Image from OpenLibrary.org
On February 25, 1884, Mrs. Kit Lasater, “noted for truthfulness,” was walking near her home in the New Hope township of Chatham County when she heard what she thought was a hard rain fall. Glancing up she saw only clear sky but when she glanced down she saw what appeared to be the aftermath of a “shower of pure blood.”
None of the liquid had fallen on her but it had drenched the ground and surrounding trees for some 60 feet (some accounts say yards) in circumference from the spot where she stood. Upon hearing her story, neighbors rushed to see for themselves and, when later interviewed, confirmed the story as related by Mrs. Lasater.
Samples were collected and sent to Dr. F. P. Venable, a professor at UNC, for evaluation. By mid-April he addressed the topic to the Mitchell Scientific Society. In every test performed except one, the conclusion was the same. The samples appeared to be blood. Venable could offer no explanation beyond the results of the tests, suggesting that “the subject is quite a puzzle and offers a tempting field for the theorist blessed with a vivid imagination.”
Similar cases of blood showers have been reported for centuries in various locations around the world.
—-
Never heard of blood showers before and I sure as heck hope I never see one either!
Tipper
Subscribe for FREE and get a daily dose of Appalachia in your inbox
I was curious to what I might find on Google. Here’s some more info. on topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_rain
The explanations listed at the end of the article sure sound possible.
I continue to enjoy the variety you have on your blog!
Oh, Lord–glad I wasn’t there!!
There are just unexplainable happenings, and we as humans sometimes like to dismiss them because they do not make sense to our five senses. My personal belief is that we are not meant to know everything! My Mom saw my Dad briefly appearing as a young man as she peered out a window the morning after he died. It could be said that she wanted to see him so badly that her mind was playing tricks on her. Why was he a young man? The Lord promised us a new body. No, she was always a realist like most of her generation. She saw what she saw. In our Appalachian world this was an occasional happening.
On Pinnacle Creek where my Mom’s family was raised there was one place right before the old schoolhouse said to be haunted. Both herself and a sister at different times saw what they described as a “witch” lying in a cornfield they passed on the way home. There was a very mean spirited lady who lived nearby named Fanny. The couple of times I met Fanny I got really bad vibes and quickly exited even as a young girl. Was Fanny the “witch” in the cornfield trying to deliberately scare young people? I cannot know, but just remember the unsettled feeling I experienced in her presence.
Fast forward to the present day. I write little books of memories and pictures each year to auction at our family reunion for money to maintain the cemeteries. Sometimes family will give me stories, and I try to include these in the book. It seems my cousins and some friends planned a hunting trip a few years ago in that area. One cousin was tired, and he decided to rest at the truck while the others went on in the woods to look for game. As the story goes he looked up to see what appeared to be a smoky vision of an old man, and then it quickly vanished. He was in the same area where so long ago young girls had seen witches. He was so scared that as soon as the others got back to the truck they “hightailed” it home. When they got back and told his Dad he saw a ghost his Dad was almost rolling with laughter. When the cousin described what he actually saw, they said his face paled. It was scary because as a young man some 60 years ago my uncle had heard about the old man who looked like a cloud that disappeared. Back in the day, Pinnacle Creek was as close to paradise as one could get, but in this one area there had been many scary happenings. Out of curiosity. I studied the area and talked with older folks. It seems two different men were shot at different times in the area back in the early part of the 1900’s. I wrote the story, but could not put it in one of my yearly books at the advice of an uncle. These men have descendants who still live in the county, so my story must remain tucked away. Do I believe in ghosts? I am not certain about what it is, I just know it is. There will always be those happenings such as the “Blood Shower” or even “The Devil’s Triangle” that we as humans can never explain.
Love it!!! Great Halloween story.
Hmmm………..Chatham County? That’s down near Raleigh ain’t it? Strange things happen down around there all the time. They have a big machine down there that sucks money right out of people’s pockets! People from Murphy to Manteo have been affected. Maybe somebody has been fiddling with the adjustments. Maybe they thought they had it set on Turnip when it was actually on Turner.
If that should ever happen to me, I will not live to tell anyone! That’s probably the scariest thing I will hear today. Well, maybe not. The weather is even scarier with a forecast of up to six inches of rain!
The text of the article reveals what happens with these kinds of happenings. They are considered so incredible from the outset that they are not taken seriously. That, in turn, shows we have a mindset, each in our own times, about what can be true. Beyond some undefined bounds, events must be dismissed, in part because there is too great a risk of being derided by others. When people do encounter that derision, they just go silent.
Wow. Never heard of this either. It would definately scare me
Never heard of that, Tip, and to tell you the truth it would be fine with me if I never hear of it again!
Nope read about an event similar back in Moses day, but not here, now that’d be weird.
Tipper,
I am sure the “blood shower” can be solved….
This was a collision way up high from some confused geese…One flock of geese left a bit late and was on their way South for the winter…the other flock that left a day early had turned around and was on their way back North…in a confused since the weather wasn’t cooperating…. They just hit head on above the mountain…Only thing…I would have thought that there would have been enough feathers and down for mattresses and pillows?….Shifting winds could have blown them away of course! There is always a way to rationalize these situations…in my old mind…ha
Thanks Tipper for this Halloween real truth post…