- An Introduction 2
Table Of Contents 3
Chapter 1: “The Grey Man Ghost” 6
Chapter 2: The Conquistador Ghost 8
Chapter 3: “The ‘SAM” Ghost” 10
Chapter 4: The Dunbar-Davis Ghost 12
Chapter 5: The Apricot Creek Ghosts 14
Chapter 6: The Indian Ghosts 16
Chapter 7: The Mt. Misery Road Ghosts 18
Chapter 8: The Tony Caselleta Ghost 20
Chapter 9: The Seneca Guns Mystery 2
- The Indian Ghosts
Indians inhabited the Ocean Isle Beach area for
hundreds of years before the first European settlers
arrived here. Nearly every town in Brunswick County.
has a report of an apparition of an Indian, sometimes
young and sometimes old, but always trying to
communicate.
In Ash, the ghost of a youthful Indian warrior can
be seen often in Watchman Township District Park.
In Calabash, the ghost of a young-looking Indian.
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warrior materialized outside the entrance to the
Paris k attempting to articulate something. In Bolivia,
The spirit of an aged Indian chief emerged gazing at
folks, rumored home through a peephole. In Ozon the islands’d, the ghost of an elderly Indian chief has been.
Seen Heather throwing chunks of concrete at Caswell Beach, saying something unintelligible.
What holds these spirits to the land, what lesson are they so desperate to pass to the living, and what
Are they still searching for?
Little is known for sure, but what is historically
It is that in 1521, the Spanish captured over 100
Indians from the Ocean Isle Beach ar, ea including one
they taught to be an interpreter and gave him the
Name Francisco de Chicora. By 1526, Francisco De
Chicory had convinced the Spanish that the Carolina
The coast was rich in gold and easily colonizable. A few
Months later, the Spanish gave up entirely on North
Carolina, even abandoning their attempted
settlement in the mountains all the while De Chicora
managed to escape with all the slaves of the
expedition.
Perhaps it is wishful thinking, but I tend to
believe that the Indian spirits on and near Ocean Isle
Beach may be apparitions of Francisco De Chicora’s
Band Indians who managed to outsmart the Spanish
Empire.
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15
Chapter 7: The Mt. Misery Road Ghosts
Some places retain a memory of the events of the
past, forever marking a tragic point in time and
Staining the land with grief and sorrow. Sometimes a
A place can become a living memory of past injustices
and human suffering that will cry out to the living.
If you are ever driving through Leland down Mt.
Misery Road, you might want to roll up the windows
and drive a little faster because if you listen
closely, the spirits of Leland may call to your very
soul.
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In the 1700s and 1800s, secondary ships would dock
along the Cape Bear River and the unwilling cargo
would be marched up Mt. Misery Road, 90 miles to
Fayetteville, which was a major slave trade center.
In a time when man’s inhumanity to man stained
the American psyche, many of those marched into
slavery died of heat exhaustion on a lonely stretch of
road in an unfamiliar land far from home. To this
day, many motorists passing through Leland swear
They have heard the sounds of clanking chains and
moaning slaves still marching to their tragic fate,
unaware of the passage of time, and doomed to
repeat their march night after night.
Do these poor souls continue to walk the back
roads in our area to remind us of our dark past, or to
warn us of a dark future?
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Chapter 8: The Tony Caselleta Ghost
Some spirits are mischievous, some are benign
, and some are entertaining. One of the more
thoughtful and entertaining spirits of this area
resides at the Brunswick Inn in Southport.
The resident spirit of Southport is Antonio (Tony)
Caselleta.
In the 1880s, Tony was an accomplished harpist
and a musician who regularly played at locations
around Southport and especially at the Brunswick
Inn. Tony was nineteen, talented, and well-liked with
a young wife and children.
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On a clear day in April 1882, Tony decided to
take a boating trip around Bald Head Island. Even in
calm seas, his ship, The Passport, sank and he
perished.
Since that day however, Tony has made the
Brunswick Inn his home, helping with the household
chores, tucking in children, closing windows before
storms and amusing the residents with music from
His harp.
Visitors so often claim to hear Tony walking
around and playing his beloved harp, his antics
are now part of the lore of Southport, making the
The Brunswick Inn a true tourist attraction.
Tony Caselleta is a bona fide North Carolinian
legend. What holds Tony’s spirit to this earth?
Plane? Was Tony’s attachment to his beloved harp so
Great, that it holds him here or does he play it
throughout time, hoping the melodic tones might
touch the souls of his young wife and children,
reassuring them of his presence?
Whatever his reasons, Tony has made a home at
The Brunswick Inn still entertains an audience.
Please visit: www.OceanIsleHistory.com
19
Chapter 9: The Seneca Guns Mystery
In the earliest days of our young nation, the
mysterious booms that the great American author
James Fennimore Cooper termed the “Seneca Guns.”
have plagued us.
Early white settlers were told by the native
Hudson (Iroquois) that the booms were the
sound of the Great Spirit continuing his work of
Shaping the earth. Yet others have said that the.
Sounds are the echoes of thunder called down by
Indian ancestors as a warning to the living. Still.
Others say they are the ghosts of Native Indians
making the noise of naval cannon’s fire like that which
drove them from their lands to drive us away from
sacred land.
Whatever the source, since the 1850s, mysterious
Booms have left the upstate lakes of New York and
now regularly rattle coastal areas on and near the Ocean
Isle Beach. For 150 years, researchers have been
unable to agree on its source as the residents of
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Brunswick County has become accustomed to its
presence.
Veteran sailors of World War II say that it sounds
exactly like the noise from the firing of naval
Cannon. Scientific explanations range from UFOs to
supersonic aircraft, to earthquakes, to the ocean
methane, to continental shelf slippage, and yet none
can explain why there has never been a recorded
occurrence on a Sunday.
Also interesting is that the Seneca Guns started
About the same time, Brunswick County got it first
Permanent towns. Our coastal towns are almost all
Built on a sacred Indian burial ground. Science may
yet find an answer, or perhaps they really are the
ghostly warnings from the long-dead Cape Fear
Indians remind the living to appreciate what they have
have now before it is all gone.
No matter the source of the mysterious sounds,
their spiritual connections and ghostly warnings have
boomed their way into our local Ocean Isle Beach
history.
Unpublished work © 2008 Wilburn Smith
Fred R. David and Vern J. Bender, co-authors of “The
History of Ocean Isle Beach”, would like to express their
appreciation and gratitude to Wilburn “Will” Smith for
allowing us to include these stories on
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