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Hauntings and Legends from the Pocomoke State Forest

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Ghosts of locals from the Pocomoke State forest as well as mysterious balls of light and impossible dark legends, the countless tales from this haunted forest in Maryland keep piling on, making this perhaps one of the most busy as well as haunted forests in America. 

Between Snow Hill and Pocomoke City in Maryland, the Pocomoke State Forest harbors more than just the natural beauty of the landscape on the Eastern Shore. The over 18 000 acre big forest comes with a chilling reputation that locals often share in hushed whispers, this forest is deemed off-limits after sundown, as tales of eerie encounters and ghostly apparitions weave through the trees.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from USA

The forest is often called the true Blair Witch Project forest, as it is perhaps the most well known haunted forest in Maryland where the iconic horror movie also took place. Pocomoke State Forest is shrouded in unsettling stories, with reports of women’s screams and infants’ cries echoing in the night. When people get out of the forest, they find strange marks on their cars, like the mark of a hand and at night, the forest closes. 

Its reputation is further steeped in creepy urban legends, including accounts of mysterious fireballs illuminating the darkened woods. However, it’s the tales of ominous disappearances and untimely deaths that send shivers down the spines of those who dare to explore.

The Drowned Ghosts of Pocomoke State Forest

The very word, Pocomoke comes from the Agonquian language to mean broken ground. Historically though it was thought to mean Black Water and it is said that the water is totally dark thanks to the light not passing through the bald cypress trees. 

Many tales of the ghosts haunting the forest are said to be the souls of those that drowned in the river or the swampy waters. Like the case with Joby Emmons and his son who were getting on their boat, but the son fell into the water and couldn’t get out. The father jumped in after him to rescue him, but they both got trapped under the boat and drowned. 

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Haunted Forests around the world

People claim that they have seen the spirit of Joby Emmons and his son walking along the river of Pocomoke State Forest. 

Source: Flickr

Another group of people haunting the swamp areas are the children between the slaves and slave owners. There are countless of stories where the slave owners raped their slaves and if there was a child born, they took the children out into the swampy forest and drowned them. Many hikers claim to have felt the touch of something small or seen little shadows gliding through the trees. 

The Sea-Captain and his Family Haunting the Forest

Many hikers and campers claim that they leave Pocomoke State Forest with mysterious handprints on their cars. What is strange is that the handprints look like it got six fingers, something a vicious Sea Captain who lived around these parts was said to have. It is believed to be him haunting the forest after his death after he murdered his family.

The place of the haunting is said to be centered around Cellar House Plantation that are still standing. It was built in 1666 and was said to have been built by a French Sea Captain for his wife, or at least bride to be. 

He came back from the sea once though and found her pregnant, or having a child already, one that wasn’t his. It was a local man from Pocomoke City. He threw her out of the house and told her to never return. 

She did though, as she had no place to go, trying to beg him for forgiveness. She had her baby with her and came down on a raft in the water. It tipped close to the house though and her baby drowned. She managed to swim to shore though, but was not saved.

In some versions of the story, the Captain was even the one drowning the child by throwing the baby into the river. Her estranged husband dragged her to the bedroom where he stabbed her to death and fled the scene of the crime into Pocomoke State Forest, never to return and be seen ever again. 

As mentioned, one of the recurring things that people report they hear in the haunted forest is the sound of a woman screaming as well as a baby crying, reliving their final moments. What happened to the Captain after he murdered his family is uncertain, but he is rumored to be haunting the forest still. 

The Heavy and Cursed Bible

Deep in the Pocomoke State Forest there once was an old church called Nazarene Church at the entrance to the Pusey Branch Nature Trail in the forest. It was a Methodist Church at the end of the 19th century. Today there is only an abandoned cemetery left as the building of the church was moved to Furnace Town in 1980. 

According to the legends, there was perhaps a cursed Bible found inside of the old church, or perhaps just a little bit haunted. Many people tried to steal this hidden Bible when they found it and ran through the forest with it, but they never got far. 

Apparently the Bible got heavier and heavier with each step you took until you dropped it and it ended up where it originally was. Whether the Bible even existed is uncertain as well if it came with the building to Furnace Town, or were left someplace at the old site. 

The Haunted Furnace Town

But what is really Furnace Town? This part of the Pocomoke State Forest has many spirits lingering where people come back with tales of seeing ghostly figures, hearing disembodied voices and other paranormal things. 

The ghost town that now is turned into a museum, and was built around the Maryland Iron Companies Nassawango Iron Furnaces in 1832. At its height Furnace Town used to employ hundreds of people. They also used slaves to do the hard labor and most ghosts seen are said to be the spirit of the slaves. 

Most known ghost said to haunt this place is the former slave, Sampson Hat, or Sampson Harmon. It is said that he was one of the slaves that worked in the mines and smelting ore in the big furnaces. By 1847 the furnaces closed down and people started to move away and the town started to be a ghost town. 

The only one who didn’t move was Sampson Hat who lived in the abandoned Furnace Town alone. The civil war came and passed, freeing him, but he still didn’t leave. According to some historical accounts he was born in 1790  at Nassawango Hills and was a free man working at Furnace Town to take care of his wife and children. 

He came to think of Furnace Town as his true home and it is said he stayed at the same place, even when his family left. He lived there until his death at 107 or 104, depending on who is telling the story.

Before he died he spent a year at the Alms House in Snow Hill. Before passing he said he had to be buried at Furnace Town, but after his death, his wishes were not heard and his body was buried elsewhere. But according to the local legends, his spirit remains and is still haunting the old town as well as Pocomoke State Forest. 

It is also said he is followed by his cats he collects and brings with him as his companions. You can hear him wandering around, calling out for Stormy which he calls the cats.

Reports about him were told a lot during construction of the former ghost town when they started to restore the town and turned it into a museum from the 1960s.

The Ball of Fire

Another strange thing reported in Pocomoke State Forest is the sighting of different elementals and no human spirits haunting the forest, taking different shapes and forms. One version told is the haunting of a big fiery ball. One version talks about the priest Paul Walker holding a revival in the forest around Pine Ridge in 1921. Some husbands were unhappy about their wives’ conversion and gathered to get the priest. They went to the church to burn it down and beat the priest up, but when the leader of the group opened the door to the church he stopped. 

A ball of fire came from the rood and split in two and went down on each side of the church. This sight scared the men and they ran off. 

The story about a fiery ball is also recounted in a legend about a man driving through Pocomoke State Forest going to Snow Hill. Ahead of him was a bright object that came close until it was around 30-35 yards from him. 

The car stopped suddenly and he was too afraid to say anything or do anything as the object looked like a bright yellow box. He was trapped in this standstill for around 15 minutes before the object drifted into the woods and off the road. As soon as the object was gone, the car started again and he managed to drive away. 

The Goat Man

Any haunted forest needs its monster stories. Like the Bigfoot or The Jersey Devil Pocomoke State Forest has the Goat Man of the Pocomoke River. It is said to be a creature with a mans body, but the head of a goat with horn.

The creature runs through the forest, eating the fishes in the river and the small animals in the forest. Not many sightings have been done of the Goat Man, but it is said you can hear him stepping on twigs and bushes in places that no man can walk. 

The legend about the Goat Man is told throughout Maryland and also thought to live in Pocomoke State Forest around Prince George’s County in Maryland. The story about the Goat Man has been told for decades, perhaps even longer. In the 1970s, a student did a project about the lore behind the creature where they also discussed that the origin of the Goat Man could be traced back to the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center.

According to this version of the legend, the Goat Man was once a scientist working there called Dr. Stephen Fletcher.. During an experiment it mutated the scientist into the creature. It is said that he was attacking cars around Beltsville, around two hours drive from Pocomoke State Forest.  

The Classic Urban Legend of the Boyfriend’s Death

Another thing with Pocomoke State Forest is that it is said to be the place of many famous urban legends from modern day America. 

One unsettling narrative involves a couple stranded with an empty gas tank in the heart of the forest at night. As the boyfriend ventured out to fix it, the girlfriend dozed off in the locked car, oblivious to the scratching noises on the car roof that started sometime during the night. 

When she awoke it was the next morning and her boyfriend had still not returned. She finally heard the sound of the scraping on the roof. She got out of the car and a harrowing sight awaited her – her boyfriend hanging by his feet over the car, his feet scraping the roof. His head was placed on the trunk of the car.

This urban legend is a pretty worldwide phenomenon by now, and has been so for decades now. According to Snopes, the earliest documented version of this legend was in 1964 by a student studying at the University of Kansas. It still is an all time favorite to tell in Pocomoke State Forest

Hook Man of the Pocomoke State Forest

This urban legend has also been told with the story of the Hook Man that has been told as far back as the 1950s, possibly being even older. In this legend, they were driving or parked somewhere in the woods as a news bulletin comes on the radio and warns them about a mental asylum patient having escaped and can be recognized with a hook as a hand. In this version it is from the Cambridge State Hospital. 

In this version of the urban legend, he is mad at those who disturb the Pocomoke State Forest. The girlfriend gets scared and makes her boyfriend drive her home. As they are in the forest they hear strange things in the bushes and when they get home, they find a hook wedged into their car door handle.

The Bus Driver

Another urban legend told is coming from Pocomoke State Forest is the haunted bus. A school bus was taking a shortcut through the forest once when they experienced engine troubles and the bus had to stop. The bus driver went outside and tried to fix it, but strange things started to happen to the bus. 

The sound of something walking on the roof of the bus started to scare the children and they saw ghostly and monstrous faces in the windows. The teacher accompanying them told them all to close the windows and went to the front of the bus to find the bus driver and get them out of there. The only thing the teacher found was a skeleton by the front of the bus. 

The teacher slammed the door shut and got into the driver seat and drove them all back to the school when the bus started working again. 

This story is a little bit more difficult to pinpoint where it comes from though.

A Stay at the Haunted Pocomoke State Forest

The trees seem to reclaim the old legends and places, but the spirit and ghosts remain. Pocomoke State Forest becomes a realm where the line between the living and the supernatural blurs, beckoning both the curious and the cautious to delve into its haunted mysteries.

Urban legends coexists with old ghost stories and both human spirit as well as something inhuman are said to roam around the trees. 

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References:

The Haunted Pocomoke Forest and its Urban Legends – Chesapeake Ghost Tours 

https://www.cellarhousefarm.com/

Haunted Delmarva: Pocomoke Forest – 47abc

GHOSTS OF FURNACE TOWN — American Hauntings  

Sampson Harmon: Furnace Town’s Resident Cat-Collecting Ghost | Shorebread 

14 Myths and Legends Surrounding Maryland’s Haunted Pocomoke Forest 

Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center – Wikipedia 

Goatman (urban legend) – Wikipedia 

The Hook | Snopes.com 

movies, Review

5 Movies Based on American Urban Legends

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Urban Legends are more modern day ghost or horror stories. We’ve always heard it from a friend of a friend without knowing entirely who we are talking about. Some are so famous it has become a part of our horror canon like the famous ghost stories of the past, showing the story telling is not a died out genre.

When a Stranger Calls
(1979 film and 2006 remake)

Urban Legend: Based on the legend of an unknown caller to the babysitter.

The film has developed a large cult following over time because of the first 20 minutes, now consistently regarded as one of the scariest openings in movie history.

The babysitter and the man upstairs — also known as the babysitter or the sitter — is an urban legend that dates back to the 1960s about a teenage girl babysitting children who receives telephone calls from a stalker who continually asks her to “check the children”. The basic story line has been adapted a number of times in movies.

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I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

Urban Legend: The hook-handed man

Ah, the glorious 90’s. The beautiful teens caught up in a slasher horror movie in high school flicks era. How we miss it now. This created spin-offs and everything, ghost

The Hook, or The Hookman, is an urban legend about a killer with a pirate-like hook for a hand attacking a couple in a parked car. The story is thought to date from at least the mid-1950s, and gained significant attention when it was reprinted in the advice column Dear Abby in 1960. It has since become a morality archetype in popular culture, and has been referenced in various horror films.

The film centers on four young friends who are stalked by a hook-wielding killer one year after covering up a car accident in which they killed a man.

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Candyman (1992)

Urban Legend: Well, the Boogyman, Bloody Mary, and… the hook?

In the film series, he was portrayed as the vengeful ghost of an African-American man who was brutally beaten, mutilated and fed to the bees by having honey smeared on his body for a forbidden interracial love affair in the 19th century and would haunt and kill anyone who called the name of the Candyman before a mirror five times in a row

Based on the short story, “The Forbidden” by Clive Barker, the film follows a Chicago graduate student completing a thesis on the urban legends which led her to the legend of the “Candyman“.

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Willow Creek (2013)

Urban Legend: Bigfoot

Set in Humboldt County, California, Jim (Bryce Johnson) is a Bigfoot believer whose idea of a romantic getaway is to head deep into Six Rivers National Forest in Northern California, video camera in tow, trying to shoot his own Bigfoot footage at the site of the Patterson–Gimlin film. That 1967 fragment of footage purporting to show a Sasquatch striding along a dry sandbar beside Bluff Creek became a key artifact in the cryptozoology community and Jim dreams of nothing more than setting foot on the actual location where it was shot. His long-suffering girlfriend Kelly (Alexie Gilmore) agrees to tag along for the ride, despite the fact that she thinks Bigfoot has about as much chance of being real as leprechauns.

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Urban Legend (1998)

Urban Legend: Really. Just… Every-single-one

Urban Legend is a 1998 American slasher film directed by Jamie Blanks, written by Silvio Horta, and starring Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, and Tara Reid. So, the best of the 90s as you can see.

Its plot focuses on a series of murders on the campus of a private New England university, all of which appear to be modeled after popular urban legends. The film has been credited by both cinema and folklore scholars as being one of the first major films to redistribute the urban legends and folklore depicted within it to the public.

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The Hook-Man

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A Moonmausoleum original based on the well known Urban Legend

A couple parks their car on the local lovers lane. It’s in a small clearing in the forest, overlooking the small town. The guy insisted to drive around for a while as he manged to borrow his dad’s old veteran car for the evening. It’s supposed to be the date. They are slurping the remains of the soda and eating the popcorn from the movie.

“Did you like the movie?” the girl asks, engulfed in the movie they just saw, having some of the popcorn. It had been her choice, and the boy fell asleep halfway through.

“Sure,” the boy said, leaning into her. She pushes him playfully away.

“Yeah right, I noticed you fell asleep,” the girl says, throwing a popcorn at him playfully. He throws it back at her, just hearing her laughter.

“I’m awake now,” the guy says, kissing her.

The song from the radio ends, the news broadcaster taking over. It is a terrible radio station, local, but the only one they get a signal from her in this small town. The guy turns to the radio speaking in its slow and monotone voice.

“We report about the manhunt still ongoing for the convicted murderer and rapist, escaping from the mental institution. There are still no leads to his whereabouts. Noticeable features is his hook hand. Listeners are asked to report-“

“Enough of that,” the boys says as the news kills the mood, turning the radio off, putting on a playlist instead. The girl look around, uneasy after listening. She buttons one of her blouse button.

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“Hey, maybe we should just-“

“Come here,” the boy says, pulling her closer, kissing her, his hands trailing down her side. But she’s had it. The moment is passed.

“No, come on. Let’s just drive home.”

“But I only borrowed the car for this evening. I don’t know if he-“

“Don’t care! It’s creepy here.”

“It’s romantic.”

The girl crosses her arms over her chest. She’s made up her mind. The boy accepts defeat.

“Fine, fine.”

“We can ask your father again for the car another time,” the girls tries to negotiate with. The boy is not biting to her offer.

“Sure,” the boy mutters, trying to get the engine to work. It doesn’t. He tries again: Same result. The girl starts to get a creepy feeling, an uneasiness as if the darkness around them swells.

“Do you need any help?”

“What? No! It just has this special way to get it started. Just give me a second.”

Still, the car won’t start. The night is coming to life. The nightlife is starting to wake, to howl. The girl inhales, trying not to intervene. The boy tried the key, but the engine just gave a small puff, not wanting to start. The headlight flickering weak before dying.

“It doesn’t work,” the girl says. The boy ignores her.

“Maybe you should just try to-“

“I know how to start a car,” the boy says, loosing his patient and snapping back at her. She raises her hand, leaving him to it.

The car finally stars and the girl leans in to fix her lipstick. She turns when a shadow glides over the mirror.

He pushed the pedals to the floor, car screeching as they bailed out from the lane, leaving their date in a pile of dust. The girl clutched the handle above her head.

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“Did you just drive onto something?”

“No”

“Didn’t you hear it right now? It was like the car pulled on something?”

“Jesus, can you at least not whine about my driving? I’m taking you home, as you demanded, alright? Can you just not?”

They drive away out from the woods onto the highway. He turns back to the news on the radio, but it’s over. Just a slow ballad to fill the awkward silence is heard.

After driving for a while, both notices something is wrong. The boy curses, knowing this date went horrible wrong.

“Sounds like the tires,” the girl comments as they park the car at the side of the road. It is still far to the town.

“Let me have a look,” the boy says, not knowing much about cars.

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Studying the back tire at the passengers side, he can’t make it out. It is as if it’s slashed. They wont be able to drive it back home. He stands up, looking both ways, no car is out on the roads, the forest on both sides is motionless in the dead wind.

He goes to the passenger door, motioning to open it to tell her they would need to call someone to come get then. That is when he sees it, that is when he freezes.

“What is it?” the girl asked, noticing his face going pale. The boy held out the arm.

“Stay in the car. Don’t come out. Lock the door,” he said, staring at the hook hanging from the car door.

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