Throughout time, mankind has been a constant grips
with their own mortality. Some believe in an
afterlife. Others in reincarnation.
But what happens when a soul refuses to leave
and lingers behind.
Spartanburg, South Carolina known as the hub city
may be a transfer point for the paranormal.
There are those who whisper of a gateway where
souls crossover to reside with the living.
An entrance called Hell's gate.
My sister and I've done probably over twenty
investigations here that were on the graves.
It was founded in eighteen hundreds for
prisoners and people who were wards of the state
and this included children. In the nineteen
hundreds, a hundred of the graves
were dug up and moved across town in this spot
we think is haunted. Oakwood's been a staple in
the Spartanburg community for a long time.
It's been here my whole life. And I'm forty one. So I've
grown up knowing this place. And it's something
that you see every day. And then of course
there's folklore that we grew up with, the stories of of
parents and and things they saw and other rumors
around town and stuff that people have seen.
When you go into Oakwood Cemetery, there's two
famous parts. There's one that's the children's
graveyard, which is the back left corner
of the cemetery. Though sometimes when you go to
the children's graveyard you will see a
lot of toys left over there, like balls, toy cars,
dolls and sometimes people try to use those to
trigger objects to maybe if you put this toy there
it'll make a kid comfortable enough to come talk
to you. A lot of things that you get when you're
there are the tugging on the tee shirts or
you'll hear laughter, or you hear stuff move or
what not. And there's a tree line that separates
the children's graveyard from and area called Potter's
Field. Those are rumored to be like the most active
places there at the cemetery. Although the
backdrop story of Potter's Field, there was a mother
rumored back in the day, she went to go visit
family at the cemetery. And she had a little
young boy. And he was there playing and there's
a hill at the back of Potter's Field, that leads down
to a railroad train track. And while the mother was
visiting the family member at the grave, the
young boy fell down this hill. And I mean he died and it
bothered her so bad that she eventually took her
own life. And it is said that night time you can
be rumored to see her roaming the graveyard looking for her
child. And she's known as the Lady in White. So you
can see a mist sometimes. And we've been fortunate
to see that stuff.
I've caught a lot of
paranormal activity in there. We've had all kinds
of stuff happen.
If I don't want you there,
they'll let you know. We've had stuff thrown at
us before.
You never know what you're gonna get sometimes.
I've had equipment go down on me,
cell phones not work. I have caught orbs.
In my opinion, the orbs are balls of energy that
try to manifest. I think they they come out and
they try to communicate with you. And I think they
they follow you around just to see what you're doing.
And you know more or less something just
trying to say Hey I'm here. Notice me.
Either they have unfinished business,
or either they're scared to face
what's coming to them, no one really knows. I mean
they just can't move on, don't know how to move on.
A friend of mine and myself were walking into
the field, and I remember we was
just there. It was kinda humid
that day so it was kind of warm outside. But when we
walked into this area of the field it was like we
got hit with a cold blast. And I was like whew, Dude
that's weird! Take a picture of my arm. I got
the goosies, the chill bumps like you know people normally
get. And he start taking a picture of my arm but I
remember saying, Whew! Like it freaked me out a
little bit. Well right after that, I picked up
class A EBP, which is like
me and you talking now. in my opinion I think the
I remember getting the chills going, Whew! Yeah!
In my opinion I think the
the spirits are not evil. A lot of time when you
come across evil spirit you'll have scratching
or harm to a person. That's never happened to
me there. Me either. Or any of the times that
we've been. Some people it might just freak out.
But I mean. Whew! This, it can be the first time is
little unnerving when you're standing there and
somebody tugs on your shirt. Like whoa! But you
gotta remember, you know where you are.
Sometimes they don't have enough energy to manifest
because sometimes you have like residual
hauntings as well which is where they don't see you
and they are not aware of that time has changed.
They're stuck where they passed away. They're just
living their own lives. And actually sometimes
spirits and stuff I believe that they might
be residual in some areas and then the other
ones like the children. I think they're very
intelligent hauntings and they know that you're
there. And they want you to come play with them.
The orbs is actually kind of a pretty
thing to see. Yes. I mean you're there and all of a sudden
these lights are in the trees and then they go away. And
it's pretty neat thing to see, but I wouldn't say
they're bad. I think they're good. They're just
there. They're there. Just like you and I, they're there