Many places are said to be haunted, houses, inns, forts, hospitals, asylums, and graveyards—definitely graveyards. Any place where tragedy strikes or any place where a terrible injustice has been perpetrated has the potential to become haunted. But how can an entire region like the North Carolina Coast come to be known as haunted? Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? And the primary reason is that the coast of the Tar Heel State has an abundance of places where tragedy occurred or death has visited and decided to stay. These locations can be found in almost every hamlet and village in the area. But it hasn’t always been that way. In a letter to Richard Hakluyt on September 3, 1585, Ralph Lane referred to the state as “the goodliest soil under the cope of heaven.” Basically, the state was considered a paradise on Earth.
But time passed and things began to happen, tragic things, dark things, unexplained things, things that defied explanation. And as the centuries passed, the state garnered another, slightly more sinister designation: it became one of the most haunted places on Earth, particularly its coastal area. Take the Outer Banks for example. Ocracoke has long been called the most haunted place in North Carolina. (Not bad for an island that’s just 9.6 miles long.) Then again, Ocracoke was primed to be a hotbed of ghostly sightings and supernatural activity, because in that relatively short stretch of land, there are eighty-three cemeteries. And that doesn’t include the unmarked graves of pirates, shipwrecked sailors, and enslaved people on the island.
Public cemeteries, family cemeteries, and military cemeteries abound. As a case in point, there are four British Royal Navy sailors buried in the Ocracoke British Cemetery. As the story is told, in the early days of World War II, the waters along the North Carolina coast were referred to as “Torpedo Alley,” because German submarines, always prowling that portion of the coast during the war, sank almost four hundred ships in that area. On May 11, 1942, while on patrol off the coast of North Carolina, the HMT Bedfordshire was torpedoed by a German submarine. When the smoke cleared, all thirty-seven of the British sailors onboard were found to have been killed, but only four of the bodies washed ashore. The rest were never recovered. Do their spirits haunt the ocean where they died? Are they restless spirits? Nobody really knows. But the four British sailors who rest on the island rest in peace.
Even so, other cemeteries on Ocracoke are not so tranquil. Take the community cemetery in Sunset Village, for example. On more than one occasion, an elderly couple dressed in nineteenth-century clothes have been seen there. And then there’s the case of Fannie Pearl McWilliams Wahab. Her grave (located in a different part of the island) is marked with a “No Trespassing” sign in an effort to deter people from trying to recreate their own paranormal experience at her final resting place. Why would someone think Fannie’s grave could be the key to a paranormal experience? Ah, that would be telling. It raises more questions than it answers. And hers is one story best read with the lights on. And here’s a reminder: supernatural events are not limited to cemeteries alone.
But let’s get back to our haunted coast. In addition to holding specters in cemeteries, the coast contains places where it’s best not to walk at night. Springer’s Point Nature Preserve comes to mind. It’s beautiful during the day. The preserve is home to a maritime forest, tidal red cedar, a salt marsh, wet grasslands, and a sound-front beach. The area is also accessible only by foot or bicycle. Wandering through the preserve is an experience not to be missed—during the day, that is. But at night, things change. Once night falls, it would be best for you to spend your time somewhere else, because when the sun goes down, there is more out there than nature. Many people have reported seeing a large, bearded ghost on the paths of the reserve. And some unlucky souls have even been chased by the specter.
A former musician, now deceased, recounted for years his experience of observing the large, bearded specter sitting on an abandoned cistern near the grave of Sam Jones. The apparition saw the musician and chased him through the woods, all the way to the sound, where he vanished into smoke. If that’s not enough, add to that the fact that Springer’s Point was a favorite haunt (no pun intended) of Edward Teach, otherwise known as Blackbeard, and was the site of one of the largest pirate gatherings of his era. Shortly after a multiday party where Blackbeard and his companions cooked a hog, drank, sang and danced, the pirate was captured and beheaded. And no, that wasn’t the end of Blackbeard. His beheading was a frightening event in itself, one that made even the boldest of pirates shrink back and wish they were anywhere else. And some say Blackbeard is still there today—minus his head. But more about him later.
So far, we have Ocracoke, with its haunted cemeteries, trails, and buildings, and at least one pirate searching for his head—and that’s just the beginning. As you move away from Ocracoke and make your way down the coast, there is the town of Bath, where a horse race sent one rider straight to hell, and the evidence of that fateful race remains.
There are ghost ships like the Carroll A. Deering and what is most commonly referred to as the Flaming Ship of Ocracoke. And since we are talking about the coast, there are, of course, lighthouses, which are home to ghosts who harbor terrible secrets. In fact, two of those lighthouses share a ghost. There are inns, hotels, and bars along the coast, where former patrons return from beyond the grave to wander the hallways, move items, watch living guests, and otherwise cling to their previous lives. There are homes where the deceased are still in residence. And these hauntings are not restricted to locations from the distant past. Oh, no. A popular three-star resort hotel, established in the 1970s, has a permanent resident. As the story is told, a guest had a heart attack on the property, and his spirit roams the resort to this day. The apparition, who appears dressed in a gray suit and bowtie, makes the occasional visit but is usually content to just open doors, raise and lower the shades, and turn lights on and off.
And one of the coast’s most unusual haunted places is not a home or other building; it’s a battleship, the USS North Carolina to be specific. And while ten sailors died in battle and eight others died in the line of duty on the ship (a relatively small number for a battleship that was actively deployed in a time of war), not all of the honored dead left the ship. Some, for reasons unknown, stayed behind and are still there.
Wilmington, Buxton, Southport, Pasquotank, Ocean Isle, and many other coastal towns are home to specters, ghosts, paranormal events, and eerie, unexplained occurrences. They are brimming with what the 1926 Cornish and West Country Litany refers to as “ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties, and things that go bump in the night.” And this just scratches the surface. So, why is the coast of North Carolina such a haunted place?
Let me tell you a story…
Death Dream
Some things are hard, if not impossible, to explain. Take the story of Fannie Pearl MacWilliams Wahab for example. Born in September 1894 to John and Elizabeth MacWilliams, she grew up within sight of the Ocracoke Lighthouse. That fact is not so much an important part of the story itself, but the lighthouse is an important landmark that helps put the area during that time into perspective. Back in the 1800s, Ocracoke Island was unofficially divided into the “creek side,” which included the north side of the harbor, and the “point side” of the island, which comprised the area around the lighthouse and the additional area to the south. Fannie Pearl MacWilliams was raised on the point side of the island. Her father, John MacWilliams, owned a collection of retail stores and a dock on the water referred to as the Department Store. The equivalent of today’s shopping center, the Department Store was one of the main retail establishments in Ocracoke.
Prior to 1939, what is now the harbor was called “the creek” (or Cockle Creek), and it connected to the Pamlico Sound via a small inlet most locals called “the ditch.” During Fannie Pearl MacWilliams Wahab’s time, there was a definite distinction between the people who lived “’round creek” (also known as creekers) and the people who lived “down point” (also known as pointers). The rivalry between the two factions was good-natured, and people new to the island soon became part of the community as either “creekers” or “pointers.” The division was further emphasized on the east side by the creek, which extended through Ocracoke Village and essentially divided it into distinct parts.
Eventually, a series of footbridges were built along the creek, but due to their size, horses and carts could not cross them. So more often than not, people had to walk on the paths on either side of the creek. And if they had items to carry, they used some kind of small handcart, wheelbarrow, or other method to carry goods from one place to another, regardless of the distance. And foot travel could be difficult on the sandy trails along the creek if the person was managing a large load. But despite distances, creeks, moderately passable bridges, and the fact that life on the island had its inconveniences, its people were self-sufficient, and the area still had some of the same advantages of the mainland.
One of the island’s advantages was a school located in the Odd Fellows lodge. The building was originally built as a lodge for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. But the building served double duty, with Ocracoke’s K–12 school operating on the first floor until a new school was built in 1917. This lodge/school was where Fannie Pearl MacWilliams and most of the other children on the island attended school. One of the teachers there was Robert Stanley Wahab, a native of Ocracoke. Stanley grew up on the island and in 1904 went to sea on the menhaden schooner Fanny Sprague and then served as a seaman on Dredge No. Three of the Norfolk Dredging Company. Later, during his time as a crewman on a luxury yacht owned by industrialist T. Coleman du Pont, his life changed. Coleman du Pont suggested that Stanley go to school, and after some urging, he agreed and attended the Golly Business College in Delaware. Next, because of his newly acquired education, Stanley Wahab held a number of jobs in business, specializing in provisions. In 1910, he returned to Ocracoke as a teacher with a background in business.
And as it sometimes happens, the teacher and his student, Fannie Pearl MacWilliams, fell in love. Even Fannie Pearl’s subsequent move to Marshallberg, North Carolina, to finish school did not quench the flame between the two lovers. They continued to see each other, despite the fact that the trip from Marshallberg was a little over fifty miles (ferry ride included), quite a trip back in those days. But their love continued to grow, and they would not be dissuaded. And in 1911, the two were married.
Not long after their wedding, Stanley accepted a teaching position in Norfolk, Virginia. And soon after the move, seventeen-year-old Fannie Pearl MacWilliams Wahab discovered she was pregnant. In those days, it was not uncommon for women to stay with their family until their baby was born, so Fannie Pearl went back to Ocracoke Island and stayed with her husband’s mother, Martha Ann Howard Wahab. Martha Ann lived “’round creek” on the island. Stanley stayed in Richmond so he could continue working, though he supported his wife in every way, including sending her money, to enable her to be surrounded by loved ones and wait for the birth of their first child. And as the old saying goes, everything was fine until it wasn’t.
One morning, Fannie Pearl woke up with an overwhelming sense of deep sorrow. She tried all morning to free herself of the feeling. She tried to find a way to move forward, but the melancholy was too strong. Finally, she confided to Martha Ann that the previous night, she’d had a horrible dream and was still feeling the effects of it. In the dream, she watched herself die. Then, to add to her horror, she saw herself dressed in white, lying in a white casket and moving silently along the water in a white sailboat.
The water sparkled a muted silver, and as the clouds moved and shifted in front of the full moon, the sailboat was alternately bathed in moonlight and an eerie silver glow. The sailboat continued its unearthly voyage along the silent, glittering waterway. Fannie Pearl’s terror increased with each passing moment until she awoke in a sweat. And though she was awake, the image of the sailboat of death remained vivid in her mind. All day long, she was plagued by images of her body in the coffin, the full moon, her journey into the unknown.
And the next night, Fannie Pearl MacWilliams Wahab died, as did the child she carried. As soon as her death and the death of her child were confirmed, steps were taken to contact Stanley Wahab and break the tragic news to him. With no phone on the island, a message was relayed to Stanley by the coast guard via a ship-to-shore phone call. The news was devastating, but in his grief, Stanley told the family he would make the initial preparations and to do nothing until he arrived on the island. Then he set about making his wife’s final arrangements and finding some way to get home as soon as possible.
Stanley bought a beautiful casket, wanting something fine enough to honor the woman he loved. Then he made arrangements to ride on the mail boat when it arrived the next day. Though he had made arrangements as fast as he could, it was still late in the day when the mail boat arrived. Once the casket was loaded and Stanley was on board, the boat left the dock, and Stanley and his precious cargo began their somber trip to Ocracoke Island.
Things progressed quickly once Stanley returned to the island. In those days, bodies were buried as soon as possible, since there was no way to embalm a body on the island. There were no such facilities on Ocracoke. And since Fannie Pearl had been dead more than twenty-four hours, it was imperative that she be buried without delay. In fact, the rest of the preparations moved at such a fast pace that once Stanley arrived on Ocracoke, there was no opportunity for Martha Ann to tell her son about Fannie Pearl’s nightmare. So, there was nothing she could do but keep quiet and watch as they put Fannie Pearl MacWilliams Wahab’s body in the beautiful solid white casket her husband had purchased.
With Fannie Pearl’s body ready for burial, there was still the question of the best way to bring her body to the cemetery. Because even though she had died “down creek,” the family’s burial place was “down point.” And the trek to her burial spot, which was on a part of the island near her father’s store and dock complex, would require carrying the coffin from her in-laws’ home, down long, sandy lanes and across planks and footbridges that crossed the smaller creeks (called “guts”), all the way to the other side of the harbor.
Instead of asking people to carry the coffin by hand across such challenging terrain, Stanley placed the white casket on a white skiff and started across the creek, trailed by family, friends and other members of the funeral procession in rowboats. And there beneath the night sky, illuminated by a full moon, Fannie Pearl MacWilliams Wahab was carried to her final resting place, dressed in white and in a white casket on board a white sailing skiff, exactly the way it happened in her dream.
Thomas Smith is an award-winning writer, essayist, playwright, reporter, TV news producer, and a three-time American Christian Writers Association Writer of the Year. He has been a joke writer for the late Joan Rivers, and his horror novel, Something Stirs, was one of the first haunted house novels written for the Christian market. He is also the only writer to have been included in writing projects with Reverend Rick Warren and Stephen King in the same week. He even lived in a haunted house in Georgia for two years.
“Why Is the North Carolina Coast So Haunted?” and “Death Dream” are excerpted (with minor edits) from Haunted North Carolina Coast by Thomas Smith (Charleston, SC: Haunted America, 2024) and printed with permission.
