Forty-five years ago a writer for the Selma Times-Journal named Kathryn Tucker Windham published a book of old ghost stories entitled 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey. This book spawned six additional volumes of ghost stories which have served to inspire the curiosity, and perhaps haunt the dreams, of schoolchildren in the South for decades. This series of nightcaches is inspired by the 13 Alabama Ghosts.
The grizzled old sea captain kept to himself. He had recently moved into a house on Mobile's State Street, and was often seen pacing restlessly in his yard, always wearing his captain's cap and blowing clouds of smoke from his pipe.
Rumors abounded that the Captain had left his ship after a disagreement with another officer. He had a few visitors in the early days, friends who had traveled the seas with him, but gradually they came less and less frequently, and then ceased entirely. The Captain was obviously lonely, but he rebuffed all approaches from his neighbors. Perhaps he could not relate to landlubbers who had never known the seas as he had.
His longing for the seas often drove him to the docks where he stood smoking his pipe and watching the freighters load and unload their cargoes all day long. Late on those afternoons, he would salute a ship leaving the harbor and head toward home, never looking back. Often he stopped to rest on a bench beneath the giant oaks in Bienville Square, smoking silently with his thoughts.
Eventually, the loneliness of the Captain's life got the better of him. After a day spent at the wharves, admiring the ships and chatting with sailors, he returned to his home, stopping only briefly to watch the fish swim around the basin of the fountain in Bienville Square. Finally, not long after he entered his house, neighbors heard the crack of a gunshot, followed by the sound of someone falling downstairs. Forcing their way inside the house, these neighbors found the Captain dead at the foot of the staircase, the pistol still in his hand and his pipe still smoldering.
After William Smallwood and his family moved into the house, they began to hear sounds in the night, like that of someone falling downstairs. Investigations always turned up nothing. Mrs. Smallwood was startled to see a strange man standing in her garden one morning walking among the flowers. To her terrified amazement, he slowly vanished as she stared at him. Her description of the specter matched that of the Captain perfectly, down to the cap on his head and the pipe in his mouth.
Often Mrs. Smallwood would smell the strong aroma of tobacco smoke drifting into the kitchen window, but was unable to determine the source. The Captain appeared to the servants and the family again and again, wandering the house and grounds and disappearing whenever someone spoke. Eventually, the family had no choice but to leave the home to the Captain, who still wandered the place where he had taken his life.
Now a few words of caution, remember you are in a forest. The terrain may be uneven at times. This trail is only accessible by foot. It will take an hour or more to hike the entire trail. Bring water, bring batteries for your torch of choice (and maybe your GPS), and please bring a buddy or two. Oh, and be sure to try and keep that imagination in check as you journey down our little trail.