Bethel Springs, TN

Over the years, I have been to many places that are allegedly haunted. Of all these places, there is only one that I will never return.

Sadly, I cannot remember the name but maybe someone out there will know and post it. In Bethel Springs, you turn off the highway and travel a few miles until you reach a dirt road on the right. This narrow road passes between two ponds which often flood the road. After passing between the ponds, you go up a hill and there is an abandoned church. Beside the church is a cemetery.

The only legend I have heard was that the church was abandoned because the people believed it was taken over by demonic spirits.

Now on some of our visits, there has been a small wooden cross on top of the porch. On other visits, it was not there. One girl has taken pictures of the cross and it did not appear in the photos.

Once when a group of us were there, two of the boys decided to scare the rest of the group. There are double doors on the front of the church. One was open and the other was shut. They stood inside the church and planned to have one person crawling out the open door screaming while the other stood behind the door pulling his legs to pull him back into the church. As they were preparing to put their plan in motion, all the windows in the church began to shake violently and they came running out of the door side by side. There was no wind that night.

This incident is not why I will not return. Every time we have visited (and we went there more than a dozen times) the vehicle we took broke down after leaving. We had the rear end fall out of a Monte Carlo, the drive shaft fall out of a 4x4 truck, and many other mechanical failures that were minor compared to the ones mentioned. I have been stranded in downtown Selmer past 1 AM in the morning more times than I can count.

Because of this I will not return. Why not just take someone else's vehicle, you say? Because after returning when the rear end fell out my car had a flat tire -- and it had brand new Pirellis.

I really would like to know the name of this place as I am now interested in its history. I would like to know the local legend as well, but I would also like to know the real history behind this abandoned church.