One of the highlights of the traditional camping experience is the evening campfire! This is not only the perfect time to roast some delicious s’mores, but to tell some ghost stories to your family and friends! If you haven’t read up on any local haunted history, we’re here to share some ghostly tales that have happened right here in the Smokies! Here are 3 spooky Smoky Mountain ghost stories to tell around the campfire:
1. Ghost Bride of the Greenbrier Lodge
Our first sinister tale took place at the Greenbrier, a wealthy lodge hotel situated just several miles from our Smoky Mountain campground. Back in the 1930s, a beautiful wedding was planned at the Greenbrier with fragrant bouquets, silky ribbons, and handmade furniture. Lydia, the bride-to-be, went to the altar on the day of her wedding and was horrified to discover that her beloved fiance didn’t show up for the ceremony! She was so heartbroken that she took a rope up to the second floor of the lodge, threw it over a beam, and hung herself. It was later discovered that Lydia’s fiance couldn’t make the wedding because he was found to be mauled by an animal! While the couple is long gone, some of the staff at the Greenbrier (which is now a restaurant) have reported sightings of a woman in a wedding gown roaming the halls!
2. Lucy of the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail
Another one of the spooky Smoky Mountain ghost stories to tell around the campfire is about the Ghost of Lucy on the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, a 5.5-mile scenic road in the Smokies. As the story goes, Lucy was a young woman who died in the area when her family cabin burned down in the early 1900s. After her death, a man named Foster came across her barefoot in the forest on a cold winter night and offered her a ride home on his horse. Foster became smitten by Lucy’s beauty and after bringing her home, he returned to the house at a later time to ask her parents if he could marry her. He was shocked to learn that she had died quite some time ago, placing her death before he had met her! Even since that time, it has been said that some motorists along Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail have caught sight of Lucy wandering along the road!
3. Lantern of Noland Creek
When it comes to the spooky Smoky Mountain ghost stories to tell around the campfire, the Lantern of Noland Creek is sure to cause a few shivers! In the Noland Creek area of the Smokies, there is a story of a young farm girl who gets lost in the surrounding forest. As she calls out to her father, she slowly becomes more disoriented in the eerie forest mist. Meanwhile, the father frantically searches for his daughter and cries out for her in every direction, continuing to search through the night with a lantern in his hand. Tragically, the father was soon found dead without any trace of his lost daughter! While many believe that the daughter and father were reunited long ago in the afterlife, others say that a mysterious lantern light appears in the Noland Creek area as the father still searches for his beloved daughter.
Check out all of the information about our campground in the Smokies today so that you can share these creepy Smoky Mountain ghost stories around the campfire! We look forward to seeing you soon!
