Gypsy Heart
Gold Member
In 1872, a 180 foot paddle wheeler, Iron Mountain, left Vicksburg, bound for New Orleans with 55 passengers and crew on board. The boat was laden with a cargo of molasses and towing several barges of cotton. Two hours after the Iron Mountain left Vicksburg, another steamer, the Iroquois Chief, almost collided with a string of runaway cotton barges. The Iron Mountain had simply vanished, leaving no trace of debris or survivors. A search was mounted but no sign of the Iron Mountain was ever found
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Many years ago there was an old woman living in seclusion along the banks of the Yazoo River. Yazoo means river of death in the Choctaw Indian language. Everyone believed her to be a witch and the good folk of Yazoo City loathed her, for it was rumored that on stormy nights she lured fishermen into her hut, poisoned them and buried their bodies in a densely wooded hillside, nearby. The story goes something like this:
In 1884, Joe Bob Duggett was gliding past her hut on a river raft and heard an ungodly moaning coming from inside. Very carefully he approached the dwelling and through the window spied her cavorting around the bodies of two men. Joe Bob raced off to town and with the sheriff returned a short time later. Confronted, the old woman ran into the swamp and was pursued by the men who found her trapped in quicksand. "I shall return, " she shouted her warning. "You people never liked me here. I will break out of my grave and burn down the town on May 24, 1904, " And with a gurgle and a retch she sank beneath the muck and mire.
Twenty years later, in 1904, her curse was realized when a fire occurred and almost completely consumed the town. The next day a group of citizens, remembering the witch, visited her grave in Glenwood Cemetery and found, to their astonishment, that a heavy chain that had been wrapped tightly around the crypt as a precaution twenty years earlier, had been snapped as if by some supernatural force. Many believed that the Witch of Yazoo had, as promised, returned to wreak vengeance on the townspeople. The story is recounted in detail by writer Willie Morris in his book titled Good Old Boy.
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Windsor, circa 1860, near Port Gibson, was the largest antebellum mansion ever built in Mississippi. Because of its immense size, this stately home was often incorrectly referred to as a college by Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, as he piloted riverboats up and down the Mississippi River. The mansion's cupola served as a lookout post for both Union and Confederate patrols, and the mansion was used as a Union hospital. Windsor survived the destruction of the Civil War, only to burn in 1890, at the hands of a careless smoker.
The haunting Ruins of Windsor, with its 23 remaining monolithic columns, has been filmed extensively and was the site of filming the major motion picture, RAINTREE COUNTY, staring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Cliff.
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Many years ago there was an old woman living in seclusion along the banks of the Yazoo River. Yazoo means river of death in the Choctaw Indian language. Everyone believed her to be a witch and the good folk of Yazoo City loathed her, for it was rumored that on stormy nights she lured fishermen into her hut, poisoned them and buried their bodies in a densely wooded hillside, nearby. The story goes something like this:
In 1884, Joe Bob Duggett was gliding past her hut on a river raft and heard an ungodly moaning coming from inside. Very carefully he approached the dwelling and through the window spied her cavorting around the bodies of two men. Joe Bob raced off to town and with the sheriff returned a short time later. Confronted, the old woman ran into the swamp and was pursued by the men who found her trapped in quicksand. "I shall return, " she shouted her warning. "You people never liked me here. I will break out of my grave and burn down the town on May 24, 1904, " And with a gurgle and a retch she sank beneath the muck and mire.
Twenty years later, in 1904, her curse was realized when a fire occurred and almost completely consumed the town. The next day a group of citizens, remembering the witch, visited her grave in Glenwood Cemetery and found, to their astonishment, that a heavy chain that had been wrapped tightly around the crypt as a precaution twenty years earlier, had been snapped as if by some supernatural force. Many believed that the Witch of Yazoo had, as promised, returned to wreak vengeance on the townspeople. The story is recounted in detail by writer Willie Morris in his book titled Good Old Boy.
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Windsor, circa 1860, near Port Gibson, was the largest antebellum mansion ever built in Mississippi. Because of its immense size, this stately home was often incorrectly referred to as a college by Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, as he piloted riverboats up and down the Mississippi River. The mansion's cupola served as a lookout post for both Union and Confederate patrols, and the mansion was used as a Union hospital. Windsor survived the destruction of the Civil War, only to burn in 1890, at the hands of a careless smoker.
The haunting Ruins of Windsor, with its 23 remaining monolithic columns, has been filmed extensively and was the site of filming the major motion picture, RAINTREE COUNTY, staring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Cliff.
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