Last night, we went to Tryon Palace to check out what we thought was going to be ghost stories at the Palace itself. Turns out that it was just a guy telling stories in the auditorium of the history/visitor center. But let me tell you, that, by no means, made it less fun.
When we got there, we were a bit surprised by the crowd. It was a little larger than expected and filled up the room with very open seats. We must have smelled because most of the open seats were next to us. But anyway. The crowd consisted of mostly older children and adults. The story teller came out and got started right away telling us about the courthouse where he was from and one of the most talked about trials of the 19th century.
The next two stories took us to the Appalachian mountains and gave us a bit of local legend. This first being a tale of an old man living all alone in the woods that went hunting for food before a storm. After finding none, he went to sit and weather the storm in his cabin and a mysterious cat/rodent creature came scratching at his floor boards. An altercation ensued culminating with the removal of the creatures tail. As you can imagine, the rest of the story consisted of the ways the creature went about getting his tail back and the eerie noises that one has been able to hear in the woods ever since.
The second Appalachian story was one from Linville Gorge. Again, an old couple hungry and looking for food before a storm. The husband goes out looking for food and the wife…takes matters into her own hands, literally. When the husband returns, he finds what is left of his wife and proceeds to run from her through the woods to the gorge. What happens next is meant to explain the strange noises that are heard coming up from the gorge as the water rushes below.
The final story was one that I had heard before on the Wilmington Ghost Walk. It was the story of the Maco Light. It was still just as fun this time as it was the first several times I’d heard it.
All in all, it was a light hearted evening punctuated with gasps and chuckles and just good clean fun. If you get the chance to check out Tryon Palace, I would definitely recommend it. Aside from the occasional evening storytelling, they do all kinds of events. Our favorite being Lanterns on the Lawn. Our tent is actually in the picture in the link. But we’ll talk about that in April when the next one happens.
What kind of local lore is in your neck of the woods?
Adulting 101 