Supernatural CLT: The Ghost Train of Iredell County
A horrific 1891 train wreck off Bostian's Bridge left 23 dead... and some say the ghost train still travels the tracks.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Dead. Silence. The eerie absence of sound, more deafening than the blood-curdling screams soon to follow. Passengers desperate for air, trapped beneath wreckage that would soon become their watery grave.
August 27, 1891: 22 people plummeted to their death as a train’s journey came to a horrific end at Bostian’s Bridge, 2 miles west of Statesville. Another died from complications within the year. It’s a disaster many wish they could erase from their minds.
“The memory of the day’s scenes and events will haunt the people of Statesville and visitors here as long as they live. Vehicle after vehicle came in from the wreck…The dead were taken to the farmer’s tobacco warehouse and the bodies tagged.” – J.P. Caldwell, Editor of The Landmark
The events that unfolded on that merciless day no one should ever have to see. And — as legend has it — one witness was not yet alive when it first happened…
More Supernatural CLT:
The Haunting Of Tryon Street Apartments
The Lake Norman Monster
August 27, 1941: Stranded in the middle of the night with car trouble, a man ventures off for help. His wife waits near the site of the gruesome tragedy, exactly 50 years to the hour since the deadly train derailment…but she doesn’t know it.
The ghostly whistle of a train instantly pierces her ears. The swelling headlights signal its speed as the train approaches the looming bridge ahead. Helpless, the woman watches the train as it jumps the tracks, plunging into the shadowy creek below. Hearing the screams and groans of dying passengers, she runs frantically to her returning husband. But when he arrives… no trace of the wreck can be found.
In the face of her husband’s disbelief, the woman was determined to prove the reality of what she saw. She insisted on stopping by the Statesville train station to find out if there had been a crash. When the station agent explained the accident was fifty years prior, the woman screamed in terror, falling to the ground unconscious. What she witnessed was the ‘Ghost Train of Iredell County.’
August 27, 2010: The Bostian Bridge claims another victim after a ghost hunting adventure takes a deadly turn. A man and his girlfriend set out to catch a glimpse of the famous paranormal activity, only to be surprised by a physical train on the still active tracks. In his final act of love, Christopher Kaiser pushed his girlfriend to safety. Sadly, the ghost hunter failed to escape the oncoming train, joining the legacy of disembodied souls that continue to haunt Iredell County.
