Folklore and Legends

Cumberland Falls Corbin, Ky.  The Bride of Cumberland falls The story begins when a newly wed couple came to Cumberland Falls State Park back in the late 40s early 50s to spend their honeymoon at the famous, Falls of The South. After the couple had registered in to their cabin they decided to take in some of the sites there at the falls. They began to walk down the park trail to an over look were they could view the falls at a distance. The Bride then wanted to have her picture taken with the falls in the background so she could show to her friend and family when she got back home, but as she stood upon the safety railing, she stumbled to her death over the 75 foot cliff. This overlook is now called; LOVERS LEAP. There has been several sitings of this bride walking around the park area on certain times of the year. Most of the sitings have been on warm moon lit nights.  Park Ranger was doing foot patrol at the falls on a warm moon lit night in 1986 when visitors came to see the Famous Moon bow of the south. As we where walking down the trail toward the Old Beach, he decided to watch from above the cliff from where she had fall to make sure everyone was not too close to the falls when a rush of cold white fog began to roll in, then appeared a woman dressed in a long white wedding gown out on the water and was motioning him to come to her and with this he left the falls with chills that he'll never forget as long as he lives. Another Park Ranger was on patrol a year later while driving his patrol car to the falls, A woman in a wearing white wedding gown ran out in front of him and hitting her. The ranger got out of his car to see who he had hit but she was know where to be found. To this day, He never new about any sitings of her until he told the park ranger of his accident with her.

Barbourville, Ky.  Union College Pfeiffer Hall room 245- Legend has it that there is a ghost of a student that attended Union College in the 1960's. His name was James Garner and he was a football and basketball player at the college. School records day that he fell from his 2nd floor window while trying to close it on a cool night, the date of his death was October 30 1963. Legend says that if you to tho that room around midnight and open the window, James' ghost will shut it. There have been many sighting reported that this is true.

Barbourville, Ky. In the Warfield Cemetery something follows you, its footsteps move as you do and stops when you do, yet this unseen thing moves very fast. You can feel its sense of urgency and the steps crunch over the ground as if it is agitated. When it starts this, you standing there cringing just certain that something is going to knock you down from behind, but the steps just abruptly stop and so not start back up again until you begin walking again. when you step outside the gate the sounds of the footsteps can be heard walking away back toward the graveyard.

Busy, Ky. Beach opening Rd. 20 to 25 years ago a man was killed in a car accident, now after it is said that dark foggy figures have been seen and if you are walking, rocks will be thrown at you, and you can hear people yelling for help and it is said that if you ride a bike there, you will get thrown off.

Campbellsville Ky.  Spurlington tunnel - believed to be cursed. Story has it that a train robbery in Corbin had several robbers who came up the branch line through Marion County into Taylor County and stopped as far as the train line went. An old woman that many called a witch lived there. She took care of the robbers not knowing of their exploits. One day the robbers decided to leave and didn't want anyone to know of their surroundings; they threatened the old woman and decided to kill her. She warned them that if they did that she would curse them and they would come to a bad end. The men killed her and buried the $50,000 of 1860 money under her to make a scare on anyone who tried to get it. 6 of the 7 men were caught and hanged. A tunnel was built in the area where the old woman was buried. Tons and tons of rock are buried atop her body. The one robber who got away later returned to the area. He rode the train into the area. After leaving he rode the train back to return home. As the train went through Calvary crossing the Rolling Fork River, the bridge collapsed and the last of the robbers lost his life as the curse of the "witch woman" all came true.

Corbin, Ky. Congregation Cave - A very old cave located near Laurel Lake once was used for church congregations in the late 1800s. On Sunday mornings if you are outside anywhere around the cave you can hear a congregation singing. However, after about 11:00 a.m. the singing stops.


Corbin, Ky. Florence Road - Located near Early Addition St. There is a certain place in the road where people passing by will experience a strong sense of fear and the feeling that they are being watched. These feelings disappear quickly after they leave this one certain spot in the road. There have been no known reports of anything terrible having happened in the past to account for this haunting. - February 2004 update / correction: The zone of fear is mainly experienced by pedestrians. It is a road with a lot of hills and curves and while the speed limit is posted as 15 mph, many people drive as fast as they can through this area just for fun. The submitter believes there have been a few accidents in the area but they don't have the facts with them. Could be more of an urban myth than anything else. A variation they’ve heard is that the area of fear lies off the road along the railroad tracks.

Whitley City, Ky.  Barren Fork - February 2004 correction: Formerly posted as "Barren Rd. Cemetery" - There is supposed to be a witch buried in the Grave yard, there is a house built around her grave and there are times that you can go and the house will be locked. And there are times you will go and the house will not be locked...As you turn on the road it gets very cold even in the Summer time- February 2004 correction – additional information: Her name was Anna Foster and she died at the age of 28. In the last year or so her headstone has been stolen and the shelter over her grave has been vandalized and almost torn apart. It's sad and the submitter has nearly cry every time they see it. They are looking into fixing the shelter themselves. But they cannot afford to replace her headstone, unfortunately. Upon research they have discovered that she is not the witch everyone thinks. The "real" witch's grave is located just inside the woods next to this cemetery. - Again, we have to state that if you are going to investigate these places, have respect for the people involved with these places. To destroy history, and vandalize graves proves nothing but your foolishness.

Whitley City, Ky. Granny's Old Farm House On School Road - In 1940's two young men was shot to their death on the stairway while trying to escape from law officials. The old house burned but a new house was built in it's place. In this new house you sometimes see balls of light, hear footsteps, and door slamming late at night. The creek that runs round the hotel on three sides. Her ghost has been photographed in the window with an old man standing behind her with his hand on her shoulder.

Williamsburg , Ky. Cumberland College - Archer Hall - It is rumored that a room on the first floor is haunted. The cause of the haunting is unknown. It is reported that posters fall off the wall no matter how much they're taped up, alarm clocks will go off at midnight despite them being set for a different time, cd players will come on by themselves, also different objects within the room will become misplaced inexplicably.

Williamsburg, Ky.  Williamsburg Independent Schools - The school was built on an old cemetery, some of the graves still reside on the grounds by the playground and football field. There are many different stories. One of which states that an Native American chief will appear at one end of the elementary hallway, and ride his horse down to the end of the hallway and then disappear. The gymnasium seems to be the next most haunted part of the school; there are a lot of stories surrounding it. Lights turning on and off and basketballs bouncing on their own.

Russellville, Ky. The Russellville Girl: It is said that several years ago a teenage girl was preparing to go to a dance. Her mother had told her that if it stormed she would have to stay home. That evening it did storm and the date was sent away. The girl was so upset she went upstairs to the small tower, looked out at the rain and cursed. At that moment lightning struck her dead. For years after that people claimed to see her image in the window on stormy nights. The window was finally painted over because of this, and that is how it remains today.

The Hitchhiker - A long time ago, two teenage boys were driving to a barn dance. They were driving one of those old cars that don’t go as fast as cars do today. On the way to the dance, they spotted a girl, in a fancy dress, walking beside the road. The girl was alone in the dark with no lantern. The boys pulled over and offered the girl a ride. The girl was very pale but beautiful anyway. The girl agreed and got in the car. When she found out the boys were going to a dance, she asked if she could go alone. The three went to the dance and had a great time. When the dance was over, the boys offered to take the girl home. One of the boys let the girl wear his jacket because she complained of being very cold. When they reached a certain house the girl told them to stop. She got out of the car and ran into the house, forgetting to return the jacket. Not wanting to disturb anyone who might be sleeping inside the house, the boys agreed to come back the next day to retrieve the jacket, and, if all went well, get the know the girl a little better. The next day, the two drove back to the house and knocked on the door. The girls mother answered the door, and the boys explained what happened and asked if they could she her daughter again. The woman went very pale and said, “My daughter’s been dead for five years. She died in a car wreck on her way to a dance.” She told the boys where the girl was buried. The stunned boys went to the grave site and there they found the jacket, draped over the tombstone.

The Wealthy Farmer's Daughter and the Farmhand - A wealthy farmer had a daughter that he thought more of than anything else in the world. To the farmer’s dismay, the daughter fell in love with a farmhand. The father didn’t think the farmhand was good enough for his daughter, so he sent her to live with an aunt. After the daughter left, the heartbroken farmhand took sick and died. The farmer couldn’t bring himself to tell his daughter what had happened. One night, a few week after the funeral, the daughter, who was still living with her aunt, heard a knock at the door. When she opened the door, she was thrilled to see the farmhand. He told her that her father wanted to see her. She grabbed a few things, and the two climbed on a horse and rode towards her father’s house. She noticed that the her lover felt very cold, so she wrapped her shawl around his shoulders to warm him up. When the two got to the house, the girl quickly dismounted the horse and knocked on the door. When the father answered, he looked surprised to see her. Confused, the girl asked, “Didn’t you send for me?” The father said that he hadn’t. When the girl turned around, her lover and the horse where gone. The girl nearly fainted when her father told her that her lover had died a few weeks earlier. To prove it to her, the next day her took her to the cemetery where the farmhand was buried. And there, lying on the grave, was the girl’s shawl.
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Last Breaths - One night, about 30 years ago, my father was spending the night alone in an old house my parents lived in at the time in Henderson Kentucky. When he went to bed that night, he couldn't sleep because every time he would turn out the lights, he would hear a labored breathing as though someone were gasping for air. When my father would turn the lights back on, the breathing would stop. Thinking that someone must be playing a joke, he searched the house over, looking under the bed, in the closet, outside the window, and even in the attic. He never found the source of the distressing noise and finally choose to ignore it and go back to bed. After talking to neighbors, my parents discovered that a man who used to live in the house had died from emphysema in the very bedroom where my father had heard the breathing sounds.

Ghost woman- I heard a tale of a family that once moved out of an old house in Franklin because it was haunted by the ghost of a woman. Once when the family had returned from a vacation, they were questioned by neighbors about who had been staying at the house while they were gone. When told that no one had stayed there, the neighbors were puzzled because they had seen a woman staring out of an upstairs window. On another occasion, the couple were awakened in the middle of the night by their frightened teenage daughter who had saw the image of a woman standing at the foot of her bed. The final straw came when the wife got in her car one day and someone else seemed to get in with her. The passenger door opened and closed as though someone had climbed in and sat down beside her. After this happened, the family moved out

Warren County, Ky There was an old house in Warren county that has now been destroyed where several people claimed to have heard a baby crying. My sister was visiting at this house once and heard the crying for herself. Not knowing anything about the reports of the crying sounds, she became concerned because she was not aware of a baby in the house and asked where was the baby. She was told there was no baby. At least no baby present at the moment. The sounds were being carried from some distant forgotten past, for no one knew the origin of the crying. After the old house was destroyed and a new one built in its place, the crying was never heard again

Auburn Ky Ghost. There's said to be a woman that haunts the yard of an African-American church in Auburn Kentucky. A member of the church described her encounter with the ghost to me. She had gotten out of her car and was walking toward the church when she noticed a woman, dressed totally in white with a pale face, coming towards her. She waved to the woman but the woman didn't respond. She waved to her again and said "Hello." The woman looked at her with a cold stare and then disappeared. Very frightened, the church member ran inside. When she told others at the church what she had seen, they became very concerned. She learned that this woman was only seen when a member of the church would soon die. Soon after this incident, three church members died.

 Muhlenberg County, Ky.  There’s suppose to be a witch buried in a cemetery in Muhlenberg County. One night in July of 1967, Legend has it that a couple stuck their head out the window of the car and yelled for the witch to come out. A white fog appeared and formed the shape of a woman. The woman was wearing a long dress, and she appeared to be holding a candle with a reddish glow. She started floating towards our car. Then she was on the windshield of the car. Then she was in the car, and the man felt her grab his ankle. He said It felt like the hand of a dead person. He started screaming, and they fired up the car and took off as fast as they could, and to this day neither one will go anywhere near the cemetery again.

Waverly Hill's, Ky. Waverly Hills Sanatorium has seen it's share of tragedy and death. It is reported as one of the most haunted places on earth and has been the subject of many books, television shows and paranormal investigations. In the early 20th century, Jefferson County in Kentucky had a major outbreak of tuberculosis. The swampland of Louisville was a perfect environment for the tuberculosis bacteria to thrive, and there was a multitude of cases. Waverly Hills was used to house a large number of tuberculosis patients during this time. As the people stricken with the disease grew, more space was needed and a new hospital was built around 1924. Many people left this earth from Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Death tolls have been rumored to be as high as 60,000 but in reality the number was probably much lower.
Many haunting s and much paranormal activity has been reported by visitors of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Apparitions, Strange lights, cold spots and voices are commonly experienced. There have also been reports of people being struck by an unseen force and encounters with a child ghost by the name of "Timmy". Many have claimed to capture ghosts on film and to have recorded EVP's at the Waverly Hills Sanatorium. One of which is a recording of what some believe to be the famous "Timmy". People have also reported seeing shadow people lurking throughout the corridors.
Waverly Hills is and probably always will be one of the scariest places in existence. It is currently privately owned and No trespassing signs are posted. Not that anyone in their right mind would go their alone. There are however, rumors that Waverly hills sanatorium could possibly be converted into a hotel. If so, everyone may get their chance to experience the horrors of Waverly Hills Sanatorium.
More on waverly hills-Waverly Hills Sanatorium has seen it's share of tragedy and death. It is reported as one of the most haunted places on earth and has been the subject of many books, television shows and paranormal investigations. In the early 20th century, Jefferson County in Kentucky had a major outbreak of tuberculosis. The swampland of Louisville was a perfect environment for the tuberculosis bacteria to thrive, and there was a multitude of cases. Waverly Hills was used to house a large number of tuberculosis patients during this time. As the people stricken with the disease grew, more space was needed and a new hospital was built around 1924. Many people left this earth from Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Death tolls have been rumored to be as high as 60,000 but in reality the number was probably much lower.