the official haunted house/cave/old cabin/abandoned mine thread (Johnson City: houses, campground)

[dan catalyst]

im looking to make the best of what little decent weather we have left this year.im new to the area and would like to explore some old abandoned cabins, or caves near the tri cities.
ive heard of ''the 5 caves'' near the sensabaugh tunnel in kingsport,but have heard there might not be much there.sesabaugh,on the otherhand ive heard some crazy noise while in there.it sounds like a huge blast of air rushing past,but just the noise no wind.
im sure there is some other fun places to explore around here,i have only lived here a couple months,so i dont know were to look.so, please share!

[Beretta]

Originally Posted by dan catalyst

im looking to make the best of what little decent weather we have left this year.im new to the area and would like to explore some old abandoned cabins, or caves near the tri cities.
ive heard of ''the 5 caves'' near the sensabaugh tunnel in kingsport,but have heard there might not be much there.sesabaugh,on the otherhand ive heard some crazy noise while in there.it sounds like a huge blast of air rushing past,but just the noise no wind.
im sure there is some other fun places to explore around here,i have only lived here a couple months,so i dont know were to look.so, please share!

There's an old thread on here about caves. I don't have time to find it now but will look later on. I grew up in Kingsport and as a teen we went to a lot of the caves. More hype than anything. Be careful exploring abandoned cabins; people don't take to uninvited visitors on their land.

[kamoshika]

Five Caves, a long-abandoned quarry, is an interesting place but I don't know how accessible it is these days. I went there probably 20-25 times as a teenager growing up in Kingsport. The "caves" can be pretty spooky at times and the large icicles hanging from the ceilings in winter are cool to see. Much more harrowing (and stupid!) was walking from the caves up to the RR tracks and crossing the bridge over the river; we literally had to run for our lives more than once.

The best local cave I know of is Worley's AKA Morril's AKA Morrell Cave:
TDEC: DNH: Morril's Cave State Natural Area

FWIW, I've also heard from several people (including two who supposedly went in themselves) that a tunnel or cave passage runs underneath Holston Army Ammunition Plant, starting somewhere on the other side of 11-W. Many tons of high explosives are supposedly stored in there. It's also been rumored for many years that part of Bays Mtn. is hollowed out to serve as a storage facility for high explosives. I definitely do not recommend poking around to find these places, however.

RE: haunted houses, try Googling the terms "Rotherwood Mansion" and "Joshua Phipps."

[Beretta]

Kamo - we did the railroad tracks thing too! D-B kids didn't have much else to do back then!

I dated a man that owned Rotherwood Mansion back in the early 80's and spent a lot of time there. He was a developer and did the Montrose Court project in Johnson City around then. He was going to do a lot with RM but ended up just selling it. I remember the black snakes in the basement. Ewww! But overall, I remember such beauty about the place. I never experienced the spirits that have been reported there and I spent a lot of time inside and out. I am glad that the house has a loving owner now. Later, I purchased a home in Rotherwood Estates and again spent quite a bit of time near the water and the mansion and never had any spooky experiences.

There are some very haunted places in Kingsport; however. There are a lot of Indian spirits around the area.

[kamoshika]

Originally Posted by SmokyMtnGal

Kamo - we did the railroad tracks thing too! D-B kids didn't have much else to do back then!

I dated a man that owned Rotherwood Mansion back in the early 80's and spent a lot of time there. He was a developer and did the Montrose Court project in Johnson City around then. He was going to do a lot with RM but ended up just selling it. I remember the black snakes in the basement. Ewww! But overall, I remember such beauty about the place. I never experienced the spirits that have been reported there and I spent a lot of time inside and out. I am glad that the house has a loving owner now. Later, I purchased a home in Rotherwood Estates and again spent quite a bit of time near the water and the mansion and never had any spooky experiences.

There are some very haunted places in Kingsport; however. There are a lot of Indian spirits around the area.

Wow, I thought the railroad bridge adventure was just a "guy thing!"

Have you ever seen this article?
http://www.johnsonsdepot.com/chicago.../pickering.pdf

Speaking of Rotherwood Estates, a cousin of mine who's a long-time collector of Native American artifacts told me that the land there was once an extensive Indian burial ground. Apparently, several dozen graves were uncovered when the land was cleared & graded for development. Unfortunately, according to my cousin, the state archaeologist was not contacted and proper (legal) disinterment/reburial procedures were not followed.

I hate to think of all the human remains & and artifacts that must've been destroyed as Eastman took over the Cherokees' sacred Long Island. If some of the Indian spirits hanging around Kingsport are angry, it's completely understandable.

[back woods boy]

Are there any more caves around kingsport

[rccrain]

No cabins/caves; just google - 'okolona exit'.

[Jim37680]

The reference to caves running under Holston Ordinance brings back memories from the late sixties. The geology of the area on the north side of HOW does support cave formation and this geology extends well to the north of 11W. About 1966 a friend of mine and I did a bit of exploration along Bays Cove Trail just before a wave of house building. We found a small cavern entrance about 50 feet from the fence of HOW within sight of the HQ building. It descended about 20 feet to a small "stand up" chamber. Out of this chamber and running under the fence was a mostly dirt filled passage of indeterminate length. It was too tight for us to attempt entry, BUT someone had been working at digging down the passage and enlarging it. Remember, this was the Vietnam and cold war era with HOW operating all line 24/7 and there were "commies" behind every bush (no pun intended). I reported this to a lady I knew that worked in the Commanders office and was later told that they had checked the cave and had it sealed.

At this time very few houses had been built in that north area of Bays Cove. We observed a number large "rockhouse" overhangs in sinkholes that had logs apparently pushed into entrances by heavy equipment to seal whatever access existed. One such apparent sealed entrance was in the curve of Bays Cove Trail right behind Cornerstone Church. This opening was filled with debris that appeared to include an entire car body of the "T Model" type (the frame, front bumper, and front fenders were sticking out of the debris). There were no houses within sight of this location at that time. This was on the northwest side of the very, very large sinkhole that occasionally fills with water and floods Lochwood Road these days. There was a strange structure of metal that looked like a vent stack that came out of the ground near where lockwood Road was later built. It may have been there for drainage purposes (into cave system) but it disappeared as the area was built over. I drove through there recently and couldn't recognized many of the places we explored with all the development.

Back then there were two very well known and visited caves in the hills north of Allendale area near Ross Campground and also near Sensabaugh Tunnell.

Near Kingsport the bluffs at Cliftside have the best cave potential. Access to this system was compromised when the Dennis Bypass was built but the caves are still down there.

[blindsolitude]

Besides caves, any other supposedly haunted areas in the Tri-Cities? I know my boyfriend would love to explore those places.

[mbmouse]

I hear the old Hills department store (now Russo Orleans) has a resident ghost, but not sure if that is the kind of place you are looking for?