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This Haunted Land
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 14, 2016
1971
71 pages
"After reading these stories many of us will be glancing over our shoulders for a long time to see if a ghost is following!
Nancy and Bruce Roberts have researched the folklore of six southern states to gather this unusual collection of stories about ghosts and the supernatural. We warn you, when you finish reading them, ghosts may seem very real to you. You may catch yourself driving through Camden, South Carolina on a rainy night expecting to see the figure of the Gray Lady as you stop at some lonely intersection.
You may drive through the rolling Piedmont country of North Carolina thinking about gold as you cross streams like Rocky River and Dutch Buffalo Creek and wonder which one of these hills contains The Haunted Gold Mine. It could be only a few hundred yards from your car.
Or, you may take a sudden fork in the road near King's Mountain, South Carolina and if something dark and shadowy looms up before you, you will be sure you have seen the ghosts of The King's Messengers. Worst of all, when you wait on a standby at the gate of a large southern airport you may find yourself watching for a gate attendant with a scar on his cheek and experience a cold chill when you hear a voice call out "Room for one more." Will you ever again be eager to take the last seat on a plane after reading the story Room for One More?
So, stop here if you don't want to be frightened! But, remember, those of you who are faint hearted will never meet The Little People, The Demon of Wizard Clip, the Black Robinhood or find out what horror lay in wait for lodges at The Tavern of Terror.
Not only are these stories here to make all of us wonder, but many of the tales told are based upon actual history and are rich in detail about the period. It is too bad that we cannot learn all history in the same painless and absorbing manner that it is woven into these fascinating accounts."
I really enjoyed reading this book from start to finish. I love ghosts and haunted legends so this was right up my alley. I would definitely read this again.
We warn you, when you finish reading them, ghosts may seem very real to you.
Ghosts are real. I can't believe someone writes a book about ghosts and in the summary they basically says you'll even think they're real! Like they aren’t. Like the whole book is fake. They definitely shouldn’t have said that.
I had a problem with the headlines for the stories. They were each titled but then a sentence from the story was included below and it was such a giveaway. I stopped reading them after the first or second story when I realized it was a really big spoiler which totally gave away what the story was about before I’d even started reading it. They shouldn’t have done that. I know they wanted to highlight what the story was about, but taking the best sentence from the story was a major way of spoiling the whole thing.
It's so cool the train story happened in NC, towns that I've heard of and been to. I was particularly taken with the Little People as soon as I found out it took place at Chimney Rock, because I went there on vacation in 2013. I had almost that exact view as in the picture at the hotel that I stayed at. As soon as it was said that two men went ahead of the crowd and went to the Rock, I thought they must be Indians. And it was so cool when the man explained to his friend that only a privileged few have been able to see the sight. And stories about it have been told for generations among the Cherokee. The Indians had been afraid of the area because of the Little People. It was the gateway to the country where the tobacco grew. I thought it was so cool that they'd been sighted in 1811, and after the Civil War, and this sighting where the lady and her daughter spotted them and told a man to come and see happened in 1806. I only wished for more recent sightings but I understand that nowadays ppl would be hesitant to say, and I loved the line that skeptics say it was probably only clouds but the authors wonder whether smart observers can mistake clouds for men, women and children.
I didn't like the story of the Phantom Rider of the Confederacy in that the daughter, the day after her funeral, visits her dad and tells him she's going to direct Union soldiers to burn the place down. He had died that winter, before the spring when she had the place set on fire, leading the enemy to think they were Confederate sympathizers. Seems quite evil of her seeing as how it wasn't her parents fault her love had been killed. He would have died whether they were married or not. It was cool to learn of her ghost’s history with the army tho, that General Stoneman's men were led into an ambush. They had followed the rider only to be attacked by confederate soldiers.
The way they said things were done really well and is just what I'd expect from a ghost book. Expectation. Suspense. Mystery. It really put me in the mood for Halloween and it was such a perfect read for the month of October.
For example:
“The old Church is still there, the graveyard, the road--and when the night is dark and windy, who knows who else?”
They knew just what to say and how to word things. It made it seem like I could happen upon all of these things, that it just took the right time of year and day and these apparitions would act out the same scenes, like they’re still going on even today.
I liked the line the iron gates at the end of the church drive never barred the Phantom Rider.
I didn't enjoy the Wizard Clip story. I wish it hadn’t been included. A stranger comes to stay at their house, and he’s dying and wanted a Catholic priest for last rites. His wife wouldn’t let him and the man died, was buried, and afterward logs in the household danced around, their clothes were cut, travelers got mad at him because they saw a rope stretched across the road, thought he was trying to bar the public road, but Livingstone couldn’t see the rope. And the one I hated the most was when a neighbor was at their house admiring a group of ducks, and one by one their heads were cut off. So disturbed and I didn’t enjoy this story at all. I didn't like that they said his wife had masculine courage. Just because she's courageous doesn't mean it's masculine. Women can have courage too without being called manly.
The room for one more story was cool to me, that the first night the New Yorker saw it while visiting Georgia an old stagecoach and driver said room for one more, but the next time she saw it the man looked up at her and seemed to be saying it to her. As she's about to get on a flight back to NY she sees the same man with ye scar on his face, saying there's room for one more. She was afraid and wasn't about to get on the flight, so she waited for another one, and it's such a good thing she did because that plane crashed. Had she gone on that one she would have died. She had asked a flight attendant who the man was with the scar and she said no one like that worked for them.
The Tavern of Terror was such a sad one, that Young's friend Clarkson had been murdered and screamed full of fear, and Young heard the thud. He got up and went to see what had happened but the innkeeper's wife blocked his path and he went back to bed. The next day he leaves and as he's going around a curve a shot fires and he pulls a move he learned in the army, which I found cool. He falls off his horse and goes for his revolver, shoots and kills the man that had tried to kill him. The man was black and had the gold watch the guy he had just met last night had. He went back to the inn and told her he'd shot the man that killed Clarkson, and the woman said that was her husband and ran out. He had painted himself black with polish. They had been killing their wealthy guests off at night in their rooms or on the road as they left.
I didn’t like the Surrency ghost story, because by the end of the story I had no idea what it was. The whole family apparently were mediums, according to a specialist they had come to their house. Things kept moving around the house, like chairs following people around, pitchers breaking, the tablecloth and everything being yanked off the table, and one of the boys being knocked unconscious with an object. They moved to another home they had but it all started again. The family ended up having to move to another town to get away from whatever it was. The King’s Messengers story was confusing. Major Ferguson sent two Tory militiamen to tell Lord Cornwallis of the mountain men attacking them, because all of the other pairs of messengers never came back. The two men go to a tavern, where the woman thinks they’re Tories, so she shoots them as they’re outside trying to figure out directions. But nothing happens; they keep riding on their horses, so I thought they were still alive and she had missed them. But then at 4 am an innkeeper hears and sees them, goes outside and they’re gone and there’s no horse or human prints on the ground. I didn’t know if this part happened the same night the men were killed, or much later. It was really confusing. It was cool though when people going from Salisbury to Charlotte, NC have been asked by the men for directions. One stagecoach driver said he’d given them directions so many times he resented the delay every time he saw them.
The Haunted Gold Mine was sad because the Irishman died in the mine, the owner having lied about having a safe mine, knowing it wasn’t safe at all. Joe, the Irish miner, asked him to give his wife money if he died in the mine. When Joe didn’t come out the owner claimed he wasn’t dead and had only left her. The only good part was when Joe’s ghost, over two weeks later, appeared at his friend’s house. He asked about his wife and if she had been paid, told his friend where his body was. It was cool his ghost was there when the men got to the mine, told them the owner is a liar and the mine isn’t safe and that he’s been walking around, afraid for them.
For the Singing River story, it's weird that they would suggest people used to live underwater and on land, and they seemed to be implying we were remembering that past, and that's why voices are heard at bodies of water. I didn't know if they were hinting at reincarnation or what, but it seemed overboard to explain this legend by saying maybe the world used to be underwater.
The Gray Lady was interesting in that she came to her descendants to warn them of their deaths or danger. The fiancé of one of her descendants got a visit from her, where the ghost was crying. She had a bad feeling, because she’d heard the story from her fiancé that his ancestor came when someone was dying. The next day her fiancé was killing in a hunting accident. Another woman received a visit in which the Gray Lady was trying to talk and pointing to the left. The next day the woman came to a fork in the road, in which either direction would lead her home, and she remembered the ghost pointing to the left and took that way, even though it was the longer route. When she got home her mom told her she’d been worried that she’d taken the shortcut because the bridge was out.
The Ghost Ship was a cool story. Living in North Carolina made it more special, because it was about the Indians living in the Outer Banks. They had mixed with white people and had gray eyes. They had seen a ship sailing towards Roanoke Island, in water that was too shallow to sustain it. And as they watched it disappeared. The colonists had been starving and in need of supplies, so John White had sailed for England to get food and ammunition, but since a war was going on he was forbidden by the queen to sail. It took 3 years for him to go back to the colony, and when he got there no one was there.
Railroad Bill was more a poem or a little jingle rather than a haunted legend. It was short and confusing. This old, poor woman gets a knock on her door and she finds a bunch of canned food, then sees Railroad Bill grinning. The cops come shortly after with search dogs asking if she’s seen him, and the cop noticed a fourth dog, which wasn’t one of theirs, and figured out Bill had been leading them on a wild goose chase. And other women received canned food and it’s from him. I didn’t know if he had been a ghost the whole time, when he had died and turned into a ghost. The Haunted Car was the most disappointing; they shouldn’t have saved the worst story for last. They should’ve done this and the other bad ones first and saved the best and longest stories for last. A preacher’s congregation pulled together and bought him a new car, which he took on a trip with his wife. As they’re driving an old lady appears in the car and says she hopes they don’t mind giving her a ride. They realize later that she isn’t there, they go to her address where her daughter explains her mom died and this has happened before. They sell the car, trade it in for another and the salesman sees an old woman sitting in the car, hurries and tries to sell it to the next customers. Very disappointing.
The only issue I had with the writing was punctuation. In places where there needed to be a question mark there never was, like “What will the baby and I do now.” And commas were really lacking. “Big Pete” moved blocking his exit.
71 pages
"After reading these stories many of us will be glancing over our shoulders for a long time to see if a ghost is following!
Nancy and Bruce Roberts have researched the folklore of six southern states to gather this unusual collection of stories about ghosts and the supernatural. We warn you, when you finish reading them, ghosts may seem very real to you. You may catch yourself driving through Camden, South Carolina on a rainy night expecting to see the figure of the Gray Lady as you stop at some lonely intersection.
You may drive through the rolling Piedmont country of North Carolina thinking about gold as you cross streams like Rocky River and Dutch Buffalo Creek and wonder which one of these hills contains The Haunted Gold Mine. It could be only a few hundred yards from your car.
Or, you may take a sudden fork in the road near King's Mountain, South Carolina and if something dark and shadowy looms up before you, you will be sure you have seen the ghosts of The King's Messengers. Worst of all, when you wait on a standby at the gate of a large southern airport you may find yourself watching for a gate attendant with a scar on his cheek and experience a cold chill when you hear a voice call out "Room for one more." Will you ever again be eager to take the last seat on a plane after reading the story Room for One More?
So, stop here if you don't want to be frightened! But, remember, those of you who are faint hearted will never meet The Little People, The Demon of Wizard Clip, the Black Robinhood or find out what horror lay in wait for lodges at The Tavern of Terror.
Not only are these stories here to make all of us wonder, but many of the tales told are based upon actual history and are rich in detail about the period. It is too bad that we cannot learn all history in the same painless and absorbing manner that it is woven into these fascinating accounts."
I really enjoyed reading this book from start to finish. I love ghosts and haunted legends so this was right up my alley. I would definitely read this again.
We warn you, when you finish reading them, ghosts may seem very real to you.
Ghosts are real. I can't believe someone writes a book about ghosts and in the summary they basically says you'll even think they're real! Like they aren’t. Like the whole book is fake. They definitely shouldn’t have said that.
I had a problem with the headlines for the stories. They were each titled but then a sentence from the story was included below and it was such a giveaway. I stopped reading them after the first or second story when I realized it was a really big spoiler which totally gave away what the story was about before I’d even started reading it. They shouldn’t have done that. I know they wanted to highlight what the story was about, but taking the best sentence from the story was a major way of spoiling the whole thing.
It's so cool the train story happened in NC, towns that I've heard of and been to. I was particularly taken with the Little People as soon as I found out it took place at Chimney Rock, because I went there on vacation in 2013. I had almost that exact view as in the picture at the hotel that I stayed at. As soon as it was said that two men went ahead of the crowd and went to the Rock, I thought they must be Indians. And it was so cool when the man explained to his friend that only a privileged few have been able to see the sight. And stories about it have been told for generations among the Cherokee. The Indians had been afraid of the area because of the Little People. It was the gateway to the country where the tobacco grew. I thought it was so cool that they'd been sighted in 1811, and after the Civil War, and this sighting where the lady and her daughter spotted them and told a man to come and see happened in 1806. I only wished for more recent sightings but I understand that nowadays ppl would be hesitant to say, and I loved the line that skeptics say it was probably only clouds but the authors wonder whether smart observers can mistake clouds for men, women and children.
I didn't like the story of the Phantom Rider of the Confederacy in that the daughter, the day after her funeral, visits her dad and tells him she's going to direct Union soldiers to burn the place down. He had died that winter, before the spring when she had the place set on fire, leading the enemy to think they were Confederate sympathizers. Seems quite evil of her seeing as how it wasn't her parents fault her love had been killed. He would have died whether they were married or not. It was cool to learn of her ghost’s history with the army tho, that General Stoneman's men were led into an ambush. They had followed the rider only to be attacked by confederate soldiers.
The way they said things were done really well and is just what I'd expect from a ghost book. Expectation. Suspense. Mystery. It really put me in the mood for Halloween and it was such a perfect read for the month of October.
For example:
“The old Church is still there, the graveyard, the road--and when the night is dark and windy, who knows who else?”
They knew just what to say and how to word things. It made it seem like I could happen upon all of these things, that it just took the right time of year and day and these apparitions would act out the same scenes, like they’re still going on even today.
I liked the line the iron gates at the end of the church drive never barred the Phantom Rider.
I didn't enjoy the Wizard Clip story. I wish it hadn’t been included. A stranger comes to stay at their house, and he’s dying and wanted a Catholic priest for last rites. His wife wouldn’t let him and the man died, was buried, and afterward logs in the household danced around, their clothes were cut, travelers got mad at him because they saw a rope stretched across the road, thought he was trying to bar the public road, but Livingstone couldn’t see the rope. And the one I hated the most was when a neighbor was at their house admiring a group of ducks, and one by one their heads were cut off. So disturbed and I didn’t enjoy this story at all. I didn't like that they said his wife had masculine courage. Just because she's courageous doesn't mean it's masculine. Women can have courage too without being called manly.
The room for one more story was cool to me, that the first night the New Yorker saw it while visiting Georgia an old stagecoach and driver said room for one more, but the next time she saw it the man looked up at her and seemed to be saying it to her. As she's about to get on a flight back to NY she sees the same man with ye scar on his face, saying there's room for one more. She was afraid and wasn't about to get on the flight, so she waited for another one, and it's such a good thing she did because that plane crashed. Had she gone on that one she would have died. She had asked a flight attendant who the man was with the scar and she said no one like that worked for them.
The Tavern of Terror was such a sad one, that Young's friend Clarkson had been murdered and screamed full of fear, and Young heard the thud. He got up and went to see what had happened but the innkeeper's wife blocked his path and he went back to bed. The next day he leaves and as he's going around a curve a shot fires and he pulls a move he learned in the army, which I found cool. He falls off his horse and goes for his revolver, shoots and kills the man that had tried to kill him. The man was black and had the gold watch the guy he had just met last night had. He went back to the inn and told her he'd shot the man that killed Clarkson, and the woman said that was her husband and ran out. He had painted himself black with polish. They had been killing their wealthy guests off at night in their rooms or on the road as they left.
I didn’t like the Surrency ghost story, because by the end of the story I had no idea what it was. The whole family apparently were mediums, according to a specialist they had come to their house. Things kept moving around the house, like chairs following people around, pitchers breaking, the tablecloth and everything being yanked off the table, and one of the boys being knocked unconscious with an object. They moved to another home they had but it all started again. The family ended up having to move to another town to get away from whatever it was. The King’s Messengers story was confusing. Major Ferguson sent two Tory militiamen to tell Lord Cornwallis of the mountain men attacking them, because all of the other pairs of messengers never came back. The two men go to a tavern, where the woman thinks they’re Tories, so she shoots them as they’re outside trying to figure out directions. But nothing happens; they keep riding on their horses, so I thought they were still alive and she had missed them. But then at 4 am an innkeeper hears and sees them, goes outside and they’re gone and there’s no horse or human prints on the ground. I didn’t know if this part happened the same night the men were killed, or much later. It was really confusing. It was cool though when people going from Salisbury to Charlotte, NC have been asked by the men for directions. One stagecoach driver said he’d given them directions so many times he resented the delay every time he saw them.
The Haunted Gold Mine was sad because the Irishman died in the mine, the owner having lied about having a safe mine, knowing it wasn’t safe at all. Joe, the Irish miner, asked him to give his wife money if he died in the mine. When Joe didn’t come out the owner claimed he wasn’t dead and had only left her. The only good part was when Joe’s ghost, over two weeks later, appeared at his friend’s house. He asked about his wife and if she had been paid, told his friend where his body was. It was cool his ghost was there when the men got to the mine, told them the owner is a liar and the mine isn’t safe and that he’s been walking around, afraid for them.
For the Singing River story, it's weird that they would suggest people used to live underwater and on land, and they seemed to be implying we were remembering that past, and that's why voices are heard at bodies of water. I didn't know if they were hinting at reincarnation or what, but it seemed overboard to explain this legend by saying maybe the world used to be underwater.
The Gray Lady was interesting in that she came to her descendants to warn them of their deaths or danger. The fiancé of one of her descendants got a visit from her, where the ghost was crying. She had a bad feeling, because she’d heard the story from her fiancé that his ancestor came when someone was dying. The next day her fiancé was killing in a hunting accident. Another woman received a visit in which the Gray Lady was trying to talk and pointing to the left. The next day the woman came to a fork in the road, in which either direction would lead her home, and she remembered the ghost pointing to the left and took that way, even though it was the longer route. When she got home her mom told her she’d been worried that she’d taken the shortcut because the bridge was out.
The Ghost Ship was a cool story. Living in North Carolina made it more special, because it was about the Indians living in the Outer Banks. They had mixed with white people and had gray eyes. They had seen a ship sailing towards Roanoke Island, in water that was too shallow to sustain it. And as they watched it disappeared. The colonists had been starving and in need of supplies, so John White had sailed for England to get food and ammunition, but since a war was going on he was forbidden by the queen to sail. It took 3 years for him to go back to the colony, and when he got there no one was there.
Railroad Bill was more a poem or a little jingle rather than a haunted legend. It was short and confusing. This old, poor woman gets a knock on her door and she finds a bunch of canned food, then sees Railroad Bill grinning. The cops come shortly after with search dogs asking if she’s seen him, and the cop noticed a fourth dog, which wasn’t one of theirs, and figured out Bill had been leading them on a wild goose chase. And other women received canned food and it’s from him. I didn’t know if he had been a ghost the whole time, when he had died and turned into a ghost. The Haunted Car was the most disappointing; they shouldn’t have saved the worst story for last. They should’ve done this and the other bad ones first and saved the best and longest stories for last. A preacher’s congregation pulled together and bought him a new car, which he took on a trip with his wife. As they’re driving an old lady appears in the car and says she hopes they don’t mind giving her a ride. They realize later that she isn’t there, they go to her address where her daughter explains her mom died and this has happened before. They sell the car, trade it in for another and the salesman sees an old woman sitting in the car, hurries and tries to sell it to the next customers. Very disappointing.
The only issue I had with the writing was punctuation. In places where there needed to be a question mark there never was, like “What will the baby and I do now.” And commas were really lacking. “Big Pete” moved blocking his exit.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 22, 2023
This ghost book was a staple of my childhood public library. Its a short collection of supernatural Southern folklore and you can find more details about the collected stories online. Most of them are from local folklore. The stories are illustrated with spooky, black-and-white photos. I remember tentatively glancing over my shoulder when I read this as a kid.
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