Reviewing The Ghost Walk of Gatlinburg

I have developed a strong love of Ghost Walks.   There is no better way to spend a crisp autumn night than wandering through the secret histories of old cities and learning about their secrets and ghosts.   This weekend I went to one of my favorite vacation spots.   I rented a cabin high in the mountains surrounded by the orange and red trees and the warm smell of campfire.  We made s'mores and walked in the woods and on Friday night we went on the Ghost Walk of Gatlinburg. 

I have been on many ghost walks and ghost tours.  Some have been  a disappointment.  Some tour guides have made me mad by spouting strange theories like they were facts set in stone by scientists.  Some I have loved and wanted to do twice.  The Ghost Walk of Gatlinburg was one of the ghost walks I loved.  It was a fabulous tour filled with the type of stories that keep you listening.   The tour started out poorly.   Apparently, their office is staffed by idiots.   They didn't have our reservation at all and they lost the other people we were travelling with's credit card information so they had to give it out over a cell phone, which made them very uncomfortable.  We expected the worst after this, but our tour guide, Ron, was fabulous.   As soon as he started talking, we knew we were going to have a good time.  Not only did he know the history of Gatlinburg very well, but he told his stories with verve and a unique sense of humor that made me laugh out loud on several occasions.  This tour also handed out EMF detectors so everyone on the tour could ghost hunt as they listened to the guide tell his haunting tales of blood and horror.

The tour started at the old White Oaks Flat Cemetery.  This cemetery is tucked behind a little shopping center filled with pancakes and souvenirs.   I never would have even suspected it was up there, pressed against mini-golf courses and and arcades, if it weren't for this ghost walk.  We went on this ghost walk with several young children and Ron really spent a lot of time making sure the walk was fun for them.  He joked with them and made them laugh so hard they say it was their favorite part of their Gatlinburg vacation.   Ron told many ghost stories I had never heard before and also loaded the quiet parts of the tour with fun facts and folklore.  

One of my favorite folklore stories Ron told was the story of a mountain witch.  This witch was captured by locals and killed.  She was buried face down, so that if she did try to escape her coffin after death she would dig down, towards hell rather than up towards humanity.   She was also buried beneath a crossroads so her power would be diminished and to make sure she was tormented even after death she was buried beneath a crosswalk so all the people walking over her grave would constantly torture her.

Over the next few days,  I will placing some of the stories Ron told with photographs on the blog.   I will of course, leave some out so that I don't ruin the fun and excitement for those who might go on this Ghost Walk in the future.  This is something I would highly recommend, because this really was one of the best ghost walks I have ever been on.

Bloody Murders and Tortured Ghosts

The Story behind the Rocky Top Village Inn captivated me from the very beginning.  It had everything dark and sinister imaginable in a ghost story.  The story began with a group of four men planning a robbery.  They broke into the old office at the Rocky Top Village Inn and held the night clerk and the night watchman at gun point and stole all the money from the inn, but that wasn't enough.   The men saw their weeping victims and wanted more and they took what they wanted in such a violent and perverse fashion that I have been unable to find any descriptions of what they did. It was too horrible to describe.  It is known that the bodies were taken to room 1 and dumped and that the officer in charge found the bodies covered in gunshot wounds and knife wounds.   One of the murderers fled from the crime.  He had only agreed to participate in the robbery.   He left a note and a knife behind him in a nearby phone booth.  In the note,  he apologized for his crimes and said he never wanted to be part of the murders.   A man named tattoo Eddy was the ring leader of this brutal crime and he still sits on death row today.

I went to the Rocky Top Village Inn not knowing what to expect. Exploring haunted places is unpredictable.  Places that should feel terribly haunted seem vacant and places that should seem calm seem like you've stepped into Shirley Jackson's Hillhouse.  I went with some of my girlfriends.  One of my friends is psychic.  She doesn't tell many people this and she would never advertise it, but if you give her a few glasses of wine she opens up about it.  She agreed to go with me and help me explore my haunted locations.  I can sense some things, but I am no where near as gifted as she is.  With a glass of wine in hand, she once predicted my mother-in-laws death.

 When we pulled into the back parking lot of the inn, my friend didn't want to get out of the car.  She hesitated.   It wasn't just the ghosts.  The Rocky Top Village Inn is a pretty low brow motel and seedy people eyed us from their perches on the banisters above us as we crept out of our car, but even if the motel had been empty, she would have hesitated. The ghostly presence at this haunted motel was tangible.  Finally, we all got out of the car and explored the dingy, old motel.

The motel looked like it had been built over several decades and the two halves of the motel didn't match at all.  There was a newer portion with a more modern office and a pool.  It was still green and off putting, but in a general motel sort of way.  The other half of the motel was much older and made from stone.   It was in the old office here that the murders were committed.   My friends and I wandered the grounds of the motel and I took pictures of the office and room number one.  My psychic friend shifted uncomfortably and described the feeling coming from the building as beyond bleak.  She wouldn't stay long.  We left as soon as the pictures were taken.   It began to rain as we fled the scene and lightning painted the blackening sky.  My friend broke into a jog and we fled so quickly I felt like we were being pursued by something I couldn't see.