Apparitions, sobbing ghosts said to haunt the old Snow Hill community

Wilcox County's Snow Hill Institute

I was out riding around on Friday and eventually found myself driving down County Road 26 towards the old Snow Hill Institute. The sun was up high and bright, and the weather was as fine as it could be for this time of year. Not another moving vehicle was in sight as I eased down this quiet country road that connects State Highway 21 with the Ackerville community way up in the northeast corner of the county.

I eventually came to Edwards Drive, which took me down to the stately old school grounds, where I parked for a closer look at the historical marker in front of the main school building. According to that marker, the Snow Hill Institute was founded in 1893 by educator William James Edwards and planter R.O. Simpson. Snow Hill Institute, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, remained open for about 80 years before it closed in 1972.

As I stood there surveying the old school grounds, all was quiet, and I was reminded of the spooky tales I’d heard about the area around the Snow Hill Institute. One such tale involves a young coon hunter and his dogs who were hot on the trail of an elusive coon that led them through the deep woods near the old school campus. When the hunter and his dogs got to the tree that they thought the coon had climbed, the dogs turned and ran away as fast as they could.

Even though his dogs had fled, the hunter approached the tree, but stopped in his tracks when he spotted an “apparition” sitting in the branches, staring down at him. The hunter fled and to this day, many questions remain as to what he actually saw. All the versions of this tale that I’ve read or heard provide few details as to what the “apparition” actually looked like.

Eventually, I got back in my truck and continued down County Road 26 with an eye toward checking out what old maps call Institute Creek, which is the subject of an altogether different spooky tale. I didn’t have to travel far before I came to the creek, which was low and stagnant due to the dry summer weather. I pulled over, stepped out and stood there in the quiet, listening for the sounds of a crying student who supposedly drowned herself in the creek many years ago.

The best version of this story that I have found comes from a book called “Haunted Alabama Black Belt” by David Higdon and Brett Talley. According to that outstanding book, a girl came all the way from Boston to take advantage of the fine education offered at the Snow Hill Institute, but she became severely depressed by her inability to adjust to life in the Deep South. One day, the distraught girl walked to the creek near the school and drowned herself into its waters. “To this day, if you go down to the little creek beside the school, you can hear the sound of sobbing,” Higdon and Talley wrote.

During my brief visit to the Institute Creek bridge on Friday, I heard no one crying. All was quiet, perhaps too quiet. With that in mind, I got back in my truck and pointed it towards home.

In the end, I’d like to hear from anyone in the reading audience with more details about the stories above. Also, if you know any other spooky tales from the Snow Hill area (or anywhere else in Wilcox County), let me hear from you. Halloween is just around the corner, but there’s nothing that says that we have to wait until October to share a ghost story or two.