Big Bald Mountain

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According to Janet Barnett and Randy Russell’s 1999 book The Granny Curse and Other Ghosts and Legends from East Tennessee and Junius R. Tate’s 2006 book Walkin' With the Ghost Whisperers: Lore And Legends of the Appalachian Trail, Big Bald Mountain in Unicoi is allegedly haunted by the spirit of David “Hog” Greer, an unstable man who called the bald his home for many years.

In Greasy Cove in Unicoi County: Authentic Folklore, author Pat Alderman chronicles Hog Greer’s life and death. He lived as a hermit near the eastern fork of Higgins Creek having little contact with the outside world. In 1893, he died in a shootout at a blacksmith shop. He felt he was being discriminated against because the tools he needed repaired so badly were set to the side for service to a wealthier man. The men shot back in defense and killed him.

It seems, however, his spirit returned to his lonely home on Big Bald Mountain, where it remains to this day.

Bibliography:

Alderman, Pat. Greasy Cove in Unicoi County: Authentic Folklore. Johnson City, Tennessee: Overmountain, 1975.

Barnett, Janet, and Randy Russell. The Granny Curse and Other Ghosts and Legends from East Tennessee. Winston-Salem, NC: J.F. Blair, 1999.

Tate, J. R. Walkin' with the Ghost Whisperers: Lore and Legends of the Appalachian Trail. [Philadelphia]: Xlibris, 2006.