The Biltmore estate is one of the jewels in the crown of North Carolina tourism. The largest privately owned house in the country, it brings in over a million visitors each year from all over the world. Some of those who come get more than just a tour though the old house, they get to come face to face with ghostly spirits who call the Biltmore home.
In the small town of Alliance, N.C. is the tale of a folk hero to those in the area known as Boaz Squires. Boaz was a Scottish immigrant who came to what is now Pamlico county some time before the American revolution. It wasn't long before the people of the area took a liking to the young man even though they knew he was a wizard. And through his powers, he was able to keep the Devil at bay.. for a little while at least.
In 1780 as America was fighting for it's freedom, a young man was mortally wounded on the battlefield. He tried desperately to make it home to see his family one last time, but it wasn't to be. Now his ghost haunts a road near Plumtree, NC trying to get home.
North of Durham near the town of Treyburn lies what was the largest plantation in the south, The Stagville Plantation. Once 30,000 acres in size it was purchased by a tobacco company and in 1976 71 acres were deeded to the state. Today it is used to educate the public about the lives of slaves in the south. Some claim it is also home to the ghosts of those slaves long since gone.
Of the 'haunted railroad' stories in North Carolina, the Pactolus light has the distinction of being the only one with out a train wreck. What is does have, is a tale of love broken by greed and death that leaves a man spending eternity trying to get back to the woman he loves.
Pactolus is a small township in Pitt county near Greenville and ECU. The students there have taken to using the Pactolus light as a hazing ritual without any knowledge of it's heartbreaking origin. But while the light shines brightly, the details of the story have faded in the years.
