Book excerpt: Just as the Blue Ridge Mountains dot the landscape of this famed North Carolina county, so do the spirits of the residents who have long since passed. At the Hickory Ridge Museum, one cabin fills with the scent of pipe tobacco just before its otherworldly resident appears, and the ghost of a hanged Tory captain rides his steed along Riddles Knob every misty midnight. From the story of the haunted spring near the Watauga River frequented by the ghost of a headless dog to the distant buzz of a phantom airplane flying high above Howards Knob mountain in Boone, these tales are bound to chill even the bravest of readers. Noted journalist Tim Bullard delves into the eerie past of Watauga County as he recounts the stories of the souls doomed to forever roam the pine-covered hills.