From Bigfoot and beautiful mermaids to sea serpents and Cherokee folklore, meet North Carolina cryptids and uncover the best urban legends.
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North Carolina urban legends are quite spooky, and we cannot get enough of them. Living in Asheville, everything seems haunted, including our favorite watering holes. You might just run into the Pink Lady at the Grove Park Inn or a devastated woman at Helen’s Bridge. Riverside Cemetery is full of ghosts, along with those randomly standing Western North Carolina chimneys that I love so much.
Not to mention that North Carolina folklore boasts tales—or tails—of (hopefully) benign mermaids and Cherokee legends involving child-hungry yellow jackets.
For classic North Carolina monsters, the Tar Heel State boasts endless Bigfoot sightings—and not just at our local festivals. We even have our own version of the Loch Ness Monster (I had to share Scotland pics below). Keep reading to uncover the best legends and cryptids from North Carolina. 🖤 Christine of Uncorked Asheville
North Carolina Cryptids, Urban Legends, & Folktales
This list is a collaboration with my favorite dark tourist historian and our good friend, Jeremy Paterson. If you love this piece, Jeremy also helped write about North Carolina’s famously abandoned places and ghost towns. As an English and History undergrad major with an MLIS, I love stories, history, and travel, adding my own passion about my NC home.
📸 Please note that while Tom and I pride ourselves on original pictures that we take here at Uncorked Asheville, due to the fantastical nature of this article, we’ve also used a few paid-for Getty Images, 100% credited below, sometimes cropped in collages I created. All other photos are my own. Happy cryptid hunting!
Bigfoot
Let’s start with one of our favorite North Carolina cryptids: Bigfoot. You know, that large, ape-like creature roaming the North American forests. You might only see his footprints.
Adding fuel to the fire is “evidence” supposedly proving Bigfoot is real, including almost 1 minute of notoriously blurry video footage taken by civilians in 1967.
However, it is disingenuous to claim that Bigfoot has roots on the East Coast of the United States. But, with 100+ reported “sightings” in North Carolina, perhaps Bigfoot vacations here frequently? Asheville is a large tourist town, after all. Not to mention that every summer, Marion hosts the fun and terrific WNC Bigfoot Festival. Have you been?
The Monster of Lake Norman
Head out to Lake Norman near Charlotte, and you might hear tales of the Lake Norman Monster. Just like its Scottish counterpart in Loch Ness—Tom and I went searching for Nessie and hairy coos (OK, and whisky); it was the BEST Scotland vacation—the Lake Norman Monster is also a water beast. And, similar to Nessie, the Monster of Lake Norman has the nickname “Normie.”
Some believe Normie is a large alligator, while others think the creature is an oversized catfish or a sturgeon. No matter which account you hear, the one thing they all have in common: Normie is one of the largest North Carolina monsters around.
Notably, Lake Norman is man-made, created by flooding that submerged a town, including houses, churches, farms, and fields. Today, divers frequently explore the structures, possibly catching glimpses and waking up Normie in the process.
Plan Your Magical Adventure: Our Free Asheville Guide + Bucket List
The Boojum
Back in 1900, an eccentric developer named S.C. Satterthwait built the Eagle’s Nest Hotel high up in the North Carolina mountains near Waynesville. Unfortunately, despite being a classy establishment, the Boojum loved to stop in to say “hello.”
Nicknamed by locals, the Boojum is allegedly 7 feet tall, covered in shaggy hair all over (remind you of anyone?), and has two particular habits:
First, the Boojum is exceedingly fond of gems, and you know we have a lot of gem mines in the NC mountains. Second, it loved spying on young ladies bathing in the rivers and lakes. So the Boojum is also a creep.
According to NC legend, while most women ran for their lives, a girl named Annie (or possibly Maggie) recognized sadness in its eyes. She fell in love and married the Boojum. Bless her heart.
What makes this one of our favorite legends? The way Annie and the Boojum communicated: By hooting to locate one another. It’s how we got the word “Hootenanny.” This is almost certainly untrue, but we love the idea and are rolling with it!
While in Waynesville, visit Maggie Valley and read about its abandoned places. Here, you’ll pass remnants of Ghost Town in the Sky as well as a former tragic plane crash site.
The Mermaids of Cape Fear River
Roughly 30 miles southwest of Raleigh, NC, where Haw River and Deep River meet to combine and form Cape Fear River, lies a hot spot of NC folklore: Mermaid Point.
In the 18th century, a man named Ambrose Ramsey built a tavern in the small community of Lockville. Patrons of Ramsey’s Tavern would walk home past a long white sandbar. Many reported sightings of mermaids. Witnesses believed the beautiful sea creatures came from the Atlantic to rinse the salt from their hair.
Ramsey hoped that burgeoning Lockville would thrive from its new guests, and therefore, so would his business. Sadly, this was not the case: A flood destroyed the tavern in the late 1800s, and coincidentally, that’s when mermaid sightings stopped.
P.S. If you enjoy this NC legend, meet tipsy, scary, and fun mermaids on our sister site, The Uncorked Librarian, with our mermaid books (adult) reading list.
The Beast of Bladenboro
Trigger warning: animal death
In the winter of 1953-1954, a string of mysterious attacks in Bladenboro sparked fear of what is undoubtedly one of the scariest North Carolina cryptids on this list.
On December 29th, local townspeople found the bodies of animals, including dogs, rabbits, even a goat, viciously mauled and/or crushed. Even more mysteriously, some had all of their blood drained.
This lasted for weeks, with some witnesses glimpsing “either a bear or a panther,” with a long tail and a cat-like face. One chilling account even described a noise “like a baby crying” as it scurried through the bushes.
To this day, no one can agree on what the Beast of Bladenboro is or whether it is still at large. Let us know.
The Wilmington Sea Serpent
Wilmington has a rich history, and not just as a movie filming location. That brings us to the legend of Willie the Wilmington Sea Serpent.
In 1524, Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano traveled to the East Coast’s Cape Fear. In his journal, he wrote of a “great snake” that one of his men saw resting on the waves close to the shore.
But he wasn’t the only one, including the Earl of Wilmington (1732) and Union soldier and naturalist James Calden (1865). Calden told of locals who reported a grey creature spanning 40 feet long and 4 feet wide, which they named the town after.
Today, Willie is 500+ years old, making it one of the oldest North Carolina cryptids on this list.
U’lag‘û
This piece of North Carolina folklore is part Cherokee legend: A great yellow jacket, called the U’lag’û, roamed the Nantahala River skies in what is modern-day Macon County. Large as a house, it snatched up children, carrying them away.
To trap U’lag’û, the local people lured it with food. First with a squirrel, then a turkey, then a deer ham, but U’lag’û carried them all away.
Eventually, they used a yearling deer, which was heavy enough to slow it down. The people tracked U’lag’û to a cave filled with thousands of other smaller yellow jackets. There, they set fires, engulfing the creature in smoke. However, the smaller yellow jackets outside the cave escaped, thus spreading all over the world.
Today, we call the cave Tsgagun’yi, which means, “Where the yellow jacket was.”
The Sunshine Woman
What began as the final request of a dying woman has become one of the most intriguing North Carolina urban legends of recent times.
In 1915, Leila Maud Davidson Hansell, a schoolteacher and wife of a powerful judge, passed away at the age of 54 from tuberculosis. Before she died, she asked that they not bury her in total darkness.
A judge ordered the construction of a large, above-ground vault in Oakdale Cemetery in Hendersonville. This vault included thick squares of prism glass for the sun.
After her internment, locals reported seeing strange occurrences at the grave, including Leila’s smiling skeleton, wreathed in flowers. Eventually, they covered the glass with concrete to give Leila’s body peace from snooping tourists. I promise, I was not one of them.
Hendersonville, a 40+-minute drive from Asheville, is a fantastic day-tripping option, filled with museums and nearby historical sites, especially for book lovers. Explore more mountain towns with cool area history.
Haunted Highland Hospital
Not many North Carolina urban legends can claim to involve a famous literary figure. However, if you travel to Asheville, you’ll uncover the final resting place of Zelda Fitzgerald. It took Tom and I quite a bit of wandering, talking to strangers, and research for this one.
In 1948, the famous writer perished at Highland Hospital in Asheville’s Historic Montford District. One tragic night, a fire broke out in the main building’s kitchen. Due to the allegedly flammable dumb-waiter system, the flames spread so quickly that Zelda, along with eight other people, died before firefighters could reach them. You can read a fictionalized account in Lee Smith’s Guests On Earth.
Today, many claim that the hospital’s former grounds, which burned to the ground, remain haunted. Eyewitnesses report a woman in white, matching Zelda’s description, wandering amongst the trees. Perhaps you will see her as you read the plaque dedicated to her on the hospital’s former grounds.
If you take a haunted LaZoom ghost tour, you might “see” Zelda like Tom and I…if you know, you know. And, read more about North Carolina’s famous writers, including Zelda’s partner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, who vacationed at The Omni Grove Park Inn (which is haunted by resident ghost, The Pink Lady).
Uncover More Of Asheville’s Ghosts & History Here
Today, Asheville’s Historic Montford District is home to Shakespeare in the Park and a fun Greek Festival. If you love North Carolina ghost stories, be sure to pay your respects at Riverside Cemetery, which is known for its paranormal activity. Thomas Wolfe and O. Henry are interned here.
The Blood Shower of Chatham County
In perhaps one of the most bizarre and inexplicable events of North Carolina urban legends, look to the night of February 25th, 1884.
While walking home in Chatham County, Mrs. Kit Lasater heard what she thought was a bout of heavy rainfall, with visibly clear skies. Yet, a “shower of pure blood” covered the ground in a 60-foot circumference.
Several neighbors confirmed Mrs. Lasater’s version of events. A professor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill collected samples. He determined that the red liquid was indeed blood. Chillingly, he could not explain it.
The Brown Mountain Lights
On a clear night, head to Burke County and look toward the skies. Part Cherokee legend, you might spy strange orbs over Brown Mountain Overlook or from Wiseman’s View.
Civil War soldiers even wrote home about these glowing lights, and numerous scientists studied them.
Today, whether you believe the “ghost” lights are car headlights, atmospheric refraction, or lightning, locals swear these mysterious orbs are the most witnessed, unsolved phenomena spanning centuries. Maybe we have our own version of the Northern Lights…
The Wampus Cat
Half-woman, half-cat, you know this is one of our favorite Appalachian legends. Just don’t meet her eyes.
Most describe the Wampus Cat as a prowling panther with glowing yellow eyes, moving silently but deadly throughout the forest, and disappearing with ease.
In a Cherokee origin story, some say a woman disguised herself as this cat to spy on a sacred men’s ritual. Unfortunately, a medicine man caught her, cursing and trapping her in the body of a large mountain lion or cat.
Today, people see the Wampus Cat across the Carolinas, especially on dark roads, lurking amongst the crops. Rumor has it, she is still quite bitter about her fate, so be careful!
👻 What are your favorite North Carolina urban legends? Which North Carolina cryptids capture your attention the most? Have you seen any ghosts or strange beasts? Let us know in the comments.
Great article. Might I suggest adding the Moon-Eyed People to you next legend article. They are a Cherokee legend.
Thank you for the information and suggestion. I will definitely look into it!
Me and my family have seen a Fresno night crawler in person late at night.
I’ll be on the lookout the next time I am in California. Bigfoot is personally my favorite.