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WWW's
The Ghost of Annabel Lee Placed: 7-4-05 Placed: 7-4-05 Placed By: WWW (Formerly known as Chuck and Molly) Location: Hampton Connecticut, Windham County Rated: Easy. About ½ mile round trip, wide trail, 1 good sized hill. To print clues only, please click here From the intersection of route 6 and route 198 in Chaplin, head east on route 6. Pass Potter Road, which is the main entrance to Goodwin Forest. Go an additional 3/10 of a mile and take the first left which is "West Old Rt. 6". Go down this road 4/10 of a mile. On the left is a pull in section that can hold a few cars. Park your vehicle here. Get out and go around the green metal gate. Bear left quickly and pass a sign on the right for Brown Hill Marsh. It’s worth going up and taking a look but that has nothing to do with the clues. Stay on the trail, which is a wide old dirt road. There is a stone wall that runs alongside the road on the left. You will pass a trail that goes off to the right. The stone wall on the left ends. You’ll pass an open field on the right. Next the trail starts going downhill. Nearing the bottom of the hill look for a man made post on the left and right of the road. Go to the post on the left and take a reading of 220 degrees. Walk 59 steps off trail to a chest high stump. From the right side of this stump, take a reading of 265 degrees and take 23 steps to a waist high twin sister stump. From that stump take a reading of 150 degrees and walk to the large rock to find the "In Search of The Ghost of Annabel Lee" letterbox. After stamping in, walk the same way back to your vehicle. In Charleston South Carolina it is said that people visiting the Unitarian Cemetery sometimes see a young woman’s ghost. She seems to be roaming the cemetery looking for somebody. Her name is or should I say was, Annabel Lee. The story starts before the civil war. A sailor from Virginia was stationed in Charleston, South Carolina and met a local Charleston girl named Annabel Lee. The meeting quickly developed into love. The two would meet constantly and could not be kept from each other. Not that no one tried. Annabel’s father strongly disapproved of this relationship. He forbade Annabel to see the sailor anymore. This didn’t stop them though. Annabel would meet the sailor clandestinely in the privacy of the secluded Unitarian cemetery. This worked for several months but Annabel’s father must have gotten suspicious. One day he followed her and caught her meeting with the sailor. He was enraged and determined to put an end to this relationship. He locked Annabel in her room for several months, forbidding her to leave the house and making a meeting with the sailor impossible. During this time, the Navy transferred the sailor back to his home in Virginia and the two were doomed to never meet again. Annabel was heartbroken and deeply depressed knowing that she would never be able to see the one she loved so much again. While home in Virginia, the sailor received news that his beloved Annabel had died of Yellow Fever. The heartbroken sailor quickly returned to Charleston to the graveside of his beloved Annabel. Annabel’s father, ever spiteful of this relationship decided to keep them apart as he did when she was alive. He devised a plan so the sailor would never know which grave was Annabel’s. He had Annabel’s grave at the family plot dug to the depth of 6 feet. He then had all the other graves in the family plot dug to 3 feet. This would be just enough to not disturb the graves but enough to make them all look freshly dug. When the sailor arrived, he went to the cemetery as he would continue to do every day, and sit for hours sit by the family plot in the Unitarian Cemetery to grieve her death, never knowing exactly which grave was Annabel’s. He would come and remember how they so joyfully used to meet in the same cemetery by the same plot. Now he sat alone weeping. There is no record of what ever became of the sailor. It’s a different story with Annabel. Some people think they know the story of Annabel Lee but others say they know the whole story. To this day, people claim to have seen Annabel Lee searching the cemetery for her lost love of long ago. Perhaps this is because of the strong love she had and the abrupt ending of the relationship, never being able to properly say good bye. Her ghost appears to still be looking for her sailor. There are some that say that the poem, Annabel Lee, by Edgar Allen Poe was based on this incident. "The kingdom by the sea" being Charleston. Poe did spend some time in Charleston but most scholars believe that the poem is about Poe’s wife. I believe that the poem is probably based on a mixture of Poe’s experiences, and his imagination. Although there is no evidence, there is a possibility that Poe could have heard this story and used elements of it in writing of the poem Annabel Lee. Even though there is no proof of a tie between Poe, the legend and the poem, I have decided to include a link to the haunting poem for your viewing if you wish to read it. To find out more about Charleston’s Annabel Lee’s
ghost legend: |
