The Spirits of Lake Norman

Posted: 04.25.2025 | Updated: 04.25.2025

At the southwestern corner of North Carolina sits one of the state’s largest man-made lakes: Lake Norman, a body of freshwater covering 32,000 acres. It’s a picturesque summer getaway, but there’s a mystery that surrounds this man-made attraction. 

Something lingers underneath that guards a darker past. It leaves believers wondering if it’s not just part of the eeriness that can be felt in its calm waters, but a catalyst for nearby spiritual activity. Without further ado, let’s delve into some of the haunting stories that surround Lake Norman. 

Curious as to what spirits lurk in the shadows of North Carolina? Perhaps you’re just really into the history that surrounds Charlotte. Why not partake in both, with a ghost tour through this exciting, yet spine-tingling city? Visit our site today and book your spot with Queen City Ghosts! Don’t forget to also check out our blog for more upcoming stories on America’s most haunted sites. 

Is Lake Norman Haunted?

Still, eeriness surrounds Lake Norman with its plethora of ghostly legends. Not to mention, it’s believed to be home to a gargantuan monster that lurks in the shadows of its murky depths. Just the history of the lake alone is enough to make non-believers wonder if there are things in this world we just can’t explain. 

History of Lake Norman

The idea for Lake Norman was concocted in the 1890s. An engineer working on the Niagara Falls dam proposed damming the Catawba River for hydroelectricity to James Buchanan Duke, the founder of what is presently known as Duke Energy. He hired the Catawba Power Company to carry out the project. 

The lake was completed in 1963 and named after Norman Atwater Cocke, a former president of the then-known Duke Power. It was bittersweet, however. Electricity and fresh water would be available to the surrounding residents, but it also submerged several chapters of the site’s history under water. 

It was once home to the indigenous people of the Catawba Tribe. It then became the site of a Revolutionary War battle fought in 1781. A number of bodies littered the ground that day on the site of what is now known as the Battle of Cowan’s Ford. It’s not clear if all of the victims from that day were given a proper burial. 

It later became the site of a 19th-century mill and a surrounding village. Few residents were able to relocate their homes before the lake was made. Everything else —stores, homes, even a cemetery — was left to drown in the waters below.

Lake Norman is still operational while providing a simple nature getaway. For those familiar with its history, an eerie feeling still lies on the water’s surface, however. It’s not just its underwater ghost town, but a notorious monster that lurks in the murky shadows beneath. 

The Lake Norman Monster

Lake Norman is home to some of North Carolina’s most unsettling stories. The most terrifying of which dwells in the lake itself, an aquatic cryptid that has turned the ruins of a ghost town into aquarium decorations—the Lake Norman Monster.

It’s more commonly referred to by what locals have dubbed it — Normie, North Carolina’s own version of the Loch Ness Monster, and no less terrifying. Eyewitness accounts vary from glowing eyes to a monolithic-sized fish or crocodile as big as a stretch limo. 

One theory suggests Normie was the result of genetic experimentation. Its origins may go back even further, however. The Catawba Nation held stories of monstrously large snakes and tremendous leech-like monsters. 

Skeptics have chalked Normie up to nothing more than a realistic animal sighting sprinkled with panicky imagination. That still doesn’t stop visitors, even news crews, from trying to catch sight of it. It ultimately remains a mystery if there’s any truth to the legend of this notorious aquatic monster. 

The Holly Bend Historic House

Approximately six miles south of Lake Norman, at a bend of the Catawba River, is the Holly Bend Historic House.  It was bequeathed to its original owner, Robert Davidson, by his father, Major John Davidson, a Revolutionary War officer.  

Davidson converted the 420 acres into a plantation and built a house on it sometime between 1795 and 1800, known as the Holly Bend Historic House. He became the wealthiest planter in Mecklenburg County at one point, owning 109 enslaved people who worked on over 2,000 acres of land. 

The Holly Bend Historic House remains private property to this day. Some say its owners aren’t the only ones residing in the home. The hauntings at the Holly Bend Plantation were so intense at one point that they almost broke up a marriage. The owner’s wife left and refused to come back to the house because she kept hearing children playing underneath the porch. 

It’s certainly startling, but not nearly as terrifying as something else she would also see frequently: bodies hanging from the trees in the backyard. The owners eventually invited the Charlotte Area Paranormal Society to investigate. 

Another incident happened just before nightfall. A member of the team was standing in the backyard. She looked off to the left at a large field and saw the ghostly figure of a young man or teenager running through wearing overalls. 

The Bostian Bridge

Head north, to the opposite side of Lake Norman in Iredell County, where a 60-foot, 5-span bridge of stone and brick still stands: the Bostian Bridge. Its name may be obscure to visitors, but for North Carolinian natives, it holds an infamous echo of the past.

It’s part of the Western North Carolina Railroad, commissioned in 1855 in response to a crop failure in the west. Citizens urged the building of a railroad that connected the eastern and central counties with Asheville. The railroad was completed in the early 1890s. 

It wasn’t long after that when disaster struck on August 27, 1891.  A steam locomotive departed from Statesville at  2:30 a.m. It was traveling faster than usual to make up for lost time when it derailed on the Bostian Bridge. The train was airborne, plunging 23 people 153 feet to their deaths. 

It’s been a century since the tragic derailment happened. Yet rumors and legend persist that the loss of life that occurred on that day has led to it being haunted. Even more so, the tragedy at the Bostian Bridge has only been compounded in the time since. 

It goes without saying that it’s dangerous and illegal to stand near or on a railroad track, especially on the Bostian Bridge. One need only look at what happened to a team of amateur ghost hunters several years earlier as to why. They were looking for evidence of paranormal activity on the anniversary of the train derailment that happened over a century ago. 

Hauntings on the Bridge

Legend has it that around this particular date, passersby can hear and see a phantom train, along with several apparitions. The earliest recorded account of this ghostly activity goes back to 1941. 

A woman was waiting along the road that ran beside the railroad tracks near Statesville. Her husband went to get help when their car had a flat tire. She heard a loud locomotive whistle and saw headlights appearing down the tracks.

The train was about to cross when it crashed and fell off the bridge. The woman rushed over to a site filled with wreckage, deafened by screams and groans in the nearby creek. She ran back to a car that pulled up on the road behind her with her husband and a stranger inside. The men followed her back to the scene of the wreckage, but there was nothing.  

Fast forward to 2010, an amateur team of ghost hunters trespassed onto the railroad, hoping to have the same experience. Indeed, they thought they had until they realized it was a real Norfolk Southern train. All but two made it to safety. One was struck and killed, while another was severely injured by a 30 to 40-foot fall. 

Haunted Charlotte

It’s been said that water is a conduit for spiritual activity. How much more for a lake that is potentially a resting place for the dead and home to an aquatic monster? A haunted plantation where the bodies of the dead quietly sway in the gentle breeze, and a ghost train doomed to forever repeat its tragic course on the anniversary of its disaster. And at the center of it all is Lake Norman. 

There are places in this world that defy explanation and logic, where the veil between the living and the dead fades away. Curious enough to know where one can find such a place in North Carolina? Better yet, why not take an up-close ghost tour through some of them?  Visit our site today and join Queen City Ghosts on an adventure through some of Charlotte’s most haunted sites around, where someone or something is always watching you. Be sure to also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for awesomely scary updates!

Sources:

• https://www.visitlakenorman.org/blog/stories/post/diving-in-history-of-lake-norman/
• https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2024/01/12/battle-cowans-ford-l-22#:~:text=The%20original%20site%20of%20the,lake%20on%20September%2028%2C%201959.
• https://www.wral.com/story/abandoned-town-monster-beneath-nc-lake-6-eerie-legends-with-real-historic-roots-in-nc/19351942/
• https://www.wcnc.com/article/features/lake-norman-north-carolina-flooded-history-ghost-towns-plane-crash-normie-the-monster/275-e8ce8510-f29b-449f-80d6-3c920f55aca7
• https://hl.mecknc.gov/Properties/Designated-Historic-Landmarks/huntersville/holly-bend-house
• https://www.lakenormanpublications.com/articles/local-people-share-ghostly-tales/#:~:text=Holly%20Bend%20Plantation%2C%203701%20Neck,residents%20and%20others%20invited%20in.
• https://www.ncpedia.org/bostian-bridge-train-wreck
• https://www.ncpedia.org/western-north-carolina-railroad
• https://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/08/27/north.carolina.ghost.train/index.html
• https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/tar-heel-junior-historian-2008-fall-v.48-no.1/3700444?item=5370150