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Clayton Baptist Church Cemetery, Clayton, Alabama: Legend says William T. Mullen wouldn’t give up the bottle no matter how much his wife begged. It is said she even threatened to embarrass him into the afterlife. When Mullen died before his 30th birthday on July 18, 1863, his wife erected this tombstone, reportedly shaped like a bottle of whiskey to keep her promise.


Six of Kelly Kazek's stories appear in "Weird U.S.: The ODDyssey Continues"


Mt. Nebo Cemetery, Clarke County: In this isolated cemetery off a dirt road in southwestern Alabama, concrete faces stare back at those who happen to stumble across it. Those who attend Mt. Nebo Baptist Church are aware of the folk art tombstones and try to protect them from outsiders. The stones were created by Isaac Nettles Sr., an inventor born in the 1880s. Local lore says the faces are not death masks but were made while the subjects were living by pressing faces into wet sand and then pouring concrete into the molds. Some of these unique stones have been mutilated by time, weather and vandals, but a few are in pristine condition.


Carrollton, Alabama, is likely one of the few cities in the country to have a window as a tourist attraction. And this window is the result of a mystery. Legend says the image of a face that can be seen in a pane on an upper floor of the courthouse was etched there one stormy, violent night in the town’s history. Henry Wells, whom townspeople thought had burned down the courthouse in the 1870s, was held prisoner on a top floor as a mob gathered below. When lightning struck, his horrified expression was etched into the glass. The pane is now marked with a sign so curious visitors can see it.


Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard, Colbert County, Alabama: In an isolated, wooded spot in the woods of Colbert County southwest of Tuscumbia, nearly 200 coon dogs are buried in the only cemetery of its kind in the world. Key Underwood has stated in interviews he never envisioned a cemetery when he buried his faithful companion Troop in 1937 in the woods where they so often hunted. But other hunters wanted to honor their dogs, too, and more burials followed. Dogs must be certified as coon dogs to be buried there. The cemetery is now a tourist attraction and the site of an annual Labor Day celebration and liar’s contest. It has been featured in dozens of publications and on television shows.


Oakwood Cemetery, Lanett, Alabama: Visitors to Oakwood Cemetery are often astonished to find this brick playhouse, complete with real windows, wrought-iron columns and a sidewalk leading to the front door. A peek inside shows dolls and doll furniture — and a child’s tomb. This is the final resting place of Little Nadine Earles, who died of diphtheria at age 4 in 1933. Her tragic death came just before she could receive her Christmas gift, the playhouse her father was building. Her parents reportedly held a postmortem birthday party at the site and placed a Christmas tree in the house until their deaths. They are now buried beside the small house.


Published October 28, 2008 02:19 pm - Six of those tales and eight photos have been included in a recently published book “Weird U.S.: The ODDyssey Continues."

Creepy and kooky: Weird in Alabama


By Kelly Kazek
kelly@athensnews-courier.com

In my more than two decades as a journalist, I’ve come across many unusual tales and seen many strange and sometimes unexplained things.

With a journalist’s natural curiosity, I began collecting stories and photos of oddities in Alabama. Six of those tales and eight photos have been included in a recently published book “Weird U.S.: The ODDyssey Continues, Your Travel Guide to America’s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets,” by Mark Moran, Mark Sceurman and Matt Lake.

The hardcover book is available for $19.95 at Barnes and Noble in Bridge Street Town Center in Huntsville and a variety of online booksellers.

For some weird reason, five of the stories the authors chose for inclusion are about Alabama cemeteries, which may seem morbid but the tales also are fascinating (see below).

In addition, the 343-page book includes a few other stories from Alabama, as well as stories from across the country, including those about roadside attractions, unusual collections, ghost tales, villains and heroes and many more.

After the popularity of the “Weird U.S.” series of books, Moran and Sceurman also had a show by the same name on The History Channel.

I recently interviewed Moran about the books and why “weird” is so popular.

KK: How did you get started with the “weird” series?

MM: It all started a long time ago in a land called New Jersey. Mark Sceurman and I began publishing a magazine on the oddities of our home state called Weird N.J. It focused on the kind of very localized legends that were often whispered around a particular town, but seldom heard outside the boundaries of the community were they first originated. In many instances these stories had never before been documented.

So, with camera and note pad in hand, we set off to investigate all these wild tales. Much to our surprise, much of what we had initially presumed to be nothing more that urban legend actually turned out to be real, or at least contained a grain of truth which had originally sparked the lore. After about a dozen years of publishing the magazine we were asked to write a book about our adventures.

The Marks published “Weird NJ: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's Local Legend and Best Kept Secrets” in 2003, and then the first volume of “Weird U.S.”



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