1917 Kentucky Appalachians The Horrifying Story of Nathan Burke

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Even though there weren’t many people who lived nearby in that mountain range.

There were strange lights on his land.

The kerosene lamps didn’t just give off their usual yellowish light.

They gave off something else, something stronger.

almost ghostly.

Some people who lived miles away said they saw bluish flashes coming from that direction, as if Nathan were lighting colorful bonfires or doing some kind of science experiment.

In a place where faith and superstition went hand in hand, these lights quickly sparked quiet conversations on porches and in the few businesses that stayed open during the harsh winter.

A farmer named Elijah, whose land was not too far from Nathan’s, decided to look into it himself.

Elijah took his lantern and followed the path to Nathan Burk’s Hill on a very cold night in December, when the snow was falling in heavy flakes.

The path was dangerous because it was icy, and the branches of the trees were bending under the weight of the snow.

The lights he had seen in the distance went out just as Elijah got close to the house.

The property was completely dark, except for the faint light from his own lantern.

Elijah knocked on the door, but no one answered.

He called Nathan’s name, but all he heard was the cold winter night with the wind whistling through the pine trees.

He tried to look out the windows, but the curtains were closed.

Elijah decided to go home after a few minutes that felt like an eternity, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of unease that came over him.

There was something wrong with the house on the hill and the quiet man who had chosen to live so far away from everyone.

Nathan Burke was still on his hill, doing things that no one could fully understand, even though there was more snow, more cold, and more isolation in the months that followed.

The lights kept coming on.

The rumors kept spreading.

And that part of the Appalachian Mountains began to feel uneasy.

Something was about to happen that would turn that story into one of the darkest times those mountains had ever seen.

The Appalachian Mountains didn’t see spring until late 1918.

It took a long time for the snow to melt completely, leaving behind trails and land that looked more like rivers of mud.

The trees started to grow again, and the bright green color of the leaves stood out against the heavy air that hung over the area.

Nathan Burke stayed on his hill, becoming more and more private and absorbed in his own mysteries.

Around this time, people started coming to see him.

They weren’t from the area.

They were people who had come from somewhere else and crossed the mountains with a determination that made people who saw them pass curious.

They always came at dusk in groups of two or three, and they were always careful not to make eye contact with anyone they passed.

Their clothes didn’t match the simple style of the people who lived in those mountains.

They wore hats that covered part of their faces and carried suitcases and trunks that seemed too heavy for the trip they were making.

Nathan stopped coming to the library, and Margaret the librarian noticed.

She hadn’t seen him in months, which made her curious.

She told the Methodist church pastor, an old man named Samuel, who knew almost everyone in the area, about it in passing.

When Nathan Burke’s name came up, the Reverend frowned.

He also had his own thoughts about this strange man.

A few weeks before, the Reverend had seen Nathan sitting in the last pew of the church during a Sunday sermon, watching everything with a creepy intensity.

Nathan just disappeared after the service was over as if he had never been there.

Farmer Elijah, who had tried to see Nathan in the winter, started to notice other strange things.

His animals would get restless whenever the wind blew from Nathan’s hill.

The puppies barked all night long and stared at the shadows of the trees as if they could see something that people couldn’t.

Elijah tried to calm the animals down, but they stayed angry with their fur standing on end and their ears perked up in that direction.

One afternoon, while fixing a fence on the edge of his property, Elijah saw Nathan walking down the road that led to town.

He was walking with steady steps, even though the ground was uneven.

and he was carrying the same old leather bag.

Elijah waved to Nathan in an attempt to start a conversation, but Nathan only nodded and went on his way.

He looked different.

His face looked thinner.

His eyes looked deeper, as if he hadn’t slept well in weeks.

But he also had a strange energy about him and a determination that was almost obsessive.

People saw Nathan that day buying strange things at the Pineville General Store.

Thomas the shopkeeper remembered the order very well.

Nathan wanted a lot of candles, thick ropes, metal chains, and a set of tools that looked more like they were for building or mining.

Thomas asked a few indirect questions to find out what all of it would be used for, but Nathan only said that he was doing some work on the property to make it better.

He always paid in cash and left before the sun went down.

The next few weeks were full of strange sounds echoing through the mountains.

Some people who lived nearby said they heard banging metal coming from Nathan’s Hill, as if someone had been working on some kind of construction all night.

Others talked about voices chanting that sounded like they were whispering together.

But it was hard to make out what they were saying because of the distance and the echo from the rocks.

The mood in the area started to shift.

People didn’t want to talk about Nathan Burke out loud, but everyone thought about him and wondered what was going on on that lonely hill.

Margaret made the choice to do something.

She got Reverend Samuel to go with her to see Nathan by telling him she was bringing him food donations and checking to see if he needed help.

The reverend said yes, but not happily.

One morning in May, when the sun was finally starting to show its strength after a long winter, they took a wagon and set off down the muddy path.

Margaret thought the way to Nathan’s house would be easier than it was.

The path went up steadily, winding between huge trees and rocks covered in moss.

When they finally got to the top of the hill, they could see Nathan Burke’s house.

There were new boards in some places.

Windows that had once been broken were now covered with dark curtains, and wooden stakes were driven into the ground around the property in a pattern that didn’t make sense right away.

Margaret and the Reverend looked at each other with worry.

They stepped off the wagon and walked to the front door.

The silence was so thick that their footsteps echoed.

The pastor knocked on the door, but no one answered.

He knocked again, this time harder, but still nothing.

Margaret called out Nathan’s name, but her voice was weak against the mountains all around.

They waited, but no one answered.

They were about to give up when the door slowly opened, making a noise as it did so.

Nathan stood in the doorway, making it impossible for them to see inside the house.

His face was pale, almost sickly, and his eyes had a feverish glint that made Margaret want to step back right away.

Reverend Samuel kept his cool and told them why he was there.

They had brought some food and wanted to know if Nathan was okay and if he needed anything.

Nathan listened without blinking or showing any emotion.

Nathan just said that everything was fine, that he didn’t need anything, and that he didn’t want to have visitors when the reverend was done talking.

It sounded like he was reading from a script because his voice was so dull.

He thanked them for being nice, but he made it clear that he wanted to be alone.

Margaret tried to keep going by asking about the lights the neighbors had seen and the strange noises they had heard at night.

Nathan just smiled, but it wasn’t a real smile.

He said that the mountain people had two vivid imaginations.

He said he was busy with some personal projects, but there was no reason for anyone to be worried.

Nathan then went back inside and closed the door softly, leaving Margaret and the reverend standing there with the uncomfortable feeling that they had been told to leave.

Neither of them talked much on the way back.

That empty but intense look on Nathan’s face stuck in Margaret’s mind.

Reverend Samuel looked like he was deep in thought as he held on to the wagon’s reigns too tightly.

When they got to town, they both agreed that Nathan Burke was very sick.

But they didn’t know what to do about it.

The law didn’t have much power back then and in that area.

So, people usually solved their own problems without getting the police involved who were days away.

Rumors about Nathan Burke kept spreading as people saw more and more strange things happening.

As spring turned into summer, the feeling that something bad was about to happen grew stronger.

Like a storm building on the mountains edge, the Appalachian Mountains came to life in the summer.

The forests became thick and hard to get through.

The air was heavy with heat and humidity, and the valleys were always filled with the sounds of nature, like cicas and birds.

But on the hill where Nathan Burke lived, it was like silence ruled, as if that piece of land was in a different world from the rest of the world.

Nathan had more and more visitors at night.

The farmer, Elijah, started to remember how many times he saw people climbing that trail at dusk.

There were three or four different groups some weeks.

They were always quiet and always had their strange bags and trunks with them.

He told his wife Ruth about it.

She was a sensible woman and just shook her head, saying it was none of their business what Nathan did on their land.

But even Ruth, who was very smart, couldn’t deny that the whole thing was strange.

One night in July, things changed for good.

Thomas, the owner of the general store, was closing up when he saw one of Nathan’s guests rushing down Pineville’s main street.

The man looked like he was in trouble.

He kept looking back as if something invisible was chasing him.

He had mud all over his clothes, his hat was missing, and he had a small cut on his cheek.

Thomas tried to call out to him to see if he needed help, but the man just mumbled something that Thomas couldn’t understand and kept running toward the road that led out of the area.

Thomas stood there and watched as the figure faded into the darkening night.

Something was going on on Nathan Burke Hill that scared the visitor so much that he ran away in a panic.

The next day, Thomas told some of his regular customers about what had happened.

Like all stories in that small town, this one spread quickly.

Everyone who heard it added their own details and interpretations, and before long there were many different versions of what really happened.

Margaret, who was always curious and worried, decided she needed to do something more real.

She got a small group of people who lived nearby to meet at the church to talk about Nathan Burke’s situation.

Reverend Samuel, Elijah, Ruth, Thomas, and three or four other people who lived nearby and had seen the strange behavior were there.

From the start, the meeting was tense.

Some people said that Nathan had a right to his privacy, and that they weren’t doing anything wrong by living their lives as they saw fit.

Others said that the people who lived there had a right to know what was going on, especially since so many outsiders were always coming and going.

Reverend Samuel tried to stay calm and told everyone that quick decisions rarely turned out well.

He said they should go back for another visit, this time with more people to show Nathan that the community cared and was ready to help if he needed it.

Thomas asked a very important question.

What if Nathan just didn’t want help? Margaret agreed.

What if he was involved in something he didn’t want to talk about because it wasn’t illegal or dangerous? They talked about it late into the night, but they didn’t come to a clear decision.

They finally decided to wait a few more weeks, watch closely, and only do something more drastic if something clearly dangerous happened.

It wasn’t a perfect solution for anyone, but it seemed like the best thing to do.

Nathan Burke kept working on his secret project on the lonely hill.

The bluish lights came back on stronger, lighting up the windows of the house as if a bolt of lightning were trapped inside.

The metal sounds got more complicated and made rhythmic patterns that echoed through the mountains.

There was also a new smell that sometimes reached nearby properties when the wind blew in the right direction.

It wasn’t the smell of normal food or fire.

It was something chemical and acrid that made your eyes burn if you were around it for too long.

Ruth, Elijah’s wife, started having bad dreams.

She saw the hill covered in thick fog and a single person walking in circles around Nathan’s house with a lantern that gave off a bluish light.

In the dream, she tried to get closer, but her feet felt like they were stuck to the ground and wouldn’t move.

The figure looked at her and even though she couldn’t see its face clearly, Ruth felt a chill run down her spine.

She would wake up sweating and with her heart racing, and it would take her a few minutes to calm down and realize it was just a dream.

Elijah saw that his wife was upset and tried to comfort her, but he was starting to feel the weight of the situation himself.

His animals stayed upset, and some of them wouldn’t graze in the area closest to Nathan’s Hill.

One of his best horses, which was usually calm and dependable, reared up violently when Elijah tried to lead it along a trail that went near Nathan’s property.

Elijah was very upset that the horse was scared for the first time.

Another event got a lot of attention in August.

A woman who wasn’t known in the area came to Pineville looking for Nathan Burke.

She was wearing dusty travel clothes and carrying a small suitcase.

She had red eyes as if she had just cried, and her voice was urgent when she asked Thomas how to get to Nathan’s house.

Thomas gave directions, but said the road was hard and it might be better to wait until the next morning.

She thanked him, but said she couldn’t wait and needed to talk to Nathan right away.

She left down the path just before the sun went down.

Margaret, who had seen the talk from the library window, felt a pain in her chest.

That woman seemed desperate in some way, and it seemed like her visit to Nathan Burke wasn’t just out of curiosity or business.

Margaret thought about going after her, but it was already getting dark, and she didn’t want to go up that path by herself.

The next day, Margaret asked Thomas if he had seen the woman come back.

“No,” Thomas said, shaking his head.

No one had seen her since she went up the trail.

Margaret felt cold.

“Did the woman decide to stay the night at Nathan’s house, or did something happen that kept her from going back?” She thought of all the things that could happen, and each one made her more worried.

When Reverend Samuel found out that the woman was missing, he knew it was time to do something.

The next morning, he put together a small group to go to Nathan’s land.

He got Elijah, Thomas, and two other men from the area to go with him.

Margaret wanted to go, too, but the reverend gently told her it would be better for her to stay and promised to bring news as soon as they got back.

Everyone was on edge the night before the planned visit.

They all knew they were about to face something they would rather not, but their duty to the community and real concern for the woman’s health pushed them on.

The stars shone brightly over the Appalachian Mountains, not caring about the human dramas that were happening below them.

Nathan Burke’s house on the far hill stayed lit up all night like a beacon signaling something that no one could fully understand.

A thick fog that looked like a ghostly blanket covered the valleys when dawn broke.

As the sun tried to break through the thick layer of mist, Reverend Samuel, Elijah, Thomas, and the other two men met at the entrance to the town.

Even though it was daytime, they all had lanterns with them because they knew the forest could be dark.

Even in full sunlight, there was a quiet tension between them, the kind that comes before big decisions.

The climb up the trail was slow and careful.

The rain from the last few days had made the path slippery, and more than once someone had to lean on the low branches of the trees to keep from falling.

It was strange how quiet the forest was.

Usually there would be animal sounds, bird song, and the sound of small animals moving around in the dry leaves.

But that morning, it was too quiet, as if nature itself were holding its breath.

Nathan Burke’s house appeared through the fog like a ghost when they finally got to the top of the hill.

The building looked different in that diffused light.

It seemed more threatening, and its dark windows seemed to watch the people who came in like empty eyes.

The wooden stakes around the property were easier to see now, and the pattern they made was clearly planned, but no one knew what it was for.

Reverend Samuel told everyone to stop for a moment, take a deep breath, and get ready for whatever they might find.

They walked up to the door as a group, and their footsteps echoed in the stillness.

The sound of the reverend’s firm knock on the wooden door echoed throughout the property.

They waited, but nothing happened.

He knocked again, this time harder, and said Nathan Burke’s name in a clear, strong voice.

Nothing yet.

Thomas tried to look through one of the side windows, but the curtains were so tightly closed that he couldn’t see inside.

Elijah walked around the house to look for another way in or any sign of movement.

That’s when they saw something odd.

The back door of the house was open and swaying in the breeze that was blowing across the hill.

The minister and the others looked at each other, and a silent message passed between them.

[clears throat] Should they go inside? It was a clear violation of private property, but they felt bad for the woman who had climbed up there and never come back.

After a short, quiet talk, they decided to only check to see if anyone needed help.

As Reverend Samuel opened the door slowly, he called out Nathan’s name, even though it was daytime outside.

The inside of the house was dark.

The curtains blocked out almost all of the natural light, and there was a strange smell in the air that some neighbors had said they smelled before.

The group’s eyes slowly got used to the low light, and they saw something they had not expected to see.

The main room looked very different now.

The few pieces of furniture that were still there were pushed against the walls, leaving an empty space in the middle.

There were complex symbols on the floor that looked like they were drawn with chalk or some other white powder.

They made concentric circles.

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