A collection of intriguing ghost stories & delightful folktales & legends of southern Appalachia. Most of these tales have authentic historical settings dating from the early days of settlement of this region to recent times.

Consists of an introductory essay on the Appalachian setting & a choice selection of folk stories about ghosts, true experiences & tall tales. Ninth Printing 1995.

Nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Range less than 25 miles northeast of Vancouver, Yacolt was once a gathering place for local Indians to trade with coastal and intermountain tribes. The Klickitat word Yacolt means haunted valley or a place of evil spirits. The name might have come from an incident when five children were lost picking wild berries. The demon, Yacolt, took them, so the story goes.

Hauntings lurk and spirits linger in the Mountain State Reader, beware! Turn these pages and enter the world of the paranormal, where ghosts and ghouls alike creep just out of sight. Author Rosemary Ellen Guiley shines a light in the dark corners of Virginia and scares those spirits out of hiding in this thrilling collection. From the headless ghosts wandering Droop Mountain to the tortured spirits of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, there’s no shortage of bone-chilling tales to keep you up at night. Around the campfire or tucked away on a dark and stormy night, this big book of ghost stories is a hauntingly good read.

Tradition meets tragedy in the chilling local lore of the Rio Grande Valley. Hidden in the dense brush and around oxbow lakes wait sinister secrets, unnerving vestiges of the past and wraiths of those claimed by the winding river. The spirit of a murdered student in Brownsville paces the locker room where she met her end. Tortured souls of patients lost in the Harlingen Insane Asylum refuse to be forgotten. Guests at the LaBorde Hotel in Rio Grande City report visions of the Red Lady, who was spurned by the soldier she loved and driven to suicide. Author David Bowles explores these and more of the most harrowing ghost stories from Fort Brown to Fort Ringgold and all the haunted hotels, chapels and ruins in between.

The Orkney Islands are a place of mystery and magic, where the past and the present meet, ancient standing stones walk and burial mounds are the home of the trows. Orkney Folk Tales walks the reader across invisible islands that are home to fin folk and mermaids, and seals that are often far more than they appear to be. Here Orkney witches raise storms and predict the outcome of battles, ghosts seek revenge and the Devil sits in the rafters of St Magnus Cathedral, taking notes! Using ancient tales told by the firesides of the Picts and Vikings, storyteller Tom Muir takes the reader on a magical journey where he reveals how the islands were created from the teeth of a monster, how a giant built lochs and hills in his greed for fertile land, and how the waves are controlled by the hand of a goddess.

" West Virginia boasts an unusually rich heritage of ghost tales. Originally West Virginians told these hundred stories not for idle amusement but to report supernatural experiences that defied ordinary human explanation. From jealous rivals and ghostly children to murdered kinsmen and omens of death, these tales reflect the inner lives—the hopes, beliefs, and fears—of a people. Like all folklore, these tales reveal much of the history of the region: its isolation and violence, the passions and bloodshed of the Civil War era, the hardships of miners and railroad laborers, and the lingering vitality of Old World traditions.