Ghost Lantern
The town of Maco, N.C.,(outside Wilmington) would probably garner little attentionoutside of its neighboring communities in North and SouthCarolina were it not for "Joe Baldwin's light."
Joe Baldin's light began to appear along the railroad tracks thatrun through Maco shortly after a train accident in the mid-1800sin which Baldwin was decapitated. According to legend, Baldwinwas riding alone in the last car of a passenger train goingthrough Maco when the car became uncoupled from the rest of thetrain. Baldwin knew that another train was coming up the tracksimmediately behind his train, so he ran to the back of the carand began swinging his lantern to signal the engineer of theother train. It was a futile gesture, for the locomotive plowedinto the car, separating Baldwin's head from the rest of his bodyand sending the lantern into the marsh paralleling the track.Bystanders who witnessed the accident said the lantern appearedto make an arc as it left Baldwin's hand and fell beside thetracks.
Shortly after the accident, people began noticing a signal lightalong that stretch of track. The light, which resembled thatemitted by a trainman's lantern, was suspended at about the levela man's hand would carry a lantern, although no one could be seencarrying the light. Word soon spread that Joe Baldwin had comeback to search for his head.
The "ghost light" even threatened to disrupt thesignalling system of the railroad (a line that later became partof the Atlantic Coast Line, now CSX), so that the railroad wasforced to implement a unique type of signal light for the Macostation so that crews would not confuse an earthly signal withone from another realm. One version of the story has PresidentGrover Cleveland's train making a stop in Maco and the presidentinquiring as to why the signalling system was different from thatused on the rest of the railroad.
During the 1950s and 1960s, the section of track at Maco became apopular place for people to park at night and wait for the lightto appear. Some witnesses said they saw the light hover by thetracks and then make an arc through the air, as if it was beingthrown from someone's hand. Those who were present when a trainpassed by said the light would rise above the cars and hover,illuminating the top of the train. And one woman who remained"safely" seated in the automobile while her husbandwalked down the tracks to get a better view of the light said shesaw a flash of light in front of the car, then the headless formof a man passed by in front of the vehicle.
A personal account -- in the early 1970s my family vacationed inWrightsville Beach, which is the beach resort outside Wilmington.Though we didn't visit Maco at night -- Wilmington was goingthrough a period of racial unrest, and at the time it was notadvisable to drive through the city at night -- we did stop by onthe morning we left Wilmington. To get to Maco today you have towatch for a lone sign on the main highway directing drivers to aside road. We turned on the side road and soon came to the Macorailroad crossing. A state highway crew was working near thecrossing, and the foreman volunteered that he was aware of theJoe Baldwin legend, although he had personally never seen thelight. He also said that there was a woman living in Maco at thetime who was a psychic and who claimed to have conversed withBaldwin while in a trance in her living room.
The thing that struck me about the visit to Maco (almost twodecades ago) was the close proximity of middle-class homes to therailroad. There was one house in particular that was closer tothe tracks than the others, and its kitchen window appeared tolook out on the section of track where the light is said to bemost apt to appear. I remember thinking that that would be oneway to relieve the monotony of dishwashing -- watching a spectrallight weave and bob outside the window.
BTW, there was an old cemetery by the tracks in Maco (but on theopposite side of the crossing from where the light is said toappear), but I don't think anyone has ascertained whether Baldwinwas buried there after the accident. If someone has found recordsthat indicate that Baldwin was definitely buried in thatcemetery, I don't know if they have determined whether his headwas interred with the rest of his body.