By Courtney Tillett, Staff Writer
The couple sits at the nice restaurant for a late dinner looking over the menu to decide what to order — and then reads that the restaurant they are in is haunted. Nightfall is at its peak with a full moon shining through the window. After their delicious meal, the couple sees the bartender across the room turn off the TVs and walk to the back. But the screens flick back on moments later, with no one there…
Junior Lauren Riddle is a hostess at The Black Pelican and is familiar with the alleged bloodstain on the floor and the ghost that haunts the restaurant in Kitty Hawk.
“The story is on the back of our menus,” Riddle said. “There’s the legend on the back of them. People ask all the time to take the legend home.”
Back when the building served as a life saving station, a young surfman named T.L. Daniels antagonized his captain, James Hobbs, day in and day out. One day in July of 1884, having had enough of Daniels’ jokes, Captain Hobbs pulled the trigger on his loaded revolver. Daniels’ body was buried at sea and Hobbs was never convicted of the crime.
No law enforcement, no witnesses, nothing. It is rumored that the young man’s spirit has yet to leave the building.
“People are usually like, ‘Was there a bloodstain on the floor?’ We tell them yes. They will also ask where it is in the restaurant,” Riddle explained. “It is right by our dessert case as you walk in, by the bathrooms. We have a bench over it that supposedly covers it, but you cannot see it anymore.”
There might not be anything to see, but his presence still lingers.
“Our video camera behind the host stand sometimes will go black and white. That’s a little creepy,” Riddle said. “One time when I left work late one night, the bar TVs wouldn’t turn off. All the bartenders would turn them off and they’d come right back on.”
This legend carries on as a part of the history of the Outer Banks, just as the stories of many other spooky sightings live on to this day. Riddle said it’s more fun to tell the story at Halloween.
The Outer Banks, a place filled with tourist attractions and fun days spent soaking up the sun, has many stories buried in the waves of time. The stories about what roams through Nags Head Woods and lingers in local areas will send shivers down your spine.
Are you familiar with the Goatman’s house? It is a little yellow square house that sits along the edge of Nags Head Woods. Many Outer Banks locals have grown up hearing the stories of Goatman.
“Supposedly there is a guy named Goatman who haunts the house that sits on the edge of the road,” junior Maddy Beaver said.
Rumors have circulated throughout the community that “Goatman eats children at night in his house” or he is the “ghost of the dunes.”
From decades of sightings of this mysterious figure, there is a vivid picture that is depicted in the minds of locals when asked what Goatman looks like: a strange so-called “Party Animal” as described in a 2015 Outer Banks Milepost magazine issue.
There can be many freaky and mysterious events that go on in Nags Head Woods during the chilling fall season, especially during nightfall. Recent graduate Stephen Hines has some experience on this subject, having seen demonic symbols scattered throughout the woods.
“I have some friends of mine who are a part of the police department,” Hines said. “Police would find booby traps, witchcraft material, symbols formed by rocks, animals pinned to trees.”
Whether creepy or fun, there are a plethora of spooky stories based on the diverse history of the sandbar we live on. Finding them is the interesting part.
Sophomore Courtney Tillett can be reached at tillettco1214@daretolearn.org.
