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Ghosts of the Carolina Coasts
Taken from real-life occurrences and from Carolina Lowcountry lore this collection introduces 32 ghost stories that will make your hair stand on end. Why did Joe Baldwins headless body once roam Macos train tracks? What happened to grave robbers and curious kids when they came too close to the cursed crypt? Why do drops of blood continuously appear on the floorboards of the Cape Romain Lighthouse? Discover these tales, and many more.
160 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1999
3 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Terrance Zepke
88 books65 followersI was born to travel! My parents took me on my first trip when I was just three years old and I have been on the go ever since! I always knew I wanted to be a journalist or a travel writer. I decided to pursue a career as a travel writer because I felt I would see more of the world--and I have! I have traveled to every continent and lived all over the world, including Oahu, Hilton Head, and London.
My favorite places are the South Carolina Lowcountry, Africa (especially East and South), and London. While I love all travel, my favorite kind is adventure travel. I have enjoyed all kinds of adventures, including hot-air ballooning over the Northern Serengeti,camping in the Himalayas, scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef, hiking Peru's Inca Trail,and dog-sledding in the Arctic Circle.
I also like to read, explore historic sites, and chase ghosts. If it's historic and haunted, you got me! I have written close to thirty books. To find out more about my books, such as TERRANCE TALKS TRAVEL: A POCKET GUIDE TO ADVENTURE TRAVEL, A GHOST HUNTER'S GUIDE TO THE MOST HAUNTED PLACES IN AMERICA, THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CHEAP TRAVEL, and SPOOKIEST BATTLEFIELDS visit www.terrancezepke.com and www.terrancetalkstravel.com.
In addition to receiving a FREE 50-page Travel Report when you sign up for my weekly newsletter, you'll also have access to hundreds of free travel reports, contests/giveaways, and my blogs: Terrance Talks Travel and Mostly Ghostly. You can listen to my podcasts, A Writer's Journey: From Blank Page to Published and Terrance Talks Travel at www.blogtalkradio.com/terrancetalkstr... and on iTunes.
My favorite places are the South Carolina Lowcountry, Africa (especially East and South), and London. While I love all travel, my favorite kind is adventure travel. I have enjoyed all kinds of adventures, including hot-air ballooning over the Northern Serengeti,camping in the Himalayas, scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef, hiking Peru's Inca Trail,and dog-sledding in the Arctic Circle.
I also like to read, explore historic sites, and chase ghosts. If it's historic and haunted, you got me! I have written close to thirty books. To find out more about my books, such as TERRANCE TALKS TRAVEL: A POCKET GUIDE TO ADVENTURE TRAVEL, A GHOST HUNTER'S GUIDE TO THE MOST HAUNTED PLACES IN AMERICA, THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CHEAP TRAVEL, and SPOOKIEST BATTLEFIELDS visit www.terrancezepke.com and www.terrancetalkstravel.com.
In addition to receiving a FREE 50-page Travel Report when you sign up for my weekly newsletter, you'll also have access to hundreds of free travel reports, contests/giveaways, and my blogs: Terrance Talks Travel and Mostly Ghostly. You can listen to my podcasts, A Writer's Journey: From Blank Page to Published and Terrance Talks Travel at www.blogtalkradio.com/terrancetalkstr... and on iTunes.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 4, 2014
I came into this story highly critical, after all it is meant for a younger audience. However, some stories in here certainly are pretty spooky. Although the book has some really great stories and some classic ghost stories, overall it is filled with really disappointing stories. Only about 6 of the several 2-3 page stories in this book were really good. The others were bland and too similar to one another. That being said, a great read if you are planning on visiting the places mentioned but other than the 6 stories this book provides don't make it worth reading. (at least the whole thing.)
October 15, 2015
Childhood revisited: This is the kind of book that would have creeped me out when I was 10 years old.
All in all, it was a fun read and I enjoyed learning some history about The Hampton Plantation and other "haunted" sites around N.C..
All in all, it was a fun read and I enjoyed learning some history about The Hampton Plantation and other "haunted" sites around N.C..
March 10, 2017
March 7-9, 2017
I was so very disappointed with this. The cover seemed to hint at something maybe lighthearted, at the least interesting, but the entire book was so drab and boring. I can't believe the bad time I had reading this. I kept wanting it to be over but it was story after story after story of the most uninteresting ghost stories. Some of the worst ghost stories I've ever heard are in here. I'm now convinced I won't enjoy ghost stories in print anymore. I spent the entire book wondering why any of it was in here, why these stories were put into a book. They were almost all ridiculous to the point of not being believable. And I know the author said something in the beginning like you don't have to believe them, they're valued for being oral legends and passed down, but they were so unbelievably stupid I just couldn't even take them. I didn't believe nearly all of them, because they had details no one would know except the person or people that died, so I was like clearly someone is making this up because no one would know these details. They were so far-fetched as to be just insulting to my intelligence. Add that to being so unpleasant to read, so mind-numbingly boring, that I started speed-reading, not even paying attention, just to say I'd read it. I had such high hopes for this but it was such a letdown.
I saw this on the shelf as I was grabbing Theresa Caputo's book and had to read it. The name was so cute. I love things that rhyme and I love ghosts so when you combine the two, what a nice effect. The cover is adorable. It's completely eye-catching and hooked me in. And when you mention haunted lighthouses, plantations and historic sites you've got me hooked.
The first story I believe, about the lights at the train station, was the most interesting, because it mentioned that President Cleveland saw the lights at the Maco Station. Soldiers from Ft. Bragg said they shot the lights but nothing happened. That was such a cool piece of history that involved a president and soldiers from my home state.
One story about a haunted house said that one of the families that moved into the house didn't see anything. I was like are you seriously reporting that people didn't experience the ghosts? What is the point of that? Like totally inane.
Most of these stories were so short, like a page or two, so it wasn't engaging and I saw no point to them even being included. I was very disappointed with the inclusion of the Gray Man on Pawley's Island. That's one I had heard about on the weather channel, on that TV show about ghost stories and the weather called American Super Natural. It was told so much better on there, so much more in-depth. In here it was so short and left out a lot of detail. Then there was the Devil's Tramping Ground which wasn't even a full page and consisted of a comment that women drive by and lock their doors. That doesn't mean anything. That doesn't prove there's anything there, that proves that people think there's something there. As an author I think it's important to weed out the irrelevant details that don't offer anything to the story. There were many boxes included throughout the book with a paragraph about something like the building or something which was also irrelevant to me. I didn't see any reason to include them.
"One guest, however, has stayed for over a century, ringing up quite a large bill. It doesn't seem likely anyone will ever be able to collect, since he is a ghost."
Yeah...not funny. I'm not sure if that was supposed to be funny, but to me it was just stupid, because it isn't that it "doesn't seem likely" that a ghost would pay a bill. It's impossible. So that was just stupid to say that. That's an example of the bad writing. I wanted to quit this very soon after starting and had that feeling the rest of the book.
typo pg. 21 "...while the Alex fell to his knees."
I was so very disappointed with this. The cover seemed to hint at something maybe lighthearted, at the least interesting, but the entire book was so drab and boring. I can't believe the bad time I had reading this. I kept wanting it to be over but it was story after story after story of the most uninteresting ghost stories. Some of the worst ghost stories I've ever heard are in here. I'm now convinced I won't enjoy ghost stories in print anymore. I spent the entire book wondering why any of it was in here, why these stories were put into a book. They were almost all ridiculous to the point of not being believable. And I know the author said something in the beginning like you don't have to believe them, they're valued for being oral legends and passed down, but they were so unbelievably stupid I just couldn't even take them. I didn't believe nearly all of them, because they had details no one would know except the person or people that died, so I was like clearly someone is making this up because no one would know these details. They were so far-fetched as to be just insulting to my intelligence. Add that to being so unpleasant to read, so mind-numbingly boring, that I started speed-reading, not even paying attention, just to say I'd read it. I had such high hopes for this but it was such a letdown.
I saw this on the shelf as I was grabbing Theresa Caputo's book and had to read it. The name was so cute. I love things that rhyme and I love ghosts so when you combine the two, what a nice effect. The cover is adorable. It's completely eye-catching and hooked me in. And when you mention haunted lighthouses, plantations and historic sites you've got me hooked.
The first story I believe, about the lights at the train station, was the most interesting, because it mentioned that President Cleveland saw the lights at the Maco Station. Soldiers from Ft. Bragg said they shot the lights but nothing happened. That was such a cool piece of history that involved a president and soldiers from my home state.
One story about a haunted house said that one of the families that moved into the house didn't see anything. I was like are you seriously reporting that people didn't experience the ghosts? What is the point of that? Like totally inane.
Most of these stories were so short, like a page or two, so it wasn't engaging and I saw no point to them even being included. I was very disappointed with the inclusion of the Gray Man on Pawley's Island. That's one I had heard about on the weather channel, on that TV show about ghost stories and the weather called American Super Natural. It was told so much better on there, so much more in-depth. In here it was so short and left out a lot of detail. Then there was the Devil's Tramping Ground which wasn't even a full page and consisted of a comment that women drive by and lock their doors. That doesn't mean anything. That doesn't prove there's anything there, that proves that people think there's something there. As an author I think it's important to weed out the irrelevant details that don't offer anything to the story. There were many boxes included throughout the book with a paragraph about something like the building or something which was also irrelevant to me. I didn't see any reason to include them.
"One guest, however, has stayed for over a century, ringing up quite a large bill. It doesn't seem likely anyone will ever be able to collect, since he is a ghost."
Yeah...not funny. I'm not sure if that was supposed to be funny, but to me it was just stupid, because it isn't that it "doesn't seem likely" that a ghost would pay a bill. It's impossible. So that was just stupid to say that. That's an example of the bad writing. I wanted to quit this very soon after starting and had that feeling the rest of the book.
typo pg. 21 "...while the Alex fell to his knees."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 8, 2019
It is far easier I suppose to write a book that is mostly about the legends of a particular area than to do the exhaustive work involved in trying to talk to witnesses. The best ghost books are quite frankly the ones where the author has spent hours and hours talking to people who have claimed to have had a ghostly encounter. These are the stories that send a chill up your spine because if it happened to these people it could happen to you. In this book there are a few of these stories, but not many. Most are legends that contain phrases like, "since that time people have reported," or, "shortly after that people started to." In short, most of the stories in this book are not overly convincing. There are also numerous historical errors to be found in this book but then most people who buy this book are looking for ghosts, not history.
On the other hand, Ms. Zepke has a very nice writing style and the book is an easy read. With just a little more legwork she could turn out some really excellent ghost books.
On the other hand, Ms. Zepke has a very nice writing style and the book is an easy read. With just a little more legwork she could turn out some really excellent ghost books.
March 29, 2025
This was a very good and light read that ended quick.
Find out the scary history of many ghosts of the Carolina coasts.
Over the years, many sightings and stories have floated around. The history behind it makes it more fascinating.
There is so much more then the haunted lighthouses, plantations and other historical sites.
Worth a read when visiting North or South Carolina.
Find out the scary history of many ghosts of the Carolina coasts.
Over the years, many sightings and stories have floated around. The history behind it makes it more fascinating.
There is so much more then the haunted lighthouses, plantations and other historical sites.
Worth a read when visiting North or South Carolina.
May 11, 2022
I love history and lore from the Carolinas. This collection was full of interesting stories, I just wish they’d have been a bit more descriptive and a little longer maybe? They each just seem to be a tiny bit rushed.
September 22, 2022
Very easy read but still captivating!
August 8, 2017
LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!
I absolutely love this book! Every story had me wondering. Wondering what it would be like to be in a situation like that. Some of the stories really did have me in fear for a bit or two.
I bought this book when I was vacationing in North Carolina. I was about to explore a lighthouse but I went to their gift shop first and saw this. So it made the book even more special for me.
HIGHLY recommended for ghost lovers,
I absolutely love this book! Every story had me wondering. Wondering what it would be like to be in a situation like that. Some of the stories really did have me in fear for a bit or two.
I bought this book when I was vacationing in North Carolina. I was about to explore a lighthouse but I went to their gift shop first and saw this. So it made the book even more special for me.
HIGHLY recommended for ghost lovers,
November 11, 2012
What a fun book to read during a beach vacation! I have so many memories of "ghosts tales" from childhood that I my Grandfather telling. I thoroughly enjoyed the legends in this book.
March 1, 2014
If you like ghost stories and stories that are short, scary, and to the point, this is the book for you. It's a good and easy read!
December 20, 2014
I love ghosts stories and especially ones in areas close to where I live.
February 9, 2016
Entertaining, short ghost stories. Perfect to read in October; especially if you vacation in the Carolinas and are familiar with where the cities are.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews