9 Urban Legends in Virginia Full Of Tall Tales And Terrifying Possibilities

Ok all of your treasure hunters out there. Tell me what you know. Word on the street is that Thomas Jefferson Beale and a team of 30 men unexpectedly discovered a mother lode of gold and silver in Colorado. Sometime around 1819 – 1821, Beale buried the treasure, estimated to be worth millions, in Bedford County at what is now the site of Johnson’s Orchard. After burying the treasure, Beale and his party set out on another expedition. Knowing their trip would be dangerous, Beale left three coded messages in a locked box with Robert Morriss of Lynchburg. Beale made Morriss promise that he would use the key that Beale would mail to him at a later date to decipher the codes if 10 years passed with no word from Beale or his men. The first code contained the treasure’s exact location, a second code described the contents and the third named the members of Beale’s 30-man party along with their next of kin. 10 years came and went and the key never arrived. To date, only the second cipher has been broken and the treasure’s whereabouts remain a mystery.

This fantastically creepy story has been floating around since the collapse of Richmond’s Church Hill Tunnel in 1925. When the tunnel collapsed, several workers were buried alive in the wreckage. The legend describes a bloody figure with pointed teeth and skin hanging from its bones emerging from the cave-in and running towards the James River. The figure was pursued until it disappeared into the mausoleum of W.W. Pool in the Hollywood Cemetery. Research into the Vampire legend revealed that one survivor did manage to escape the deadly cave-in, but far from a vampire, he was Benjamin Mosby, a 28-year old firefighter who had been shoveling coal in the tunnel when it collapsed. He was badly burned with broken teeth when he escaped the ruins and later died from his injuries in a local hospital. "Facts" haven’t stopped the legend and Hollywood Cemetery is still a favorite haunt for ghost hunters – by which I mean teenagers looking to have the bejesus scared out of them.

Remember that episode of "Friends" when Joey gets so scared reading "The Shining" that he has to keep the book in the freezer? Suffice it to say, if my laptop would fit in the freezer, that’s where it would be right now. I’ve seen several versions of this story over the years, but the one that gets me every time goes a little something like this... In 1904, a recently closed asylum prison in Clifton was transporting inmates to a new facility when one of the transport buses overturned in Fairfax. Most of the passengers were killed, but 10 escaped. All but two were found, Douglas J. Grifon and Marcus Wallster. Soon after, locals began finding the remains of hundreds of skinned, half-eaten rabbits hanging from the trees. When Wallster’s body was eventually discovered, with a crude homemade hatchet in hand, hanging at the Fairfax Station Bridge, officials believed they had found their culprit and the dead bunny rampage would stop. No such luck. In the years that followed, dead rabbits appeared periodically, and as legend tells, an unspecified number of bodies have been found hanging at the bridge every Halloween, the approximate time of the crash. Most often, the victims were teenagers looking for a haunt at what is now known as "Bunny Man Bridge." The last reported incident was in 1987, but if you know more, please let me know – especially if you have proof that this is just an elaborate legend meant to scare weak-kneed wimps like me.

Some people just like to be right. In 1885, Zebulon Miller of Lynchburg made his point, even after death. 5 years before he passed on to the other side, Miller built a concrete mausoleum with 3-foot-thick walls. He then hired a Swiss agent to make sure that $2.3 million in gold and silver coins were safely installed along with his body. A $1 million trust was also left to ensure upkeep – of the armed guard kind – for the tomb. The guards were dismissed when a high-tech security system was installed – and so, the treasure remains intact to this day. What do you think, folks? Fact or fiction?

This is hands down, absolutely, 100% my favorite story. And I can only hope that someone, anyone, out there will tell me that it’s true. The story goes that in 1952, a Ringling Brothers’ and Barnum and Bailey’s circus train derailed in Evington, just outside of Lynchburg. 35 gorillas escaped and although they were hunted, none were ever recovered. Supposedly, they lived in the woods in and around Campbell County for the next 30 years or so, where they monkeyed around with the locals, harassing family pets, stealing from gardens and peeking in windows. The last report of gorilla-related antics was in 1981. Only one picture exists from 1967 when Horace Dalrymple caught one of the gorillas posing like "The Thinker" on his roof. Unfortunately, the photo wasn't available for publication here.

There’s no way to prove it, of course, but Lover’s Leap, the highest peak above Natural Tunnel in Scott County is said to have gotten it’s name when a young Shawnee brave and a Cherokee girl were forbidden to marry. Their tribal differences kept them apart in life, so they took a "Last of the Mohicans" style leap to their deaths from the peak into the gorge below. Whether it’s true or not, it certainly makes for a tragically romantic story.

I am not ashamed to admit that I am a die-hard "GWTW" fan. I’ve read the book at least 8 times and the movie, well, let’s just say I have lost years of my life to Scarlet and her dramas. So of course, growing up knowing that the very staircase that she swept up and down with such elegance – and tumbled down so tragically – was the same one at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond was more than magical to me. Until I found out that it’s not true. Sadly, no part of the movie was filmed in Richmond. However, Margaret Mitchell did stay at The Jefferson during the 10-year span in which she was writing the novel. So maybe, just maybe, she took inspiration from the staircase that still stuns visitors in all of its polished marble glory. I can live with that.

A February 2012 episode of the Animal Planet’s "Finding Bigfoot" set out to answer that very question. "The Beast of Gum Hill" is a local legend in the Saltville area. Supposedly, this enormously tall, hairy figure has been sighted roaming the woods in and around Saltville and Abingdon over the years. The eyewitnesses, many of whom came forward for filming, describe a large, dark creature that wandered up to them or was seen running through the trees. The show ended without any conclusive evidence of Bigfoot in the Virginia hills, but there is no shortage of teams around the country devoted to proving the existence of Bigfoot, or the Sasquatch. And while most reported sightings come from the more rugged mountains of the Western part of the country – but who’s to say we don’t have our own Bigfoot roaming the hills of Southwest Virginia? Of course, it could just be a gorilla from Evington…hmmmmm.