Deep In the Piney Woods

Deep in the piney woods A call beckons across the branch A call that isn't animal nor human A call that makes your hair stand alert and skin prickly from fright! The light of the full moon awakens the spirits and the calling from the piney woods. If you doubt my story and risk your very life, then make sure you take a weapon into the piney woods. Well, I believe the call is from the ghost of the moon shiners that have lost their lives in the mica mines many years ago. The mica was big business one time until the mines went dry. The deep holes were perfect cover for the moonshine stills until the revenuers caught the culprits. A great gun battle raged until death. Today the crumpled mica shimmer in the red clay is all that is left of the mines. The local children like to scare themselves with the abandoned rock graveyard along the edge of the piney woods. If you look close at the mound of rocks...it appears that there is a bony hand protruding from the grave and pointing directly at you to leave. The ancient thick cedar trees seem to guard the graves and whisper "Warning, Warning." In 1969 there was another vilolent firey death on the road through the piney woods. A man died inside a burning wrecked truck, screaming "Don't let me burn to death" repeatedly until the bitter charred end. When the moon is right the echo carries his screams across the hills. A young man only age seventeen lost his life in a fatal car wreck on the steep curved road. His life was taken so fast; he is said to walk the hills searching for his sweet ride to carry him on his journey, unaware of his eternal fate. On a short walk along the shallow creek bank reveals an old rock formation covered in moss now but built by a people of long ago. Maybe Indian or early settlers, no one knows the architects but if you stand in a certain spot where the ground is always wet with a reddish ooze. You can feel a cold icy finger across your face and neck. Is the call a young buck calling his bride in the after life; is the call an evil doer fighting to avoid beelzebub's snare? The apparition can be seen briefly if you desire look when the wind and moon are right. Waynesville holler offers more than beauty in the day but beware of the moon lit walks that young lovers brave or you may be the next victim of the piney woods!