Haunted Jamestown

While Lydia's Bridge might be the famous of Jamestown's Haunted Places there's plenty of other places to explore as well.  I'm going to put Oakdale on it's own blog entry since even though it's in Jamestown it's actually a little village all to itself.  So after visiting Lydia's Bridge yesterday I decided to return and visit a few place in Jamestown and Oakdale.

My first stop was Oakdale and then I followed Oakdale Road into Jamestown and across the railroad tracks.  I decided to visit the Mendenhall Plantation and High Point City Lake Park.

 Both of these places are located across the road from one another.  There's a feeling in the air that this place is special when it comes to lost spirits.  The Mendenhall Plantation is located just next to the road; I've been meaning to take the tour for years and years now, but just haven't had  the chance.

As seen from this historical marker,  Mendenhall's Plantation and Store have been around since 1824.

The Plantation house is located just across the street from the store.  It's not what you think of when you think of a Southern Plantation.   The Mendenhall's were Quakers and lived very simply.

They probably ran their store quietly in the small Friends (as the Quakers are known to each other) community.

The store is part of City Lake Park and located just inside the park entrance.

















Here is the store as seen from the road.  This was probably the front of the store.

I peaked in this window of the store, but didn't see anything of note.
I believe the store is open when the Mendenhall Plantation is open during the week.
Here's their official website: http://www.mendenhallplantation.org

Just inside the park is the Jamestown Friends Meeting House, which was where the Mendenhall's, Ragsdale's, and others in the area went to church.

There's also a cemetery, but there's not much to it.  Like the local Moravian and Quaker burial grounds it's very simple.  I didn't see or feel anything unusual here, but it certainly is an area prime for spiritual activity.  I wouldn't go messing around it after dark or you might get a visitor in the form of the local police.







There's lots of stuff to see in the park:

There's the swimming pool, which looked really eerie since being drained at the end of the summer.  There's been a few drownings here over the years so restless spirits could exist here. I didn't see or here anything today.

There's a dam next to the swimming pool which creates the lake from the Deep River.

You used to be able to walk across the top, but I noticed there's a fence now at both ends to keep people off.  It might be because it's just old and they want to keep people off, maybe they're afraid someone might try to damage or destroy the dam, or maybe somebody has fallen from in into the lake or the river below.

It was like a waterfall today because of all the rain we've had lately.


The boat house was another eerie reminder that like many local lakes there have been drownings here, and sightings of swimmers in the water who are gone when they've tried to be spotted again.

One of the more notorious things that happened in the park happened in 1989 when a woman who was missing's body was discovered on a trail in the park.  It was a cold case, but they've recently arrested someone for the crime.
Read all about it here: 
http://www.greensboro.com/news/prison-inmate-charged-in-jamestown-cold-case/article_143391f0-e2bd-11e4-860c-038aa9493050.html

So far no one to my knowledge has seen any mysterious joggers or walkers on the trails who are gone just as fast as they were spotted or mysterious objects in the woods.  But the potential is there, and more investigation would be great.

For more on the history of Jamestown check out: http://www.jamestown-nc.us/history.html

RIP Vicki VonCannon, the "woman in the woods"; maybe know your family can have some closure.