North Carolina Ghosts & Legends

The Mysterious Hoofprints at Bath

The Mysterious Hoofprints at Bath For more than 175 years the mysterious hoofprints have been a reminder ofthe harsh bargain young Jesse Elliot struck with the devil There've been lots oftales about the hoofprints, but it was just a simple thing. Like the marks where an automobile accident was. Old Ed Cutlar looked off his front porch toward the woods as he talked. The land he saw had been owned by the family for generations. "Folks used to leave their horses loose down there in the woods on Goose Creek. Some fellows from Bath, 'specially one called Jesse Elliot, used to do a lot ofracing on Sundays. "This Elliot, from what I always heard, must have been a pretty high livin', reckless sort. On this particular Sunday a crowd ofthem was down at the creek readyin' their horses and talking about what each could do. "Elliot jumped on his horse and started down the racing lane gallopin' like fury." Mr. Cutlar paused, and then wenton:"' Take me in a winnerortake me to hell, 'he shouted to his horse. "He'd no more than said it 'til the animal leaped in the air, dug her hoofs in the dirt and threw him slam against the side of a big pine." 66 Bath Jesse Elliot was killed on October 13, 1813. The story as Ed Cutlar told it had been handed down in his family for almost one hundred and fifty years. ''When I was a child we'd pull up grass and take bark and put it in the prints on our way home from school. Next momin' they'd be just as clean as can be. "One time my Uncle carried com out there. He called his hogs and threw the com all around and in the tracks. You know they wouldn't touch the corn that fell in those hoofmarks ?" He stopped and pondered a moment. "I say his death was a warnin' to people not to make such heavy impressions" was his final word on the subject. The farm house where Ed Cutlar lived, one mile west ofBath, is two hundred and fifty yards from the hoofprints. One can still see the strange looking hollow places in the ground. The holes are about the size ofsaucers. And they are bare of grass or any kind of growth. A short distance from these depressions in the earth is the rotted stump ofan old pine tree. It is said that hairs from young Elliot's head clung to the pine bark for months. Finally that side ofthe tree died leaving the other side still green and living. Nothing covers the hoofprints for long, although many skeptics, including a newsreel cameraman named EarlHarrell, have placeddebris overthem. The nextmorning he, like countless others, returned to find the marks clean and no trace of the debris in the impressions. Adescendant ofJesse Elliot confirms the date of1813 as that of his death. But according to the story of an old family slave it was not Sunday but Christmas Eve. In this version, an annual race was to be held January 6 and he was giving his mare a workout when he was killed. The Mysterious Hoofprints at Bath 67 Several years ago a man leased the area from Cutler and set up a soft-drink stand there. He roped off the place containingthe hoofprints and charged admission to tourists. Wild young Jesse Elliott may not have made a harsh bargainwith the devil. Ed Cutlerandthe natives ofBeaufort County believe that he did. Ifhe didn't, how else would you explain the mysterious hoofprints? ...