The Witch of Whiteside Mountain

There's a mountain in Jackson County, North Carolina with cliffs so steep and pale they look like sheets hanging off the ridge. Dillon actually grew up in the shadow of it and grew up hunting around the area.

And for as long as the Cherokee have told stories, something has lived up there. Her name was U'tlun'ta. We call her Spearfinger.

She wasn't a witch the way fairy tales mean it. Her skin was stone, arrows broke clean off of her and she could shape shift into boulders. She had a spear-sharp finger in which she used to cut out livers. The Cherokee say she hunted those ridges for longer than anybody can remember, and nobody could stop her. She always knew when the hunters were coming. She was always one step ahead.

Until the chickadee.

In this week's episode of Appalachia Ramblin', Dillon and I tell the whole story; how she was finally brought down, the tiny bird that gave her away, and the one spot on her stone body where she could actually be hurt. We get into why the Cherokee told this story, what it was really warning against, and why it still matters.

Because here's the thing we keep coming back to: this isn't some dusty legend out of a history book. It's a living Cherokee story, still told today. And the mountain is still right there.

If you've ever driven past Whiteside and felt the hair stand up on your arms for no good reason... well. Go listen to the episode, and find out why.

🎧 Listen now:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoRHjsCQFYM

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3CKE6OI9QzVbNPpHPad8vp

👻 Shop the Spooky Appalachia collection: https://stonewall828.com