Spooky Tooth

[cabnfvr]

Western NC is full of folklore, murder, and mayhem. We spent a day ride visiting some of the more well known occurrences. In no order of happening our first stop was Tom Dula's grave. The song is Tom Dooley but as Joe says, "That would be wrong." He felt he had been wronged so he (with the likely help of his other girlfriend) lured Laura Foster away and to her doom. Tom's grave is a couple of miles off of NC 268 beside of a pasture. The living have chipped away at the headstone.


Laura's grave is on private property about 6 miles away from Tom's. She is buried near where she was murdered. Tom tried to hide the body but she was discovered.



Next on the Spooky Tooth Haunted Ride is the Charlie Silver story. "He needed killin'." Sober and nice beats mean and drunk, but the dismemberment might have been a bit too far on Frankie's part. If Frankie did that part, that is. We think her mother did the gutting. Which marker is Charlie's? All three.


Frankie was hanged in Morganton NC. After they witnessed her hanging her father and brother started the 40 mile trip "home" by buckboard. They had to bury her in-route due to the July heat. She is buried in a very peaceful spot in a forest a few hundred yards off of any road but only 30 feet off of the original trail. The path to her grave was marked and easy to follow.


Her real name was Frances but they called her Frankie. Her last name is misspelled on her headstone.


Next stop is Henry River Mill Village. It is an eerie tourist trap. Henry River was the location of District 12 in the Hunger Games. The scary part is the 15 dollars a pop admission fee

[cabnfvr]

The next stop was Kadesh Methodist Church. They say you can hear the organ play at odd times, like when no one is around. Spooky.


Our Spooky Tooth Haunted Ride is making the living hungry so we stopped in Gastonia NC at R.O's BBQ. They've been in business for over 70 years. Yummy.


Adam Springs home is in what is now known as McAdenville, NC. Susan is related to Old Adam, as he was known. His dying request to his servants was be buried standing up holding a musket overlooking his fish traps in the South Fork river. He is said to walk the banks to this day checking on his traps. He is buried in his family cemetery which is now on private property.



There is speculation that he may have been the real father of Abraham Lincoln, but that is another story.... His unmarked grave, another dying request, is to the right of the river below.


We thought the Spooky Tooth Haunted Ride was over when out of nowhere came this frightening Road Closed sign.


We ignored this ominous warning and there it was, looming chillingly right in our very midst. A HOLE IN THE ROAD!! Zeta had wreaked havoc in our area two days ago.


The final bit of the Spooky Tooth Haunted Ride came after we were safely home. We had at least a dozen instances of last minute left turn drivers or slow drivers or pull out and go nowhere drivers on this ride. One idiot in a van made a quick stop at a stop sign to our right and then lurched forward. The movement was so much like an attack that I counter steered so quickly that immediately after I was only thinking of "Damn, I didn't know I could do that. This bike is awesome!" Then we remembered it was a full moon night. A Blue Moon.


All silliness aside it was fun to get out on a nice brisk day. Hope you all did the same.

[Capnrip]

Excellent post and great stories, thanks Tim.

[LurkingCharlie]

Excellent post! North Carolina is steeped in ghostly history.!
Thanks to Tim and Susan!

[Loggiebone]

[LurkingCharlie]

Yes, they are both kind of spooky!

[Susan]

Hey, the Classics IV even sang a song about Spooky!

[Martin_D]

Great story and pics !!!
Thanks to both of you .