Folktales of the Carolina Backcountry

From the phantom duelist of Pickens to the vengeful witch of York County, the unnatural entities scattered across the Upstate are as varied as the contours of its geography. In this compilation, Ray Belcher has gathered some of the lesser-known tales of Carolina curiosities, some of which were all but lost among the annals of ancient newspapers and others which have heretofore only existed as oral tradition.



Spanning a period of over 400 years and stretching across the counties of Anderson, Greenville, Spartanburg, and beyond, these stories do as much to illuminate forgotten corners of Upstate history as they do to pique the imaginations of those looking for a spine-tingling tale.