Mountain Ghost Stories and Curious Tales of Western North Carolina by Randy Russell

Author:Randy Russell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Folklore/Ghosts
ISBN: 9780895874474
Publisher: Blair
Published: 1988-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

BIGFOOT OF THE BALSAMS

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As the Abominable Snowman haunts the Himalayas, Boojum hides in the woods near Eagle Nest Mountain at the edge of the Plott Balsams in Haywood County.

Boojum was said to be larger than a bear, and just as hairy. Some believed he was a man raised by bears. Others suggested he was born of a female bear. All agreed, however, that he was at least partially human. He was not, by all accounts, pretty to look at.

Half-man, half-beast, Boojum was relentlessly hunted by guests of the famous Eagle Nest Hotel, a resort that catered to hay-fever sufferers at the turn of the century. Perched atop a mile-high peak that looked down upon Waynesville, the Eagle Nest Hotel was the starting point for numerous organized expeditions to search for Boojum and the treasure he was rumored to have hidden in the caves.

Boojum was a well-established reality to the guests of the mountain resort by 1906, when Peter G. Thompson visited the Eagle Nest Hotel. Thompson, it has been recorded, was responsible for spreading the story of Boojum outside the area of the North Carolina mountains, a story that included a cache of valuable jewels hoarded by the giant beast.

Boojum was obsessed with collecting mountain jewels, the small precious stones found in western North Carolina. He was said to have spent his entire life hunting gems, and most believed he accumulated a fortune in rubies, emeralds, beryls, and amethysts. He was said to have hidden his cache in a mountain cave.

Leagues of fortune seekers scoured Eagle Nest Mountain in search of the cave. They came on horseback in the summer and left only after the last brittle leaves of autumn had fallen from the trees. Many treasure hunters claimed to have caught glimpses of Boojum, but they were very likely seeing bears in the distant undergrowth. Still, such spottings attracted frantic searches for days to come, the bears long gone and unaware of the ruckus they’d instigated.

Locals rarely made this mistake. They knew that Boojum was heard more often than he was seen. He constantly moaned as he searched for jewels, singing a deep, scratchy song of guttural howls and whines.

Despite his fear of human contact, the hairy giant exhibited a fondness for women. Though he was able to hide himself in the dense forest at will, Boojum occasionally approached a woman who found herself alone in the woods.

In warm weather, it wasn’t rare for a mountain woman to bathe in one of the many creeks or pools tucked away in the forest, hidden from prying eyes by the dense undergrowth. At the peak of the summer heat, young girls were fond of swimming in the buff whenever they believed no one was around to watch.

It was as if Boojum could hear them taking off their clothes. His ears were specially tuned, it seemed, to the sound of a woman’s voice and the noise a body makes splashing around in water.

These were the only times Boojum was ever seen in daylight.

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