Gravity Hill – Laurinburg, North Carolina

gravity hill richfield nc

North Carolina’s Gravity Hill is quite the mystery. It is true that life is often stranger than fiction, especially when things like this unexplainable anomaly perplex us, and the bizarre science of it all defies what we know about nature.

One such strange phenomenon exists in the Sandhills region of North Carolina and is called Gravity Hill.

In the city of Richfield, you’ll find a hill that as it’s namesake inclines, literally defies the laws of gravity. It is unknown if this behavior is caused by the paranormal or if it’s just an optical illusion, but many claim it is the result of confederate soldier ghosts being pushed and are still trying to get up that hill.

If you visit this location, you’ll see that there is definitive proof your car will go up the hill.

One version of the story is that years ago on a dark night, on Richfield Road, a young mother and her child were driving. Suddenly, her car stalled. Quickly, she got out and attempted to push the car up the hill to safety. Just as she reached the top, a truck carelessly sped along the dark street. Without time to properly brake, the truck struck the mother and child. Both died instantly.

But the mother and young child did not quite leave Gravity Hill. No, it seems the mother is continuously living that night over and over…but now, your car can be the one she pushes up the hill.

Stop at the bottom of Gravity Hill and put baby powder on the trunk of your car. Sit in your car and wait. Suddenly….you’ll feel your car being pushed up the hill. No…you’ll literally be going up the hill. But don’t freak out! Because once you get to the top…you’ll see handprints on the back of your car.

If you think this is the stuff of legends, just ask the hundreds of people who have tried this before…and experienced it for themselves!

And then there are those who like the science, the facts, and the ‘truth’ over a spooky story or a fun late night experience.

Their argument is that the hill is actually an optical illusion. While your eyes and sense of gravity perceive you as going uphill, the hill is actually going down.

Your car was never going uphill to begin with…you were just coasting on a downward slope while believing a mother and child ghost were pushing your car.

But sometimes science is proved invalid, and in this case…it’s up to YOU if you want to believe in fact, fiction, or mystery. You can find Gravity Hill in Richfield, adorned in graffiti with markers on the beginning and end.

If you want more proof….watch this YouTube video below.


Have you experienced Gravity Hill for yourself? What do you believe about this ‘mystery?’ Tell us your stories and thoughts in the comments!

Full list of gravity hills around the world
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gravity_hills

WRAL news story on Gravity Hill
https://www.wral.com/lifestyles/travel/video/14764668/

The Ship of Fire

On a certain evening every year, at the mouth of the wide Neuse River, a large bright object speeds into view. It looks like a sailing ship being destroyed by fire, its deck and masts in blazing outline. The apparition disappears, then reappears, then again disappears for another year. It burns furiously but is not consumed.

It is the ship of the Palatines. The Palatines were a group of German Protestants who left England in 1710 to settle New Bern. As the vessel crossed the Atlantic, the prosperous Palatines, pretending to be poor, hid their gold coins and silver dishes from the eyes of the ship’s sinister captain and crew. When the Palatines caught sight of the shore which they believed to be their future home, so excited were they that up from the hold and out from hiding places came all their belongings in preparation for landing. Unwisely displayed on the deck was their precious wealth, all of it in full view of the corrupt captain and his first mate.

Quickly the captain formed a plan. He announced to the passengers than no landing could be made until the morrow. The disappointed Palatines once more hid their valuables and lay down to a sound sleep in anticipation of soon landing at their destination. When all was quiet, the captain gathered his crew together and revealed to them his plan. They would murder every Palatine aboard–the young and the old, the women and children as well as the men–then gather together the gold and silver, set afire the ship filled with its dead, and escape in the lifeboats.

The strike was sudden. Many Palatines were knifed before they awoke and in a very few moments every one of them was dead. As planned, the ship was set afire, and the murderers pushed off in the small boats. From a distance they looked back at the ship. It burned brighter and brighter, the brilliant blaze of the fire shooting into the air, but the vessel did not sink into the water. And then the thing began to move.

“It continued to burn all night,” according to an old account, “–speeding on with the wind,–now passing out from sight, and anon, visible, flaming forever, back again, on the very spot where the crime had been committed. With the dawn of day, it had ceased to burn,–but there it stood, erect as ever, with the spars, sails, masts, unconsumed,–everything in place, but everything blackened, charred.” At sundown the flames leaped up again–“a ship on fire that would not burn!”

The frightened murderers could bear no more. They abandoned their boats on the bank of the river and fled into the forest. There they and their descendants lived on their “ill-gotten spoils.” To this day the crime has not been avenged, and so every year on a certain evening the burning ship appears off New Bern, and so it will continue to appear till the blood of the Palatines has been paid for in kind.

src = http://www.secstate.state.nc.us/kidspg/legends.htm