[UNKNOWN]: you [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to American hauntings, the podcast dedicated to the history, hauntings, legends, lore, and the dark side of American history.

[SPEAKER_01]: And welcome to the promised bonus episode for season nine about the bell which cave in Tennessee.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're listening to this and haven't listened to episode one, eighty-two yet, Hauser podcast app and go back and listen to that episode about an American haunting and get up to date.

[SPEAKER_01]: on the story of the bell witch.

[SPEAKER_01]: As we mentioned in that episode, the story of the bell witch cave was too complicated to try and include in that episode.

[SPEAKER_01]: Also, even though the cave has the name of the bell witch, and is located on land owned by the bell family in the early nineteenth century, it's hard to know if the strange happenings that filled the history of the cave are directly related to the bell witch haunting.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whether they are or not, there are some very weird and unsettling things happening in this cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's not hard to understand why many who live in the region believe that when the bell which left the family, it took up residents in the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can decide for yourself in the bonus episode that follows.

[SPEAKER_01]: The history of the cave that was located on the bell farm in the early eighteen hundreds dates back millions of years to when it was formed from an inland ocean that's once covered the region.

[SPEAKER_01]: The water that flowed through the limestone eventually created the cave, which is several miles long today, weaving under a large area of Robertson County, Tennessee.

[SPEAKER_01]: As the water receded, the cavern was left behind and today is considered a dry cave, which means that new formations are no longer being created.

[SPEAKER_01]: And yet the cool damp conditions of the cave have persisted for centuries.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this led to the first historical mention of it and the chronicles of the bell which haunting.

[SPEAKER_01]: The bell family used the cave for a cool storage of perishable foods, but that was about all.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was more than a century later when the cave began to be associated with the bell witch, and it became a tourist attraction.

[SPEAKER_01]: This was thanks to a man named Beliden, a farmer who lived on the property.

[SPEAKER_01]: He took an interest in the cave, and in the middle of the sixties, he started making some improvements to it to attract visitors.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even though the cave was several miles long, only a few hundred yards of it were open to visitors as a commercial cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: Bill cut a rough path down the bluff to the entrance and installed a few electrical lights, but he didn't do much else.

[SPEAKER_01]: He never even advertised the place.

[SPEAKER_01]: It seems he didn't have to.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even though it was undeveloped, the cave attracted hundreds of visitors every year.

[SPEAKER_01]: There were no signs to point the way back then, but people still managed to find it, and they always asked to hear stories about the witch.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Bill, a natural storyteller, told the historical tales of the bell witch, as well as his own experiences on the property.

[SPEAKER_01]: Bill had stayed on various parts of the bell farm for more than four decades.

[SPEAKER_01]: He and his wife Francis had lived in different farmhouses around the property and both recalled numerous strange incidents that had occurred in every one of the houses.

[SPEAKER_01]: They heard knocking noises and voices saw apparitions and experienced other unexplained oddities.

[SPEAKER_01]: Eventually, Bill grew tired of living in old haunted farmhouses, and so he tore down one of the old places and built a modern one-story brick ranch house in its place.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he soon found out that his new home was haunted too.

[SPEAKER_01]: He and Francis continue to have strange experiences from seeing apparitions in the yard to balls of light that floated in the trees on the property, or just traveled across the land.

[SPEAKER_01]: They heard footsteps pacing through the new house they'd built, heard knocking on the front door, and the sound of someone walking up and down the hallway at all hours of the night.

[SPEAKER_01]: Cabinet doors opened and closed and items moved around.

[SPEAKER_01]: One winter's night in the middle of January when the ground was covered with snow, Bill was awakened by someone pounding on the front door at two AM.

[SPEAKER_01]: Harry to see who it was, and spotted a figure in a long black coat with the collar turned up, standing on the porch.

[SPEAKER_01]: Suddenly the figure spun around, walked down the steps, and walked across the front yard.

[SPEAKER_01]: The house was a good distance from the closest road on a long gravel lane, but it'll didn't see a car parked anywhere nearby.

[SPEAKER_01]: The mysterious figure seemed to be on foot.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the figure walked a short distance, step behind a tree in the yard and stopped.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're after seeing this bill called Francis into the living room.

[SPEAKER_01]: When she was standing next to him at the window, he told her to watch that tree.

[SPEAKER_01]: If she saw someone step out from behind it, he wanted her to watch and see where they went.

[SPEAKER_01]: Bill meanwhile, got dressed, grabbed his gun, and snuck out the back door to creep around the house, and surprised the trespasser hiding behind the tree.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when he reached that tree, there was no one there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when he checked, there were no footprints in the snow.

[SPEAKER_01]: But most of Bill's unsettling experiences occurred in the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: He'd witnessed and been subjected to dozens of frightening incidents.

[SPEAKER_01]: He'd felt an invisible hand-grip as arm, heard voices he couldn't explain, and had been followed many times by someone he couldn't see.

[SPEAKER_01]: He clearly heard their footsteps crunching in the gravel behind him, though.

[SPEAKER_01]: He even believed he glimpsed figures in the cave, figures who vanished many times.

[SPEAKER_01]: But most of the happenings that Bill talked about involved visitors to the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like a woman who came to visit the place one day and asked to see the cave, she brought a group of friends with her and altogether about fifteen people followed Bill down the steep bluff path to the entrance.

[SPEAKER_01]: Suddenly, the woman sat down in the middle of the path [SPEAKER_01]: and claims she was unable to get up.

[SPEAKER_01]: She said she felt a heavy weight on her back and shoulders like, quote, a ton of lead.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was pressing her down onto the ground and she couldn't get up.

[SPEAKER_01]: It took a half an hour before she was free and she had to be carried back up the hill to work hard.

[SPEAKER_01]: After that, the group decided they didn't want to see the cave after all.

[SPEAKER_01]: One evening Bill took a group of young people into the cave for a tour.

[SPEAKER_01]: They'd been inside for about an hour and stopped in that deepest, accessible room in the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: They talked for a few minutes and listed Bill tell his stories about his uncanny experiences around the farm.

[SPEAKER_01]: As they were starting to leave, one of the girls in the group made some remarks about how it was all fake.

[SPEAKER_01]: The cave was just a tourist trap, and there was no such thing as the bell witch.

[SPEAKER_01]: She continued complaining about the trip as the group walked back toward the cave entrance.

[SPEAKER_01]: She sounds like a lot of fun.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, she suddenly stopped.

[SPEAKER_01]: The entire group heard a loud noise that sounded like two hands clapping together.

[SPEAKER_01]: And at the same moment, the complaining girl stumbled backward as if she'd been pushed.

[SPEAKER_01]: She took a couple more steps back and then sat down on the floor of the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she yelled, somebody slapped me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone looked around, but there was no one near her at the time she cried out.

[SPEAKER_01]: Bill was skeptical, assuming this was a prank, until he shined a flashlight on her face and saw a red welt, and the clear marks of fingers on her cheek.

[SPEAKER_01]: The clapping sound they'd all heard, Bill realized.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, now it all made sense.

[SPEAKER_01]: On another occasion, a young woman came to the cave with hopes of scene, or at least experiencing the resident ghost.

[SPEAKER_01]: According to Bill, she visited the cave several times before, and now return with a group of friends who wanted to conduct assayants, and try and get in touch with Kate, the nickname given to the spirit who haunted the bells back in the teen twenty.

[SPEAKER_01]: The cave is entered through a metal gate that Bill had to install and keep locked because of the many trespassers who got into the cave at night.

[SPEAKER_01]: From the gate, there's a long narrow hall that opens into a large front room.

[SPEAKER_01]: The gravel path runs through the center of the chamber.

[SPEAKER_01]: On the right side is a narrow opening to an upper level of the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: And on the left is a ledge that rises a few feet up above the path.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the group gathered in this large front room and Bill agreed to turn off all the lights while they called on Kate to appear.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've always wondered why Bill agreed to do this because I'm certain he knew better, but anyway.

[SPEAKER_01]: After a few minutes of attempting spirit contact, one of the men in the group began screaming for Bill to turn the lights on.

[SPEAKER_01]: The young woman who'd arranged the sayons had fainted.

[SPEAKER_01]: She was out cold on the floor, and her friends had to carry her out of the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: Once out in the sunlight, they splashed water on her face until she woke up.

[SPEAKER_01]: When she was able to talk, she told them she'd seen a young, pretty girl with dark hair hanging down her back up here in front of her.

[SPEAKER_01]: Never mind the fact that it had been almost pitch dark in the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: She said that when the girl turned and looked directly at her, she'd fainted.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the good news, I mean, I guess if it's good news, her attempt at a say-hons had worked.

[SPEAKER_01]: In the summer of nineteen seventy seven several young soldiers from nearby Fort Campbell, Kentucky came to visit the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: Bill took the young men on a tour and they ended up in the back room where they all sat down on rocks and listened to Bill's stories about the odd events on the farm.

[SPEAKER_01]: when he was finished one of the soldiers with all due respect to Bill.

[SPEAKER_01]: Express doubt about the truth behind the story.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said he'd been to many places that were allegedly haunted and nothing out of the ordinary had ever occurred.

[SPEAKER_01]: After many long, boring nights at those places, he'd come to believe that ghosts weren't real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Bill laughed and shrugged his shoulders.

[SPEAKER_01]: He couldn't speak to the other places where the soldier had been, but he'd seen enough strange things on the farm to know that something out of the ordinary was going on there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then he added with a grin.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, if something happened, you probably would never come back here again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the soldier chuckled and all of them sat and talked a little longer, then they all got up to leave.

[SPEAKER_01]: Except for that one skeptical young man.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said he was unable to move.

[SPEAKER_01]: Once Bill and his friends realized he wasn't joking, they tried to help him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Bill reached out and took the soldiers hand, planning to pull him up, and he felt how cold and clammy the man's hand was, as if he was going into shock.

[SPEAKER_01]: Bill tugged on his arm, but the soldier didn't move.

[SPEAKER_01]: The young man told them he could feel strong arms wrapped around his chest.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were holding him very tightly, pinned to the ground he said, and he was unable to breathe.

[SPEAKER_01]: Finally, Bill and the soldiers' friends each grabbed his hands and arms and began pulling him up from the floor.

[SPEAKER_01]: They later said their friends seemed to quote way a thousand pounds.

[SPEAKER_01]: But after some straining and tugging, they finally got him to his feet.

[SPEAKER_01]: While the other supported him, Bill wiped his face down with cold water.

[SPEAKER_01]: The unlucky soldier recovered from his experience within a few minutes, and was able to walk out of a cave on his own.

[SPEAKER_01]: By the time they'd made it up to the top of the bluff, he was finally starting to shake off the ill effects of his hairline experience.

[SPEAKER_01]: As the soldier was walking to his car, though, he stopped and shook Bill's hand.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he told them, well, you were right about one thing, Mr.

Eden.

[SPEAKER_01]: I won't ever be back here again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Over the years, I've visited the bell which cave dozens of times.

[SPEAKER_01]: So many times I've lost count and I mean that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've been there in the daytime and at night and once in the summer of nineteen ninety seven, I spent the entire night inside the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was during that visit, which was the first time that a documentary crew was allowed inside the cave overnight.

[SPEAKER_01]: Camera lenses that were super high tech at the time managed to capture something in the cave second hallway that looked like a door sliding open.

[SPEAKER_01]: For just a moment, on the other side of that door, [SPEAKER_01]: The camera illuminated what looked like two sinister faces that were peering at the camera for one moment, then they disappeared.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I've come to believe that the belt which cave is one of the most haunted places in America.

[SPEAKER_01]: My first visit to the cave was in nineteen eighty eight when I met Beliden and was able to hear its stories about the cave in the farm.

[SPEAKER_01]: He died a few years after that bringing one chapter in the cave's history to an end, but there would be others.

[SPEAKER_01]: visits to the cave in the years that followed were often eventful.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've heard things inside.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can't explain.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen shadows, figures, and moving things that, again, I have no explanation for.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've heard footsteps in the gravel following me into the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's never been anyone there.

[SPEAKER_01]: I once heard a voice in the back part of the cave that unnerved me so badly, I didn't return to the interior of the cave for the rest of my weekend visit.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've been there with people who've been so frightened by the cave, they've refused to go back inside.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ever.

[SPEAKER_01]: One of the stranger things about the cave is how difficult it is to photograph the entrance.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even though everyone who comes there really wants a photo of it before they go inside, it's to be expected.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, it's not impossible to get the photo, but it can be hard to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hundreds of visitors have tried and failed.

[SPEAKER_01]: For some reason, there is a spot outside the cave, where not only do cameras fail, but sometimes flashlights and batteries refuse to function.

[SPEAKER_01]: This isn't always the case, of course.

[SPEAKER_01]: Most cameras work just fine, but others refuse to operate or strange or yet manage to produce photos that are [SPEAKER_01]: let's just say bizarre, although that might be an understatement.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now this is not a recent development, even when Bill Eden was alive, the entrance produced some very strange photographs.

[SPEAKER_01]: One day after finishing a tour of the cave, a man was standing and talking to Bill.

[SPEAKER_01]: He asked one of his sons to post for a picture in front of the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: The boy took his dog and stood near a large rock that is just in front of the entrance.

[SPEAKER_01]: The man was using a brand new Polaroid camera and he taken a number of good photos inside the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: While the man aimed the camera at the boy and stabbed the photo.

[SPEAKER_01]: After the photo developed, neither Bill nor the visitor could figure out what was going on with the image.

[SPEAKER_01]: The developed photo showed the cave entrance, the bluff above the cave, the dog, and the lower part of his son's body.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the boys had in shoulders.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were missing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Others have had similar experiences with their photos.

[SPEAKER_01]: They've had faces appear that weren't there when the photo was snapped along with blurry white shapes that weren't seen there at the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: The owners of the cave began keeping a scrapbook of strange photos.

[SPEAKER_01]: They took on the property as well as photos that were sent to them by people who visited the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: They received dozens of them every year.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some showing explainable blurs, dust spots, and water drops, and misty shapes made by cigarette smoke.

[SPEAKER_01]: But many are perhaps most of the photos were much more unusual.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, they're downright weird.

[SPEAKER_01]: Their photos that simply have no explanation at all, and almost all of them were taken outside the entrance to the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: Once such photo showed a girl seated outside the cave on that large rock, looming directly behind her is what looks like the apparition of a boy.

[SPEAKER_01]: It does not appear to be a double exposure.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wasn't there at the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: The others who were present would have noticed a boy who was suspended in the air.

[SPEAKER_01]: Another photo was taken of two Girl Scouts during that trip to the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: One of the girls was visible and solid, but the other was mostly transparent.

[SPEAKER_01]: And turns so that her body is positioned at an angle floating in the air.

[SPEAKER_01]: And worse.

[SPEAKER_01]: There is the completely unexplainable image of a two-headed snake that is slithering up the leg of the first girl, the one who's seated on the rock.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now obviously a two-headed snake was not there when the photo was taken.

[SPEAKER_01]: Been a little hard to miss, but how would appear to the photograph?

[SPEAKER_01]: I have absolutely no explanation for that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Other photos, including my favorite one, were taken inside and around the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, my favorite image was taken on the bluff about the cave where the owners built a small gift shop in a picnic pavilion.

[SPEAKER_01]: One fall after noon, a party of six graders visited the cave from one of the schools in the area.

[SPEAKER_01]: After touring the cave, the children paused for a group photo with the gift shop.

[SPEAKER_01]: One of the shaperone snapped the photo with the teacher's camera and the group left.

[SPEAKER_01]: The teacher didn't plan to contact the owners of the cave again, except to maybe schedule another class trip someday.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then she developed her film from that afternoon.

[SPEAKER_01]: As she flipped through the packet of photographs, something odd caught her eye about one of them.

[SPEAKER_01]: There were the children, the teacher, and the shaperones lined up in a couple of rows across the front of the picnic pavilion.

[SPEAKER_01]: But one of the boys who'd been in the front row [SPEAKER_01]: was missing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now she knew he had definitely been there when the photo was taken, but in the developed print.

[SPEAKER_01]: There was simply nothing in his spot.

[SPEAKER_01]: The child had been sitting next to him, even had an outstretched arm around what should have been the missing boy shoulder.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or it would have been if the boy had been there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Instead, his arm was simply suspended in the air.

[SPEAKER_01]: Holding on to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely nothing.

[SPEAKER_01]: The teacher and the cave zone her had been present at the time had no explanation.

[SPEAKER_01]: The teacher swore this was no practical joke.

[SPEAKER_01]: She was as befuddled by the photograph as everyone who has looked at it since then continues to be.

[SPEAKER_01]: The only explanation for the photo when all the other strange was it had been taken there is that it's just one more bit of weirdness about the bell which cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: After Bill Eaton passed away, his family decided to sell the cave in the property that came with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: In nineteen ninety three, it was purchased by Chris and Walter Kirby, Tobacco Farmers who soon found the cave to be a full-time job.

[SPEAKER_01]: They made many improvements to the site, adding new lights, a new electrical system, and wooden walkways to cross the most treacherous parts of the trail to the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: They later built a reproduction of the bell family's cabin and a gift shop and started offering canoe trips on the nearby Red River.

[SPEAKER_01]: After Walter passed away a few years ago, he and Chris's children took over the operations in the cave where he mains open in the summer and the falls for tours.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Kirby's purchased the cave as a business opportunity, but after moving into the brick house built by Bill Eden and restarting the cave tours, they quickly realized that things were not quite right on the property.

[SPEAKER_01]: They noticed strange sounds in the cave, heard voices they couldn't easily explain, and Chris told me about eerie, mislike shape she saw in different parts of the cave that suddenly disappeared.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like Bill Eden, she began blending the historical story of the bell witch with the real life present day experiences that she was having while working in the cave and leading visitors on tours.

[SPEAKER_01]: She had dozens of stories.

[SPEAKER_01]: And many of them, she admitted she couldn't vouch for, but there was one bit of lore connected to the cave that she maintained was true.

[SPEAKER_01]: That legend made it clear that it was unlucky to remove any kind of relic or artifact, you know, like rock from inside the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: As I've researched the cave's history over the last couple of decades, I've been able to determine, I think, how and why this legend got started.

[SPEAKER_01]: First, there was the incident with the Grave Stone in nineteen fifty one.

[SPEAKER_01]: Located in the woods about three hundred yards from the side of the bill, homestead is the family's small cemetery.

[SPEAKER_01]: In this isolated spot, the bodies of bell family members, John, Lucy, Benjamin, Zadak, John Jr., and Richard are buried along with the unmarked graves of about thirty of the bell's slaves.

[SPEAKER_01]: While almost all the crude stones that marked these graves have disappeared over the years, there is one tombstone that remains.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the marker for John Bell.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it's not his original stone.

[SPEAKER_01]: This one was placed there in nineteen fifty-seven to replace the original, which had vanished six years earlier.

[SPEAKER_01]: The story goes that three young men from Nashville drove to Adams one night looking for the bell farm.

[SPEAKER_01]: They grown up hearing stories about the witch and decided that a souvenir from the place where the story happened would be a great thing to have.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, after arriving at the farm, they began poking around in the woods near where the old house once stood.

[SPEAKER_01]: They thought about taking some of the stones from the collapsed chimney with them until they found the family graveyard.

[SPEAKER_01]: When they saw the marker that had John Bell's name on it, they decided it would make the perfect souvenir.

[SPEAKER_01]: They pride the stone out of the ground and loaded it into the trunk of their car and soon were on their way back to Nashville.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the trip home didn't go as planned.

[SPEAKER_01]: On the way back to the city, their car ran off the road, crashed through a guardrail in the driver.

[SPEAKER_01]: was killed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then over the next two weeks, the boys who had been with him were also involved in accidents.

[SPEAKER_01]: While a tow truck dropped off the wrecked car at the home of the boy who had been killed, his sister was looking through the items left in the vehicle and found John Bell's tombstone in the trunk.

[SPEAKER_01]: She was familiar with the story of the bell witch and felt a cold chill when she saw that name on the stone.

[SPEAKER_01]: She became terrified by the idea that the stolen tombstone had been the cause of her brother's accident.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, she became determined to return the stone back to where it belonged.

[SPEAKER_01]: She loaded into her car and very carefully drove to Adams.

[SPEAKER_01]: However, when she got there, she had no idea where to go.

[SPEAKER_01]: And sure if what else to do, she pulled over to the side of the road, hoping she was at least in the general vicinity of the farm and dumped the tombstone into the nearest ditch.

[SPEAKER_01]: The legend claims that it remains there.

[SPEAKER_01]: In that ditch, lost to this day.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now I believe this helped start the bad luck legend in the nineteen fifties, but I think it reached another generation when a second incident occurred in the nineties.

[SPEAKER_01]: During construction work on some nearby roads, a highway crew uncovered the remains of a native American woman.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was locally known that there were indigenous mounds on the former Bell Farm, so road officials asked if the bones of the woman could be entombed in the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the Kirby's agreed, and the remains were placed in a shallow area in the cave's front room, and the spot was lined with limestone slabs.

[SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately, though, the bones didn't stay there for long.

[SPEAKER_01]: trespassers into the cave stole the remains one night, likely as McCob souvenirs, but things didn't go all that well for them, either.

[SPEAKER_01]: Rumors spread that each of those who removed the relics suffered a series of misfortunes within days of the theft.

[SPEAKER_01]: And for this reason, it's come to be believed it's bad luck to remove anything at all from the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: So those are two of the three reasons why the story got started.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a third reason.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that third reason is because the story is true.

[SPEAKER_01]: And no, I'm not kidding.

[SPEAKER_01]: Over the years, I've received dozens of accounts for people who claim to have taken away stones from the bell which cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: Only to experience not only bad luck, but also an onslaughtest strange happenings in their previously unhaunted homes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Chris Kirby told me that she received scores of packages in the mail over the years.

[SPEAKER_01]: Each containing rocks and stones that were removed from the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: After getting their souvenirs home, those who remove the pieces began suffering all sorts of problems and weird events.

[SPEAKER_01]: They hope that by mailing the stolen items back to the cave, they might get rid of whatever was causing the trouble.

[SPEAKER_01]: The list of alleged happenings that have occurred after taking rocks home [SPEAKER_01]: have included accidents, car crashes, injuries, broken bones, fires, expensive house repairs, relationship issues, divorces, mysterious illnesses and worse.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, worse.

[SPEAKER_01]: One man took home a rock from the cave in the summer of two thousand and eight.

[SPEAKER_01]: Nothing of the ordinary occurred at first, but then he began to be plagued by a series of misfortunes, including a serious illness and injury, financial problems, and marital issues.

[SPEAKER_01]: He never connected the problems to the rock until he gave it away to someone in the summer of two thousand and nine.

[SPEAKER_01]: And a short time later, the new owner of the rock, [SPEAKER_01]: died without explanation.

[SPEAKER_01]: In the summer of twenty thirteen I encouraged a friend of mine who was traveling through Tennessee to visit the cave, but added a warning, do not take anything out of that cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well the following day I received a call followed by a text message in a photo for my friend.

[SPEAKER_01]: She went out to dinner and Nashville after visiting the cave and was apparently bitten or stung by an insect that caused an allergic reaction.

[SPEAKER_01]: The photo she set me showed so much painful swelling to her face that she was unrecognizable.

[SPEAKER_01]: You took a rock from the cave, didn't you?

[SPEAKER_01]: I asked her.

[SPEAKER_01]: She had.

[SPEAKER_01]: I told her that she needed to immediately mail the rock back to Chris Kirby, then call her, tell her what happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: It asked her to please return the rock to the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: She followed my advice this time and overnight the rock to the bell which cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: By the next day, the swelling in her face was gone.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know that many people were here this and be skeptical about the story.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I understand.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I hadn't seen it firsthand, I'd be skeptical too.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I have seen it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, if you do visit the bell-witch cave, just do me a favor, a personal favor.

[SPEAKER_01]: And don't take anything with you when you leave.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just in case.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for listening to this bonus episode of American Honings.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we hope you'll stick with us for the post-mortem of the episode.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's coming up right after these messages from our sponsors.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ready for a little more American hotings?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, besides this entire extra episode, we're giving you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, anyway, we're following up this bonus episode with the post-mortem, the part of the show after the show, where we sharpen our knives and dissect the episode.

[SPEAKER_01]: My name is Troy Taylor, I'm the guy who narrates and writes the show.

[SPEAKER_01]: And across from me is the guy who asked me to help him get rid of these rocks he picked up on a trip in Nashville recently.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's my friend, producer, sidekick, and co-host, [SPEAKER_01]: Cody back.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it puts a whole new spin on the dumb and the box of rocks.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_01]: You've been warned.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many times you've been warned?

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't or so, but I'm not going to pay any attention.

[SPEAKER_01]: Still still people just can't help themselves sometimes.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know it's the truth.

[SPEAKER_01]: I get it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I totally get it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, we're not going to go through all the other stuff that we do, you know, before we discuss it in episode.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I do just want to mention just a couple of things.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you are interested in the haunted decator tour, it was a very first tour that I ever created back in nineteen ninety four tickets for that are now on sale at haunteddicator.com.

[SPEAKER_01]: Also tickets for the all the hauntings tours go on sell this Friday August the eighth those are for the fallen Halloween tours and also on the eighth my new book comes out my new weird highway book about Route sixty six Texas New Mexico and Arizona.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the new book.

[SPEAKER_01]: That will also be out this Friday.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, Friday big day [SPEAKER_01]: On a decade or outright now, people are already making reservations.

[SPEAKER_01]: So don't be again, one of those people that we hear from and have heard from for the last literally thirty two years.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, did those go on sale already?

[SPEAKER_01]: I missed it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you did because they're already sold out.

[SPEAKER_01]: So don't don't be one of those people.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to go, you need to go because we have a limited number.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have as many staff up there anymore since John retired.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we, you know, we only have a limited number tour.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you don't want to miss it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Allton on the other hand, I've got more guides, but even so there was always sell out too.

[SPEAKER_01]: So why, why miss out on stuff when you don't have to.

[SPEAKER_01]: You've been warned.

[SPEAKER_01]: You've been given plenty of time and good advice.

[SPEAKER_01]: So get your tickets anyway.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's it.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's all I got to say other than talking about the bell witch cave.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've already talked about, but okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: You had to talk about it together now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, it won't be a long one, but I have a few specific questions for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know you've been there.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've been there a lot.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you have?

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you happen to remember like your first time or like your very first impression?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, because you know, you hear about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You read about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You maybe even see people stepped up, but then you're actually there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the first time I was there was about ten years after I'd even heard there was a cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the bell which story itself, I had heard about for, you know, a long time as one, that's one that you'd find in like every great American ghost stories book.

[SPEAKER_01]: you know, when I was a kid even, you know, and that's what I'd first heard about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the first time I ever saw it really, really saw there was a cave was in a book out of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know I've talked about it on the podcast numerous times and in different things, but it was a book called Haunted Houses by Richard Weiner and Nancy Osborne that came out in like, like, nineteen, seventy-eight or something and I bought it when I was eleven and, you know, [SPEAKER_01]: You know, did as many things that I could do that were out of the book only to find later that a lot of stories work.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's just say badly researched.

[SPEAKER_01]: I am sure they were not written on purpose to not be accurate, but anyway, I found out there had been a cave and [SPEAKER_01]: In nineteen eighty eight.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got my first chance to visit the cave and met Bill Eden and saw the cave for myself and I remember by let me tell you it was a big difference going to that cave when he owned it and then when the curbies owned it a decade later.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, a big difference because he'd ever did it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It rib much of anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he's strong.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's strong as string of electrical lights through the cave and that was about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he leveled out some stuff and put some rocks in.

[SPEAKER_01]: So because, you know, the cave does, that's flood sometimes.

[SPEAKER_01]: And, but that was about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was pretty rough, but it was still really cool to get to see it because there were, you know, stories about the cave and [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I've always tied the two together.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, obviously, you know, so have other people because it's called the bell-witch cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's actually no like real proof evidence or anecdotal or otherwise that links the bell-witch to this cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's not like she left and said, hey, well, see you guys, you know, because she said she'd be back in seven years.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm going to go hang out in that cave for a while.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, when were you to keep your food to, you don't want it to spoil.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when she left the last time, she didn't say I'll be back in nineteen thirty four, which as far as we know, she never came back.

[SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, and said, you know, I'll be in that cave waiting, but yet, [SPEAKER_01]: because it's on the property and Billy didn't call to the bell which cave, somehow it's gotten around that the witch went there when she left the bells.

[SPEAKER_01]: And again, I don't know what that's accurate.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it would seem like an awfully big coincidence that [SPEAKER_01]: You know, this, this, this haunting, this really famous haunting took place on this farm and there's a cave there that is also gotten a reputation for being haunted and there's no link between them at all.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that seems hard to believe, but yet there really is no, you know, we don't have anything hard evidence that links the two.

[SPEAKER_01]: Gotcha.

[SPEAKER_00]: you know, still.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there was never any graffiti found in there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, not like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Andrew Jackson didn't, you know, chase her into the cave or anything like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: What a funny story that would have been or even if it was something I could see them making up something like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: That would be great.

[SPEAKER_00]: He managed her to the cave.

[SPEAKER_00]: How much of this how much of your time spent there?

[SPEAKER_00]: is in groups with other people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you spent a loan time in there?

[SPEAKER_00]: How's that word?

[SPEAKER_01]: I've been there with other people.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like small groups of people.

[SPEAKER_01]: As I mentioned, the first time there was ever a documentary that was allowed to stay there.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was there and there were only four of us and half the time it was [SPEAKER_01]: Just me and one other guy, my friend, Tim, and then at other times it was just me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was in the cave by myself, which is a nerve in the first time you really get chances to stay there is pretty unnerving.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've been back there.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, I honestly don't know how many times.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, after a while, they've all, some of them have started to run together.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, were you with me that one time?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's going to one of those things.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, but yeah, I have been, you know, Chris has let me in the past.

[SPEAKER_01]: when she was very actively involved and let me go down there and in the cave by myself, spent some time in there, spent the night in the cave, that first time when I was there with the crew.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, it's a weird place and I do think there's something about it, not just because of the stories and not just because of what showed up in the documentary, but even my own impressions.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and again, it could be, you know, your ears, your eyes play and tricks on your caves are funny.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, they have a lot of sounds caves make a lot of noise, believe in or not.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, from water dripping to water running to rocks falling to bats to, I was all kind to stuff, but, you know, I've heard some things there that [SPEAKER_01]: freak me out, you know, um, convince that I heard footsteps following me through the cave.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and I say that because not, not just because it, it seems so loud because there's gravel on the floor and it's your walking.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of crunching under your feet.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's not just because there wasn't an extra loud crunching like someone was following, but because I stopped and they kept going.

[SPEAKER_01]: That was that freaked me.

[SPEAKER_01]: That that that that I think might have been.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that might have been the time that I was there and it was there by myself and left.

[SPEAKER_01]: And didn't didn't go back in by myself that weekend.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just too weird.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, it's a it's a cool location.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a place that is one of my favorites and I think one of the most haunted spots in the country.

[SPEAKER_01]: That hasn't been bought up by some commercial operation of some kind.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I mean, it's still a family that owns it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I hope that's always the case, but who knows, you know, somebody's it's bounded, you know, almost at this point, you think it's bound to get ruined by somebody.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know, but hopefully not.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully not.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I was looking at a lot of the different pictures that are online, especially the entrance, and checked out a few of the videos.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't able to quickly find the documentary that you're talking about, but I am going to keep searching.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't know if it's online.

[SPEAKER_01]: I found a, I was talking to a guy that we were talking about the cave, and I was, he was telling me, he was telling me about the documentary about where you, and I said, yeah, I'm in that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now I regrettably.

[SPEAKER_01]: because it's not very good, but it's an interesting piece of evidence.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there's some other weird stuff that pops up later at a different location in that video, but he found a copy of VHS copy on eBay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, beautiful.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, I don't know how well it held up, but it's not a great documentary.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've shown clips from it in the past at various events.

[SPEAKER_01]: And usually the opening gets a lot of laughter for good reasons.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Also, but some of some of the evidential stuff in it is kind of cool.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the guy that's hosted is just he's like a he used to be a wrestler or something.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what ever happens to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, he was like a wrestler or something.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so and you definitely get that.

[SPEAKER_01]: So man, I could I could tell you stories.

[SPEAKER_01]: But anyway, it was interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, these, these are great stories.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I know we've talked about the cave before over the years, but I like having all these stories kind of pulled together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, in the one spot and this is a nice little nice little bonus episode, and I don't want to just run through everything, but is there other stuff that maybe you didn't mention or you want to follow up on [SPEAKER_01]: No, I tried to get, I tried to get everything in there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm like I said, some of those stories, some of the early stories can, shortly from Billy and, you know, I know he was a storyteller and stuff, but I mean, it was the kind of stuff that they really didn't seem to be any reason why he just [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he might to promote the cave, but like I said, the thing was that it was for a long time, I mean, any of the science, I mean, it's just like people just found it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, well, I mean, if you can find the atoms.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you can probably find your way to the cave because there, you're isn't much there.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's very, it's a very tiny town.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, I've been there a lot in different times that there's like the, there's a, it's not even a restaurant.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's not, it was like, um, [SPEAKER_01]: like a barbecue place in the black back of gas station kind of thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then they had kind of a restaurant in this old school there that had been turned into an antique mall.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, that was the last time I was there was still an antique mall.

[SPEAKER_01]: I assume it still is, but but it was the old bell school because there are yet the name is very, very common down there.

[SPEAKER_01]: She got to remember how many kids that bells had and then they just had [SPEAKER_01]: You know, on and on and on everybody have six, seven, eight kids and then it would just keep going.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there are a lot of bells.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've met relatives.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've met, you know, people who are descendants like direct descendants of some of the bells and things, but I mean, everybody seems to have a story.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that people that live around there, you don't run into too many people who are just super skeptical about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean, does that make sense?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, you know, people will talk about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And even if they are not believers and ghosts and things, they'll still talk about the bell switch, you know, no, you know, so it's always interesting to get to visit down there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I, um, [SPEAKER_01]: I recommend it for anybody if you if you do happen to be passing through.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're coming from up around our way and see your headed down south and you're going to end up on probably on twenty four through Tennessee and and then into Georgia and if you do you're going to pass Clarks Clarksville you know like the monkey song.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Adams is like, fifteen miles in the middle of nowhere outside of Clarksville.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I do recommend it if you get the chance.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's it's definitely worth a visit for sure.

[SPEAKER_01]: Awesome.

[SPEAKER_01]: Awesome.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, the band, that's all I got.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, and yeah, I didn't think we needed a whole lot on this one once I we put it all out there, but I did I just wanted to include the story somehow and if we didn't include it in the bell witch episode, it would have been three hour episodes.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, and that just seemed unnecessary.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, so we just got to give you guys a little bit of a bonus here, but we will be back with a regular episode next week.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you are a Patreon subscriber, then you're going to today, also get the second to last episode of Monster, the Albert Fish story.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: You are going to get the second to last episode of that as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: So two things for Patreon people today.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there you go.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, let's wrap this thing up.

[SPEAKER_01]: And thanks for checking out the story in the post-border for this week's episode.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our bonus episode.

[SPEAKER_01]: We hope you love the show.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you do, I hope you'll share it with your friends, family, strangers, or people you meet on the street.

[SPEAKER_01]: Encourage into listening if you get a chance.

[SPEAKER_01]: go to the iTunes store and leave us a five star review.

[SPEAKER_01]: And don't forget that as an American Honies listener, you can use the discount code podcast for ten percent off any books, tours or events you purchase from our online store.

[SPEAKER_01]: And because you got to remember American Honies more than just this podcast.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's also books, tours, ghost hunts, events, haunted American converts, and the American oddities museum in Illinois.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you can find out everything about us that we want you to know on the website at americanhontains.net.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was very well done.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was half-assed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: This episode of American Audix podcast was written and narrated by Troy Taylor.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was produced and edited by me, Cody Beck, to find out more about the show.

[SPEAKER_00]: Check out the show notes are go to our website at americanhondixpodcast.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to find out more about the podcast, you can reach us via email by text on the hotline or on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, probably other social media spots I don't remember right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for listening.

[SPEAKER_00]: But definitely wouldn't do without you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So until next time, goodbye.

[SPEAKER_00]: So long.

[SPEAKER_00]: See you later.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, cool.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that was down behind it.