Full Description
The hills of the Appalachia region hold secrets—dark, deep, varied, and mysterious. These secrets are often told in the form of eerie, thrilling, and creepy folk tales that reveal strange sightings, curious oddities, and commonly serve as cautionary tales for eager and curious ears. These spine-tingling stories have been told and retold by family members, neighbors, and "hillfolk" for generations. Haint Country: Dark Folktales from the Hills and Hollers is a collection of weird, otherworldly, and supernatural phenomenon in Eastern Kentucky—tales that have been recorded and documented for the first time. Collected and adapted by Matthew Sparks and Olivia Sizemore, the anthology explores stories of ghosts or "haints," strange creatures or "boogers," haunted locations or "stained earth," uncanny happenings or "high strangeness," and humorous Appalachian ghost stories. Contemporary yarns of black panthers, demons, and sightings of ghostly coal miners are narrated in the first person, reflecting the style and dialect of the collected oral history. Though comprised of a mixture of claimed accounts and fabricated lore, the locations and people woven throughout are very real. Complemented with evocative watercolor illustrations by Olivia Sizemore (who was inspired by the work of Stephen Gammell) and a compendium that provides additional context, Haint Country is a thrilling and bone-chilling excursion to the spooky corner of Appalachia.
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Part I
The Last Miner of Hurricane Creek
A Harlan County Séance
The Headlight Haint
The Phantom Playmate
'It Was Always on when they Needed it Most'
The Snowy Night Visitation
The Ghost of Fish Creek
'Robert'
The Dance
The Man in Black
Babies Under the Floor Boards
The Old Owsley County Jail
The Ghost Light
The Bloodstained Mother of Bailey Branch
The Crying in the Night
"Yoohoo, Mary Jane!"
Part II
That's How Grandpa Quit Gambling
They Could Hear it Scream
The Hellacious Beast of Wild Dog
Boogers of Harvey Bend Part 1
Boogers of Harvey Bend Part 2
'Cornhusk'
'Big Redeye'
The Fourseam 'Thing'
The Phantom Beast of Cow Creek
The Lurker in the Cave
Part III
I know there are spirits there
Tales from the Bonnyman Coal Camp
The Restless Spirits of Beech Fork Elementary School
My Haunted Double-Wide
The Old Hyden Elementary Gym
'Sam'
'A Soul Left to Wander'
Haunted Antebellum Property in Jackson County
'Evil Hanner' and the Legend of Blood Rock
The Spirit Drums
The Wrong Side of the Law
Chaney's Knob
Part IV
A Thinness Where Things Can Bleed Through
The Hairy Arm
"Do You See That?"
You'd Think There'd Be Blood Somewhere
Being a Caul Bearer
An Occurrence at Red River Gorge
"And I Ain't Been Back Since!"
'Witchy' George Joseph
The Unrest of Octavia Hatcher
"We Brought you Here For A Reason"
How to Become a Witch
Another Formula for Becoming a Witch
The Legend of the John Asher's UFO
Part V
A Successful 'Haint Hunt'
The Pack Peddler's Bones
"That's the Closest I've Come to an Encounter with a Haint!"
Paw Hensley and the Naked Haint Woman of Squabble Creek
Afterword
Compendium
Acknowledgements
About the Authors
