The Tragic End of the Steamboat Sultana

““It is with rgret i rit the folling sad noos wee was on our way to Camp Chase, got this fare on the evning of the 26th an left here on the moning aft the 27th at haff past 2 o’clock, proseded up the river 8 mils when the billers burst tore the boat all to peses sot her on fier, and burnd her to the water. tha was 1975 Solders on bord of which about 1200 were drowned. i must Con fess tha to the best of mi noledg [knowledge] brother William [Pvt. William Cowan Pickens, Co. B, 3rd TN Cav.] is A mong the lost. i hav not hurd of him Sens the explosion took plase an i hav no hop [hope] of ever hering of him eney more.” ”

— Letter from Samuel Pickens to Cynthia and Mary Pickens, April 28, 1865

The Titanic of the Mississippi River​​

On April 27, 1865, tragedy struck the Steamboat Sultana, causing the worst maritime disaster in United States history.

Overcrowded with former United States prisoners of war finally returning home after surviving the Civil War and time in notorious Confederate prisons, the Sultana would never complete the journey north.

On their way home, the ship's boiler suddenly exploded, unleashing a catastrophic inferno that threatened the lives of everyone on board. Despite the magnitude of this disaster, it was overshadowed at the time by the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln just days prior.

Join us as we delve into the heartbreaking story of the Steamboat Sultana and the lives forever impacted by this forgotten tragedy.

Additional Links for this Episode:

• Read the stories of Sultana survivors here.

Sources:

Berry, Chester D. Loss of the Sultana and Reminiscences of Survivors. Lansing, MI: Darius D. Thorp, 1892. GoogleBooks. 

“The Disaster.” The Sultana Association. Accessed February 24, 2023. https://www.thesultanaassociation.com/the-disaster. 

Elliott, Joseph Taylor. “The Sultana Disaster.” Indiana Historical Society Publications 7, no. 3 (1913). https://hdl.handle.net/2027/inu.30000132231808 

Hamilton, Jon. “The Shipwreck That Led Confederate Veterans to Risk All for Union Lives.” NPR. April 27, 2015. https://www.npr.org/2015/04/27/402515205. 

Huffman, Alan. Sultana: Surviving the Civil War, Prison, and the Worst Maritime Disaster in American History. New York: HarperCollins, 2009.

Potter, Jerry. The Sultana Tragedy: America’s Greatest Maritime Disaster. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing, 1997. 

Salecker, Gene Erik. Disaster on the Mississippi: The Sultana Explosion, April 27, 1865. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1996.

“Stories from the Sultana.” The Sultana Disaster Museum. Accessed February 24, 2023. https://www.sultanadisastermuseum.com/stories-from-the-sultana. 

“The Sultana Disaster.” American Battlefield Trust. Accessed February 24, 2023. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/sultana-disaster. 

Trudeau, Noah Andre. “Death on the River.” Naval History Magazine 23, no. 4 (August 2009): https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2009/august/death-river 

Horrors of the Crescent Hotel

“Self proclaimed “America’s Most Haunted Hotel,” the Crescent indeed provides stiff competition for some notably famous (or infamous) historic hotels, such as the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado [...], the King’s Inn Tavern [in Natchez, Mississippi], and the Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone, Arizona.””

— 'Haunted Legends of Arkansas,' Layne Livingston Anderson

The Castle in the Sky to A Hospital of Horrors

On May 20, 1886, the doors of the luxurious Crescent Hotel opened to the public in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Nestled in the Ozarks, the “Castle in the Sky” would give its guests the opportunity to enjoy a stunning view while partaking in the healing powers of the natural spring water.

Unfortunately, the legacy of the Crescent didn’t live up to expectations that all hoped it would be. Today many claim the property is tarnished by traumas inflicted within this building, which for a time served as what many call a “Hospital of Horrors.” It is this horrific past that has cemented the Crescent’s legacy as America’s most haunted hotel.

Additional Links From This Episode:

• Video analysis of Baker’s Bottles. Watch here!

Sources:

Amanda. “Unexplained Happenings at America’s Most Haunted Hotel.” Crescent Hotel (blog.)  Eureka! Historic Hotels. October 22, 2015. https://crescent-hotel.com/blog/unexplained-happenings-at-americas-most-haunted-hotel/. 

America’s Most Haunted Hotel. Last Modified 2022. https://www.americasmosthauntedhotel.com/. 

Anderson, Layne Livingston. Haunted Legends of Arkansas: Thirteen Haunted Sites in the (Super)Natural State. Little Rock, AK: Plum Street Publishers, 2015.

Crescent Hotel. “Crescent Hotel History.” Eureka! Historic Hotels. Accessed November 8, 2022. https://crescent-hotel.com/history.shtml. 

Flaxman, Larry. “1886 Crescent Hotel.” Larry Flaxman. Accessed November 8, 2022. https://larryflaxman.com/1886-crescent-hotel/. 

Hauck, Dennis William. Haunted Places: The National Directory. New York: Penguin Books, 2002. Guildford, CT: Globe Pequot, 2018.

Shiloh Museum of Ozark History. “Healing Waters.” Shiloh Museum of Ozark History. Accessed November 9, 2022. https://shilohmuseum.org/project/healing-waters/. 

Spence, Stephen. “Pure Hoax: The Norman Baker Story.” The 1886 Crescent Hotel and Spa. 2007. Archive.org. https://web.archive.org/web/20101121070622/http://www.crescent-hotel.com/bakerstory.shtml. 

Steed, Bud. Haunted Northwest Arkansas. Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2017.

Weiser-Alexander, Kathy. “The Haunted Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs.” Legends of America (blog.) Updated November 2021. https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ar-crescenthotel/.

The Phantom Hitchhiker of Highway 365

This lonely stretch of Arkansas highway is believed by many to be haunted by the apparition of a “lady in white,” who many folks have claimed to pick up only to find out that she had disappeared before their very eyes.

This episode of Southern Gothic is part of our Campfire Tales, a series of daily podcasts released during Halloween 2022!

Mystery of the Gurdon Light

“Certain natural phenomena [...] are described by nonscientists as mystery lights. Folklore however has assigned special meanings to these eerie lights. When the light is seen in graveyards, they are called corpse lights. They also are said to appear wherever a tragedy is to occur.””

— Josepha Sherman, Storytelling: An Encyclopedia of Mythology and Folklore

An Unexplainable Light seen for nearly a century…

Travel about 85 miles south of Little Rock, Arkansas along Interstate 30 and you come to the town of Gurdon. In a remote area, several miles outside Gurdon sit railroad tracks for the Missouri Pacific Railroad.  It is along a four mile stretch of track that sightings of a floating, glowing orb have been reported for the last ninety years, now known as the Gurdon Light.

While there are of course scientific theories which attempt to explain the origin of the Gurdon Light, many instead believe the phenomena is linked to a single event in history, the murder of a railroad foreman in 1931.

Perhaps not everything seen along the railroad tracks is scientifically explainable, and if not, how long has the area been that way? Is the light something that only dates to the 1930s, or is it something that has been there much longer? Perhaps the Gurdon Light has always been there, it just took people to give it a name…

Additional Links From This Episode:

• Purchase the Feminine Macabre, Vol. 3.

Sources:

Brown, Alan. Haunted Places in the American South. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2002.

Carroll, Cynthia McRoy. Arkansas Ozarks Legends and Lore. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2020. 

The Daily Journal (Franklin, IN). “Eerie ‘Gurdon Light’ is 50-year mystery.” October 30, 1981. Newspapers.com

Granato, Sherri. Haunted Rail Trails & Train Tracks: Forgotten Pathways. Self-published, 2018.

Hope Star (Hope, AR). “Slayer of Section Foreman Convicted.” February 3, 1932. Newspapers.com.

Hope Star (Hope, AR). “Eight Jurors Seated for Trial of McBride.” February 18, 1932. Newspapers.com

Hope Star (Hope, AR). “Negro Appeals in Gurdon Slaying.” March 31, 1932. Newspapers.com.

Hope Star (Hope, AR). “Death Sentence of Negro Upheld.” May 23, 1932. Newspapers.com.

“The Gurdon Light.” The Dead History (blog). Accessed April 19, 2022. https://www.thedeadhistory.com/blog/the-gurdon-light. 

Morrow, Staci Nicole. “Gurdon Light.” Updated December 23, 2014. CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/gurdon-light-1198/. 

Rayborn, Tim. The Big Book of Paranormal: 300 Mystical & Freighting Tales from Around the World. Kennebunkport, ME: Appleseed Press, 2021.

Sherman, Josepha, ed. Storytelling: An Encyclopedia of Mythology and Folklore. New York: Routledge, 2015.

Swayne, Matthew L. Haunted Rails: Tales of Ghost Trains, Phantom Conductors, and Other Railroad Spirits. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, 2019.

Unsolved Mysteries. Season 7, episode 9. “Episode 207.” Directed by John Cosgrove,  featuring Robert Stack, Diane Barton, and Wanda Barton. Aired December 9, 1994, in broadcast syndication. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drzj1Ij46X4.

The Ozark Howler

The vast, dense wilderness of the Ozark Mountains have been home to rich tales and folklore dating back centuries prior to American settlement.   One such tale is that of a vicious beast who is said to torment locals with a terrifying howl.  However, many believe this tale might just be a hoax. 

Hear the legend, folklore and history of this tale on our Patreon member-ony series “Southern Gothic: The Monsters”

The Fouke Monster

Enjoy this preview of the member’s only-episode “The Fouke Monster,” a vicious ape-like beast that roams the wooded regions of Texarkana and has become known to many as the Beast of Boggy Creek…