Ghosthunting North Carolina

by Kala Ambrose

  Along my journey, I came to this understanding: “Spirit does not exist in just one location; rather, it is all encompassing, living within and among us in each moment, thought, and action. I believe that Spirit is raised to its highest level when individuals gather with wisdom, compassion, and a discerning desire to provide service to humanity.”

  This understanding led me to study and later become a teacher of the ancient wisdom teachings and the hidden mysteries. It also guided me to create the Explore Your Spirit with Kala show, where I speak with authors, teachers, researchers, and other experts on metaphysical and paranormal topics.

  I’ve lived in North Carolina for the past 15 years and have met up with many ghosts who wander this great state. Over the years I’ve worked to help people here who have experienced problems of a supernatural nature, which led to my founding of The Rowan Society in 2004. The Rowan Society (TRS) is a private organization founded to research and explore paranormal phenomena in many of its forms, including hauntings, psychic development, and ancient mysteries. We respond to reports of paranormal activity and are dedicated to scientific and compassionate research in these areas. In our endeavors, we present what we believe to be documentation of paranormal activity. This includes, but is not limited to, ghost activity, folklore, exploration of ancient sites and cultures, and other paranormal research.

  What we’ve discovered over the years with our research is that with all of the highly technical equipment available, the best receiver to detect ghosts is still someone with the psychic ability to see or sense the presence of a noncorporal entity. Since my childhood, I’ve seen ghosts and restless spirits. As an adult, I’ve had many experiences with the supernatural and paranormal realms. I’ve interacted with powerful beings of light, faced encounters with beings from the dark side, and seen ghosts from every walk of life. In my work, I share my experience and training in workshops around the country. I teach others how to become more intuitive, how to connect with the other side, how to sense negative energy in a home or building, and, more importantly, how to discern whether the energy can be removed and cleansed or whether it is best left alone.

  Over the past decade, I have seen a rise in paranormal activity, which corresponds to the lifting of the veil between the earth plane and the spiritual realms at this time. I believe that a conscious evolution is occurring at the mind, body, and spirit level, and as this evolution continues, many people will connect with their intuitive abilities and be able to communicate with the spirit world, including with ghosts that have remained on the earth plane.

  I write about some of these experiences in Kala’s Bohemian Blog, and it is now my pleasure to share with you these stories from the ghosts of North Carolina. Each haunted site here has a profound and deeply moving story to tell.

  So gather your family and friends, and join me as I share what I see and what I experience as I go ghosthunting across the state of North Carolina. The journey begins in the coastal wetlands of East Carolina, where I explore haunted lighthouses, battleships, and the shipwrecked beaches where Blackbeard and his pirates still roam. Next I journey across the Piedmont area of North Carolina, where I spend the night in the most actively haunted capitol in the United States and interact with the ghost of a former North Carolina State Governor. My research continues west into the Blue Ridge Mountains, where the ghost known as the Pink Lady and her friends await your presence at the historic Grove Park Inn, where many presidents, celebrities, and ghosts have stayed over the decades.

  I visited more than 100 reportedly haunted sites located in North Carolina and culled this list down to the 25 chapters here in this book. My reason for choosing this particular 25 had to do first and foremost with finding historical research that confirmed some of the details of the legend of a reportedly haunted site. The second most important criteria in my selection process included being able to confirm reports of ghost activity around the site from a variety of people over a generous span of time. After each site made the cut on these two selections, the final decision then came down to my personal experiences at each of these locations, including what I psychically experienced firsthand at each location relative to paranormal activity. My intent in this book is to provide you with all three of the above-listed criteria in order to assist you in your paranormal research and investigations.

  As a psychic and paranormal researcher, I have often been asked what it’s like to see or sense a ghost. The best way I can describe the experience is that most of the ghostly activity I immediately feel when entering a new space or building is the time loop/energy imprint type of haunting activity. That’s the easiest to detect because it’s like seeing a projector playing a movie in the home. To imagine what it looks like to me, picture walking into a home that you have never been in before. You don’t know your way around and so you cautiously walk around the home. You have been told that no one is home, but as you continue walking through the rooms, you hear a sound. As your ears strain to detect where the sound is coming from, you hear the soft murmur of voices. You are now fairly sure that someone is here in the home, but you are not sure what room they are in. You’re now a little ill at ease because you’ve been told the house is empty, but you can hear the sound of voices and as you move toward them, they are getting stronger. You see a closed door and can see a bit of light coming from this room, and you softly open the door to see what’s inside. As the door opens, you see what looks like an image from a projector that has been left on playing a family movie. The projected image plays a scene from the family’s life, and when it ends, it rewinds and plays the movie over and over again. Sometimes the image is crystal clear, and sometimes it’s worn and old with parts of the film missing, having burned away like the old celluloid films that would become damaged on the reel in old theaters. Many times, this is similar to what I see, only there’s no projector playing, it is just happening in the room, like a 3-D video being projected in the open.

  These energy imprints/time loops are the easiest to detect when ghosthunting because they are running on a frequent basis like a movie, appearing nightly at a haunted house near you.

  Ghostly visitations and apparitions that I have experienced, on the other hand, are much more subjective, and the ghost has the choice to appear or not appear and decides whether or not to engage with you. This is why on ghost television shows and investigations you will see some investigators attempt to draw out the ghost to interact with them by asking them questions or goading them at times to make them angry enough to show themselves. I don’t recommend doing this, as you may run into the wrong ghost who just may decide that rather than hanging around where they have been, they are now angry enough to spend their time hanging around you. One thing ghosts have that we don’t is all the time in the world. They don’t eat, they don’t sleep, and they don’t need to work for a living. Would you really want to antagonize a being like this who would have all the time they wanted to mess with you? Or worse, you could find out that it’s not a ghost, but an entity that is stronger and could cause even more trouble for you. Most of us don’t go to a dangerous part of town and attempt to pick a fight with thugs, inviting them to show us what they’ve got, so why would we want to invite this kind of trouble from a ghost? Most of the people I’ve met who do quickly regret their actions. My advice is to tread lightly and respectfully when ghosthunting. Have respect for the living and the dead at each location, protect yourself at all times, and ask politely to connect with the other side in the same manner you would if you were knocking on a stranger’s door and asking to tour their home.

  The ghost stories in this book begin in East Carolina. Eastern North Carolina can be lonely and desolate in some places. There are still some areas along the Outer Banks that are only reachable by foot, horseback, or with a 4x4 vehicle. These areas are remote, isolated, and sometimes dangerous.

  The shoreline of North Carolina is not welcoming to ships, and even with the abundance of lighthouses warning ships to steer clear, the number of s
hipwrecks reported along the coast is in the hundreds. Pirate ghosts wander the land, looking to save their sunken ships, hide their treasure, or settle a score. Blackbeard is the most famous and infamous of them all, and remains in good company with the men and women who followed a similar path.

  Traveling along the coastline and the Outer Banks, I visited areas where nature appears untouched. The land appears as fresh as the day early European settlers arrived to colonize the area, including young Virginia Dare and the legend of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Standing there looking at the shore, I was touched by the beauty of the land and sea and by the bravery of those early colonists who arrived here not knowing what was in store for them. I’m struck by the fact that here on these tiny barrier islands, we now have 24-hour communications advising us of hurricanes days before the storms arrive in order to evacuate to safety. In the days of the early colonists, there was little warning, and the wind and waves crashing down on these tiny islands had to be extremely frightening to both the living and the dead.

  This is where our haunted history of North Carolina begins, on the beaches and outer islands of the state. Join me as we step back into time and walk in the footsteps of pirates, colonists, adventurers, plantation owners, and the people who loved them. Perhaps Blackbeard will finally share where his treasure has been buried all this time.

  Some believe that your soul can’t rest when you are lost at sea, and thus you remain a ghost. The coast of North Carolina is full of stories of ghosts said to appear and disappear at will, some to warn of approaching storms, others on patrol to guard a fort, and lighthouse keepers who remain at their station long after their final retirement.

  I find it interesting to note that should you sail directly east from the coast of North Carolina, you will reach Bermuda, putting you directly into the Bermuda Triangle. Were the souls who dared to cross the Bermuda Triangle to enter the North Carolina coast doomed even before they began?

  As with all of the America’s Haunted Road Trip books, travel information is provided for each haunted location for those brave enough to make the journey in person to see these sites for themselves and for paranormal researchers who are interested in exploring haunted North Carolina.

  Tuck Ghosthunting North Carolina in your pocket and take the journey behind the scenes with detailed historic and personal information that I share about each destination.

  Happy haunting! I look forward to hearing from you as you ghosthunt your way across the state. Visit me at www.ghosthuntingnorthcarolina.com.

  All the best,

  Kala Ambrose

  May 2011

  EAST CAROLINA

  THE COAST AND OUTER BANKS

  Atlantic Beach

  Fort Macon

  Beaufort

  The Old Burying Grounds

  Cape Hatteras

  Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

  Creswell

  Somerset Plantation

  Kure Beach

  Fort Fisher

  New Bern

  The Attmore-Oliver House

  Roanoke

  The Lost Colony of Roanoke

  Tarboro

  The Blount-Bridgers House

  Wilmington

  Bellamy Mansion

  The USS North Carolina Battleship

  CHAPTER 1

  The Haunting of the USS North Carolina Battleship

  WILMINGTON

  The USS North Carolina commissioned in 1941, was considered to be one of the greatest weapons on the sea.

  “Wherever we went, we were North Carolina sailors. We always carried that with us. It had a spirit, an infectious spirit.”

  —Rear Admiral Julian T. Burke Jr., U.S. Navy (Ret.)

  COMMISSIONED IN 1941, the USS North Carolina was considered to be one of the world’s most formidable ships. During World War II, the North Carolina participated in every major naval offensive in the Pacific, earning 15 battle stars, and was known as the protector of aircraft carriers—it even saved the USS Enterprise in 1942.

  On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor using 353 Japanese fighters and torpedo planes. Four battleships were sunk, and four others damaged. Two destroyers and 3 cruisers were sunk, and almost 350 aircraft were destroyed or severely damaged. More than 2,400 men were killed, and more than 1,200 were injured. The overwhelming devastation was a huge shock to the nation.

  After the attack on Pearl Harbor, almost all of the Pacific Fleet was destroyed. The first wave Japanese attack inflicted most of the damage, and the second wave returned to demolish anything left standing. Japan and the United States were in peace talks at the time, so the attack came as a surprise. No declaration of war had been delivered before the attack. After this act, the United States declared war and entered World War II.

  The surviving sailors in Hawaii were in a state of despair; they had lost many of their friends along with the ships, and they were isolated on an island far away from the mainland. The attack had been swift. Reinforcements and supplies were going to take months to arrive in Hawaii. Feeling alone and grieving, the men waited for seven long months for reinforcements to arrive.

  Then one day, the first naval ship arrived in Hawaii. It was the USS North Carolina, and she was greeted in a mass celebration by an overwhelming crowd of soldiers, sailors, marines, and Air Force pilots hailing her presence from the beaches with cheers and delight. Upon her arrival in Hawaii, many sailors were quoted as saying that she was, “the most beautiful thing they had ever seen.”

  In my experience as a psychic and paranormal investigator, I have found that powerful emotional experiences of the most positive and the most negative nature leave an energy imprint on the object of the attention. Energy imprints are also left on objects surrounding the area, as well. I believe that the USS North Carolina battleship soaked up all of that energy that day upon her arrival in Pearl Harbor. In the water and in the air, she felt the pain and loss of the destruction that had occurred, while at the same time, she was greeted and filled with joy by sailors, pilots, and marines who saw her as a saving grace and point of hope. This, I believe, buoyed the battleship, giving her great luck and fierce determination in battle.

  She was known to be a feisty fighter; stories are still told about the day she fought her first battle against the Japanese Imperial Navy. Her guns roared from the ship and surrounded her in so much smoke that the nearby USS Enterprise reported that they believed her to be on fire. When the smoke cleared, the facts showed just the opposite. The great lady had shot down seven planes and reportedly assisted in bringing down seven more, and she was just getting started. She also fought in Okinawa, where during 40 days of constant battle, she shot down hundreds of Japanese kamikaze pilots.

  During the war, the Japanese reported on their radio six different times that they had sunk the North Carolina battleship, all of which proved to be false. The Japanese did manage to hit the ship once with a torpedo, which cost five crewmen their lives. Five other men died aboard the ship from other circumstances, and by some accounts some of them still remain on board and on active duty on the ship to this day.

  The USS North Carolina battleship is now anchored in Wilmington, North Carolina, where thousands visit her each year. Many of those who visit and work on the ship have shared a number of ghost stories and other paranormal activity they experienced while on board.

  From the night watchman who sleeps aboard the ship each night to daily tourists and visitors, the reports of the ship being haunted continue to grow. Some of the ghosts are harmless, though they do catch people off guard, giving them a fright. Mostly, they are seen involved in their daily activities aboard the ship, looking for lunch from the kitchen, preparing for bed in their bunks, and performing maintenance around the ship. The sounds of their banging as they work on parts of the ship can often be heard throughout the night. These ghosts are hard workers; they bang with their tools, knock on walls, open and close hatches, yell at each other, have heated and animated discussions, and enjoy turning televis
ions and lights on and off.

  The ship is massive, and as you approach where she’s anchored on the Cape Fear River, you can’t help but feel excited and swell with a sense of patriotic pride. Upon boarding the ship, you take a step back into history. As you walk through each section, displays are set up to show what life on the ship was like. Life-size cardboard cutouts of men are arranged in some of the rooms, such as the barbershop, the movie theater, post office, laundry, ice-cream shop, and the infirmary. It quickly sinks in that each ship was a world of its own, where sailors lived for months at sea in cramped conditions, and where all of their daily needs had to be met.

  The battleship offers a Ghost Ship weekend, when you can explore the ship with tour guides to see the most haunted areas. I was fortunate on the day I visited that it was a quiet day, midweek, and I was allowed to wander through the ship at my own pace. This allowed me to take my time and linger in some places where I felt the energy shift around me. What I felt first and foremost was a strong emotional bond linked here on the ship. The men who had served on this ship were extremely proud of their work and their commitment to their country. You can literally feel this pride in the air.