Devil's Tramping Ground

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Devil's Tramping Ground on May 5, 2007

The Devil's Tramping Ground is a barren circle in the forest in the Harper's Crossroad community near Bennett, NC. It is the subject of some of North Carolina's oldest legends. For at least the last hundred years, nothing has grown within the 40 foot ring and the phenomenon is thus far unexplained. A United States Geological Survey team could uncover no scientific explanation for the lack of growth within the ring.^{[citation needed]}

Stories about the ring are well known in local communities. These include the disappearance of objects left within the ring overnight, and strange events occurring to those brave enough to spend the night within its boundaries.

Legend says that this is the very place the devil himself can rise from the depths of fiery hell, and come to earth. It's at this place, the devil walks in circles on certain nights and brings his evil into this world.

John William Harden (1903-1985) of Greensboro, N.C., journalist, newspaper editor, author, advisor to North Carolina governors and textile executives, and founder of the state's first full-service public relations company had this to say of the 'Devil's Tramping Ground:'

    "The Devil's Tramping Ground, the Chatham natives say. And the story is that the
Devil goes there to walk in circles as he thinks up new means of causing trouble for
humanity.
    "There, sometimes during the dark of night, the Majesty of the Underworld of Evil
silently tramps around that bare circle-- thinking, plotting, and planning against
good, and in behalf of wrong.
    "So far as is known, no person has ever spent the night there to disprove this is
what happens..." -- John Harden, 1949