The Devil's Tramping Ground

The Devil's Tramping Ground

Chatham County, NC

For our assignment in Magic, Media, and Popular Imagination we were asked to work on a Visual Narrative Project.  This project is to help us in the "exploration of visual form and expression, encouraging each student to develop a personal aesthetic while exploring the supernatural of the visual image and how the order of visual images creates story."  I realize that I just copied word for word what our Professor wrote in the syllabus however, 5 years down the road, if I keep this blog and continue with it's posts, Id like to know what I was writing about.  I tend to forget things easily.  I am going with the documentary style in my visual narrative project.  We were asked to find a physical location that claimed to be haunted or possibly had something to do with witchcraft.  I knew exactly what I was going to do my project on.  My father grew up in Chatham County, NC.  One legend there that dates back to long before anyone can remember is the legend of The Devil's Tramping Ground.  It is said that the Devil himself walks this barren circle in the woods of Harper's Crossing and comes up with all of his evil plans while doing so.  Legend has it that no one has been able to stay there for an entire night without getting spooked and leaving quickly.  Folklore says that if anything, including a tent you might try to sleep in, is left on this circle that it will be moved upon wakening.  Let's take a trip through the Devil's Tramping Ground and see what evidence we can find.....

The Devil's Tramping Ground is located at Harper's Crossing in Chatham County, NC.  It sits about 50 feet off of the road.  There is a path from the road to the actual circle.  The path itself is dirt and mud but I also noticed a good amount of quartz rock along the path.  I came to this site as a child.  I must have been 8 or 9 years old.  I remember my father drove, my mom was in the passenger seat, my sister and myself were in the backseat.  My father and I were the only ones to get out of the car and go see the site.  I made fun of my older sister for being scared but she claimed she just didn't want to walk in the mud.  Yea, right.  I didn't remember that amount of rocks from my first visit but it is possible that I simply forgot.  When you arrive at the path and pull your car over, the first thing you notice is a sign.  Placed there by the family that owns the land, the Robert Dowd family.  The sign was not there when I first visited the site.  It had been added in the past 20 years.  What seemed strange though, was what was written on that sign....

                                                                              
                                                                         Welcome
                                                         The Chatham County Vortex
                                      This site is the famous energy vortex historically called

                                                         The Devil's Tramping Ground,
a privately-owned parkland of The Robert Dowd Family.  Visitors to the park are asked to respect the park, its plants, trees, birds and other animals living here and do not cut trees or hunt the animals.  Please do not leave bottles, cans, trash or other litter because it will spoil the experience here for other visitors.  And please do not set fires or conduct inappropriate activities here.  A Magdalene Crystal Column of energy is anchored on this site.  The very high vibrating energy helps to balance masculine and feminine energies, strengthen harmony and expand human consciousness.

I googled the phrase "magdalene crystal column" & found this website;
                                                      http://magdalenecrystalcolumns.com/

I read it but it means absolutely nothing to me.  I included the website address so that you could view it on your own time and see if it makes any sense to you.  Please feel free to post in the comments section if you were able to make heads or tails of the site. 

and so I began my journey down the well worn trail towards the barren circle that is the Devil's Tramping Ground...

There was a news broadcast about this site.  I have included the http://www.youtube.com version for your viewing.

You would think that something like this would be marked or somehow labeled.  The sign I posted earlier is the only marking to the site and it was added just a few short months ago while this site has been legend for over 100 years.  The circle itself is 40 feet by 40 feet.  It is completely open with nothing growing on the circle at all.  The circle is surrounded by trees, bushes, rocks and leaves.  In the fall and winter, leaves do blow onto the cleared circle but they do not seem to stay there very long.  I made contact with the Robert Dowd Family who owns this land to get their direct information on the site and see if they could tell me why it was that no one could stay there overnight and why nothing ever grew on the circle.  Robert Dowds daughter Tamera Owens got back with me and gave me their version of the story which I will get to later in this blog...

Each time I visited the Tramping Ground or have seen any photos of it, there have always been two very large logs laying in the very center of the circle somewhat charred and burned.  This visit proved no different.  There are several smaller branches scattered around but you could almost place bets that you will absolutely see the two large logs.  They are not parallel or perpendicular but one log does lay on top of the other.  Whether this is some type of marker to show the center of the circle or a place to show visitors where to light their own fire, I wouldn't know.  I can only say that I have always seen logs there whether in real life or photos.

 You can see that there was a fire that had been burning the previous evening.  There were no signs of anyone still at the site when we arrived however there were a few "clues" left behind.  The fire had not been put out.  Smoke was still rising from the charred remains.  We also found a crushed beer can, a Halloween type "monster glove" as well as tent stakes without the tent.  You can see this in the following images.

the glove and crushed beer can...

the tent stakes but there was no tent with them...

We arrived at the Devil's Tramping Ground around 9:30am.  If there had been someone there the night before who left the glove and tent stakes, they were gone by the time we got there....or possibly they never made it through the night, leaving some of their things behind upon their quick departure....

My son traveled there with me.  He was curious about the site he had read about in NC Haunting books.  As we were walking back to the car, he told me that he didn't think it was that impressive.  I wonder if his opinion would change if we were out there during the night.

I was able to interview a few of the townspeople to find out if they had any experiences at the Devil's Tramping Ground.  Sure enough, I got lucky and it seemed as if every one's story was basically the same.  Jim McMillan who is now 67 years old told me the story of how he and some of his high school buddies took camping equipment out there to test the theory of whether or not things would be moved off of the circle during the night; including the tent.  Unfortunately, they did not last the entire night.  He told of how it felt like the animals in the woods were carrying on their own conversations that night.  He recalled how he had never experienced crickets and owls so loudly before.  This ended up scaring the young boys and they jumped into their car to drive away.

I did mention that I would tell you what the land owner's claims were regarding this historic spot.  Tamera Owen's stated that " the way I've always understood it was that it was in the center of four or five Indian tribes and they would meet in this location and do there dancing in what is now the circle." This is the explanation as to why the circle never grew any vegetation.  It is said that the Spirits of those Native Americans are still held fast within that soil and that they still meet each night to dance in the circle.

I hope you enjoyed our tour through Chatham County's Devil's Tramping Ground.  It might be possible that I brought you some new insight on the place and stirred up some interest that you also might want to visit there. 

Thanks so much,

Leanne Ortiz