Boojum of the Balsams

     There's an old legend here in western North Carolina that has been all but forgotten in the last few decades. The story of Boojum of the Balsams is sometimes cited as a peculiar Appalachian variant of the Bigfoot legend, but it's hard reduce this tale into something so simple. I've read several articles about the Boojum, both online and in print, and they all tell a very similar story, with only a few details changing between versions. I'll give you the condensed version of the Boojum story, and then we can discuss.

     Boojum is described as tall, between 7 and 8 feet tall, and covered in shaggy dark brown or gray fur, except for his face, which is long and human-like. His eyes are almost always noted as being somehow sad. Most of the reports of Boojum, however, are based on his sounds and vocalizations. Lip smacking, grunting, and heavy breathing are all hallmarks of the Bigfoot of the Balsams. A particular noise, something of a cross between an owls hoot and the growl of a tiger is a frequent report. 

     Most of this sounds like a typical Bigfoot story; the physical attributes and noises are found in reports across the country. But where Boojum departs from the norm is in his actions and in the particulars of his story. He has an insatiable affinity for shiny jewels, rubies, sapphires and beryls found in the clear mountain streams of his home. He is said to hunt the hills in his search for these baubles, hiding them in caves scattered around the area. Beyond this, he has an affinity for human women, especially women who have slipped off to cool off in the mountain streams. Many less-than-fully-dressed young women have reporte hearing the sounds of breathing or a rustling in the leaves only to look up and see those sad eyes, framed in a dense mat of long hair, peering down from the underbrush. 

     It is said that one of these lasses, (named either Annie or Maggie, depending on the source) found herself drawn to that forlorn face. She followed Boojum into the forest, becoming his companion and eventually, his wife. 

     The end of this story revolves around another grand hotel here in the mountains, although this one is long gone: the old Eagles Nest Hotel. Built by S.C. Satterthwait of Waynesville, this high altitude hotel catered to wealthy patrons who could afford to escape the oppressive southern heat. Stories about strange occurrences started almost immediately. Well-to-do patrons of the hotel reported occasional sightings of Boojum and numerous unexplained sounds. Fearful of this strange beast, they demanded that Satterthwait put an end to the strange occurrences. I haven't found much in the way of historical documentation, but on April 22, 1918, the hotel burned to the ground. Some say that Satterthwait finally captured Boojum, and that a lonely, heartbroken Annie (or Maggie) burned down the huge building in retribution. The stories and sightings have continued, though only sporadically. Maybe the Balsam Mountains are home to some offspring of Boojum and his bride, still searching for gems in those cold and lonesome creeks. 

     It's hard to say much about this story. It's so completely tied to local legend that it's almost impossible to tease out what is true and what is purely imaginary. There are numerous mythological archetypes in here as well, and parts of the story seem to be designed to either teach a lesson (young women shouldn't be skinny dipping alone) or impart a moral lesson (true love is blind). Normally, I regard these sorts of stories with caution, simply because I can't prove or disprove anything. But the Boojum story resonates with me for a couple of reasons: I lived on Eagles Nest Mountain as a kid, and a relative of mine was said to have had a physical run-in with the elusive creature. 

     The story goes like this: A great uncle of mine was a driver for a livery company that existed in the days of the Eagles Nest Hotel. He would pick guests up at the old train depot just below Main Street, Waynesville and load them into his horse-drawn wagon for the trip to the top of the mountain. He reported several instances of feeling watched, of hearing strange noises in the forest or seeing shadowy shapes disappearing behind the brush. But on one night in particular, his experience became much more real. He was taking a load of passengers to the end, and the sun had begun to set as they made their approach to the hotel. Suddenly, his horses became skittish and refused to move another foot up the road. He urged them to move forward, as his passengers were tired and more than ready to check into their rooms for some rest. Almost instantly, the source of his horses fear became apparent as a tall, broad creature broke from the brush, crossing the road not more than 10 yards in front of him. As quickly as it appeared, it vanished into the dense forest on the other side of the road. After a couple of moments of coaxing, the horses began to walk towards the hotel, as if nothing had ever happened. 

     Unfortunately, this relative died long before I was born so I can't ask him for more details. This story was passed to me by my grandparents, like a lot of good stories are around here. I don't believe this story was ever written down, but I've told it as best I can remember. It mimics a more traditional Bigfoot story, but the location places it firmly in Boojum territory. I'll be looking at some more recent western North Carolina Bigfoot sightings in an upcoming article, so it'll be interesting to search for parallels with the Boojum legends of years past. 

Merry Christmas!

I'm taking the day off today to open gifts, eat too much food and enjoy some family time. I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday. I'll be back on Friday to talk about Boojum of the Balsams. Merry Christmas!
WH

The Great Balsam Mountains

     So far on the blog, I've written primarily about experiences and reports that are coming from within the confines of the actual town of Balsam, North Carolina. But the Balsam area is a much larger entity, covering several high mountain peaks and including parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway. This region is called the Great Balsam Mountains, and includes Cold Mountain, Black Balsam and Shining Rock. As I continue, I hope to expand the scope of this blog to include tales from these more far-flung areas. Beyond providing more area to cover, this expanded coverage also gives us a ton of additional history to look at, including some Cherokee legends. Included within the range of the Great Balsams are two incredible pieces of Native lore and history: Devil's Courthouse and Judaculla.
     In Native tradition, Judaculla (or Tsul 'Kalu, more traditionally) was a slant-eyed giant known by the Cherokee as the lord of the hunt. His home was on the boundary of three western North Carolina counties in a high mountain bald. Judaculla rock, far below the bald in a river valley, is a huge soapstone boulder covered in undeciphered markings and pictographs. This piece of prehistoric art is said to be the result of the giant leaping from his high mountain home down into the valley. His huge, six-fingered hand print impressed in the stone is a visible reminder of his presence.

     Judaculla rock can still be visited, although rain and wind have taken their toll upon the inscriptions. It's just a short drive past Western Carolina University off Caney Fork Road. Tanasee Bald, the legendary home of Judaculla, is a little harder to find. Some articles place it just down the parkway from Devil's Courthouse, while other reports seem to center on Richland Balsam, several miles further away. Judaculla rock is a fascinating artifact that helps make the legends of the past more solid and real.
     Some researchers who have studied Judaculla and his significance to the Cherokee have noted the similarities between this mythological giant and stories of Bigfoot and Sasquatch. In fact, the very name Tsul 'Kalu, when used in its plural form, refers to a race of giants that the Natives believed lived far to the west. It's also interesting that Tsul 'Kalu and Bigfoot seem to share several physical similarities. There are more modern legends of Bigfoot-type sightings in the area; a famous case revolves around the Eagles Nest Hotel, now long since burned and forgotten. This creature was referred to as Boojum, but the story is remarkably similar to tales of Tsul 'Kalu. I'm working on some reseaarch into the Boojum story; I hope to have that up in the next few weeks, so more details on that are forthcoming.
     So no real ghost story today, no tale of the paranormal. Just some history and legend that I find interesting, and maybe a reminder that this area, with it's high, dark and foggy mountains, has always been a place of mystery and mythology.

    

More tales from the Balsam Mountain Inn

     In doing some research, I stumbled across another book that mentions the strange occurrences reported at the Balsam Mountain Inn. Ghostly Encounters: True Stories of America's Haunted Inns and Hotels was written by Frances Kermeen. Kermeen is the owner of Myrtle's Plantation in Louisiana, which is touted as one of America's most haunted locations. The full book is available on Amazon.
     The brief chapter on the Inn includes a bit of the history of the structure and the surrounding town, and speaks briefly of the restoration of the Inn in the 1990's. Reports from guests of footsteps and jiggling doorknobs are cited. The most interesting aspect of the article is something I've never heard before. Back in the years when the Inn was a seasonal operation, the employees spoke of how they would spend hours buttoning up the building for the winter, tidying up, turning off lights and closing the windows and doors. They would leave the dark structure, say their goodbyes for the winter and then trek down the hill. Once at the bottom of the drive, they would be shocked to look back at the grand old hotel only to find all of the lights burning brightly. They would return, extinguish the lights, and leave again. By the time they had gotten to the bottom of the hill, the lights would be on again.
     This is an interesting report, but little additional detail is given, so it's hard to investigate further. It's a fascinating tale, however, that points to a long history of the paranormal at the Inn.

Ghost Hunting: The Basics

     If you want to watch ghost hunting on television, you are living in a golden age. Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Ghost Mine, the list goes on and on. There's almost always a show on where people, lit by the ghastly green light of a night vision camera, run and trip through some haunted location with all sorts of esoteric paranormal equipment blinking and beeping to let us now that something is there with them. Likewise, the amateur ghost hunter can pack a bag with meters, cameras and many more expensive electronic baubles that attempt to prove the existence of spirits. There are smartphone apps that are marketed as full-featured ghost detection units. So what's useful? What works? I think there are two answers, and my feelings about this aspect of paranormal investigation may surprise you. So here we go.

A Selection of ghost hunting tools from Amazon

    The list of equipment used in a typical television ghost hunt is staggering: K2 meters, voice recorders, EMF detectors and motion detecting cameras are the old standbys. Newer innovations include the aforementioned smartphone apps and the spirit box, which supposedly allows a spirit to select words from a digital dictionary that the spirit box can then play aloud. There are a host of other devices that show up on each television spook hunt. So what's worth using? Technically, I would argue that most of this stuff is worthless junk. Personally, I think that the chance of detecting any sort of spirit with a digital device is slim to none. K2 meters, EMF detectors and spirit boxes seem to rely on  random chance more than anything. I think that cameras and voice recorders can be a valuable tool to document the investigation and to capture the human reactions to the paranormal. The iPhone apps that I've played with have meters for things like EMF detection when the iPhone clearly does not have a sensor to detect EMF.

     So, does that make this stuff completely worthless? As a technical tool, probably. But I think that there may be a deeper value to these devices, something beyond the obvious. I think that having this equipment puts us in the proper mindset to be able to notice the paranormal.  The ritual of checking batteries, flipping switches and peering through the green-tinged eyepiece immerses us in the experience. When the voice-recorder is rolling, we are quiet and still, trying not to contaminate the sound. This allows us to actually listen to the environment.  When the camera is action, we are alert and aware of everything we can see. In this way, I think that the equipment can be a useful component for the paranormal team, as long as it's not allowed to get in the way of the human experience.

     I do want to end this with the admission that I have seen good paranormal photos, and I've heard some really chilling EVPs, so I can't completely discount these tools. But the human mind is especially good at making patterns from random noise, so everything becomes suspect. Again, these new digital toys should be used to supplement the human experience of the paranormal rather than as a substitute for it. So by all means, use a camera and a digital recorder to document the moment and maybe even catch something unexplainable. Use these other tools with caution, but don't be afraid to let yourself get into the moment and more open to the supernatural. 

Update on the Claud Green Murder Research

     I've been doing a little follow up research on the murder of Deputy Sheriff Claud Green in 1928. Some attribute the unexplained phenomenon at the Balsam Mountain Inn to this tragic occurrence. We know that Deputy Green was shot on the grounds of the old Balsam School (now the Balsam Community Center) during a community dinner. We know that a man named Ed Smathers was arrested and convicted of the murder, but only spent a short amount of time incarcerated before being released. Several questions remained unanswered for me, most notably: What connection would this murder have to the experiences at the Inn? Was Green taken to the Inn before he expired?

     I began my investigation by searching for newspaper reports from the time period. My first attempts were stymied by bad luck. The archive of newspapers in Haywood County for the years of 1927 to 1931, including the crucial year of 1928, were lost in a fire that destroyed the old Haywood County library. Other archives of local papers were either missing or damaged beyond use.

     I made my way to the Jackson County library and hit the jackpot. The September 6, 1928 edition of the Jackson County Herald opens with the headline "SLAYERS OF GREEN STILL AT LARGE." The article goes in to significantly more detail about the events of August 31, and creates even more mystery. I'll attempt to condense and clarify this information as much as I can. I think the easiest way to do this is probably a simple timeline. I'll put my notes and comments in italics.

Friday, 31 August 1928: During a box dinner and play at the old Balsam School, Sheriff's Deputy Claud Green is shot seven times with two different guns. Only one eyewitness is noted in the reports, a 14 year old student from the school. His name is never mentioned again. The Jackson County Herald reports two shooters.

Thursday, 6 September 1928: Alney Mehaffey is arrested for the murder of Green. Mehaffey is a 24 year old escaped convict. 

Tuesday, 11 September 1928: Ed Smathers is arrested for the murder of Green. Smathers is a 35 year old escaped convict¹. He is asleep in a friends home when deputies Strike him in the head, knocking him to the ground². He is taken to a local doctor for medical care before being imprisoned.

     ¹Smathers was convicted in 1926 for manslaughter after claiming self-defense. He is sentenced to 5-7 years, but escapes after just six months.

     ²It is almost definite from reading the reports that a relative of Smathers turned him in for the reward. He is lured to a friends home with the pretext of meeting this relative and procuring some liquor. It is here that he is arrested after nodding off at the kitchen table.  

16 October 1928: The trial of Edward Smathers begins. He stands accused of first degree murder. Smathers' defense team argues that his trial should be delayed until his accused accomplice, Alney Mehaffey is indicted. The prosecutors acknowledge that the case against Mehaffey is so weak that he will probably never be indicted unless new facts are brought up in the trial of Smathers³. The defense then argues that a fair trial in Jackson County is nearly impossible. To alleviate this concern, the judge orders that the jurors should be pulled from the eastern part of Haywood County⁴.

     ³I have yet to find any further mention of Mehaffey, either in the papers or online, other than a census record from 1940 and a few pages about his burial. If this is the same Mehaffey, he passed away in 1985.

     ⁴This is a distance of only 30 miles or so; the idea that the people in this area wouldn't have heard of the murder of a policeman seems ludicrous. 

18 October 1928: A witness in the trial testifies that she heard Smathers confess to his wife his role in the death of Claud Smathers, and further implicates Alney Mehaffey in the death. She quotes Smathers as saying, "I shot Claud Green, but I had to do it." The character of the witness is called into question, and it is noted in court that she has repeatedly denied that Smathers ever made the admission that she is testifying to⁵.
     Smathers has a comprehensive alibi; several people testify on his behalf as to his whereabouts on the night of the murder. School children that were present on the night of the shooting claim that they believe that Smathers was at the scene, but none of them will testify that it was definitely him.

     ⁵The story gets murky here. To paraphrase, the witness testifies that she overhears Smathers admitting to the murder to his wife. Smathers goes on to explain what happened, and that Deputy Green had attempted to search a man on the Balsam School grounds. She never names this man. A scuffle ensues, and another man fires at Deputy Green. At this point, the man involved in the scuffle opens fire as well. She ends her testimony by saying that she also overheard Smathers telling his wife that he didn't kill Green and that she should believe him no matter what she hears. This testimony is all over the place, and makes little sense. This could be chalked up to poor reporting by the newspaper, or it could simply be an untrustworthy witness. It's important to note, however, that this is one of the only witnesses that is mentioned by the paper.

25 October 1928: Smathers is convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 20-25 years in prison. The jury is concerned that there are no eyewitnesses and that the case is entirely cicumstantial.

Beyond this date, I don't have a lot of solid information. There are two interesting tidbits, however. It is known that Smathers only served a short portion of his sentence before being released and moving west. This seems strange, considering that he had been convicted of murdering a police officer, and that he was an escaped convict when he was apprehended. This doesn't seem like the type of prisoner who gets an early release. 
Secondly, there is a story within the Smathers family that seems to hint at a cover-up. According to the tale, Smathers sent a letter from the prison to his cousin George that said, "If you don't get me out of here, I'm coming with the truth." Was Smathers taking the fall for someone? According to this story, most locals understood that it was in fact George Smathers, and not Ed, who had murdered Deputy Green.

So what does this have to do with ghosts? If some theories are to be believed, a spirit may become stuck if there is some great unsettled tragedy or a wrong to be righted. Does Deputy Green still hang around because he feels that Smathers got off too easy, or is he still looking for the real killer?

 

Pots and Pans

This is another reader submitted experience.

For several years, I had a friend who lived just a few minutes away from me in Balsam. Our houses were connected by a narrow trail that cut through the forest. There were no other houses near the trail, so it could be a bit creepy at times, especially if you were walking it alone. My friends house had a particularly weird vibe, but this one incident really stands out to me. 

     My friend and his family were moving, so I had been up helping him get his things together and generally saying a long goodbye. His mother came up, and asked if we would carry some pots and pans to my house. She didn't want to pack them, and she thought my mom could find some use for them. We dutifully stacked the pots, maybe 6 or 8 of them I total, and started walking to my house. After just a couple of minutes, in a fit of rebelliousness and laziness, I pitched the whole stack of cookware over the bank, down into the dense brush.  We continued to walk to my house, grabbed a couple of sodas and never mentioned the pots and pans to my mom. We left for a while, heading out into town. When we returned, we started to walk back to my friends house. It was then that we saw a surprising sight.

     There, on the side of this quiet little trail, was a perfect stack of pots and pans. Someone, or something, had collected every piece that I had tossed down the bank and left a neat pile for us to find. It's important to note that we were out of sight of my friends house, and too far away for anyone to have heard the noise. My mom was home alone and could certainly not have done it. There are no other houses nearby, and no reason that anyone else would have been in this area. I don't recall seeing the brush on the hillside being trampled in any way that would indicate a person had been down there picking up cookware. It simply seemed like the forest itself was unhappy that I littered.