In today’s edition of Appalachian Moments, we travel to a mysterious graveyard in the Slipper Hill area of Avery County, North Carolina.
There have been mysterious lights seen on the Slipper Hill graveyard by different people for many years…a lady known as Aunt Dixie said her mother called them “tokens,” which in Olde English, meant a sign or an omen.
To those who have seen them, the lights appear to be more like a large candle glowing and shining in all directions even more than a bright lantern.
One woman who lived within sight of the tombstones told friends she saw a light, or token at the graveyard…she was in good health at the time, but was it an omen, a beacon, a warning, we don’t know, but she died shortly thereafter. In a fitting coda to her story, she is buried where she reported seeing the light.
In another example, a young woman reported seeing a token above the graveyard a few days before she received word that her boyfriend had died in Italy during World War II. Coincidence?
And while many mountain roads are narrow, several fatal accidents through the years have occurred at that narrow curve beside the graveyard. And more than one vehicle has lost control and/or driven off a 200-foot embankment into the Toe River.
Were those drivers distracted by tokens? Or could there be another reason for the tokens? As we unravel the mystery, consider this: Could it be the curse of Estatoe?
The Toe river doesn’t have anything to do with our feet…it got its name from a young Native American maiden named Estatoe.
The legend, recounted in The Balsam Groves of the Grandfather mountain by the Bard of the Ottaray, Shepherd Dugger, states Estatoe drowned herself in that river because her father, a chief, forbade her to leave with her lover from a different tribe. She rebelled and ran away.
The girl’s tribe chased them until they were surrounded on a high bluff overlooking the river. Escape was impossible.
The young Cherokee warrior tried to push Estatoe back toward her tribe, but she refused to budge.
Placing her hand in his, she stood by his side at the edge of the cliff.
As they stood together, they gave a silent prayer to the Great Spirit, then they jumped, hand in hand, from the precipice, far down into the churning and rocky waters.
From Slipper Hill tokens to the legend of Estatoe… coincidences, who knows? You decide!