While doing research for another post I stumbled upon some new places in South Carolina that are abandoned. In doing so, I decided to share this first website I came upon because it has a eight places I’ve yet to discover which is surprising to me because I’ve explored many, many areas of SC and I didn’t think there were any places left that were actually abandoned. I’ve explored every haunted place I can find, state parks, back roads, historical sites, lakes, rivers and anything else I’ve read about online that make SC interesting. So finding some new places is exciting for me because sometime next year when I get a break I will go to South Carolina briefly but my destination is Georgia and Florida.
There are some really interesting abandoned places to visit that I’ve yet to explore and the only reason for that is I’ve just never googled it I guess. At least not for a really long time. But I have to put some of these places on my bucket list to visit although some of the blogs don’t give very good directions on how to get there and some give no idea where they’re located. I’ve spent hours in the past trying to figure out where something is and I no longer do that. If I can’t find the directions through google maps relatively easily then I go to something else and there are plenty of parks, lakes, rivers, historical sites, battlefields, etc. that I can see and photograph and often along the way I find many old houses to take pictures of.
This post basically segues from my other post on an Abandoned House in SC Road Trip and while looking at websites to add content and update that post I found some new abandoned places to visit in SC when I get a break of taking care of my aunt here in Memphis.
Here’s a good book on abandoned places in South Carolina. SC isn’t a huge state but there are a lot of cool places to visit. I like many different things such as lakes, rivers, parks, recreation areas, historical sites, museums, haunted places and abandoned houses. There are also a lot of small towns to visit too. I like Myrtle Beach but my favorite place is Summerville which isn’t too far from Charleston. The last time I was in Charleston I had to leave early because it started raining and it often floods.
Traveling down US route 17 is one of my favorite drives and it connects Myrtle Beach SC and Wilmington NC and it’s a nice long scenic drive and if you stay on US highway 17 south you’ll end up in Charleston fairly quickly. One time years ago, I was leaving Georgetown and a few miles outside of town it started raining heavily and my windshield wiper motor stopped working and I couldn’t see to turn around. I had to pull over a number of times but I made it to a Walmart on the outskirts of Charleston but the next day I ended up having to drive back to Myrtle Beach to get my car repaired because when I called around a dealership there was able to squeeze me in at 10 AM. It took about two hours and $160 to fix the motor. But I felt like an idiot having to drive that 45 minutes all over again.
Moved from another blog……..Update: I visited this area sometime in 2019 or 2020 during the winter. It wasn’t overly cold but cool enough. It took awhile to find the old church. The directions aren’t very clear but I finally found it after going back for a second time but not before getting stuck in the mud. It is a dirt road into the church. I don’t know what happened to the pictures. I’m sure I uploaded them to facebook and when I find them I’ll post them. Valle Crucis is close to Boone NC.
I read about this demon dog(hellhound) one night while on my phone before going to sleep and it has intrigued me ever since. Not that I would want to encounter this monster but I found a detailed story that I found quite mesmerising. I find it so intriguing that when I get back to North Carolina I’ve decided to visit the place and certainly get photographs. It is said there is an old stone church(St. Johns Episcopal) nearby and that the rivers(streams) make a cross. The church was built in the 1800’s. The name Valle Crucis means “Valley of the Cross” in latin. The legend says the demon dog along with other strange beings lurk in the area. By far, this story of the demon dog is probably one of the most terrifying I’ve read so far. The old stone church is located along Highway 194 on the edge of town. The Watauga river runs through Valle Crucis according to wikipedia.
Since I found this fascinating I decided to do a bit of research on hellhounds. In ancient mythology they were said to guard the world of the dead such as graveyards and burial grounds. Their duties included guarding, looking for lost souls and undertaking other duties related to the afterlife. It is said seeing a demon dog or hearing it howl is an omen that means death is imminent. They are said to be protectors of the supernatural, all kinds of supernatural creatures. They are also referred to as the black dog. My uncle once told me a story of seeing a black dog one night when he was driving through Colorado and was extremely tired and of course defined it as a hallucination. In greek mythology the hellhound belonged to the god of death Hades and guarded the gates of Hell.
In the movie Black Dog with Patrick Swayze and Randy Travis, Patrick Swayze is truck driver that talks about and describes the black dog that you may see after driving for a very long time and when you’re tired like my Uncle was.
Before I get to the story told by a couple of young men driving in the area and another story posted by someone who was seeing a hellhound on a nightly basis and was seeking to banish it I will talk a little on my thoughts about this. Especially the nightly hellhound visits. One thing the poster said was she had been given a barrier spell by a friend. Also her parents weren’t bothered. Now this makes me wonder if she is into the occult or practicing spells. If she is, this should be a word to the wise, when you practice spells whether black or white, good or evil intentions, sometimes things can slip through. Sometimes a window or door is opened to other dimensions allowing creatures, entities, etc. to get through. Whether doorways to Hell can be opened I don’t know. I don’t want to find out. Many years ago I was very much into spellcasting. Not me so much but I relied on others to cast spells for me. Now the negativity should have fallen to them but a fair amount of negativity fell to me. Another big no-no is removing things from a cemetery. That too, can bring a large amount of negativity or bad karma. I’m not sure why but I read that there is no way to know how much negative energy is attached to the object or where it has been, for that matter. One thing is for sure, I would be praying very hard for God to banish this thing.
One thing to note: In most places where such demonic, supernatural occurrences are, is that satanic rituals are often practiced. And many of these places are gathering hubs for satanists. One such place is Stull Cemetery in Kansas(which is said to be a gateway to Hell) although after visiting I didn’t find anything particularly eerie, creepy or heavy about the place. But I also didn’t go up the hill to where the old church once stood. Whether the stories of satanic rituals is true I can’t say.
All of this is folklore and sounds like an episode of the TV show Supernatural but I don’t completely discount the stories even if they are urban legends. Legends get their start somewhere.
One of the most haunted roads in America is in New Jersey and said to be home to hellhounds, animal hybrids and other strange creatures. One stretch of highway from Monticello, Utah to Gallup, New Mexico was renumbered US Highway 666 in August 1926 and became known as the devils highway due to the large amount of stories of hellhounds, phantom hitchhikers, ghostly cars running people off the road and sign theft. Route 666 stayed in service until May 2003 when it was renumbered to US Highway 491. One story coming from that highway was that a group of motorcyclists were attacked by a pack of hellhounds and lost arms and one bitten on the face. It is said there are many satanic symbols in places that are supposed to be inaccessible.
This is the story from northcarolinaghosts.com from two young men driving in the area. Whether true or not I can’t say. The story was told to the writer some years ago. Valle Crucis isn’t too far from Boone North Carolina.
“It happened one time that that two young men were driving along this road around midnight. It was a clear night and the moon was full, bathing the valley in an eerie white glow.
As their car turned a corner passing the old church, the two young men saw a shadow leap out from behind one of the graves and into the road in front of them. Swerving to avoid whatever had landed in the road, the driver slammed his foot on the brake and pulled off onto the side of the narrow road. Wondering what he had almost hit, he craned his head around over his shoulder to see what was in the road.
It was a dog. But not an ordinary dog. This was a dog as tall and as wide as a full-grown man, covered with bristling black fur and baring its massive, yellow teeth. And the animal’s eyes were glowing. Not reflecting light like a dog’s eyes will do, but actually glowing, burning with a smoldering red light that seemed to have about it something of the very fires of Hell.
The one young man turned to the other and asked “Do you see that?”
“No,” his friend replied, “and neither do you.”
The animal began to walk towards their parked car. By mutual and unspoken agreement the driver lifted his foot off of the brake and slammed it down on the accelerator. They roared off down the mountain road, taking the hairpin turns and twists of the road and sixty …seventy…eighty miles an hour.
It was only when the driver looked in the rear view mirror that he realized the dog was still following them.
And keeping up with them.
And even gaining on them.
Panicked, and expecting the jaws of the dog to wrap around the bumper of the car and drag it back into hell, the driver gave one final push on the accelerator, and just as the beast was about to catch them, the car leapt over the bridge the water just below where the streams meet in a cross.
And the dog stopped following them.
They watched it fade into the distance and wondered what supernatural law it was that the animal was obliged to obey that kept its territory limited by the boundaries of the water. The two young men drove into Boone and went to the local waffle house, since it was the only place around that was open twenty four hours and they both knew that neither one was going to sleep that night.”
Here is a post on a forum by someone who was supposedly stalked by a hellhound.
“For the past three months I have been seeing this dog like thing at the bottom of my stairs. Its back is arched like a cats but twisted somewhat. It has a long rat like tail. It has black tuffed, ragged fur. Its legs are skinny like a wooden walking cane. I haven’t gotten a good look at its feet but it appears to be just it’s paw bones. It has a skinny dog face and its ears are really pointy with tuffs on top. It has a long tongue. About the length of your arm to your elbow. This thing is huge. No normal dog can be this size. And lastly it has yellow glowing eyes.
I have been seeing it for most of my life. Showing up at random times. Sometimes I would see it for a second and then it’s gone. Nothing big or too spooky until currently. It didn’t show up for a few years, but now its back.
I walked out of my room three months ago to go to the bathroom. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something at the bottom of my stairs. I turned my head and saw this thing. It was staring at me. It didn’t do anything for the next week. I would see it at after 9 o’clock at night when I left my room to go to the bathroom. Each time it would stare at me. It was creepy, but manageable at first.
The next week it moved. It started walking up my stairs. Its gaze never looking away from me. It walked strangely. Its body twisting in painful looking ways. I bolted back into my room. I closed my door and ran across my room to grab a knife. I stared at my door all night. Chills ran up my spine. I felt like I was going to vomit from fear alone. Then this wave of hate slammed into my head. Then I realized this thing was on the other side of the door, waiting. This continued for a week. The feeling of hate coming from this creature getting stronger and stronger each night that I dared go outside my room.
Another week goes by. I made the mistake of exiting my room. It walked up the stairs and sat at the other side of my door again. This time something different happened. I was trying to get a grip on myself when something slammed against the door. I jumped in front of my door and held it against the slamming. It felt and sounded like claws scratching on the door and the banging and slamming didn’t stop until hours later.
I’m at my wits end. This thing keeps getting more violent. My door hinges have had to be fixed and replaced twice and I’ve had to paint my door over and over again. What scares me the most is this thing keeps following me. I’ve lived all over California and each time I move somewhere new I see this creature sometime during the time I live there. I have seen it more then three times, but I’m not dead. It looks like a hellhound, but I’m not really sure what one would look like. So, I’m guessing and assuming from what a few close friends have told me.
I really need help on how to get this creature to leave me alone or get what it wants from me. What should I do? What is this thing? What does it want? Why is it following me?
All I know on how to calm myself down during the visits from this creature is a barrier spell a friend taught me. I’m not sure what kind of spell it is. It worked for two months, but I feel like this creature is slowly breaking the spell.
Any help and knowledge would be valued greatly.”
I find these stories quite interesting to say the least and have given my opinions at the start of the stories.
This is a very interesting book with paranormal stories as well as murder case stories.
This post was moved from another blog. It’s from 2016 when I stayed in Murray Kentucky. If I remember correctly I was riding around when I found it. I might have searched for it but I think I just found it by accident. I only vaguely remember creating a video but I obviously must have deleted it. I might have run out of room. I was using my old Samsung phone which only had 32GB of space.
I was planning on visiting a cemetery in Yuma, Tennessee today but it started to get a little late with me searching on how exactly to get to this cemetery so I started searching for places in Murray and ran across Old Salem Road Cemetery and decided to go have a visit after reading some really wild stories online. I also made a video which I will upload to YouTube later.
First, I want to say this church isn’t abandoned as someone posted online. While I was there a meter reader came and read the electric usage. It may have been empty at some point but since the name is the same I highly doubt it but I could be wrong. It’s fairly close to a house next door and there is a dirt road right next to the church that a truck came and went several times and someone pulled out from the road too so there are neighbors. And you can bet if someone is there plundering around after dark they would probably call the police although the people living on the dirt road wouldn’t be able to see someone parked at the church nor can the people at the house see if someone is parked if the car is pulled up far enough. This is just a warning so if you decide to go you will know to leave if someone comes out from the dirt road and be prepared to explain yourself. Or worse explain to law enforcement.
There are some wild stories online about people experiencing odd anomalies during the day not just at night. People seeing shadows and apparitions during the day. And experiencing odd things inside the church. You cannot access the inside of the church.
There are stories of witchcraft and devil worship in the cemetery although I have my doubts on this one being so close to a neighbor and the lady that lives there came home while I was there.
It is said the man who painted the sign next to the entrance to the cemetery died the day after completing it. The man who wrote one article says the graves next to the church belong to a witches coven.
So I decided to do a little research and look up the names on a couple of the graves. I didn’t photograph every grave only a couple but I looked up the ones I did take pictures of and I may go back and get the names on some of the other graves just for my own curiosity. First off, let me dispel the myth that these graves belong to witches or warlocks. One woman buried there is Roxann Miller Downey and she was employed at Murray State University for 24 years and was a member of St. John’s Episcopal Church so I highly doubt she was dabbling in witchcraft.
The person that wrote this obviously did not get his facts straight which calls into question everything he wrote and why?
The community/recreation building he says was there is not there any longer but there is a foundation of where a building once stood.
The man who wrote this obviously bogus post wrote it back in 2004 and calls himself Orlock and had a couple of websites that are now defunct. He has a couple that I can’t say if they are active but are still on the internet at subdomains. He considers himself a paranormal investigator and his name is Adam Carlton. So why did I give all this information that has nothing to do with the cemetery in question? Because, if you are going to write something about those buried in a cemetery make sure you get all the facts straight before putting it out there for all to see. Plus, if he’s an investigator, this is highly unprofessional.
I didn’t experience anything abnormal while at the cemetery. I didn’t really feel anything and I certainly didn’t see anything. It did feel a little creepy at the entrance but don’t most cemeteries feel eerie?
It’s a beautiful graveyard and I got some nice photos. But I highly doubt it’s haunted. I wasn’t there at night and that may make a difference. I didn’t find much information about this place and no stories other than this one so I don’t know why this Orlock aka Adam Carlton made this story up other than to try and give credence to his fumbling websites which appear to be all defunct or gone now. His job as webmaster and paranormal investigator doesn’t appear that it lasted very long. At least I can’t find it.
Here’s his post, I only include it here because it’s written on a forum that can go away or be deleted at any time.
“The Old Salem Cemetery is just outside Murray in Calloway County, KY. It is reputed to be very haunted. There is a sign by the road there that says this: “As you are, I once was. As I am now, you soon shall be. So pray today.” The man that painted this sign for the cemetery died the night after completing it. I’ve heard of very strange things going on there and across the road there are 13 graves of what once was a witches’ coven.
My friend Jonalex and I went out there. Our trip to the site started out fun enough. Then along the way on Hwy. 121 we got behind really slow traffic. At the top of a hill there was a dog that had JUST been run over by a car it’s legs were all twitching and it’s mouth was opening and closing, it looked like it was trying to get up, but it was really quite messed up so it wasn’t gonna’ make it regardless. There being traffic still coming both ways, we couldn’t stop and move the poor animal out of the road. About twenty yards or so from the dog there was a white baseball cap lying in the center of the road. I told Jonalex that if we saw a hearse on the way out there that would be our third strike and we’d ditch the scouting for today, we laughed and continued on.
We got pretty far out into Calloway county and thought we should stop and ask for directions. I went into a gas station and asked and found we had went a little past Old Salem Cemetery. Down a back road we went, around Hwy. 94 which we had just gotten off of. As we traveled down this first road, we immediately came upon a SHARP curve. Right in this curve was this extremely eerie house. John came to a stop in this curve and the back of my head felt like someone had hit me with a board made of Jell-O, if that makes any sense, then it got all numb. We went back later and got some pics of the creepy house, but so far, I have seen no anomalies in the photos of the house.
Another turn down past a university funded golf course and onto “Something” (Hayes?) School road (sorry forgot the name) we turned. We turn off of that road onto another road and the church and cemetery are in full view.
I started taking pictures as soon as we got there. There were the thirteen graves, not counting a new one that was more off to the side of the thirteen and adorned with flowers under an arch of some sort. One of the thirteen graves headstone was partially buried and barely visible. Some were marked only with simple stones. Next to the thirteen was what appeared to be an old church recreation center or community building, possibly even the remains of the old church.
We went into the old building and got some pics of the torn walls, the old heater/stove (at this point my testicles, strangely enough, started hurting like I was being kicked). Then we went outside around the back of the building, took some pictures of some “hot spots” and then went back around to the side and into the front of the old building.
There was one room we couldn’t get to from the back portion we were in that we had access to now. It, I dunno, felt really strange so I took a picture inside the dark room. Many of the pictures I take when doing this, I don’t look at the view finder, as I find it best not to aim at anything in particular, but kind of just point and click where I get the feeling I should. As I did, Jonalex saw something white move across my view finder in the dark room, but it DID NOT show up in the pic I took. What it was we don’t know. At this point I started hearing voices, like a whole bunch of people chattering all at once. John didn’t hear them, he was too busy freaking out over the movement of whatever it was I think, but he saw and I heard at almost exactly the same time, because we were both trying to tell the other of what we were experiencing.
After that little bit of fun, we went across the street to the actual Old Salem Cemetery. As we crossed the street I looked down the road and saw a big black dog. It looked like it could have been a huge Chow or something. I got a picture of it, but again nothing strange.
I started taking pictures as soon as we got over there. Many of the graves were dated from the 1800’s to the early 1900’s. The most recent interment I saw was from 1994 and it seemed it was a rarity. There were several Masonic graves which I found interesting and it seemed most if not all of the grave-top and mounted vases were broken off and missing.
We were able to make out four possibly five distinct smells in this rather small area. One was quite a pungent perfumed/flowery smell and melded into the middle of this not two feet to the left and extending outward about ten feet was a dead, horrid, rot, nasty smell.
We went our separate ways and continued to look around. I had walked back along the back side of the cemetery and went back through the nasty smell, the perfume smell, then like just an outside smell. Then, strange enough, I came upon, I kid you not, a garlic bread smell. It was only around this one grave’s area, and was not just garlic, but cooked, buttered, parmesan’ed, garlic bread. Weird eh?
Only one of my pics so far, and I haven’t thoroughly searched them all, seems to have what would be orb or spirit activity, although, every time I look at the pic of the oven/heater whatever my nuts hurt. Can’t figure that one out. I know, it’s stupid but hey, it’s the truth.
I took many pictures throughout the cemetery and we are planning to go back for a night visit tomorrow night.
We were supposed to be conducting a full on investigation last night, but crappy enough, my friend Jonalex got sick after our first trip out. He was feeling awful yesterday when I talked to him and I hope he gets to feeling better. We are planning on our trip sometime in the next week or so.
Here’s his second post and the link to his pictures don’t work.
“I added a few more pics and fixed the pic link above. You all should be able to view my photos now.
Okay, the night of our intended investigation was Sunday, a church night, so we needed to wait until the church had cleared out so as not to bother anyone coming from the service. One of the most important things when doing this is to respect others property and wishes, try to cause as little concern and uproar as possible, or it’ll just make it harder on you and everyone else in the long run.
After we thought all had gone home, my friend Richard and I went out to get a few pics and leave. Jonalex was sick and Richard just wanted to see the place so he offered to take me out there this time.
When we got there, again, idiot that I am, I had left my flashlight at home. In the near dark with NO moonlight and only my camera, I ventured around the old building trying to concentrate on “The 13” tonight figuring that would be most wise considering the pitch black of the cemetery was being nowhere near inviting.
I took some pics of the old building itself, some pics of The 13, some individual pics of graves, and had turned to take another pic inside a doorway of the old building when we heard a very loud strange noise. It sounded, well at the time it sounded like a huge, um, well, for lack of a better term, outbreak of flatulence…lol…I realize that sounds cheezy but it startled us there in the dark, quiet, presence of the cemetery. Upon reflection, it, Richard and I agreed, sounded like when wood rubs against wood abruptly and VERY hard. Like if you jerked a wooden chair on a wood floor quickly with someone sitting in it.
Anyway, when that sound happened, I turned toward it and snapped what I have called the Black Photo. There was nothing there, until I adjusted the contrast of the picture which brought out more detail. It looks like someone standing, side profile, leaning against something with their arms crossed on their chest. Could the sound we heard have been coming from the shift in material when WHATEVER leaned against it? I dunno, but there was NO ONE ELSE out there but us (living that is) so Richard, having never been out there before and with total lack of flashlight, decided it was time for us to go. I wasn’t about to stand out there by myself so I agreed.
We’ll be going back out as soon as Jonalex feels up to it!”
His third comment.
Check out my album for new pics.
As a side note, in case any of you were wondering, all I am doing to “enhance” these photos is dropping the color on occasion and heightening the contrast so things are more visible. In all cases before presentation of the enhanced version of a photo, I have also posted the regular version. I am also marking some things in red, which are being pointed out, but will always include an unmarked version of the picture in question. I am not manipulating the images in any other way.
Another note from our night trip…Richard DID borrow a night vision camera from a friend that we used out there, it filmed for about 15 seconds then the tape goes all fuzzy. It was a new tape that I opened on the way out there.
I posted some new pics from our trip out tonight. I got several possible manifestations in the forms of orbs and a possible partial manifestation of a “misty” human(?) forehead and eyes.
Nothing really big happened and the place, pardon the pun, felt “dead”. Almost as if something had been resolved. Although, many of my pics showed a lot of possible activity, including one where we had sat down and tried to do some EVP.
In between these two trees we had sat down cross-legged and started trying to communicate but seemingly got nothing. Afterward, I took a picture, and down next to the ground close to where my brother was sitting there was a fairly large, clear orb. I shined my flashlight IMMEDIATELY after taking this pic on the spot where it showed up because I saw it in the view finder after I took the pic (my camera is one of those digital cameras that shows the picture on a little screen right after you take it, so you can scan through them and check them out, deleting the ones you don’t want or whatever).
The only place we got a bad feeling at all was around the back, sides, and inside of the old messed up church/rec center. Well, that and one more place in the cemetery itself. Nathan and I both got a huge horrid feeling at the same time and it seemed to center around this one tree that had been struck by lightening long ago and this one old grave. My left leg started to feel weak as if I had hurt it badly or had ran very far, very fast, very quickly. Nathan started to feel like he needed to vomit. I took a picture of the grave and the immediately surrounding area, and that’s where the possible manifestation of the misty face/forehead thing showed up.
Also, the Black Photo from before…when I took it it showed nothing until I enhanced it then it showed the leaning thing. If you’ll notice in the enhancement, there are two (green)lines running horizontally meeting at the leaning apparition (one stepping down a bit from the other). I figured out what the lines are, they are the EXACT roof line of the church and the awning at the front door. I took three or four new pics of this area trying to reproduce the same photo with the leaning thing as I had before. The lines show up upon enhancement but the leaning thing does not…it’s just a blank area where they step down.
In comparable size though, if it was a manifestation of a male spirit leaning against the church, it would had to have been more than 10 feet tall.”
His next comment is about another cemetery and I’ll probably research it just for the heck of it. I spent two months here and really liked it.
I didn’t find any other posts, articles or websites talking about this cemetery other than genealogy websites so I don’t know where this story about it being haunted comes from other than someone trying to get traffic to his website if he has one or just writing fictional stories. I’m not sure but I don’t believe it’s haunted. I’m not saying it’s not but there is no other information online about it.
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Update: I’ve had a love for all things haunted and abandoned since 2009 when I starting photographing every haunted place and abandoned house I could find when I ran out of haunted places to take pictures of. My love for hauntings and the paranormal actually started in 2007 when I was involved in a three car accident. For months I felt like I wasn’t alive. I can’t explain it any other way and this is what made me go down this path of exploring haunted places and abandoned houses. As for the abandoned places I would find in my travels it was the lure of the history that drew me to them.
I’m pretty sure this old, abandoned house is in South Carolina but I don’t remember where. I wish I did. I used to make note of the places where my pictures were taken but I take so many I can no longer do this.
This is from when I went through Georgia and South Carolina about two or three years ago. I’m thinking it was 2019. I know it wasn’t 2020 during covid because I went to Pennsylvania as soon as lockdown was lifted.