Jon Solo Sebastian 11/07/2025:

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll remember my piece on the Lady in White. If you haven’t read that one, here’s the link—-The Lady in White. These stories often involve a female hitchhiking for a ride home. Sometimes, like my experience, she was just lost and alone; trapped between the realms of life and afterlife. I had mentioned in my Lady in White piece that I’ve encountered one in my hometown when I was around twenty years old. But today we’re talking about Lucy!

Now, where is Roaring Fork, and who is Lucy?

Welcome to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, the home of Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail (a tongue twister of a name) where a stream of water blasts through the Smoky Mountains, and where the ghost of a long passed young lady hitchhikes for a ride home. The trail is a 5.5 mile loop through a beautiful forest with waterfalls, streams, and cabins preserved from a simpler time. While all of that is an attraction that brings in tens of thousands of tourists per year, one thing is certain; many of the tourists travel there in hopes of spotting Lucy.

This folktale has been told since the early 1900’s, and while there are different versions of it, the one thing remains the same. Lucy, a young woman, is a ghost that wants to go home. Forever wandering the forest, the lost soul can’t find her way to the afterlife. That alone is tragic enough, but here’s her story.

One night, a long time ago, a young man was traveling through the forest and was stopped by an attractive young woman who needed a ride home. He helped her up onto his horse and began the trek to her cabin. The air was cold, but his back felt as if it was on fire. Lucy, holding on tightly for the ride, felt like she was burning up. She stopped him before a pathway that led to her cabin. She stated her father wouldn’t approve of her being out this late, nor would he approve of her taking a ride from someone they don’t know.

His back cooled off as she dismounted the horse, and he waited a moment for her to disappear up the trail before he rode off. He couldn’t stop thinking about her. The next day, he went to her cabin to see if she wanted to spend time with him. He asked her father if he could see Lucy, and her father told him he wasn’t the first man asking to see her lately, but what he also told the man stunned him and sent shivers up his spine. He said his daughter passed away a year ago. Their cabin caught fire and she was unable to get out in time.

To this very day, people see Lucy. It’s not often, but they see her. I wasn’t able to find any recent tales of anyone giving her a ride home, but I would be asking her questions if I ever saw her. Questions about what happened, and if there is anything we can do to help her get home for her to finally rest. Over one hundred years she’s been wandering the area trying to get home, but what’s stopping her from getting there? There must be more to her story—if it’s true. I believe the story of Lucy to be true. Far too many stories exist like this one all over the world for them to be fabricated. Why can’t they go “home,” though?