Why Does TikTok Believe The Appalachian Mountains Are Haunted?

If you pay attention to reputable sources, the scientific community is fairly unanimous in stating that ghosts and the afterlife don't exist. Skeptics make it their life's mission to find earthly reasons for paranormal activity and unexplained mysteries. As for mythical monsters like Bigfoot caught on camera, that's easy enough to dismiss as a hoax. Yet the arrayed forces of science and reason does little to dissuade many people from believing in the supernatural — in a 2024 survey, 41% of Americans stated they believe in things that go bump in the night. Our fascination with the paranormal provides plenty of material for TikTok users who post about strange occurrences and the Appalachian Mountains are a hotspot, if content creators creeping themselves out by walking in the woods at night are to be believed.

It isn't hard to see why TikTokers and amateur paranormal researchers are attracted to the Appalachians. It is a vast sparsely-populated area spread across 13 states, and it is the source of some of the most well-known myths and legends in the United States. The mountainous and heavily-forested region is home turf for the Bell Witch, the Wampus Cat, the Wendigo, and a few of its mysteries have fully crossed into mainstream pop culture — the Mothman received its own movie ("The Mothman Prophecies") and the Brown Mountain Lights provided inspiration for an episode of "The X-Files" ("Field Trip"). But what are the deeper reasons why people believe that the Appalachians are so haunted?

Ghost stories are timeless and every state in America has its own popular urban legends. People like to get spooked and for many, it is a fun form of nostalgia. In a modern world where we can study subatomic particles in the Large Hadron Collider and observe the black hole at the center of our galaxy, it sometimes feels like there are few things left unexplained. Yet, as Arthur C. Clarke once said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," and tales of the supernatural hark back to times when there was still much mystery in the world. 

It follows that myths and legends are often attached to old places, and the Appalachian Mountains are extremely ancient. The core foundations of the range, running 2,000 miles from northern Alabama to Canada's Newfoundland and Labrador, are around 1.2 billion years old. They pre-date Saturn's rings and were formed when all Earth's continents were one –- the northernmost part of the fledgeling mountain chain eventually drifted away to create the Highlands of Scotland. 

Nature can inspire awe and terror in equal measure, and folklore in the Appalachian region dates back many centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America. Some examples are old cautionary tales that evolved into fearsome monsters roaming the forest, preying on the unwary. Much of the Appalachians appear very old and wild compared to more densely-populated parts of the country, and as such they still provide a haven for ghosts and unexplained mysteries.

A cinematic take may also explain why so many TikTokers believe that the Appalachian region, and the countryside in general, is haunted. Consider the uncanny genre of folk horror which originated with the "Unholy Trinity" of "Witchfinder General," "The Blood on Satan's Claw," and "The Wicker Man," and enjoyed a resurgence in last decade with films like "The Witch" and "Midsommar."

Folk horror tales often concern urban-dwellers who venture out of their comfort zone into the country and fall foul of strange rural practices and/or the supernatural. While it has its roots in British cinema, there are notable examples from all over the world. In the United States, folk horror crosses over with other subgenres like hicksploitation, Southern Gothic, and backwoods horror.

When you consider that around 80% of Americans live in cities, that makes most of them the kind of people represented by the protagonists in folk horror. If you live in a city where the lights never go out and your local store is open 24 hours, a visit to a sparsely-populated rural area can seem unnerving. Cities and towns have their haunted house stories and urban legends, too, but folkloric tales of witches and strange creatures tend to be more ancient and primal. There is a quote from "The Blood on Satan's Claw" that perhaps sums up our unease and fear of the natural landscape best: "You come from the city. You cannot know the ways of the country."