The Devil's Tramping Ground (alternately Devil's Stomping Ground) is a camping spot located in a forest near the Harper's Crossroads area in

Bear Creek, North Carolina Bear Creek is an unincorporated community in southwestern Chatham County, North Carolina, United States. It is named for a nearby creek that eventually flows into the Rocky River. The community lies along Old US Highway 421 and is situated betwe ...

. It has been the subject of persistent local legends and lore, which frequently allege that

the Devil Satan, also known as the Devil, is a devilish entity in Abrahamic religions who seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or 'e ...

"tramps" and haunts a barren circle of ground in which nothing is supposed to grow. It has frequently been noted on lists of

unusual place names Place names considered unusual can include those which are also offensive words, inadvertently humorous (especially if mispronounced) or highly charged words, as well as place names of unorthodox spelling and pronunciation, including especiall ...

Lore

Legends about the ring are well known in local communities. These include the disappearance of objects left within the ring overnight, dogs yipping and howling, not wanting to go near it, and strange events occurring to those who spend the night within its boundaries. It has been alleged that nothing has grown within the ring for a hundred years. Supposedly it is where the devil walks in circles on certain nights, thinking of ways to bring his evil into this world. John William Harden (1903–1985) of Greensboro, N.C., journalist, newspaper editor, author, and advisor to

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

governors and textile executives, had this to say of the Devil's Tramping Ground:

In popular culture

The Devil's Tramping Ground is mentioned in two horror novels by

Poppy Z. Brite William Joseph Martin (born May 25, 1967), formerly Poppy Z. Brite, is an American author. He initially achieved fame in the Gothic fiction, gothic horror genre of literature in the early 1990s by publishing a string of successful novels and shor ...

: '' Lost Souls'' and ''Drawing Blood''. Both these novels take place, at least in part, in the fictional North Carolina city of Missing Mile; the inspiration for which is taken from Duncan and Chapel Hill, NC and Athens, GA.{{cite web, url=http://www.poppyzbrite.com/places_mile.html , title={ P.z.B } , publisher=Poppyzbrite.com , date= , accessdate=2013-08-28

References

External links

UNC TV Science Report on Devil's Tramping Ground

Skeptoid (Podcast) Episode 4874 on Devil's Tramping Ground
Geography of Chatham County, North Carolina Landforms of North Carolina Reportedly haunted locations in North Carolina Campgrounds in North Carolina Satan