The Palmetto State is home to many strange and unexplained events. The Gray Man of 2018 is Pawleys Island's most historic ghost. He has been seen walking the beaches before hurricanes. The tiny town of Hilda hears the mournful wail of a ghost train. The Bowery, Myrtle Beach's most legendary bar, hosts the spectral singing of Barman Joe. A ninety-two-foot crop circle appeared in the small town of McBee in 1994. And there's a host of Bigfoot sightings in the state. Sherman Carmichael delves into the mysterious side of South Carolina.

Master storyteller Sherman Carmichael is back with another collection of the weird, strange and mysterious in the Palmetto State. Read about the return of the infamous Lizard Man. Learn why the ghost of Francis Marion regularly appears at a church cemetery for a rendezvous. Discover the Sea Pines Shell Ring and learn of its Native American origin. Walk the halls of the old South Carolina Lunatic Asylum and hear the moans of former patients. Join Carmichael as he contemplates these stories and many more from the dark side of South Carolina.

This new collection of eighty strange and unusual South Carolina legends is rooted in the state's deep history. Some originated centuries ago, such as the Agnes of Glasgow story in Camden and that of the ghostly dwarf jester Gauche, said to haunt a Beaufort mansion. Certain places hold secrets from different eras, including White Wolf Road in Blacksburg and the state's numerous historic cemeteries like the one at Salem Black River Church in Mayesville. These pages also contain simple explanations for local lore, like the Gullah tradition behind blue bottle trees that still decorate Carolina gardens today. These and many more crowd-pleasing yarns can be found in this volume from the desk of master storyteller, author and researcher Sherman Carmichael.

"From horse thieves to hurricanes, from shattered Southern myths to fractured family ties, from Nashville to Myrtle Beach to Miami, Low Country is a lyrical, devastating, fiercely original memoir" of one family's changing fortunes in the Low Country of South Carolina (Justin Taylor, author of Riding with the Ghost). J. Nicole Jones is the only daughter of a prominent South Carolina family, a family that grew rich building the hotels and seafood restaurants that draw tourists to Myrtle Beach. But at home, she is surrounded by violence and capriciousness: a grandfather who beats his wife, a barman father who dreams of being a country music star. At one time, Jones's parents can barely afford groceries; at another, her volatile grandfather presents her with a fur coat. After a girlhood of extreme wealth and deep debt, of ghosts and folklore, of cruel men and unwanted spectacle, Jones finds herself face to face with an explosive possibility concerning her long-abused grandmother that she can neither speak nor shake. And through the lens of her own family's catastrophes and triumphs, Jones pays homage to the landscapes and legends of her childhood home, a region haunted by its history: Eliza Pinckney cultivates indigo, Blackbeard ransacks the coast, and the Gray Man paces the beach, warning of Hurricane Hazel.

Master storyteller Sherman Carmichael is back with another collection of the weird, strange and mysterious in the Palmetto State. Read about the return of the infamous Lizard Man. Learn why the ghost of Francis Marion regularly appears at a church cemetery for a rendezvous. Discover the Sea Pines Shell Ring and learn of its Native American origin. Walk the halls of the old South Carolina Lunatic Asylum and hear the moans of former patients. Join Carmichael as he contemplates these stories and many more from the dark side of South Carolina.

Part of our new and growing Mysteries and Legends series, Mysteries and Legends of South Carolina explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in South Carolina's history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in South Carolina history.

In the South, mystery comes heaped with added richness. And in this collection of comfort food for the curious mind, author Alan Brown guides readers into the most delightful medley of mystery the South has on offer. Witches in Tennessee. The devil's hoofprints in North Carolina. Voodoo in New Orleans. In this South, meat rains from the sky in Bath, Kentucky. A professor's thigh makes the case for spontaneous combustion in Nashville. UFO-induced radiation sickness befalls Huffman, Texas. From bluesman Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil in Arkansas to the oak tree that defends the innocence of a man executed in Mobile, sometimes the inexplicable is truly the most satisfying.