Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 08:48:10 -0800 (PST)
To: guestbook@ghosts.org
yourname bob turner
email bob4cf@yahoo.com
This is really not a story as much as it is a comment on the Joe Baldwin/Maco, NC story. An almost identical story is told about a site at Cohoke, near the town of West Point, VA (the ghostly character at Cohoke was a supposedly decapitated brakeman). I have been to the Cohoke site, have seen the ghostly light, and have pictures of it (taken by a friend when I wasn't present). Descriptions I have heard of the Cohoke phenomenon are virtually identical to the Maco stories although Cohoke isn't quite as lively as old Joe. I saw it only for one brief moment as a faint, distant glimmer.
My visits to Cohoke were 30 years ago. Subsequently, I visited Maco about 25 years ago and, although I didn't see old Joe, I did talk to a former local person who had seen the phenomenon and was very impressed with it. Then, a few years later, I became acquainted with persons in the Nashville, Tennessee area who knew about an identical phenomenon at a nearby site called Chapel Hill. Subsequently, I have learned through research that there are perhaps a score or more sites around the US where the similar apparition occurs, generally with the same explanation of a decapitated railway worker or passenger searching for his head. In no case has documentation of the veracity of the tale been forthcoming. In a number of cases, I think Maco included, the railroad is a thing of the past and the tracks have even been removed, but the light still appears at the site. I have one photo of the Cohoke light off in the woods beside the track.
There is a web site for Cohoke although I haven't checked to see if it's still active. I don't have the URL but the title is "The Light at Cohoke" if you want to search for it.
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