.

Moncks Corner-Strawberry Chapel-
It is said to be haunted by a young girl who was chained to a tombstone there by her father.

Lancaster County near Hwy521-Devil's Stomping Ground-
This area is kind of similar to a crop circle, as it is a circular area in a field in which there is no life, no plants grow in this circle and not so much as an ant or earthworm can be found within. The story is that it served as an execution site for the Waxaw and Catawba Indians. Evil Spirits were said to have frequented the site to collect the condemned souls of the executed. The consistent feature of this site is an overwhelming feeling of dread, despair and nausea to anyone who stands in the circle and takes a minute to clear their mind.

McCormick-Badwell Cemetery-
This is a cemetery that is very old (several hundred years) it is the place of burial for French Heugonaut settlers. The cemetery is surrounded by old stone blocks, and the gate was iron with the grim reaper on the front. There has been numerous sightings of a troll walking the perimeter. The gate is no longer on the entrance, due to theft. There has been many strange occurrences at the site by young and old alike.

Poinsett Bridge-Old Hwy 25 North-
Northern Greenville County near the state line. Old rock bridge that used to be the only roadway between Greenville and Asheville. The bridge is closed to auto traffic but is road side and accessible by foot. Rumor has it that a slave was once hung under the bridge and his ghost still haunts it. Several of the locals say that they have been unable to start their cars when they got ready to leave. Several locals also report that they hear a loud scream when the light gets to them.

Union-Rose Hill Plantation-Cry Baby Bridge-
Right before you get to Rose Hill Plantation, there is an old bridge with rusted steel frames at the top. Legend has it that, if you park on the bridge and cut off your car, than you can hear a baby crying and then see the mother looking for it. One day in the 1950's, a woman threw her baby off the bridge in spite of her husband. Now, you can see her looking for the baby at midnight.

Wateree River Swamp Bridge-
Where US 76 crosses the Wateree River between Sumter and Richland counties, South Carolina, the westbound bridge has been haunted by a ghostly hitch-hiker since the 1930's. If offered a ride, she gets into the back seat and says that she is trying to get to Columbia to see her ill mother. She appears solid and interacts with her host(s). When the car leaves the bridge on the Richland County side, she is gone. She was supposedly killed when the bridge was new; her car went off the road at the bridge entrance and she is still trying to get to Columbia.

Newberry-West End Cemetery-
The Bride Of West End - on certain nights you can see the dreary form of a lady in a wedding dress sitting in the trees, standing by her grave, or roaming the fields next to the cemetery. She is said to be waiting on her star-crossed lover to come and pick her up to go to their wedding.

Wateree River Bridge-US 378 between Sumter and Columbia-
This area is haunted by a phantom hitchhiker, a young woman who is trying to get to Columbia to see her ill mother. She appears solid and holds a brief conversation before she disappears when the Good Samaritan who picks her up drives over the bridge. She has been reportedly seen since the 1930's when the bridge was new.

Clinton-Lydia Mill-
There is a cemetery set back off of the main road. Upon driving down the one-lane road into the cemetery, a person suddenly appears in the middle of the road so close to the car that there is no time to stop, swerve, or otherwise. Causing the driver to hit the "person". When the driver gets out of the car to check on the person, there is no one there.

Columbia- The Congaree River Bridge -
Haunted by a young girl who hitchhikes and asks her benefactor who picks her up to take her to her home and disappears in the car on the way there.

Garner- Dunhaven House-
It is thought to be haunted by the ghost of a man. Things that happen are banging sounds and sometimes the occasional whisper in your ear along with the feeling of breath on the right side of our face.

Hartsville-
There is an old church located on Prospect Road. The name of the Church is Prospect Church. They say that on certain full moon nights, you can park your vehicle at the very last park on the right side of the church and you can see a man moving the curtains as if in a struggle from the last window on the second story.

Oyotunji African Village covers 27 acres and has 37 residents. It was founded in 1970 by King Oba Ofuntola Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi I, a former used car dealer who, some say, was running from the law. Whatever else he may have been, King Oba was smart enough to see the tax benefits of starting not only his own religion ("New World Yoruba") but also his own country. Oyotunji is not part of the United States, at least according to King Oba's accountants. It moved to its present site near Sheldon because its old neighbors were complaining about the tourists and the drumming. Neither is in evidence now.

A kid named Adegbolu, born and raised at Oyotunji, gives us a tour. He wears a colorful dashiki and decorative facial scars. "This is Elegba," he says, pointing to one of the many shrines littered with decaying art and animal skulls that dot the property.

"Elegba is the god of tricksters. Elegba's colors are red and black. Elegba's numbers are 3, 11 and 21. Elegba draws his energies from the planet Mercury. Elegba rules over the sign of Capricorn." All this in a rapid-fire sing-song with a lot of Yoruba words thrown in. At least Oyotunji sounds impressive.

Visually, it's not. Oyotunji literature pictures its happy residents strutting about in colorful, flowing robes, dancing and playing fanciful percussive instruments. In real life the people of Oyotunji dress like any other small-town South Carolinans. Except, of course, that this "town" was built in the middle of a forest, has dirt instead of streets, bizarre, crumbling concrete monuments, and a "royal palace" that looks like a bargain basement V.F.W. hall. In one corner of the palace courtyard lies the mausoleum of Orisamola Awolowo, one of the founding fathers of Oyotunji, who died in 1990.

A sign outside, painted on a piece of 4x8 plywood, beckons visitors to venture down the "Safari Road" to visit the Village "as seen on TV." The King has been on Oprah, defending his right to practice polygamy (he used to have six wives, but he was down to four at last count).

Some consider a visit to Oyotunji a spiritual experience. Overall, this sandy, marshy, bug-infested conglomeration of tumble-down shacks and crumbling concrete sculptures testifies to the American right to believe whatever wacky thing you want.