If you walk along Parkers Ferry Road late at night, you might catch a glimpse of a swinging lantern light, said to be carried by the ghost of a preacher who died when he was struck by a train one night while he was out searching for his daughter. What became of the daughter no one knows, but it is said the preacher continues to search for her to this day and the light of the swinging lantern is often accompanied by the sound of a train whistle.
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Geographic Information
- Address:
- Parkers Ferry Road
Near Hollywood, SC
United States
Get Directions » - GPS:
- 32.80320891473069, -80.40097796969349
- County:
- Charleston County, South Carolina
- Nearest Towns:
- Jacksonboro, SC (3.9 mi.)
Ravenel, SC (9.2 mi.)
Cottageville, SC (10.3 mi.)
Hollywood, SC (10.4 mi.)
Meggett, SC (11.1 mi.)
Walterboro, SC (17.0 mi.)
Shell Point, SC (17.1 mi.)
Rockville, SC (18.4 mi.)
Centerville, SC (18.9 mi.)
Summerville, SC (19.8 mi.)
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Comments (9)
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Disclaimer: The stories posted here are user-submitted and are, in the nature of "ghost stories," largely unverifiable. HauntedPlaces.org makes no claims that any of the statements posted here are factually accurate. The vast majority of information provided on this web site is anecdotal, and as such, should be viewed in the same light as local folklore and urban legends.
I have been there many times, 30+ times. Definitely worth seeing! My experiences differ from most people, and I believe people just propagate stories they have heard to make their story more exciting.
Here is my general experience, which you can compare your own to:
– I would drive up and park about 1/4 mi. south of the Church.
– I would flash my lights rapidly in a 5-10 second interval.
– I would wait for 5-10 seconds, then flash my lights again.
– I would look for a green, sickly light to flash down the road, VERY hard to see.
– Once I saw the light flashing, I would slow my flashing, but continue it until the green light turned solid.
– After the green light turned solid, I would sit back and watch.
– After a period of time (I am not sure how long), the light would turn red (a very deep, pure, scary red, the reddest red I have ever seen) and would be closer.
– After another period of time the light would turn yellow and would be closer.
– The light would sway and move sporadically.
– Eventually, when the light was close, I would turn on my headlights and nothing would be there, even after I turned off my headlights.
There were some variances in my experiences:
– At one point during one of my latter observances, I noticed that when the light was yellow, you couldn’t see past the light from one side of the forest to the other.
– One time, when the light was yellow, I noticed spark-like objects shooting out of it. It was like insects were flying at a high velocity through the light and catching on fire, zooming out from the light.
– The last time I went with the woman I was dating at the time, the light immediately showed up as we were driving up the road from HWY 17 and seemed to follow right behind us. It disappeared when we went around the bend. When we drove back, it was right behind us again, even as we got up to speeds of 120+ mph.
– While I did observe the light when by myself, the experience was always better and more apparent when in the company of a woman.
– Sometimes the light would change from green to red immediate, or completely skip over red and turn to the yellow flame-like light.
Stories that I have heard that I don’t believe to be true or I have not experienced:
– “A woman is required to come or it won’t work.” I proved this to be false as I have gone by myself and with male friends.
– “You have to turn around at the Church.” I proved this to be false as I would turn around where I parked, after I had been there so many times I knew exactly where to go.
– “You have to honk at the Church a number of times.” “You have to flash your lights at the Church a number of times.” “You have to knock on the gate of the Church a number of times.” I proved all of these false as I have not done any of them.
– “The car won’t start and takes a number of tries to get it started.” I cannot verify this is false, but I never experienced it.
– “You hear a train whistle, train sounds, or music.” I cannot verify this is false, but I never experienced it.
– “You can see an outline of the lantern, boots, or the ghost, and he turns white.” I believe these to be false as I have seen the light come within 20 ft. of my car and could not see anything but the light. However, I could not see ANYTHING but the light in that direction, including the road, and the light would not cast any reflection on the road or the car that I observed.
“Only one car can be there at a time.” I proved this to be false as I took a group of friends out there with 3 cars and we all saw the same thing.
If you do go, I would recommend the following:
– Go with a woman.
– Go with a few friends in one car.
– Go late at night (12:00 to 3:00 am) on a weekday to observe the light. I have found that if there are a lot of people, the experience is terrible, if it occurs at all. The weekends tend to be popular and attract crowds.
– Go on a moonless night, preferably with heavy cloud cover, but no rain. I have found that rain and moonlight seem to lessen the experience.
– Setup any cameras you use right away, and keep them on tri-pods or stationary. The light sometimes appears very far away and most people that record the light do a horrible job. Hand-held is not a good option for this experience (just look up “Jacksonboro Light” on Youtube and watch both videos).
If you go, you may not see the green light, at least not right away. I didn’t notice it the first couple times, and most people who talk about the story never mention it.
Sometimes a car will come up the road and interrupt the experience. Just wait until the car is gone and try again. I have had the experience multiple times in one night!
I hope this works well for you!
Seen it several times. I swear on all I love that this thing is real. You don’t have to flash your lights to see it either. It usually comes at you from the east, but its popped up behind me twice. It definitely has a lantern like shape of total blackness around it and can move pretty fast. My dad was also followed by it back in the seventies once. He said he had his speedometer buried and still couldn’t lose it until he passed a church. Not sure if it was the church on Parker’s ferry or one on the edisto side of 17. I have been to several supposedly haunted places, but never saw anything like the jacksonboro light. I’ve taken a lot of skeptic people there and made them instant believers.
Last night was my first experience at Jacksonboro Light. It was pretty amazing!!! We went to the church, flashed the lights 3 times, left went to where the light normally is and flashed the light 3 times. As soon as the car was cut off along with the lights you could see the outline of the man. My friends made him very angry so his light stayed red for a while then it turned white and got really bright. We left and came back 4 times that night and he didn’t disappoint us all four times. The night before my friends chased the light 4 miles down the road then it vanished!!! Im planning on doing it again!
i have there many times seen but this one time i had my ex girl me and we seen the light but when lel=ft and drive down the road alittle it jump right out in front of us and follwed for a pretty long ways
Have been there many many times. Have experienced it almost every time. My cousin video taped the light and in the light you can clearly see a lantern grid within it. I have been asked to leave a few times by the county police, and they claim not to be aware of the light.
Dude I did it last weekend and didn’t see shit. So this week we had 2 cars. I was the driver of the front car. We were packed in there with the front windows down. My friend was sitting next to me, he actually lives on Parkers Ferry Road across from the church. So I personally knocked on the church and said “Dude, we found your daughter” and I ran off. I hear “look” and there is a ghost next to the church. It honestly looked like aKKK clansmen, it was moving around next to church. I thought it was my friend messing with me but he was scared too. We all saw it and were terrified. But we went on to the cars and parked on the side of the road a distance from the church. We sat there scared with our windows down, not expecting the see shit and of course, I hear the damn train. I heard it again and again and my friend says “There’s no turning back now.” And minutes later we see the red light, which I heard represents the girl. And it was walking towards us. Not too much later the big lantern came up. We were awestruck. The closest it came was about 10 yards and this girl and I both saw and hooded, robes figure holding the lantern until a car drove by and it all disappeared. And later on both the lights started up again. We went back to the church and the ghost was still there, it was in a new place now. This is 6-9 people saying they all saw the same thing. Well, we left too early but on the way to Highway 17 we saw the red light following us a little bit.
This was from 11 to 12:20 at night
It felt like 20 minutes.
This is real. I live in North Charleston . I visited the road last night. I was with my girlfriend and my bestfriend. We saw the light and it chases our car with a bright red. Were on the way there now to do it again. We see green, and red, yellow.
did it scare you
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