A new book of ghost stories and nostalgic tales, Elk River Ghosts, Tales and Lore by Mack Samples is now available. These twenty-one stories paint an accurate picture of what it was like to grow up and live along the Elk River a couple of generations ago.
Pull up a chair and join author Mack Samples as he recounts tales from along the Elk River. The Porter's Creek Ghost tells the tale of an American Indian who purportedly drowned in one of his boats in a "big tide" along the Elk, his splashing and struggles being detected by shy horses and locals for a century. In The Northern Lights, chuckle along with Samples as local Elk River Pentecostals who observed aurora borealis believed that the end was truly near, with the righteous rejoicing and the less-than-righteous beginning to panic. In The Mystery Buck, an enormous eight-point buck appears to torment hunters for more than a quarter century, apparently impenetrable to bullets.
Many of the stories have been passed along for a century around campfires and coffeepots. Some of the stories center around factually based incidents that actually occurred in the Elk River Valley, a few during the author's lifetime. Above all, Samples has painted a realistic portrait of life as it was several generations ago in West Virginia. Samples credits his late aunt, Mayme Samples Cole, with many of the ghost stories, and remembers the cousins often being afraid to walk home after evenings at Aunt Mayme's. His ninety-three year old mother, Velva Kennedy Samples, has refreshed his memory on many of the stories and filled in some critical facts.
