5 Tennessee Urban Legends You'll Never Forget

Urban legends have an interesting role in our society – an eerie, creepy role, if we do say so ourselves. Whether you’re trying to keep that rangy teen from taking a jaunt down lover’s lane, or simply trying to stay away from that haunted house at the end of the road, we’ve found some of the scariest urban legends Ol’ Rocky Top has to offer.

Cameron Daigle - Flickr

Known as one of the most haunted spots in the entire US, the Bell Witch of Adams, Tennessee is said to have terrorized the Bell family in the early 1800's, eventually scaring away a young suitor for their adult daughter and sending patriarch John Bell to his grave. Was it a true story? No one really knows...but we're scared of it. Scared enough to take the tour.

Robert S. Donovan - Flickr

Poor Tom took the wrong lady out on a date. He picked her up and took her to the local lovers lane, while unbeknownst to him the woman's HUSBAND - ouch - followed, skinning Tom alive in his insane jealousy and anger. Stay away from dark roads at night, because Tom is said to come, bloody and bellowing, to teach rangy teens a lesson. Blech.

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Atlas Obscura

You may have heard of the body farm in Knoxville and just shrugged it off as an urban legend - but this one? It's true. Very, very true. Students at UT Knoxville can study the decomposing human body at the school body farm, where each of the deceased willingly donated their bodies to science. Eerie.

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Mike D'Angelo - Flickr

Whether the tunnel is haunted by a young woman murdered by her father, or a terrifying old man that wanders about in the dark at night, the legends that swirl around Sensabaugh Tunnel give it enough eeriness for a lifetime.

Greg Mazu - Flickr

White Bluff, Tennessee is said to be home to the notorious "White Screamer," a mysterious being that streaks through the woods with a high pitched scream, late in the night. Legend has it that an old couple hid their ugly child in the basement for years, until it eventually escaped, murdered them on its way out the door and streaked, screaming, into the woods it haunts to this day.

That gives us shivers. Check out some more Tennessee scary stories over here!