Devilish Names

If you’re traveling around North Carolina this fall, you may want to be on the lookout for these places. Take a photo of the road sign or community or site and send to me and I’ll post it.

 Devil’s Courthouse

Kill Devil Hills (Outer Banks)

Devils Branch  (Swain County)

Devils Nest Creek (Swain County)

Hell’s Half Acre (Caswell County)

Devil’s Tater Patch (Swain County)

Devils Bench (Swain County)

Devils Garden (Wilkes County)

Devils Race Patch (Swain County)

So what’s with all this devil stuff? According to Allen R. Coggins, author of Places Names of the Smokies, “The use of the word devil…in place names in the mountains denotes a rugged and desperate landscape. It was generally given to places that only the devil himself could negotiate or would want to spend time in.”

But there’s another good theory. There were a lot of moonshiners who had hidden stills set up in many of these places, such as Devils Gut and Devils Island. People were religious and superstitious and it’s believed that these sinister names scared folks away from their illegal activities. It’s believed that Kill Devil Hills got its name because there was a rum commonly consumed by locals that was reportedly potent enough to kill the devil himself. A popular theory for the name origin of Seven Devils is that there were seven moonshine stills located there (and supposedly the ruins of those stills are visible from the falls of Valley Creek).

You’ll find more than communities with devilish names:

Devils Courthouse (mountain in Transylvania County)

Devils Looking Glass (rock formation in Transylvania County)

Devil’s Head (rock formation in Rutherford County that resembles how the devil is commonly believed and portrayed)

Seven Devils (rock formation in Avery County)

Devil’s Stomping Ground (haunted location in Chatham County)

There’s a great story about the Devil’s Stomping Ground. There’s a patch of grass a couple of feet wide and about fifteen feet in diameter. All kinds of strange things happen in this 2 x 15 area. It is so well known that many folks have attempted to spend the night inside the circle but always find themselves well outside of the circle when they awake.

More on this story can be found in The Best Ghost Tales of North Carolina.