Appalachian History

The three restless spirits of Sarah, Will, and Clem

On a dark moonlit night Sarah can be seen standing on the back deck at the Depot watching for the brother that Will refuses to leave.

Three boys driving along a deserted road on a snowy night discover a badly hurt girl. But she’s not what she appears to be. A WV ghost story.

In Missouri they call it a Gallywampus; in Arkansas it’s the Whistling Wampus; in Appalachia it’s just a plain old Wampus (or Wampas) cat.

I did a series of photos on a Saturday afternoon in a small Tennessee town, of a medicine man. He had a little dummy, ventriloquist dummy.

The West Virginia Folklife Center presents a selection of Appalachian ghost stories Dr. Ruth Ann Musick collected through the years.