Red Ash Coal Towers, Caryville TN - An Eerie Place, But Is It Haunted?

[Tama P]

There are many tales that surround "The Ash." Also known as Red Ash. Today you can find this stretch of road by looking up Old Highway 63 in Caryville. The road is approximately 8-10 miles long and mostly desolate. We have traveled this road at least three times. Once at night. After reading about strange, hovering, blue lights, phantom trains, a female ghost on the tracks and the legendary Goat Man, I decided to check it out. It has been about half a year now since our nightly visit, but I can still recall the fear that traveling this road invoked. There are few, if any residents. It is a narrow, winding passage through Caryville mountains, shrouded by trees, with hulking peaks limiting your vision. Occasionally the land is cut with streams, or crossed and lined with rail road tracks. Did I mention it is dark? Very dark. Try pulling off the road and killing your lights, then get out of your car. Test your fear. I failed at it 3 times, each time getting out of the car to record audio, take pictures, and listen for the Goatman or even "The Immortals." A quick note: I am not afraid of ghosts or spirits, in fact, I enjoy communicating with them. (Yes, I do believe. If you do not, why are you here?) I do not believe in the Goatman, but a wooly man who likes to frighten curiosity seekers, yeah, he might exist. As for the occult group known as "The Immortals", well, that is a different story. They have held meetings and performed rituals and animal sacrifices in the ash for the past decade. Can you imagine the mind games they would play on an unsuspecting visitor? When I stepped outside of my car within seconds it sounded as though there was someone, or something in the woods nearby, throwing branches or sticks. The lonely wail of a train sounded in the background. The chirping of insects and crickets and the singing of frogs suddenly becomes silent, so I know I wasn't alone. These are normally noises I enjoy on hot Summer nights in East Tennessee, but on this night the sounds of darkness seemed to cast an eerie spell. I had the safety of my family inside the car. I was the only one who got out of the car, and I didn't linger on any attempt to get photographs, I would not call this trip an investigation by any means. My youngest child inquired of me to get back inside the car. (Do not be concerned, my children have grown up in a world that embraces the mysteries of life, death and beyond. They rarely are alarmed, and like me, when they are alarmed, as long as we are safe, we all go back for more.) We didn't find Turley Cemetery, not till this day, but I know it is out there somewhere off of Old Highway 63. Many have reported paranormal activity in the graveyard. Too bad we couldn't find it. We didn't see the ghost of a female killed on or near the rail road tracks, either. However, we did catch on camera a mysterious orb/light under the train tressell. It was not in the sky as a plane would be, plus it was white and it moved fast, not in a straight line, but not in a haphazard pattern of an insect. (It is visible in our Red Ash video on our parent website.) At the coal tower where many have witnessed the apparition of a man who plunged to his death from the tower more than 50 years ago we did hear a noise, possibly the shriek of a distant train, or maybe an animal. It also sounded as though there was something in the woods, but even as we drove with the windows down we heard things in the woods, so I dismiss the noises of branches falling. As for the hovering, blue lights... Interestingly enough, as we left the Ash my husband commented on seeing them, approximately 5 ft off the ground, almost transparent, and he asked if I saw them. I thought I caught a glimpse of such a light, but I feel it could have been me "wanting" to see it. The clincher is I never told him about the hovering blue lights before our trip. I always leave out most of the details of a haunted location, so as not to plant any ideas. My family knew of the story of the goatman with a pentagram carved in his forehead, they knew many people had seen a strange orange glow in the cemetery. They also knew there was suppose to be the ghost of the coal worker.... No one knew anything about the blue lights. Yet the lights are what my husband saw. Also, after we looked at our photographs, there was a shape in the foliage, yet it seemed to have a human form, seemingly coming out of the woods, with a red dot right in the center of it.... You can see it on the photograph page of the main website. Some would say it is matrixing, (When our mind creates what we want to see.) That can be true, but is that always the explanation? Some would dispute the orbs we caught with our camera, too. I might agree that some of the orbs could be dust, insects, or moisture... but I will argue with anyone that the light we saw under the train tressell, which I followed with my camera, was more than an insect. It intensified and dissipated.... all that was left was a faint ball, or sphere, similar to a pale orb. And then it was nothing. I saw that with my eyes, I captured it with my camera. Is Red Ash haunted? I can't be for sure. But I believe with the occult practices and the evil of a possible murder, and the left over energy of a sudden death there could be an energy that hovers and lingers within the valley that is Old Highway 63. I am from a neighboring county, and I know the people of the rural areas. If there isn't a goat man in The Ash, (for records sake, I don't believe there is), I can assure you there could be a good old boy, or an old mountain man that would make you believe in such a devilish creature... and make you pray to the Good Lord! Take a drive down Old Highway 63 at night, It is very eerie. If you have a chance to go during the day, it is still a bit creepy, but at the same time, it captivates many of our senses. Are the tales of Red Ash simply urban legend? Or could any part of the legend be true? It is an unanswered question for me.

[William Micheal Linebarger]

Aight, i'll try to get my friends to come to, they've experienced alot more than I have up there.

[Tama P]

William, I will announce when we plan on going back out there - I want to interview some people with experiences ON SITE - so after I get a few interested ppl, I will be in touch.

[William Micheal Linebarger]

I wasn't able to go on Halloween cause I got called into work. Sucks I really wanted to go, but yeah thats awesome your writing a book and a making a video, I'll diffidently watch the vid. Yeah just ask me anything you wanna know as far as my experiences about Red Ash. Me and my friends have been up there countless times and experience something every time.

[Tama P]

Update to this post - we have now researched Red Ash approx 6 times to date - and have found and investigated the Turley Cemetery twice since the original post. Check out Red Ash on our Haunted Places page on our MAIN WEBSITE www.paranormalspectrum.com

[Tama P]

William, we were there on Halloween night, I may have missed meeting you. (Lots of ppl came through.) I would love to interview anyone who has had experiences at Red Ash. So if you (or anyone else) is interested, let me know, we could arrange an evening when you can meet us there and show us where you've had experiences. I am writing a book and doing a video on local haunted locations. Red Ash has made the cut. Thanks for the comment. Hope you have visited our main website - http://www.paranormalspectrum.com

[William Micheal Linebarger]

I love this place, and it's so crazy that someone else knows about it. Me and my friends experience something every time we go there. From voices to apparitions, to even tampering with our music like CD's that get completely overwritten with music we never put on them. Although we've never seen the goatman ( I think he's a hokes ), we have seen the ghost train. We even found another graveyard, a church in the back of the woods lead to by a gravel road and the old abandon prison. I love Red Ash and go up there often, just lemme know if you wanna know were the other places are or here about our experiences, we'll be up there on Halloween.

[Tama P]

An update. We have been out through "the Ash" (as known by many locals) a few more times. The sound of the "phantom train" is common as we have heard it a couple of times. With a group of new friends by our side we also found Turely Cemetery. The grass was knee high and the tombstones dated from early eighteen hundreds (no dates or inscriptions just rocks) to at least the 1990's, and maybe even more recent as I did not check every tombstone. The well known "gated grave" of course did not result in the appearance of the Goatman or Hellhounds, not that I thought it would. We did NOT disrespect the gravesites in any way. Some people did surprise us with a visit while we were investigating and one of those guys climbed in and reclined atop the grave. It made me feel saddened at the lack of respect. I also told him the legend of the "Protectors" which were the hellhounds and the goatman - just to put those thoughts in his mind, but I am not sure it made any of them think about what they were doing. I wish the visitors to these sites (in search of haunted legends, or seeking thrills or whatever) would remember that these were actually living people, though their souls may be gone, the temple that housed their very essence resides in the ground beneath where we tromp - they deserve respect. Anyway, off the soapbox. I think Red Ash and Turley Cemetery is worth a visit, but I am still not sure it is "haunted" per say. As I have mentioned in other blogs before, I think there is possibly some paranormal thenomena on occassion in some areas out there, simply because there has been SO MUCH energy, many suicides, death, rituals. I feel IF someone witnesess a paranormal episode in the Ash it will purely be "residual." If anyone has an experience there, please comment. We welcome your views.