Tennessee Ghosts and Legends

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On today's episode, we're going to travel to a corner of Middle Tennessee where the ground itself seems to have memory. Where the trees along the Columbia Pike still lean away from the thunder that once shook them. Where the floors of old plantation houses still carry the stains of what happened there on a single, disastrous November night in 1864. This story spans four locations, each about fifteen miles apart along the old Columbia Pike south of Nashville. These historic sites are a part of one of the most catastrophic chapters of the American Civil War—the Franklin-Nashville Campaign. 

Four sites. One night. And the bloodiest five hours of the entire American Civil War. Join me today on a haunted trip to Rippavilla, The Carter House, The Lotz House, and Carnton Plantation. 

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Welcome to the Tennessee Ghosts and Legends Podcast. My name is Lyle Russell. I am your host, and I love a good ghost story. Today, have I got a ghost story for you. However, this episode is a little different from what you're used to hearing on this podcast. There are no plantation spirits, no cryptids in the tree line, no UFOs landing in Nashville, and no lights floating over haunted railroad tracks. The story you are about to hear is stranger than any of those things because this ghost story is true. Every word of it. And it started right here, in the woods east of Tullahoma, Tennessee, in the winter of 1944. Welcome to the Ghost Army.

Before we get into the story, I want to tell you something about how this episode came to be. Over the 2026 Memorial Day Weekend, I had the privilege of bringing author and documentary filmmaker Rick Beyer to Tullahoma to kick off our city’s America 250 celebration, Along with his wife, Marilyn, and his sister, Catherine, Rick presented his research on this amazing story he has spent over 20 years documenting and bringing to public attention. Rick is the author of The Ghost Army of World War II, co-written with Elizabeth Sayles, and the producer of the 2013 PBS documentary of the same name. He is the foremost authority on this story, and he was gracious enough to share it with our community and to allow me to draw on his research for this episode. What I'm about to tell you is deeply informed by Rick's work, and I am grateful to him for keeping this story alive so others could hear it.

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In this episode, we’ll combine a good ghost story with a treasure hunt. Today we are going to chase three of Tennessee's most compelling treasure legends. We begin at a time before before America existed, with Spanish gold and the Cherokee warriors who guarded it along the Elk River. Then we head east to the misty hollows of Greenbrier Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains, where a blacksmith found something in a hillside that he spent the rest of his life hiding, and possibly never told a single living soul about. Finally, we’ll end in the chaos and desperation of the Civil War, with a Confederate paymaster riding hard through the night to bury sixty thousand dollars in gold coins before the Yankees could take it. Today’s episode is about Gold, Ghosts, and Greed. Let’s explore the Lost Treasures of Tennessee

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On today’s Thanksgiving holiday episode, we’ll explore some Tennessee Native American legends about spurned love, why black bears do not have tails, a strange creature said to eat the livers of kidnapped children, and two trees that grew from an act of great betrayal and from great love. Join me for the stories of the Black Bear and the Fox, Reelfoot Lake, a shapeshifter known as Spearfinger, and the Legend of Nocatula.

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Today, we’ll discuss a local legend from Putnam County, Tennessee about the ghost of a jealous woman dressed in all black that haunted Margaret Buckner until the day she died. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Polly Brewington, the Buckner Witch of Standing Stone.

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Today’s episode takes us once again to the home of the Delta Blues and a famous theater site haunted by no less than a reported seven spirits. The most mischievous one has her very own seat that is forever reserved as a place for her to watch performances despite becoming a ghost over 100 years ago. Welcome to Memphis’s Orpheum Theater.

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In this episode, we’ll visit the rural town of Flintville, Tennessee and the surrounding area in Lincoln County. But hiding somewhere in the surrounding hills and forests of the area is supposedly an elusive, mysterious, and aggressive beast, said to stand around eight feet tall and have a terrible skunk-like odor, along with a propensity for violent encounters with the local residents. Today, it is my pleasure to introduce you to the legend of the Flintville Monster. 

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Update: The audio quality is fixed! After a mic upgrade and a re-record, the audio is much better now. Sorry for the delay. Enjoy the episode!

In this episode, we’ll explore the history and some of the terrifying stories centered around one of Tennessee’s most famous and recognizable abandoned landmarks. It began as one of the most modern and humane prison compounds in the country but ended as a maximum security nightmare for the inmates within. Welcome to the haunted halls of the Tennessee State Prison.

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Today’s episode is part legend and part ghost story. In the Appalachians just east of Mountain City, Tennessee stands the Stone Mountains. Legend has it that on calm nights, the sound of a ghostly fiddle as well as painful screams can be heard coming from a formation there known as Fiddler’s Rock. There are multiple local tales about this remote site and the melancholy ghost who haunts it. Join me as we explore the ghostly legend of the Snake Charmer of Fiddler’s Rock. 

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On today's episode, Tennessee Ghosts and Legends will boldly go where no man has gone before. We'll explore some of the strange occurrences from around the volunteer state attributed to visitors from other worlds. From strange lights in the sky to an up close and personal alien encounter, we'll try to ascertain if we are alone in the universe, or if aliens walk among us.

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