In the mountains of Southwest Virginia, there are places people don’t talk about unless you ask, and even then, you might not get much more than a short answer and a look that tells you not to press it any further.

This week on Roots & Shadows: The Real Appalachia Podcast, we travel to a quiet holler in Rich Valley, where stories have been passed down for decades about something that has been seen there, something that doesn’t quite make sense, and something that, according to the people who’ve experienced it, has never really left.

What started in the 1970s with two men standing at the top of the holler quickly turned into something more. Both of them saw the same thing in broad daylight, a white object moving across the road, up the bank, and toward a house, and not long after, tragedy followed. Years later, that account would still be told the same way, with no change in the details.

Over time, other stories began to surface. A group of sisters who grew up in and around that holler described seeing something from time to time, not every visit, but often enough that it stopped feeling like coincidence. They spoke about a tall white figure, something shaped like a person but not quite right, and more than anything, they described the feeling that came before it. A sense that something wasn’t right, something that made the hair stand up on the back of their necks before they ever saw anything at all.

There were other moments too. Strange sounds with no clear source. A heavy impact against the side of a house that left no mark behind. And a belief passed down in that area that if something falls and you don’t go find out what it was, it can bring bad luck.

At one point, someone from outside the community came into that holler believing something was tied to the land itself, something that had been there for a long time and never left. What came of that is still unclear, but the stories didn’t stop.

Not everyone who has spent time there has experienced anything unusual. Some people have lived in that holler for years and never once seen or felt anything they couldn’t explain. And that matters, because in a place like this, both of those things can be true at the same time.

And even now, those stories continue.

In 2020, a young girl who had grown up hearing about that holler went looking for it, expecting nothing more than a good story. But what she saw that night matched descriptions that had been passed down for generations, down to the smallest detail, something she had never been told before.

Because in Appalachia, you’ll always find both.

The roots, in the land, the families, and the history that’s been carried forward for generations.

And the shadows, in the stories people remember, the things they’ve seen, and the moments they can’t quite explain.

And sometimes, the truth sits somewhere in between.