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For ghostly goings-on, paranormal researcher Joshua Snipes ranks Lincoln County right on top.
While recently filming a documentary about haunted historic places, he felt someone, or something, looking at him.
Nothing was there, but his ghost-hunting thermometer and electromagnetic meter went crazy.
"There's a lot of supernatural energy in Lincoln County," said Snipes, 28, of Conover. "It's intriguing to find out more about what's happening out there in the shadows."
A former bartender and video store employee, Snipes recently started Dark Realm Research Inc., to document and analyze paranormal activity.
The company's first project is a 45-minute documentary "Haunted Fetters," which will debut Nov.7 at the Lincoln Cultural Center in downtown Lincolnton.
After hearing about possible ghosts at the cultural center, built in 1922 as the First Baptist Church, Snipes did his first investigation there.
His verdict: The place is haunted.
Cultural Center manager Jill Clark, who's never noticed any spectral activity, hopes the film "will bring in people who have an interest in the paranormal and those who are interested in history."
"I think it'll be very educational," she said.
According to local lore, many of the region's historic sites are haunted. At the Kings Mountain National Military Park, British officer Patrick Ferguson takes a night ride down the hill where he was shot and killed by Patriots on Oct.7, 1780.
Ghost soldiers march at the Revolutionary War Ramseur's Mill battlefield in Lincolnton. And a specter bride roams Lincoln County's Woodside plantation, built in 1797.
Lincolnton lawyer, historian and folklorist Daniel Barefoot has tapped historical ghosts in five books. His latest, "Spirits of 76: Ghost Stories of the American Revolution," came out this month.
The book looks at places touched by the spirits of such people as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Betsy Ross.
"They're really America's first national ghosts," Barefoot said. "You can interest people in history if you can tell them an interesting story."
Snipes hopes to do just that in his film.
The paranormal seized his imagination at age 5. Asleep in an old farmhouse, he remembers waking up about 1a.m. to the sound of a chair rocking. Looking closer, Snipes saw the form of an elderly woman in 19th century clothing.
When he told his parents, they said he was dreaming.
Over the years, Snipes discovered an ability to detect spectral energy.
"It always seemed like I was kind of clairvoyant," he said. "I could pick up on things."
In December, Snipes formed Dark Realm Inc. and two months later started filming "Haunted Fetters," the first of three planned documentaries.
The word "fetters" refers to something that binds a ghost to a certain spot.
"It's what causes them to haunt the place," Snipes said. "I'm looking for ghosts, but I'm also looking for the truth. I'm searching for how the supernatural affects the living."
Invisible hand
At Lincoln County's cultural center, spectral readings soared in the former church sanctuary where weddings and funerals were once conducted, Snipes said.
A "supernatural gateway," he called it.
In a photo taken outside, he spotted a small child at a window enveloped by "echo mist."
Ghostly readings also were high at the 19th century Madison Iron Furnace and the old Lincoln County jail, Snipes said. As he and co-producer Terry Huss wandered through the jail their cell phone service died and temperatures shot past 90 - a sure sign of paranormal activity, Snipes said.
In reviewing the footage, Snipes said it seemed like an invisible hand tapped the camera, making it unsteady; in the background, he heard someone hollering.
It was his idea of a fun day.
Tonight, Snipes will be in Lincolnton at St. Luke's Episcopal Church cemetery, probing a legend that 19th century pirate Jean Lafitte is buried there.
A voice from beyond would be welcome.
Snipes said: "When something goes bump in the night, I bump back."
Staff researcher Marion Paynter contributed.
