Robert Seviers Ride

In 1780 Captain Robert Sevier with a group of frontier patriots called The Overmountain Men struck a blow for American independence on the Carolina frontier. He left his home in Tennessee and although successful in his mission, he never made it back home. His ghost has been sighted many times on a stretch of highway in Avery County NC. During the battle at King's Mountain, Robert took a musket ball to the kidney. A field doctor told him he would recover and the ball could be removed if he would rest. Stubbornly Robert refused to remain behind and instead though he was barely able, mounted his horse and set out for the ride back with his nephew, James Sevier. After about nine days of travel the two reached the banks of the Toe River in what is now Mitchell County. There Robert fell very ill from an infection and died. James buried him on site under a huge Oak tree. Local folks swear that he walks along US 19E in Avery County not far from the place where he died. Pedestrians walking this road sense and hear someone following them. When they look they see no one. Sometimes approaching hoof beats are heard but the horse never appears. It is said that after Robert died that James could not control his horse. Perhaps the horse goes looking for it's missing rider. Either way horse and rider roam eternally just trying to find their way back home.