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Seismic Ghost Stories

Popular Mechanics US

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July - August 2025

ЈUST ABOUT EVERY TOWN IN AMERICA has its local legends-the scary stories told at sleepovers or around campfires that someone's friend or cousin always swears they totally saw for real one time.

- Michael Natale

Seismic Ghost Stories

In the town of Summerville, South Carolina, they have the tale of the "Summerville Ghost." The story involves a man who either worked for the railroad or simply walked along the tracks every day, depending on which version you hear. (The story's been told since the 1950s, so some details vary over time.)

One day, that man was struck by a train coming down the tracks that ran between Charleston and Summerville, and in some versions of the story, he was even decapitated. But the Summerville Ghost isn’t the spirit of the headless man who died on the tracks. Instead, it’s supposedly the man’s wife. As the blog South Carolina Haunted Houses summarizes:

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