In 1961, one of the most significant and unique theme parks opened on top of Buck Mountain, with an elevation of 4,650 ft. The popular Western-themed amusement park, founded by R.B. Coburn, originally from Virginia but relocated to Maggie Valley, would forever capture our memories and the surrounding scenic landscape. Ghost Town in the Sky…

Weather in the Carolinas can change on a dime, but I have never heard of a forecast that called for a 100 percent chance of blood rain. According to legend, on February 25, 1884, a Chatham County woman, Mrs. Kit Lassiter, faced this nightmare when she heard rain but quickly realized the liquid wasn’t clear….

Asheville is a historic city with numerous apparitions and tunnels beneath its streets. The area would be the first impacted by prohibition in the early 1900s, due to strict laws, compared to other parts of the country that would see the Roaring Twenties usher in dryness. The mountain city would also become known for a…

On March 10 or March 11, 1948, a fire broke out in the women’s building of the Highland Mental Hospital in Asheville. The fire quickly swept through the building, engulfing all of the stories. According to author Sherman Carmichael in his Mysterious Tales of Western North Carolina, this was the third fire in the hospital…

Dillsboro, North Carolina, is full of history and haunts for such a small community. In 1882, the Western North Carolina Railroad planned the Cowee Tunnel, just west of Dillsboro. Every day, convicts were forced to perform manual labor to straighten a bend in the Tuckasegee River. On the morning of December 30, 1882, tragedy struck…

Just three days after President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in January 1961, bright orange flames lit the horizon of North Carolina in the town of Faro in Wayne County. With the rising tension and fear of a Cold War, a B-52 Stratofortress took to the skies on a long, extended patrol. Sometime around the 12-hour…