TRAIL TALES

Cumberland Falls Ghost Bride

The story begins when a newly wedd couple came to Cumberland Falls State Park back in the late 40s early 50s to spend their honeymoon at the famous, Falls of The South. After the couple had registered in to their cabin they decided to take in some of the sites there at the falls. They began to walk down the park trail to an over look were they could veiw the falls at a distance. The Bride then wanted to have her picture taken with the falls in the background so she could show to her friend and family when she got back home, but as she stood upon the safety railing, she stumbled to her death over the 75 foot cliff. This overlook is now called; LOVERS LEAP. There has been several sitings of this bride walking around the park area on certian times of the year. Most of the sitings have been on warm moon lit nights. Myself and a Park Ranger (friend) was doing foot patrol at the falls on a warm moon lit night in 1986 when visitors came to see the Famous Moonbow of the south. As we where walking down the trail toward the Old Beach, we decided to watch from above the cliff from where she had fall to make sure everyone was not too close to the falls when a rush of cold white fog began to roll in, then appeared a woman dressed in a long white wedding gown out on the water and was motioning us to come to her and with this said we left the falls with chills that we'll never forget as long as I live. Another Park Ranger was on patrol a year later while driving his patrol car to the falls, A woman in a lomg white wedding gown ran out in front of him and hitting her. The ranger got out of his car to see who he had hit but she was know where to be found. To this day, He never new about my siting of her until he told me of his accident with her.


The Ghost Legend of Sinking Creek

       In the spring of 1987, a group of boys took a little excursion out into a wooded area of the Daniel Boone National Forest.  This was supposed to be a nice way to start a spring break from school.  The group of Pulaski County teens had heard of a so-called haunted cemetery on a road called Pine Creek in Laurel County.  They decided it would be a cool thing to do, spending the night in the cemetery and then they could brag to their fellow classmates of the bravery and sort of rub it in on the upper classmen.  Unbeknown to them that the spring break of 1987 would be a week that none of the teens would ever forget. This is their story or should I say their nightmare. 

Monday
       Eddie and Jeff were at his house talking about our camping trip they were to take that Thursday.  Tim, Jeff's best friend, and his brother Joe came in late.  They had been to ranger station at London and had found a map for the boys to use.  They discussed the stories that some of the seniors had been telling.  The boys sat down and made a list of things to bring and checked the map looking for a place to camp far enough away from the cemetery to where the ghost wouldn't find us. They all laughed about that.  Laughed then, but having no idea of the terror that would follow. 

       Eddie had been bragging in school the week before that the boys were going to do something that none of the seniors had the guts to do, which was staying the night in the cemetery.  Several groups of boys had tried it before and were unable to fulfill their so-called mission.   Some of the seniors were irate to the fact the group of sophomores was going to out do them.  The boys all talked about how cool it is going to be when we actually get to go rub it in their faces. 

Thursday
       Thursday morning came quick that week.  The boys loaded their gear and had Rachael, their friend Jake's mom, drove them over to the trailhead on highway 80. Rachael had moved here from Tennessee where she and Jake's dad had lived before Jake's dad died in a car accident.  Jake was the one that told the group of youths about the Sheltowee Trace trail that started in Tennessee. 
       Hitting the trail about noon the boys were at the cemetery by two.  Stopping there to look around, before deciding to hike on down the trail to where they was going to camp.   The group hiked on down the dirt road to where the trail left the road and went down towards the river.  That is where they found what was thought at the time to be the coolest swinging bridge over the Sinking Creek River.

       They got camp set up and started a fire and fixed themselves some good grub to eat. Afterwards, the boys decided to hike back up the trail to the cemetery.  They started back up the trail walking and talking when suddenly Eddie, who was on point, stopped and hunkered down.  The others all came up behind him in a crouched position and was trying to see what was going on.  They could see about three or four trucks, four-wheel drive trucks, and there was a big fire in the middle of them.  Several boys were there and looked as if they were having some kind of meeting.  The boys decided to sneak up and see if they could hear what was being said.  When they got within listening distance of the group they could hear girls' voices also and could see some kind of table area and a bunch of occult looking stuff on it.   One boy had a book and was reading passages out of; it was a weird language we have never heard of before.  Well that was enough to spook the adventurous youth, so they decided to go on back to camp and get some rest. 
       When all of a sudden, some one stepped on a branch and then all Hades broke loose, the group of boys turned and with a ghostly illumination on their face, one said, "Get them!",  with a voice that sounded like Satan himself must sound.  The boys turned and ran.  When they got to some tree line where they could take cover, they discovered that Jake wasn't with them.  They sat in those woods motionless and barely breathing while the boys looked for them.  Thankfully they were all wearing camouflage clothes and had their heads down as far as they could get them, trying to keep from being seen. 
       Finally after about thirty minutes of looking, the boys gave up and went back to their trucks.  It was then when the other boys in the group heard the most terrifying sound.  Jake screamed as if someone was gutting him like they would gut a live pig.  He screamed and all of a sudden the screams stopped.  The hush that fell over the woods was unreal; almost bone chilling silence.  The others got up and ran back to the camp which was about a mile from where the boys were.  The boys stayed up all night wondering what had happened and contemplating whether to try to leave and get help or wait till morning when Rachael was to pick us up.  Then it hit them. Rachael, Jake is all she had left. 
       So they broke camp and hiked out, snuck past where the boys were at, through the cemetery and up to the road, where they turned and went toward the town of London, stopping at a store called But-Ots Grocery. There they called the police, Rachael and Eddie's brother.  The police told them to stop calling in prank calls and would not talk to the boys.  Eddie's brother and Rachael came. The boys told Rachael what had happen and she went crazy.  She drove down to the road where the boys were.  The boys followed in Eddie's brother's Bronco but when they got there, there was no one there, not a trace.  Rachael began to call Jake's name as she franticly ran down the trail toward our campsite.  They boys could hear her howling cries as she ran and called out Jake's name and then all of a sudden, they heard her scream. 
       The boys ran down the path and when we got to the swinging bridge, they saw Rachael's sweater lying in the middle of the bridge.  Running out on the bridge the boys discovered Rachael lying on the rocks below in her white nightgown.  She had fell of the bridge plunging to her death on the rocks below. 
       Eddie drove back out to the store and called the police and ambulance crew.  They conducted a search the next day of the area, looking for Jake.   Jake's body was never recovered. 
       The group of teens never went back there again, not to camp or even hike.  Rumor has it; at night you can still hear screams and occasionally hear a woman's voice calling out what appears to be the name Jake.  I have even heard that campers have seen what appears to be a woman, dressed in white walking the trail. One camper was awakened one night to a lady looking in the tent door on him. When he got his flashlight to look, he said she was gone but later thought he heard the crying sounds of a woman in the hollow below his camp.  They say that they believe it is Rachael's ghost wandering the trails looking for her son's body, which to this date, has never been recovered.










Story by
Tony A. Anders
       CUMBERLAND RIVER BIGFOOT LEGEND


       Rumor has it, that on quiet moonlit nights along the Cumberland River trails, strange noises can be heard.  Some noises sounds like something huge hitting the water; when investigating what made the noises, thinking to find a large tree cut by the beavers, nothing could be found. 
       Some say it was probably just a deer, but the ones that have heard the noise swear there was no way a deer could make such a noise.
       One group of campers was awakened one night to a growl like noise.  While trying to check to see what could have made the sound, rumor has it they seen a large probably seven to eight foot silhouette of something moving not far from the campsite.  After awaking the other campers, they all heard a huge splash hit the water downstream.  As the campers scrambled to investigate one found a clump of hair about six and a half feet in the tree between the campsite and the river bed.  The stench of the hair was almost unbearable.  Down close to the river bed along the bank was what appeared to be a foot print.  But this wasn't your ordinary foot print. The campers swear this print was eight to ten inches across and at least eighteen to twenty four inches in length.  The print had five toe like digits along the end closest to the water. 
       The campers never thought anyone would believe them so they decided to not say anything about it. 




Legend of Devil's Creek

       There once was a tale of demonic type worship in the area of an old church on Forest Road 88.  The church, which once stood beside an old cemetery, has since either been torn down or as rumor has it, was burnt to the ground by people trying to purify the area.

       Tales say that the tombstones in the grave yard next to where the church once stood used to have an eerie glow when the moon was full.  One person I spoke with swore, the night he was down there, the headstones even shook wildly, as if the bodies from the crypt were going to rise up and walk the road.
       
       After hearing all these tales of ghost and goblins on Devil's Creek Road, my brothers and I decided that we would have to go investigate these supposed happenings for ourselves.  So, one night, on Halloween, of course, we decided to drive down to the old haunted cemetery. We arrived in the area of Devil's Creek about 11pm.  The dark and dreary night was colder than normal Halloweens in the past. Looking around in the night air as we drove down the road, we saw bats and a cauldron with a witch standing next to it on the side of the road - you know, the old everyday yard decorations that anyone would put in the yards at this time of year. As we continued on, I remember telling my brothers we better get on down there before the midnight hour and all the horrifying stuff starts without us. We all laughed at what I had said, but we soon would not be laughing.

       My brothers and I drove down past a rickety old tree standing on the side of the road. I remember the tree well because it gave the shadow-like appearance of a figure. The figured appeared to be pointing the way straight towards the cemetery.

       We got to the grave yard about twenty minutes before midnight, so we drove on down the road and parked the truck on a side road and got out and walked back up the dark, cold road towards the cemetery. When we arrived at the cemetery, as I expected, there wasn't anything at all happening; but it was still early.  We all laughed and were looking at the old slab foundation that was to the east end of the cemetery. I remember three crosses stuck in the ground upside down where I would have imagined the door to the church would have been.  We investigated further to find two big circles painted on the slab with a pentagram drawn on the inside circle. Now we were scared, not!!!

       It was about five minutes before the witching hour and we were patiently waiting for anything paranormal to happen.  We were just about to head out walking back to where we parked the truck when we heard the sound of gravels popping under tires, like they do when you are driving down an old road bed.  We looked up the road from the cemetery and saw a set of headlights with dust boiling from behind them. We all hunkered down behind some headstones so they wouldn't see us. They pulled into the road right beside the old slab.  It was a big black looking, large car. It appeared to be a Lincoln or something. We watched as half a dozen people got out and opened the trunk of the car.  They got some kind of book out and some kind of box.  They went to the slab and opened the box and started getting out candles. We all just sat there watching the gruesome happenings.

       We heard one of the men speak to the others after the candles had been lit and the two men went to the car and opened the door.  They pulled out what appeared to be a woman dressed in white and apparently unconscious.  They carried her over to the middle of the now candle lit pentagram and laid her out in the middle of the slab.

This was way too freaky for me now.  I motioned to my brothers and let them know I was going to get the license plate number on the car and we had to call this is in.  We agreed.  I crawled closer to the car as my brothers started easing down to the truck.  When I had gotten close enough to where I could see the plate, I saw that there wasn't a plate on the vehicle.  This sent chills down my spine.  I got up, turned around and started crawling to the ditch line so I could get out of there.  As I was turning, I saw one of the men open the book and pull a knife from the box.  I knew then that these men were about to do something terrible to this poor woman.  The other man standing beside him had some sort of goblet and was starting to chant some off the wall ritual from the book. I then heard the muffled whine of the woman lying on the cold candlelit slab of concrete.
My gut told me I had to do something, so I jumped up and hollered at my brothers and told them to go.  They had made it to the truck by now and started it up and I began to run down to where they were waiting. The men at the slab screamed, in a voice that sounded horrifying, "Get them!  They know too much!"  At that very moment the moon disappeared in the night sky and a deafening clap of thunder rang out through the heavens; followed almost immediately by a bolt of blinding lightning.

We tore out up the road right past where the possible murder was foiled and headed out the road towards Cumberland Falls Highway. The thunderstorm was beginning to get worse.  The rain was making it almost impossible to drive but my brother was driving like his pants were on fire.  We slowed a little and kept looking behind us. We didn't see any sign of them pursuing us. We decided to get to the closest phone and call the police. 

We were driving toward the main highway, still watching our rear view mirror as much as we could.  The rain was blowing in sheets now, making driving almost impossible. I was looking out the back glass of the truck when I heard my brother yell and slam on the brakes sliding sideways. I turned and looked out the window of the door and there was the chrome grill of the Lincoln. Just then, the doors opened up and two men got out on each side of the car and started toward the truck. I yelled "Move the truck!", just as my brother slammed the truck into reverse and backed up.  As the first man got to the truck door, you could see the emptiness in his eyes. My brother stepped on the gas and sped away, back toward the cemetery.

As we sped past the cemetery, we came to the Dog Slaughter cut off; but we were going too fast to make the turn down toward the Dog Slaughter trailhead.  I told my brother that the road we were on dead ended, so we started looking for a place to turn.

We turned and started back out planning on turning on to the Dog Slaughter Road: however, we were met by the black car coming back up the hill. We shot straight back down towards the cemetery and went by so fast this time that we didn't even see it.  As we got to the Bark Camp cut off, the rain had slacked off and we were making a lot better time.  I turned again to look behind us to see if I could see the headlights and my brother yelled, "Hold on!" as we made a hard left hand turn on Bark Camp Road. I turned and looked out the window of the truck again.  This time I saw a huge tree that had fell across the road.

We drove as fast as we could down the twisting road toward Bark Camp Creek.  The black Lincoln was coming hard and appeared to be having no trouble sticking to the road.  My brother, however, was concerned that the curves and the washboard hills could make us lose control.  The creek turn was coming up fast and the road just past it was a dead man like curve to the right.

My brother slammed on the brakes of the truck and slid semi sideways, but somehow we made it around the curve and the black car came up hard right on our bumper.  Just as we thought it was over and they had us, we looked up ahead and seen a set of headlights coming down the road toward us.  My brother started flashing the headlights on the truck to try to attract attention to us.  I looked behind us and the black car had started to fall back.  I told my brother not to stop when we met the other vehicle. We were almost to the Bee Creek cut off and we could make a lot better time there.  He agreed and we sped by the oncoming vehicle. We turned right onto Bee Creek Road and started back out again towards Cumberland Falls Highway.  We had just about made it to the road that goes to the Spillway at Laurel Lake, when we couldn't believe our eyes.  There again sat the black Lincoln. We immediately, without thinking, hit the highway headed for Laurel County.  We sped down the large highway towards the spillway. The Lincoln wasn't behind us this time. We thought to ourselves, "Did we really see this the last time or was it just our frightened state of mind playing tricks on us?"

We made it to the bridge crossing the spillway and as I looked back, I saw headlights and with the lights at the dam parking area, I could see the black car yet again.  I screamed, "Floor it!", and my brother took off again.  We put enough distance between us this time that when we came to the Holly Bay Campground cut off.  We turned and headed into the little road down where all the pines are. We shut the truck off after pulling into the shadows and sat there. We listened as we heard the roar of a vehicle pass down the road and tires squeal shortly after that.  We figured that the squeal was it making the turn onto the power plant road below the dam.

We sat there in the woods for about an hour before we decided to drive back roads back home. 

When we got home and pull into the driveway, our truck died. We looked at each other with a look of bewilderment. We checked the gas and had about half a tank left.  We got out.  When we came around to check the engine out, I reached to pop the hood and it was as cold as ice. I jerked back and my brother asked "What happened? Did your burn yourself?" I replied, "No, the hood is ice cold."  "You're crazy," he replied, "after all that, it is a wonder it isn't burned up."  We popped the hood to check the engine. All we could find wrong was the air breather was clogged up.  It had a white blood soaked night gown stuffed up inside it.

We never told anyone about this happening, after all, who would believe us?




Written by Tony A. Anders









Web Site Hit Counters
Price Line
Web Page Maker, create your own web pages.