Ghostly Locations You Should Visit in the Smokies Part 1
The Smoky Mountains are immersed in old wives’ tales and folklore galore as it is a tradition in the Irish and Scottish heritages which massively make up the ancestral families that settled here long ago. As is Smoky Mountain tradition, it is only appropriate to offer up a few haunted places in the Smoky Mountains for your mind to ponder and your body to wander with! Don’t worry, none of our Gatlinburg cabins are haunted (that we know of!), and rest assured that you will find refuge within the hills, hollers, and valleys of the Smokies.
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A lot of folklore and spine-tingling ghost stories that have accumulated over the years have been passed down the family trees of the founding families and have since been distributed, and rightfully so, over a crackling fire or used as a bedtime story. The Smoky Mountains have stories that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end and give you goosebumps on your arms. There are more than plenty of haunted places in town, some of which you may not even know had a ghostly past! There are a few ghostly locations near our cabins in Gatlinburg you should consider visiting this fall during your stay in Gatlinburg!
The Greenbriar Restaurant
The Greenbriar Restaurant is a local favorite- you’ve got to experience it at least once in your lifetime. Greenbriar Lodge, now the Greenbriar Restaurant, is home to possibly the most famous ghost in town, Lydia. Lydia was a young woman who resided at the Lodge around the late 1930s. Poor Lydia was betrayed by her fiance, he left her at the altar of a nearby church in Gatlinburg. Distraught and emotional, Lydia rushed back to the Greenbriar Lodge, gathered rope around a rafter, and hung herself while still wearing her wedding dress. Diners often comment about seeing a sad entity on the staircase where Lydia took her last breath. Other guests say they’ve experienced a sad presence or have seen a strange woman wandering the halls.
Lucy | Roaring Fork
You don’t need to wander too far from town while looking for a haunt to explore. Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail is a scenic road known for beautiful waterfalls, hiking trails, and preserved homesteads. What most people don’t know is that a local spirit haunts these woods. Lucy, like Lydia, is one of Gatlinburg’s most famous ghosts. According to legend- Lucy perished in 1909 during a horrific cabin fire. Around a year after Lucy’s death, a man named Foster spotted a beautiful woman in the woods. Being the gentleman bachelor Foster was, he offered Lucy a ride on his horse in hopes of maybe making her his bride. Foster noticed that Lucy was barefoot and it was a cold winter’s night- as if a strange woman in the middle of the woods wasn’t a big enough red flag! Foster fell in love with Lucy’s beauty and decided to seek her parent’s approval for her hand. When Foster approached Lucy’s parents, they then informed him of her tragic death in the cabin fire not long ago. Lucy is often found along Roaring Fork Nature Trail looking for rides and is seen wandering the woods nearby to where the cabin burned to the ground with Lucy in it.
Elkmont Ghost Town
One of the spookiest haunts in the Smokies is Elkmont. It is beautiful and charming and even has a “troll bridge” giving this area a once-upon-a-time kind of feel. Elkmont was once a thriving vacation retreat formed by wealthy hunters where patrons could spend their time in leisure at their own private cottages and the Wonderland Hotel. Before the rise of the vacation hub, Elkmont was a logging community where loggers lived and worked. The cottages had lifelong leases- which dissolved over time leaving abandoned homes and the ruins of The Wonderland Hotel which gave off some serious “The Shining” vibes- google it. The vacation homes of the elite stand empty while others have since returned to nature. The park service is actively preserving 18 cottages and is currently allowing visitors to explore 4 completed cottages (if you dare). The entire place feels eerie with the chimney remnants and spirits of the mysterious man in the top hat along with ghosts of loggers whose lives were claimed due to logging accidents, maiming, explosions, derailed train wrecks, and old-fashioned murder. Visitors who wander here often complain about feeling watched, hunted, and left with a deeply uneasy feeling as they walk by the homes and ruins of Elkmont.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park spans 800 square miles of terrain that is peppered with gravesites, homesteads, churches, and abandoned homes. Elkmont, Tremont, Sugarlands, Roaring Fork, and Cades Cove will provide you with plenty of spookiness during your stay in the Smokies. Entertain a local ghost tour for in-depth storytelling about these eerie places, and more.
Follow along to part 2 for more spine-tingling tales of the Smokies and where you can experience them (or not)!
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