Ghosts Along The Mississippi River

Some of the nation’s most compelling ghost stories owe their origin to “The Father of Waters.” Ghosts along the Mississippi River is the first book-length collection of ghost tales from the small towns and bustling cities that have grown up along its banks. The states represented in this book include Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Unlike most collections of “true” ghost stories, Ghosts along the Mississippi River draws from the folk traditions of the northern and the southern United States. These tales are populated with Federal and Confederate soldiers, Native Indians, wealthy entrepreneurs, actors, college students, hotel owners, preachers, slaves, and planters. According to some paranormal investigators, the large number of ghost stories from the Mississippi’s river towns, and from watery sites all over the world, are proof that large bodies of water are conductors of psychic energy. Granted, no concrete proof exists that there is a definite connection between the river and any actual ghosts or spiritual phenomena. What is indisputable, though, is the fact that the ghost stories included in Ghosts along the Mississippi River are an invaluable record of the values, dreams, fears, and lives of the people who have called the river home.

Discover the spine-chilling stories and local legends of this corner of the American South . . . Includes photos! Mississippi’s Golden Triangle is a major modern hub—but restless spirits of Native Americans, Civil War soldiers, and slaves also wander this region. Tales of a mysterious watchman who patrols the railroad tracks between Artesia and Mayhew haunt curious locals. Ed Kuykendall Sr. is rumored to manage Columbus’s Princess Theater from beyond the grave. A young girl who died while attempting to free her head from a stair banister is said to still walk the halls of Waverly. In this fascinating tour, author Alan Brown uncovers the eerie thrills and chills that are part of local history. “[Alan Brown’s] newest collection of stories involves a couple of places in Monroe County, namely the Gregg-Hamilton House in Aberdeen and the remains of the Gulf Ordnance Plant in Prairie . . . [In the Golden Triangle,] he found plentiful resources of historical information.” —Monroe Journal

From backwaters as dark as a cypress swamp to nooks as mysterious as a musty college library, southerners have conjured spirits and told ghost stories. Shadows and Cypress: Southern Ghost Stories is a Dixie séance that summons ghost tales from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Collecting more than a dozen stories from each state, this book channels the South's entire panorama of creepy locales into one volume. The limestone caves of Kentucky, the swamps of Louisiana and Florida, the pine hills and hollows of Appalachia, and the plains of Texas—these are perfect haunts for a host of narratives about visitors from the spirit world. The many cultures that converged in the American South enriched the region's ghost stories. Shadows and Cypress taps African American, French, Hispanic, and Scotch-Irish storytelling traditions to capture the distinctive signatures that each has left on ghostlore. Throughout the region, the southern ghost story is hardly a curio from the crypt. It is still alive and well. Folklorist Alan Brown draws stories from crannies as contemporary as the college dormitory or cars parked on a lover's lane. To give the reader the unique experience of hearing a classic ghost story told, Brown presents these tales exactly as they were recorded in his field research or as archived in the trove of the WPA oral collections. A wide variety of specters found only in this region arise in Shadows and Cypress. The “fillet” and “loogaroo” from Louisiana, “plat-eye” from South Carolina, and “haints” from across Dixie are among the creatures bumping in the night. Beginning with the Revolutionary War and continuing to the present day, this generous gathering of tales will chill and delight readers and long haunt shelves as a comprehensive sourcebook of the region's supernatural allure.

The historic region between the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers has formed the basis for countless accounts of apparitions, hauntings and unexplained phenomena. For more than one hundred years, reports have circulated that the ghost of merciless slave master Lewis Morris can be seen scouring Passage Point Plantation in Rumson, with a gaping hole where his heart should be. The frozen waters of the Navesink were a popular destination for iceboat sailing, and many still claim to see the face of a drowned teen in the ice after a tragic incident in 1906. The native Lenapes and colonial Dutch told eerie tales of the ancient forest of Ole Balm Hollow in Middletown, including phantom riders and the echoes of crying children. Local author Patricia Heyer recounts haunted tales of the two rivers peninsula.

A fascinating collection of ghost stories, tales of the supernatural, death beliefs and death sayings that remain as a vestige of the part in south central Kentucky's "Pennyrile" region. "This unique and extremely valuable book adds considerably to the area of folklore studies in the United States. The material which Montell obtained in his field work is superb." --Don Yoder. "This book is to be recommended to both folklorists and those non-folklorists who read folklore for enjoyment alone. It makes an important contribution to the study of deathlore and, it is to be hoped, will draw added attention to this multi-generic subject area." --David J. Hufford, Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin. "Professor Montell's book can well be viewed as a standard of excellence: a direct, articulate and cataloged approach for future study and implementation in the fields of folklore and oral history." --Joan Perkal, Oral History Association Newsletter. "The book gives fascinating accounts of death beliefs, death omens, folk beliefs associated with the dead, and in the major section, ghosts narratives. A fine combination of scholarship and chilling narration to be relished by firelight in an old deserted house in the hills." --Book Forum. "Professor Montell has arranged beliefs and experiences about death of a particular group of people in such a way that a whole new aspect of the people's lives comes to focus." --Loyal Jones, The Filson Club HIstory Quarterly.

This “frightful compilation” of ghost stories flows from the rich history of the Missouri college town located on a bend in the Mississippi River (Southeast Missourian). For nearly two hundred-fifty years, the mighty Mississippi has granted Cape Girardeau a legacy of prosperity and dealt it some fearsome scars. Walk through buildings cut by the shrapnel of exploding steamboats, swamped in the debris of sudden floods, and haunted by the restless spirits of those who washed ashore. Beyond the riverfront, tragedy’s indelible mark can be found in places like the back row of the Rose Theater or the ashen mists of Spook Hollow. Joel P. Rhodes keeps company with the most forlorn figures and entrenched phantoms in this history of Cape Girardeau, where the river turns a thousand chilling tales. Includes photos!

22 Folk Tales from Ireland retold and illustrated by the author. One of Irish-American writer James Reynolds’ best works is this lively compilation of Irish ghost stories that reflects the rich Celtic imagination. First published in 1947, this compilation draws from his personal collection of over 200 tales, ranging from the tenth to the twentieth centuries, these 22 yarns are a mix of the eerie, the terrifying, and the madly comic. In “The Bloody Stones of Kerrigan’s Keep,” vengeful spirits from a centuries-old massacre terrorize all who come close to their fortress grave. In “The Headless Rider of Castle Sheela,” the ghost of a beheaded horseman continues to haunt his castle every Christmas day. You’ll meet the demonic harpies of “The Ghostly Catch,” the giddy spirits of the fashionable O’Haggerty twins, and the gluttonous ghost of Jason Bannott. Other tales include “The Weeping Wall,” “The Bridal Barge of Aran Roe,” “Mrs. O’Moyne and the Fatal Slap,” and more. Enhanced by Reynolds’ illustrations of Irish houses and their residents—both ghostly and human—this anthology is a treasure to savor.