The Bizarre History Of The Devil's Tramping Ground

May 2024 ยท 1 minute read

About 50 miles south of Greensboro, North Carolina, in a forested, rural area, lies the Devil's Tramping Ground (pictured), according to Atlas Obscura. The only thing that can be said for certain about what goes on there is that nothing (or very little) grows in the roughly-circular patch of earth, surrounded entirely by forest and scrub land. That and sometimes compasses don't work properly in the area, as UNC TV Science points out.

Beyond that, all we have is a century of local lore. The patch got its name because the devil supposedly manifests there so he can plan mischief. One legend is that if a visitor puts anything in the middle of the patch, it will be tossed away by the next morning, because the devil is nothing if not tidy, apparently. Another states that animals give the area a wide berth and won't cross it. Still others say that they've seen red, glowing eyes in the circle.

To prove whether or not the devil actually shows up at night, a local news reporter spent the night there. He was not, as it turns out, menaced by Old Scratch, but he reported hearing "ghostly footsteps" while he tried to sleep.

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