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The Haunted-Places Report 09/23/07
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Rev. Ron Beach
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Sep 23, 2007 11:29 PDT
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THE HAUNTED PLACES REPORT
"Some things exist whether you believe in them or not!"
Founded by: Dennis William Hauck
Edited by: Ronald E. Beach
Email: Edi-@haunted-places.com
Website: http://www.Haunted-Places.com
All information contained in this newsletter is copyrighted and may not
be used in any format without the express written permission of the
editor.
09/23/07
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FROM THE EDITOR
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Please visit our website at: Haunted-Places.com and let us know
your thoughts & comments. Anything you like to see added to the site?
All items should be emailed to us at:
Edi-@haunted-places.com
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We are in the process of updating the Haunted-Places website
with upcoming events for 2007. Please email us with your upcoming
meetings, conferences, classes, or other events. Just email a short
description including dates, times, prices, & contact info to:
Edi-@Haunted-Places.com .
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
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From Patty Wilson at:pineycre-@yahoo.com
If anyone has had a paranormal experience of a sexual nature or
worked a case where the entity involved was sexually inappropriate
please contact me. I am currently collecting material on the subject
for an upcoming book.
As a paranormal investigator myself, I have had cases of this
nature and there is very little literature out there on this subject. I
am hoping to compile enough data to separate types of encounters, verify
the aftermath and see how others have handled the situation.
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FEATURE STORY
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The Ghost of Chapel Hill
Written by Pat Fitzhugh at: patsw-@yahoo.com
Used with permission
Situated among middle Tennessee's rolling hills and
storybook-quality farmland, the town of Chapel Hill is the
quintessential, "sleepy little Southern town." It modestly boasts a
school, a convenience store, several churches, a town square lined with
old, turn-of-the-century buildings, and a main drag dotted with mighty
oaks and older, well-kept homes that typify "Main Street, USA."
Literally, all that's missing is a Wal-Mart.
Morning brings the aroma of fresh bacon and eggs to the air, and
most residents are out and moving by 7 AM – some headed for work, some
just getting in from the night before, and others going to the café for
a fix of coffee, grits, and small-town gossip. A down-to-earth town like
Chapel Hill isn't where one would expect to encounter the paranormal,
but certain events over the last 70 years have led many to question its
past.
The town sprang into existence in the late 1800s when the
Louisville and Nashville Railroad was built through the area. It became
a major stop along the Nashville-Birmingham segment and hosted a steady
stream of passenger and freight traffic for years; and, incidentally,
most townspeople worked for the railroad. Chapel Hill eventually
suffered the same fate as many other "railroad boomtowns," and now sees
only a handful of freight trains pass its three crossings each day.
One crossing, just north of town, has seen more than its fair
share of tragedy over the years. Several fatal automobile accidents and
at least two train derailments have occurred there. There are no trees
or bushes to obstruct a motorist's view of oncoming trains; the closest
ones are some fifty feet from the track. Despite that and a modernized
crossing-gate system, loss of life among drivers, pedestrians, and train
crews has been very heavy at this particular crossing.
Many believe the track north of town is haunted, and perhaps
even cursed by, the spirit of an early nineteenth century train
conductor who was decapitated in a freak accident.
The story goes back to a winter night, many years ago, when
trains 1 and 2 were scheduled to meet at a siding just north of town --
where the crossing is today. Train 2's conductor switched the train into
the siding where it would wait for train 1 to pass. While waiting, he
routinely inspected his train's critical parts and stationed himself on
the narrow stretch of gravel between the tracks so he could get underway
quickly once the other train passed.
The light from Train 1 soon came into view. It was moving fast,
so as to make up time and arrive in Nashville on schedule. The intense
rumble caused the conductor to lose his footing in the loose gravel and
fall. His neck landed on the rail beneath the passing train, and a lone
"clunk" sound, much like a watermelon being chopped open, was heard for
a split second. No one realized what had happened, and Train 1 continued
on its way.
Meanwhile, in train 2's locomotive, the engineer patiently
awaited the conductor's lantern signal indicating that they could
proceed. He looked out the window in both directions but saw nothing;
he began sipping coffee to recharge himself for the trip to Birmingham,
some 140 miles away. Even with hot coffee and the steam engine's firebox
burning just a few feet away, he found it unusually hard to keep warm on
this cold night. Moreover, and to make matters worse, everything outside
the cab seemed still and dark; no lights of any kind, no sounds, no
nothing; it was just a cold, dead night.
After fifteen minutes of waiting for the conductor's "all clear"
signal, and now running late, the engineer grew impatient and stepped
outside the locomotive to look for the conductor. He didn't see any sign
of him, not even a lantern or the faint light of a cigarette. He shouted
the conductor's name several times. Nothing. He shouted again; still
nothing. While slowly making his way toward the rear of the train, he
found the conductor's lantern on the ground next to the adjacent track.
As he inched closer, he noticed a smoky mist coming from the
ground nearby and figured the conductor had just finished a cigarette.
But why didn't the conductor answer his repeated calls? He soon
discovered the conductor's severed head, partially crushed and resting
in an upright position. He also discovered that the "smoky mist" was
really steam, coming from the freshly severed head, as it released heat
into the frigid air.
The engineer was eventually able to find help, but it was too
late; the conductor's shift had officially ended, so to speak. His head
was also missing from the place where the engineer first found it. Even
to this day, no one knows what happened to the head, but wild animals
seem to be a reasonable possibility.
The siding is long gone, and a road now crosses the track at
the site. It is in a rural setting, amidst the woods and a few modest
country homes. The only sounds to be heard are a nearby hound dog's
occasional late-night barks and the crossing gate's bell ringing,
sometimes for no reason at all. As peaceful and laid-back as the area
might seem, a male figure seen carrying a lantern down the track late at
night has frightened people for years.
The headless figure slowly wanders down the track for about a
half-mile and quickly fades away, usually not returning until the
following night. The figure seems oblivious to onlookers' shouts and
flashlights, but quickly vanishes when rocks are thrown or cameras are
snapped. There have even been reports of the figure passing onlookers as
few as ten yards away, including a Nashville television crew who managed
to capture the phenomenon on film. Several witnesses were on hand and
said the TV crew did not "rig" anything.
The phenomenon isn't always a male figure confined to the
railroad track; it sometimes manifests in the form of a small,
flickering light at the edge of the nearby woods, usually accompanied by
the sound of human footsteps. For years, people have searched the nearby
woods in hopes of catching the culprit, but to no avail. On one
occasion, onlookers were pelted with rocks when they tried to enter the
woods. The next day, the bruised sleuths returned to the site and found
the rocks on the ground where they had landed.
The apparitions, both on the railroad track and in the woods,
occur sporadically, and usually between the hours of 12:30 and 2:00 AM.
There is neither rhyme nor reason as to why these hours are special, but
some think this was when the conductor was decapitated, many years ago.
Some careful research would be needed to validate this hunch, but most
researchers are more interested in taking pictures -- and for a very
good reason.
The site has produced its share of anomalous pictures over the
years. It is not uncommon for such things as human-shaped mist and orb
showers to appear in photographs taken of the site. On a few occasions,
photos have shown streaks of ectoplasm zigzagging across long stretches
of the track!
In the year 2000, a Nashville author and investigator captured
close-up footage of the phenomenon in the form of an orb changing size
and color before slowly fading from sight. The first few seconds of the
tape showed a large, grayish colored orb moving from side to side and
away from the camera. It soon turned to a yellowish color and became
larger the farther away it got. Finally, it became a brownish, orange
color before fading.
Attempts to explain what happens at the railroad track near the
quaint little town of Chapel Hill have been unnoticed for the most part;
few people outside the area know about the phenomenon. Some locals say
the conductor's accident never happened to begin with, whereas others,
mostly the elderly, say they have heard their parents talk about it when
they were little. While quick to state that the accident happened as
told, most are hesitant to attribute the phenomenon to the conductor's
"ghost."
Others say the light is merely a reflection; they theorize that
the headlight of an oncoming train is reflected by a rock wall beside
the track about a mile north of the site. However, if that is the case,
then why does one experience the phenomenon and not see a train pass for
hours?
We will most likely never know the origin of the mysterious
figure walking the railroad track and haunting the woods near Chapel
Hill, Tennessee late at night, but it, along with the numerous vehicle
and train accidents that have occurred there since the conductor was
decapitated, leaves little room for anyone to dismiss it as a
coincidence.
A note of caution: Do not visit Chapel Hill and attempt to find the
site. The local police patrol the area aggressively, and do not take
kindly to curiosity-seekers they aren't already friends with. Also, stay
clear of all railroad tracks; they are very dangerous and privately
owned.
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SEEKING INFORMATION
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This section is devoted to helping those looking for paranormal groups
near their home or seeking information about various hauntings. If you
can provide answers or help to any of these requests please feel free to
email the senders.
Questions or comments for this section can be emailed to:
Edi-@haunted-places.com. Please be sure to include your email address
so our readers can respond to your request. Due to the vast number of
subscribers, we at The Haunted Places Report can not be held responsible
for the types or quality of answers and /or help you receive.
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TRUE EXPERIENCES
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From: Darla
It was the summer of 1992 when I got a job baby-sitting for a
couple that lived next to my best friend. I've always had the ability
to sense things that aren’t visible to the eye, and noticed an unusual
way about the house when I first step into it.
The first occurrence happened when the children and I where
playing hide and seek. It was my turn to hide so I decided I was going
to go to the bathroom at the end of the hall and hide there. I quietly
closed the door and chuckled to my self and turned towards the mirror in
front of me. I was quite shocked to see the closet door behind me open
very slowly and then close again by itself. " It seems someone else was
playing hide and seek to", I thought to myself. So I decided that he
could have that hiding spot and I would find another one somewhere else.
The next time something happened was when we were all playing a
board game on the floor in the living room. Something caught my eye so I
looked up and there was a shoe rolling across the floor. The children
saw this to and freaked out and ran out of the house. I tried to explain
this to their parent when the got home and they wanted to here nothing
about it.
The father thought it was the wind, on a perfectly calm day with
the door closed. Any way a few weeks later I was in the coffee shop and
over heard some one talking about the house, and how there uncle died of
a heart attack on the roof. So I came to the conclusion of who the very
playful spirit was that just wanted to have a little fun.
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