31 Days of Halloween | Day 29: Appalachian Folklore — Witches, Ghosts, and Death Omens
Haunted American HistoryShow Notes
Deep in the Appalachian Mountains, families once believed that death could announce itself long before it arrived.
A bird flying into the house. Three mysterious knocks at the door. A dog howling through the night.
And sometimes, hidden inside the feather pillow of a dying person, a tightly woven ring of feathers known as a death crown.
For generations, the people of Appalachia passed down stories of witches, restless spirits, supernatural warnings, and strange rituals meant to protect their homes and families.
Tonight, we're exploring the dark folklore of the Appalachian Mountains.
From the Scots-Irish settlers who carried centuries-old superstitions into the American backcountry to the witch doctors who supposedly broke curses with silver bullets, we'll uncover the beliefs that shaped everyday life in the mountains.
We'll also investigate the Greenbrier Ghost, the remarkable case of a murdered woman whose alleged return from the dead helped expose her killer, and examine the histories behind the Bell Witch, the mysterious Brown Mountain Lights, and the legendary Mothman of West Virginia.
Finally, we'll trace the connections between Appalachian folk traditions and the Halloween customs still practiced today, including fortune-telling games, carved lanterns, and a particularly unsettling ritual involving an apple, a candle, and a mirror.
Because in the mountains, the supernatural wasn't always something hiding deep in the woods.
Sometimes, it was waiting inside your own home.
Welcome to Day 29 of 31 Days of Halloween
More from Haunted American History
In August 1872, the Chinese community of Los Angeles gathered on a street where, just ten months earlier, a violent mob had murdered approximately eighteen Chinese men and boys.
On July 10, 1706, a woman named Grace Sherwood was bound and thrown into the Lynnhaven River in colonial Virginia.
In February 1855, mysterious hoof-shaped footprints appeared across the snow-covered countryside of Devon, England.
In the winter of 1879, a Cree hunter named Swift Runner returned from the Canadian wilderness without his family.
In February 1927, William Fuld fell to his death from the roof of his factory in Baltimore.