North Island has always been the beacon from the sea leading toward Georgetown, South Carolina. It was an island of exploration for the Spanish in 1526 and the first landing place of Lafayette, France's hero of the American Revolution, in 1777. It was a summer resort for aristocratic rice planters and their slaves from Georgetown and Waccamaw Neck until 1861. North Island's lighthouse, built in 1812, led thousands of sailing ships from all over the world past massive stone jetties and through Winyah Bay to Georgetown. Today, North Island is a sanctuary and laboratory for the study of nature's effects on this unique barrier island. Join historian Robert McAlister as he recounts the island's storied past.

North Island has always been the beacon from the sea leading toward Georgetown, South Carolina. It was an island of exploration for the Spanish in 1526 and the first landing place of Lafayette, France's hero of the American Revolution, in 1777. It was a summer resort for aristocratic rice planters and their slaves from Georgetown and Waccamaw Neck until 1861. North Island's lighthouse, built in 1812, led thousands of sailing ships from all over the world past massive stone jetties and through Winyah Bay to Georgetown. Today, North Island is a sanctuary and laboratory for the study of nature's effects on this unique barrier island. Join historian Robert McAlister as he recounts the island's storied past.

The history of Pawleys Island, South Carolina, can be summed up in four words: rice, sea, golf, and hammocks. The rivers threading through coastal South Carolina created an ideal environment for cultivating rice, and by the mid-18th century, vast plantations were producing profitable crops and wealthy landowners. But those plantations also produced malaria-carrying mosquitoes, so the landowners sent their families to the seashore for the summer and built the first houses on Pawleys Island starting in 1822. The end of slavery doomed the rice culture, and the old plantations were sold to rich Northerners for hunting and fishing retreats. By the 1960s, many of the old plantations were turned into golf courses, reviving the economy. But the beating heart of Pawleys Island remains the rhythm of the sea and what one early visitor called "the only beach in the world."

Take the Exorcist Steps to meet “the diverse array of ghosts” in DC’s historic neighborhood—from the author of Capitol Hill Haunts (The Hoya). On the banks of the Potomac River, Georgetown has had three centuries to accumulate ghoulish tales and venerable apparitions to haunt its cobbled streets and mansions. In this historic Washington, DC, neighborhood, the eerie moans of three sisters herald every death on the river, and on R Street, President Lincoln is rumored to have witnessed the paranormal at a seance. Along the towpath of the C&O Canal, a phantom police officer still walks his lonely beat, and on moonlit nights, he is joined by a razor-wielding ghoul. From the spirit of a sea captain who lingers in the Old Stone House to the strange ambiance of the Exorcist Steps, author and guide Tim Krepp takes readers on a chilling journey through the ghostly lore of Georgetown. Includes photos! “A great storyteller who, with a confident grasp of the facts and judiciously inserted asides, can bring to life both the haunters and the haunted. His way of ending his chapters with—gasp!—the literary equivalent of a horror movie organ chord lends a delightfully chilling touch.” —HillRag