Discovering Weird North Carolina

Every state has famous landmarks. North Carolina has forgotten ones.

Behind the beaches, mountains, and postcard attractions is another North Carolina, filled with stories that rarely make the guidebooks. Some are eerie. Some are tragic. Some are funny. Others are so bizarre they sound invented.

But they happened.

Discovering Weird North Carolina takes readers beyond familiar North Carolina landmarks and into the strange corners of the state's past. A day when blood seemed to fall from the sky. Mysterious lights that have puzzled observers for generations. Unusual laws, forgotten settlements, scientific mysteries, remarkable people, strange creatures, unexplained deaths, and places where North Carolina folklore and history have become almost impossible to separate.

Drawing from old newspapers, court records, scientific reports, historical archives, and local accounts, W. J. Brendle digs beneath weird stories about North Carolina that have been repeated for generations to uncover what really happened. Sometimes the evidence provides an answer. Sometimes it only makes the mystery stranger.

This isn't a conventional North Carolina travel guide. It's an invitation to start exploring North Carolina differently, through the strange-but-true events, unusual places, extraordinary people, and forgotten stories that helped shape the state.

Whether you're a lifelong North Carolinian, a visitor passing through, or simply someone who enjoys discovering the strange history hiding behind ordinary places, Discovering Weird North Carolina offers a side of the Tar Heel State you probably didn't know existed.

The North Carolina everyone knows is only half the story.