Ghost stories and spooky tales from the Cape Fear River

When Campbell Magazine dug into the history of the Cape Fear River and its relationship to Campbell University over the years for the Fall 2023 edition, it unearthed some spooky ghost stories from the area passed down over generations. Here are but a few of the timeless tales from days past:

Looking for his assassin

Nathaniel Smiley was among the large group of Scots who arrived in America in 1739 (along with Archibald Buie). He settled in Erwin and became a prominent businessman with his brother. In 1773, his son Matthew was shot “by an unknown assassin through the open shutter of his cabin, killing him dead at his table.” Matthew had no known enemies, and an investigation revealed no suspects or motive. After his burial, citizens reported seeing a glowing figure along the river —”a man who approaches people inquisitively, then vanishes after having inspected them.” Was it Matthew Smiley, looking for his killer?  (They Passed This Way, 1955) 

Mermaids on the Cape

Where the Deep River and Haw River meet to form the Cape Fear, there’s an area known today as Mermaid Point. Before the Buckhorn Dam raised water levels, the confluence of those rivers gave way to a sandbar that — legend has it — was a popular spot for mermaids who’d “swim 200 miles from the coast to relax on the sand and rocks and wash the salt from their hair.” In the mid 1700s, when patrons of a nearby tavern would leave for home at end of the night, they would often pass the sandbar. The mermaids, they said, would sit on the sandbar and comb their long hair in the moonlight. People walking home from the tavern would see them laughing, singing, playing and splashing in the water. They would dive below the surface if anyone should call out to them or try to approach. The fact that these sightings often followed a trip to the tavern is irrelevant.

The red-bearded specter

Neill “Red” McNeill was a huge man, a 6-foot-6 former Scottish sailor who roamed the river and claimed unpatented land with his friend, Archie Buie. According to legend, Red was traveling west beyond the Yadkin Valley when he was overcome with fever in 1761. “Knowing death was inevitable, he cut a gum log, split it length-wise and began hewing out his own coffin … between spasms of chills and blood-filled coughs.” Before he died, he gave instructions to be buried across the Cape Fear near Erwin. At the time of burial, the river was too high to cross, so friends buried him on the other side instead. Soon after, travelers in the area “claimed to see a red-bearded ghost pointing, his hand extended west pointing toward Smiley’s Hill.” A “great flood” hit in 1765, and McNeill’s coffin was found washed ashore. It was moved and buried on the other side of the river, and the satisfied spirit was never seen again.  (They Passed This Way, 1955)