Saturday, November 9, 2013 / Free Admission — This year's November Calendar of SC Events is brought to you by the Columbia Blues Festival, featuring seven great blues performances live in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park. Hosted by WOMP for the nineteenth year in a row, its organizers invite you to "bring the kids, a blanket, some folding chairs, whatever. Just kick back and enjoy the music. We'll have a ball, y'all!"

In honor of Halloween, this month's edition of SCIWAY News features six of South Carolina's spookiest sites. Legend has it many are haunted, and those that aren't shoulder the burden of a dark history. Enjoy – and happy All Hallow's Eve!




Among this prison's most infamous occupants was the notorious Lavinia Fisher, who hung in Charleston in 1820. The first woman in South Carolina to receive the death penalty, she is also credited with being America's first female serial killer, though she was officially convicted of highway robbery and her role as a murderess remains unproven. According to legend, her last words were, "If anyone has a message for the devil, tell me and I'll deliver it myself." Although Lavinia was interred at nearby Potter's Field (now MUSC), she is widely believed to haunt the jail, where she was trapped for a year before her execution. [ Learn more about the Old City Jail ]




People visit this old mill to investigate the forgotten souls that reportedly linger among its abandoned bricks. The hydroelectric mill was established in 1894 and operated under the names of Courtenay Mill and Abney Mill until it closed in 1975. When the mill shut down, so did any hope of prosperity in Newry, a town that had seen its share of sorrows years before its source of livelihood dried up. Prior to 1903 labor laws, many of the mill's workers were young children. Even after the laws were changed, life in Newry was not easy. Massive floods in 1903 and 1915 destroyed portions of the factory, and many children and adults died in the small pox epidemic of 1910 and the influenza epidemic of 1918. Older residents recall seeing the streets lined with coffins – many those of children. Are the spirits of these former workers dwelling among the ruins of this once-great mill, hoping to recover from the devastation of cruelty, disaster, and disease? [ Learn more about Newry Mill ]




In 1748 George Chicken of Childsbury in St. John's Berkeley Parish sent his seven-year-old daughter, Catherine, to board with her French schoolmaster, Monsieur Dutarque. One afternoon Catherine was caught trying to run away, so the cruel teacher punished his student by tying her to a tombstone in the Strawberry Chapel cemetery and leaving her there for the night. According to the story, she was later rescued by a slave from a neighboring plantation home, who found the girl unconscious while attempting his own escape. Catherine survived the abusive ordeal, and Dutarque was run out of Childsbury for his action. Though Dutarque's legacy of barbarism continued in his next town – Camden – Catherine Chicken continued with her life. However, she is believed to return to the grounds of Strawberry Chapel, where she spent the terrifying night that would forever traumatize her soul. [ Learn more about Strawberry Chapel ]




The legends surrounding this old home run as thick as the woods around it. Located deep in the shadows of Rock House Road, the fireproof building was constructed entirely from stone, concrete, glass, and steel. The now crumbling fortress is accessible only by foot, and no one has ever lived inside its walls. Instead the former owner, Tom Tolbert, stayed in the kitchen cabin behind his home. Rumors claim Mr. Tolbert lost his family in a fire, but in truth he never married and built the structure to keep his family heirlooms safe. [ Learn more about the Rock House ]




This abandoned church sits deep in the woods of rural Allendale County. Now silent, it harbors an unforgiving past. Early in the nineteenth century, it charged three of its members with heresy. Convicted and then excommunicated, the dissenting trio in turn established their own congregation, forming the equally eerie Antioch Christian Church. [ Learn more about Smyrna Baptist Church ]




This old oak is a popular landmark for adventurous investigators of the paranormal. If you park on the right side of the road facing the tree, you may see the ghostly Lands End Light. What first appears the be the headlights of an automobile approaching in the distance may materialize into an eerie orb of soft white light floating several feet above the highway – drifting slowly towards you. However, if you panic and crank your vehicle, the light will disappear. [ Learn more about the Lands End Light ]