Share a secret place that you have seen, that might not be popularly known.

[Podkayne K]

53. Bell Witch Cave...

in Adams Tennessee.

It's on the farm that the Witch haunted the Bell Family supposedly killing John Bell and forcing Betsy to break her engagement to her fiancé because he was a cheat. The Witch also liked John's wife and brought her strawberries one winter when she was sick. (In the early 1800's strawberries in the winter was like the Cleveland Browns winning the Super Bowl this year.)

I was there years ago before the tours started and way before it became as popular as it seems to be now. The cave itself is a pretty standard cave, but the legend, and perhaps the presence, of the Witch makes it special and haunting. Also, nearby at that time was an antique store--don't have a clue if it's still there--which had a rocking chair allegedly owned by the Bell family and favored by the Witch. The story was if you sat in the chair, something good or, on rare occasions--something not so good would happen to you. You just had to take your chances.

I had lost some pictures--which were inside a plastic roll--I had taken of the cave and of the beautiful lady I was dating at the time. After I sat in the chair, I went out to the car, opened the door, and that roll of pictures--which I had thoroughly searched the car for a few hours earlier--dropped out and landed at my feet.

The last story--of so many--is that while a lot of people don't believe in the Bell Witch, Andrew Jackson was said to have been on his way back to the Hermitage--his residence outside of Nashville--when the Witch stopped his carriage, scared away his entourage, and had a 20 minute conversation with the future President. There are some who say she told him about his future and what his legacy would be. I somehow doubt that as the Witch was rumored to have been a Native American woman that one of the Bells--John, I believe--had jilted. I tend to believe that the Witch was warning Jackson what would happen if he kept going after Native Americans. (But he obviously didn't listen and considering what happened to Rachel Jackson maybe that had something to do with the Witch getting back at Jackson.)

The Witch, whose name is Kate, haunts members of the Bell family, untrue lovers, and maybe people who are awful to Native Americans. Of course, this all just legend, probably, maybe, perhaps, but it when you visit the cave and hear and read the accounts of her hauntings, it's kind of difficult to completely dismiss Kate as not being the real thing.