Hillbilly Files - Legends & Locations

09/22/2024

21 years ago last week, the world lost a legend.
A tribute to The Man In Black...
Graves, homesite, and family members final resting places.

21 years ago on September 12th, 2003, Johnny Cash passed away, This is a video of his home location, including Roy Orbison's previous home location where his...

09/22/2024

Hi everybody!
I got something to get you in the Halloween mood just a little bit.

These are from 2020, when the real "Michael Meyers" (AKA Tony Moran) came to Williamson, and was the official judge for my Zombie Run trail tour.
I also took him out trail riding later in the Can Am. (insert sneaky grin here)
How many people can honestly say, that they sacred Michael Meyers a little bit???
I can!!! LOL

09/21/2024

Well, I almost got to take Heather on a lake trip for our anniversary weekend.
(We meet 20 years ago this week. Not wedding anniversary.)
We got about 25 miles outside of Jenkins Kentucky, and blew one of the good tires out. Had to put the old spare back on, turn around, and limp back home.
Some days you get the bear. Some days the bear gets you...

09/21/2024

Hey guys, we will be gone till Tuesday, We won't have much signal. Everyone have a great weekend and we will be working on new videos for you 😁

09/20/2024

I think this may be one of the best camping videos so far. Everything went exactly as planned. :-)
Apparently, even the catfish were on my side, and were also trying to make a great video!! lol

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09/20/2024

We asked an artificial Intelligence video generator to make Daniel Boone walking in Appalachia. This is what we got. I think he's a drunk pimp.

09/20/2024

Home away from home

09/19/2024

They're Biting!!!

We should have the video up on our camping channel soon.
For now, I thought I would share some of my pics with you guys.
:-)

09/18/2024

Hey guys! A new video is out, please like the video to help us reach more people and grow, thanks so much =)

While looking for a certain grave and documenting the very large, and spread out Rawl Cemetery, Leo met a couple locals who told him about a mass grave and i...

09/18/2024

Have you heard the story about the girl who danced herself to death at the Harrodsburg KY Springs hotel?

If you’ve ever been to Young’s Park in Harrodsburg Kentucky you might have seen a grave there marked UNKNOWN. The story behind it is a haunting one, filled with mystery still to this day.

Back in the early 1800s, the area was home to the Harrodsburg Springs Hotel, named for the mineral springs that once flowed nearby. People believed that this natural resource had healing properties and so it drew people from all over. The hotel cashed in by hosting extravagant social functions for the wealthy visitors who came to “partake in the waters”, as they called it.

So what does this have to do with the grave in the park? Well…

A young lady arrived one night to attend a grand ball at the Springs Hotel. She was beautiful and fit in well with the upper crust, but no one knew her name or her family.

When the festivities began, she came down to the ballroom dressed in her fancy evening wear and immediately drew the attention of all the gents. One after another, they all wanted to dance with her. So she danced the night away with them.

And after all that dancing, she collapsed. There on the ballroom floor, the mysterious young girl passed away in the arms of one of her dancing partners.

In the subsequent days after her death, the hotel staff wasn’t quite sure what to do. They searched through her belongings for clues as to who she was so they could contact her next of kin, but found the trunk she’d arrived with empty; she had brought with her only one dress for the night and the clothing on her back.

The body was kept for days in hopes someone could identify her, but no one ever did. So the establishment buried her on the property under a marker that read UNKNOWN.

The town grew and changed over the next century—the ballroom burned to the ground, Graham Springs dried up—both the resort and the mystery of the dancing lady were somewhat forgotten until one night not so long ago. A woman was passing through the area on foot when a lady dressed in a fancy gown approached her. She was crying and said she had just been dancing at the Springs hotel but had gotten lost. She asked if the woman could help her find her way back. The woman informed her that the resort was gone, burned to the ground in a fire over a hundred years ago. The crying lady vanished into thin air.

Over the years, people have claimed to see her dancing by herself across what was once the Springs Hotel grounds.

Solved? But Not Really…

In 1938 Joe Sewell from Tazewell, Tennessee claimed that the Dancing Lady was his estranged wife Mollie Sewell. This was widely believed to be the solution and is still believed by some to this day.

However, a stamp collecting group found an interesting clue. They found letters with Mollie’s name with Confederate stamps. Indicating that they had been sent/received in the years the Confederate States of America existed (between 1861–1865). This would mean that Mollie was alive twenty years after the Dancing Lady died, meaning that they cannot be one and the same.

Various researchers have taken interest in this case in recent years. Todd Matthews, the program director of the Doe Network, began to take interest in this case after reading an article in 2002. Dr. Lynne Smelser, a Michigan researcher, also became interested in the case after noticing the grave on a trip to Kentucky to visit family.

Smelser found stories that the Dancing Lady actually did not arrive alone, but her companion abandoned her after she collapsed. Another story said that a man asked to be alone with the Dancing Lady then fled out the window after she died.

Rumors were unearthed about the nephew of Dr. Christopher Columbus Graham, Dr. Robert Graham who was staying at the hotel at the same time as the Dancing Lady. This is significant because Dr. Robert Graham was a well-known alcoholic who was known to be extremely violent, which is why he came to the hotel in the first place to “heal” in the mineral spring. Additionally, Dr. Christopher Columbus Graham actually paid all the expenses for Dr. Robert Graham to go to New Orleans, Louisiana around the same time the Dancing Lady died. Dr. Robert Graham even married a Mary Waterman there in 1845. Later, on a trip to New York City, Dr. Robert Graham killed Colonel Charles Loring at the St. Nicholas Hotel by running him through with a sword. He was convicted of second-degree murder, but he was later pardoned by the governor.

There were also suspicions that the Dancing Lady could have died of cholera. Now there were several cholera pandemics throughout the 1800s, none specifically talked about Kentucky but that does not mean that cholera could not have made it there.

So why would they hide a woman’s death from a common and deadly illness?

Well, cholera typically originates in the water supply. This would hurt Dr. Christopher Columbus Graham’s business, as a “healing spring” infected with cholera would not encourage people to stay there.

However, this theory does not seem to hold much weight. Cholera was not connected to water until John Snow made the connection in England in 1854, which is after the Dancing Lady’s death. Also, cholera tends to spread throughout populations. It seems unlikely that the Dancing Lady could have it and no one else in the area caught it as well.
Some are trying to get her exhumed to put it to rest once and for all.

09/17/2024

Sometimes you just can't win, but still have fun doing it...

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09/15/2024

I documented 3 mountain cemeteries today, and found something very interesting.
I ran into a local yesterday, and another today, that told me the same thing. They said that just past the cemetery that I was looking for, was an old African American cemetery.
"There is only 1 marked grave, and a big mass grave from a scarlet fever outbreak." I suspect he meant to say Spanish flu, but the point is the same... That's not something you run into every day.
When I got there, I found this strange structure (presumably a memorial), the single headstone they mentioned, a few other sunken graves scattered around the edges, and a very suspicious looking overgrown flat area, right In the center!!!

There is no guarantee that Heather's research will turn up anything about this place, but I really hope she does!
Cross your fingers...

09/15/2024

Did a little hiking/exploring/camp spot scouting/fishing/day trip/ thingy... yesterday. :-)

Just thought I would share some of my pics with you all.

The video that goes with it, can be found here. :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emeWr9Wbd78

09/13/2024

Out here slaying monsters!

09/13/2024

Whats a better way to spend Friday the 13th then to explore a abandoned cemetery with me?

Happy Friday the 13th! time to explore a abandoned cemetery!Thank you Keith Gibson for showing us this cemetery.Matewan lock up lodging link http://matewanlo...

09/13/2024

Check out this gate we came across while working on an abandoned cemetery video.

09/11/2024

Our newest camping adventure just went live!

Have you ever had one of those days, where all the little ducks just seem to line up, all by themselves??
This trip was like that...

I hope you guys like it.- Leo

Primitive tent camping on the Tug River, Kentucky West Virginia border, in Hatfield and McCoy feud country.Join this channel to support ushttps://www.youtube...

09/10/2024

The catfish are biting again lol

09/10/2024

Exploring Satellite Ridge.
The hidden spot behind Death Rock and the Almost Heaven swing in Williamson West Virginia.

The Almost Heaven swing at Death Rock gets thousands of visitors every year. But there are also some very interesting old ruins from decades ago, on up the hill. :-)

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09/09/2024

One of the worlds most famous moonshiners, named Popcorn Sutton, left a message for all of us on his headstone...
So what were those all important last words, from this living legend??? LOL

We had to redo and reupload this video because of a copyright complaint by Suckerpunch productions . There is a fair use allowance on YouTube, once you uploa...

09/08/2024

Just finished recording my latest camping video and thought I would share some of my pics with you all.
I setup in a sweet little spot in the woods, had home made chicken noodle soup with a side of expanding fryums (those were fun), and caught 2 straight up monsters out of the river!! :-)

The temps got down into the low 40's last night, and It was very nice to not be burning up in the summer heat for a change... lol

09/08/2024

Chilly night on the Tug River in Mingo county West Virginia, making beef stew. Join my camping channel for much more! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnaVhtamFgZawCh0VHGedmQ

09/06/2024

Happy Friday everyone!

Thank you subscribers and Patreon members! You help keep us on the road!If any of you would like to contribute to the "gas fund" to help go find all these am...

09/05/2024

Beautiful remote location camping. With 2 bulls, goats, and wasps of course lol.

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09/04/2024

If I had a dollar for every time I went looking for a lost severed limb... I would have 2 dollars. lol

Thank you subscribers and Patreon members! You help keep us on the road!If any of you would like to contribute to the "gas fund" to help go find all these am...