Oakwood Cemetery

Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Slightly. Well hello hello.

We came back. We're back. Did you notice that there is a new man in the guard shack? Mike.

Mike. I did notice. Yeah. Yeah.

Don't worry. We didn't fire Randy. Yeah. I was a little taken aback, honestly.

He looks way different, doesn't he? He does. Yeah. I wasn't prepared.

I was expecting Randy and I have this fun banter now. What? I didn't even know this. Oh yeah, we're besties.

Really? Yeah. I don't know. I would think that like I would be looking into you further.

I would think like maybe he is but like I think we're friends. Unless I tell him we're friends. He has kind of grunts at me. I don't like the foot.

Yeah. So yeah, I can see why you're sort of drawn to him. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean he's a big dude. He's a really big dude. But like Mike, we don't we're not there yet. I'm not there yet.

I don't think I'm there with Randy to be honest with you as close as you guys. We have a special bond. He waves me on. He just stops me every time.

Talk to me. I'm unsure if that's good or not. I mean I think that's actually pretty good. Yeah.

Unless he wants to like make sure you don't have any like weapons or anything. I think maybe like ma'am. Yeah. But yeah, Mike is different.

Mike is different. Where's Mike from? He had a common accent. I'm trying to figure that out.

I'm not sure if he's from okay. So have you ever met someone and you hear their accent and you're like, oh you're from New York City and they're like, I'm from New Orleans. Yeah. But they have like pieces of their accent that almost sounds like they're from New York or something.

Yeah. So I met someone in college who I thought she was from Germany because she had this kind of like thick sort of accent and I said, are you from Germany? I felt so stupid when she said no. I'm from the East Coast of North Carolina.

I was like, oh my gosh. Okay. Cool. No, but I he does have an accent.

So my boyfriend feels such a weird thing to say. My biggest ability is to give the rest of the other people. I like that better. Yeah.

I feel more grown up. It feels like it feels like it's not me. They've got me like, I think they've got another holly. Yeah.

No. All right. All right. No, he he grew up on the coast.

Okay. So he has he's not but he does have that like kind of a little bit of an accent there and like his family when I went traveled down there and meet with his family definitely has like very thick accents. So they were like later hoes in and no. No, no, no, no later.

No, no later. Hoes unfortunately. They kind of just missed the boat. It's fine.

Yeah. It's fine. Yeah. I was, I was embarrassed.

But no, I think Mike, I don't know what what do you detect? I mean, I kind of thought like Eastern Europe maybe. But again, I couldn't really place it and I didn't feel like we were close enough for me to ask where he was from. Screaming out.

Are you from Poland or the Ukraine? Yeah. I don't think we were there yet. Ukraine maybe.

That's what I was thinking actually. That would track. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Maybe. I don't know. But yeah.

I don't want to like offend him or anything. Right. I don't either. But I just want to know.

So if you can find that out. Oh my gosh. For me. Yeah.

I have tons of time to stop and like roll down my window and I, you're rolling it down like it's a manual. I put it down in an old school car apparently. Like cranking it rolling down my window. Because they're what country are you from?

There's cranking back up. Just slowly roll it back up and like get my arm exercise. Yeah. Um, you know, I think he's, I don't, this sounds terrible because I guess we technically employ him.

Yeah. I don't know if he's part time. I don't know if he's just, I know that, um, Randy obviously is taking much need of vacation. Yeah.

So I don't know if he's like the substitute. Right. The substitute car check. And I don't know if there's like an agency that's like, all right.

So well, we got Randy out. We're going to send in Mike. Mike, you're in. Maybe.

Randy sit on the bench. Yeah. I don't know how that works. I don't know either.

I probably should. But listen, I pay my dues. Yeah. I don't sit on like a board or anything.

Right. I'm not over the HLA. Like I just do my jam and pay you do some ideas and keep on moving. Um, seeing him moving.

There was a lady walking her in your neighborhood today. Oh my gosh. She appeared elderly from a distance. Yes.

And was carrying a cane with her. And she, I swear in the time that we were sitting, having dinner and when I was hanging out with your son in his room, um, walked by your home about three times. Just a state, not in a creepy way. Like was walking through the right, just kind of like making the loop through the neighborhood.

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, she was getting it. She was.

And, uh, she, when we say a cane, she wasn't walking with the cane in additional. No, no, she was just like holding it. Oh, it was like a weapon. Absolutely.

Which I don't know why she would need it that way. No, but maybe like bears, maybe. Maybe like that's the biggest threat. Well, we have a lot of deer, but I don't think they would attack her.

Maybe I don't know. She, um, I was impressed. I was impressed because this neighborhood is hard to walk one time around, but she did it multiple times. There's actually, it's funny that you say that I have another neighbor who's elderly and she has to be in her ladies.

She walks nonstop and she has a dog who's about 102. Oh my God. And this poor elderly dog, sometimes the dog is dragging her and sometimes she's dragging the dog. Oh no.

And she lives up this like her house is at this giant hill and I'm like, how does this woman do that? She must be in stellar physical shape to walk as much as she does. And I'm like, I gotta get my fat ass out there and start doing something because this only woman and her half dead dog are showing me up. Crazy.

Her half dead dog. It is a poor dog. Like half the time she's like, come on, Fuffie. Like try to find out.

And it's a big dog. It's like a Bernie's mountain dog, but it's so old that you can tell like it's like, I have arthritis and you can tell so to shave a hell. She's going to do it. Meanwhile, I'm 40 over there like, Oh, I need to lay down.

Oh my gosh. So yeah. Well, uh, I'll find out about Mike. I'll keep you posted.

Yeah, keep me updated on that situation. I feel like I need to know. Okay. I need to know.

And if, you know, he gives me like a really rude response. I will make sure not to ask. Okay. Hey, Haley wanted to know.

Well, he may not even be there for long. Like if Randy comes back. I don't know how long Randy's on vacation. Like it's, I feel like it's been like a month, but it's probably been like three days, to be honest.

Yeah. But I do miss him. I know. I feel like he's a constant in my life.

Right. I mean, it's not like, you know, we, we talk and have dinner and like, you know, have wine or anything, but that would be nice sometimes. Although I don't think he could do his job if he was under the influence. Yeah.

Who's in your pre-ed? Yeah. Yeah. Probably not.

Yeah. So, yeah. Okay. What you got to know?

All right. So I have kind of a quick little story for us today. Okay. We're going to go to South Carolina.

Oh, you know what? We don't go here. Don't. But I felt like we should.

We need to. I'm actually going to go to Spartanburg, South Carolina. It's very close. It is.

It's just over the line from North Carolina and South Carolina. I've been to many of the dance competition in Spartanburg, South Carolina. So pretty familiar with the area, but we're going to talk about Oakwood Cemetery, which is better known as Hell's Gate Cemetery. Okay.

Yeah. I had never heard of this. I hadn't either. And I thought we should talk about it.

I feel like we should go there. So it's got some ghosts. Well, obviously. And it's, you know, it is a pretty spooky place.

Oh, Mike's not there. Not Mike. Not going to ghost Randy. No, Randy's living.

I hope so. I'm sure he is. I don't think I could make it without Randy. Oh, my whole heart is with Randy.

Andrew, significant other. Good to know. He's on the side. Which one?

Who knows? No, or he's still too old for me. I jokingly say that he probably saw a lot of action and name. I say that all the time, but he's not bad.

Like he's not battled. Like he wasn't Vietnam. He would have been in his 70s. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, 69, like late 60s 70s. And he is probably maybe 50 maybe.

Yeah. Yeah. But like is so physically fit. Yeah.

I feel like he's 20. Well, he's like tan and kind of withered. Yes. Like because you feel like he's seen a lot of stuff.

He's been. Yeah. He's seen some things. Yeah.

And I so I he'll wear, you know, short sleeves sometimes, but like I feel like he has like some hardcore tats. Yeah. But like I can't really see them. One time I saw a little bit of like some ink and I was like, oh, I wonder what that is.

But like he moved in like I'm really seeing now. Maybe he'll show you his tats. Maybe you're like, yeah, I'll show you my views if you show me that. I'm not sure.

I mean, I got to see. You did. Yeah. But I don't think I'm there.

I got ready. I'll show you my tats. Okay. Do you have to do?

No. Okay. Remember that one time we were going to go get them together? Yes.

We were going to go get tatted up. We were. It just never happened. Was it right before we quit?

I think so. I think it's right before we quit our jobs. We're like, we're going to do this and then it was a dead debt. Yeah.

Okay. Well, I'm just going to hold you to it. Okay. How about this?

You get a tat of my face. And you get a tat of my face? No. I get a tat of whatever.

No. That's of your face. No. You get a tat of my face and I'll get a tat of what I want.

I think I get to get something I want for my first one. You don't want a tat of my face? No. What?

Let me tell you about the cemetery. Oh, that. That's what we're going to pour. Okay.

So super late. Yeah. It is. Oakwood Cemetery is Spartanburg's oldest cemetery.

And it was chartered in the late 1800s. Oh. It is a beautiful historic graveyard and it is a very peaceful place for deceased loved ones to rest. There are sections that are very pleasing to the eye and seemingly filled with nothing but quiet and well maintained.

I'm sorry, pretty. But when you start going towards the back of the cemetery. It started getting like the street. Yeah.

I guess a little rough. So as you make your way towards the back of the cemetery, that's where I'm at in the back. I'm having classy drinks. Yeah.

I'm in the die bar. So you get kind of this weird feeling. There's some paranormal and strange things that happen in the older section of the cemetery. Of course there is.

We've got some apparitions that occur. There's some screams, orbs flying around. Visitors often report that their cell phones die and that they feel ill or overcome with a sense of dread when they head into the old part of the cemetery. Because there's a dichotomy, right?

You have the first half that's like lovely and pristine and the other one that they apparently don't give to shits about. Of course you would be haunting it because you're like, can you like, weedy around my grave, please? Yeah. I mean, I don't know anywhere that like make if I walk in somewhere and I'm like, oh, I don't feel good.

I'm kind of thinking gas leak. So I wonder if maybe that could be part of it. Maybe maybe. Okay.

So there's a couple of reasons why the old part feels spooky. I'm not a gas leak. And now I guess firstly, Hell's Gate in South Carolina was the pottersfield more than a hundred years ago. Individuals who were prisoners, wards of the state and had no family or were just too poor for proper burials were laid to rest in the pottersfield.

So it's spooky because they were poor. It's trashy because they were really poor. Because they were criminals. Yeah.

Great. So why don't we need to run those graves? So those graves are like trying to sell drugs to the other graves. I can't sell.

Hey, you over here. Yeah. You made limestone. I feel like an elderly jersey man.

Is that your altar? Yeah. It could be. We're gonna call him Chuck.

Oh, I was gonna sell. Oh, I do like that. That feels right. Self from Trenton.

Come on drugs, limestone. Lifestyle and that's wild for a cemetery. Could be made out of lime stone. It might be a lunch that's cut us off though.

All right. Well, Sam's right. What do they make? Granite?

Oh, okay. You'll grant it. Do it over there. Oh my gosh.

I've just sealed my granite recently. Sorry. That's nice. That's nice.

That's good. Thank you. So the poor people are back there in the scary part of the cemetery. Keep it down over there.

In my sleep. In 1914, the city reportedly, are you gonna make it? It's about one o'clock in the morning and Holly's lost it. Probably.

I made up since 5.55. Oh my god. Okay. We're moving on.

Okay. In 1914, the city reportedly dug up more than 100 graves in another part of town and moved them to Oakwood Cemetery to make way for some sort of development. Of course they do. See how they just- My land kids just picked them up and moved them on.

They just drove them on. It was like, make room. Yeah. We got another one coming.

So about 100. Little more than 100 of them. How's one move that many graves? Excavators.

Hey, dirt. See you later. Okay. Excavators, what makes it?

Well, excavators in a lot of like body bags. Yeah. You know, just toss them in there. The box away.

Oh my god. It's awful. I'm sorry. It's terrible.

Hailey gosh. Oh my god. Okay. So, you know, with that being said, you could kind of imagine that being yanked out of the ground, probably didn't sit very well with them.

Well, and also any time you disrupt a grave somewhere where somebody's been for a really long time, you're just kind of asking for trouble. Right. It's like, don't disturb. Don't like don't make us like baby.

Rest in peace. You don't disturb the dead. Yeah. Like don't mess with bodies.

Yeah. They've gotten all comfy and cozy in there. Even me, like you wake me up in the middle of the night. I'm here to on.

I'm gonna punch you. I'm a goner. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Yeah. So for decades though, perhaps longer, Hell's Gate has been thought to be the spot where some satanic rituals have taken place. In the dead of night. In the back.

Because in the poor section. Of course. Not in the nice section. No, they're having tea.

Yeah. Right. In 2012, the caretaker of the cemetery was making rounds and he discovered that a grave had been disturbed and the concrete vault had been broken into and the casket was pried open. Oh my gosh.

Yeah. Not great. Great robbing. No, definitely not.

No. The vandals had removed only the head of the body and nothing else. Yeah. What was wrong with these?

So how old was this great? I don't know. Oh my gosh. But if it was fresh, like grass grows.

I mean, period is disgusting. Yeah. Geez. I mean, I see there's squishy ear bones.

Yeah. There goes limestone. Yeah. He was my friend.

Well, he has been dug up and his head is not gone. It's not straight. It was a concrete vault. I would imagine pretty recent.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cause those aren't really.

That's a lot though. That's a lot of digging. Yeah. To pry that open.

Yeah. And that would have taken you hours. I mean, hopefully someone would see if they came in with an excavator. So this had to be like multiple people just dig, dig, dig.

Well, I mean, I think was probably in the poor area. So nobody was checking back there. So they did. So they took the head.

However, they did return it. They brought it back about a month later. They were like, you know what? And just kind of chucked it into the cemetery.

So can you imagine you're going to visit your loved one and you just find a random human head? No. And then you think this, oh, like going back to what we're saying, if this was a recent burial. Oh my gosh.

Right. I mean, I think period, if you found a skull and you know, but like when that's fresh with hair and teeth and all the things would be horrifying. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Then you wonder like people sometimes do creepy things with like heads. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I want to touch that. No. Gross.

Yeah. So I don't know if it was like for like sexual purposes or I don't know. I mean, the there's speculation of like, was this part of like some sort of satanic thing or was it just vandals being stupid? I think people always want to blame satanic cults and satanate.

Yeah. I mean, Satanists and themselves are very lovely people. So I don't know. Yeah.

Maybe it was just vandals looking. Maybe they were looking for money. Right. And then found ahead and decided they'd just go with that.

You couldn't get the earring off. So they're like, we'll just take a little bit of gold tooth. Maybe a necklace. Perhaps.

Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, they did bring it back. But they threw it into the cemetery.

They just tossed it. Like they were like, let's put it next to the gravestone and leave it here. We're just not throwing it wherever. I think they just tossed it in there.

They'll lose your head. No. I did. I did say it was discarded like trash.

So I'm just lost. I would never do that to your head. Thank you. I would put you up on my mantle.

For all the cities. No. I would have my friend. My post rot or mid rot.

I know. What do you want to be? I think post rot would probably be more sanitary. All right.

Okay. I'll put I'll dress you up for the holidays. Put little earrings on you and like at Christmas. Put like blinking lights.

Santa hat. Yes. I would make your mouth move. That would traumatize your child.

Well, he's in with it. Like he'll dress it up too. Okay. That's out of Elf on the shelf you have.

Haley on the mantle. Okay, son. If you're not good. Anti-Haley's going to report back to Santa.

I said to death. Haley, your earlier curse. Oh, great. God.

I could oh, an Easter. Patricia with a little bunny. It'd be so cute. All right.

You put little eggs in your head. Oh, it'd be so cute. Tell them how they can email us about this. Oh, sorry.

It's over. It's over. It's a turops. I have an email.

All right. That was it. This is great. This is amazing.

Wow. Something. The halter needs to sleep. Please email us or Haley.

Just tell her a lot of the things. Yeah. MountainMysteries.appleletchen at gmail.com. You can find us on Facebook at mountainmysteries.

You can find us on Instagram at mountainmysteries.appleletchen and patreon.com slash mountainmysteries. Awesome. I'm crushing it. I know.

I'm supposed to be doing a location or an hour now. Oh my gosh. I thought that's what you were doing the whole time. No.

You were texting. I wasn't. Okay. Hang on.

Hang on. I'm doing it. I'm doing it right now. Take my hand.

Do it again. Please hold. There's a group called Berlin. Oh, yeah.

Okay. Let's go with how about Morgan found West Virginia? I like it. Let's do it.

All right. I look forward to next week. Bye. Bye.