Bell Witch Cave
Karst cave linked to the Bell Witch haunting in Tennessee.
Its name was chosen by original operators to profit from the nearby Bell Witch legend.[1]
Quick Facts
- Location
- Robertson County, Tennessee, U.S.
- Added
- March 21, 2008
- Area
- 2.4 acres / 0.01 km²
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
The Bell Witch legend involves an invisible witch that harassed the Bell family in the early 1800s.[1] One apocryphal anecdote claims future president Andrew Jackson was chased away by the witch.[1] Dunning also reports that substantial historical investigation suggests the Bell Witch mythology was largely invented by a newspaper editor.[1] A later story about the cave involves Betsy Bell and her companions going to explore it.[2]
During that visit, a boy crawled into a narrow opening and got trapped.[2] After freeing the boy, the invisible being scolded the group about the dangers of exploring caves recklessly.[2]
What the cited sources add
The same source notes that "no caves played any role in the original Bell Witch stories"[1] Dunning further states that "virtually the entire Bell Witch mythology was the invention of one newspaper editor who novelized it"[1] The article concludes that visitors can "probably visit the cave without serious concerns of witchcraft".[1]
References
- Dunning, "Student Questions: College of Central Florida, Part 2", Skeptoid. facts only, no text reused. skeptoid.com
- Wikipedia, "Bell Witch Cave" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Barr, "Caves of Tennessee", Tennessee Division of Geology Bulletin 64, 1961, p. 394–396 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Bell Witch Cave (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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