TERROR AT SHEOLL CREEK
This bridge in the abandoned Boy Scout Camp Bill Stark, in far east Texas, was the inspiration for my most-requested ghost story (save those requests for The Forbidden Tale). The photo was taken in 1982 after a frightening lightning storm dropped 12 inches of rain in three hours. Normally, the bridge is about 12-15 feet above the creek.
The name of the creek is actually “Cow Creek.” Not very imaginative. So I renamed it Sheoll Creek and built the story around it. If you’re a student of the Bible and you know the story, you’ll know why I named it Sheoll Creek. A spookier place is hard to come by. Parts of the camp are swampy, so it’s foggy at night, with cicadas and bullfrogs covering the sounds of the creatures that stalk the place at night. The buildings are going to ruin, dark with windows broken and screens clawed apart. Feral cats and mangy dogs roam freely. The swimming pool and what used to be the cinder-block shower rooms are riddled with large, ugly cracks.
After telling the story one typical night, a 23-year-old assistant Scoutmaster pronounced it hogwash. So the Scouts made a bet with him that he would not go down to the bridge alone. His manhood challenged, he strode off toward the creek. The Scouts shadowed him some distance behind. The young leader made it to the overgrown parade ground, about a hundred yards shy of the bridge—and there found he had not the courage to go farther!
“The Sheoll Creek Incident” is one of ten harrowing stories in the upcoming book HAUNTED CAMPS: The Campfire Stories of Scoutmaster B.C. Justice, available in September of 2007.
The name of the creek is actually “Cow Creek.” Not very imaginative. So I renamed it Sheoll Creek and built the story around it. If you’re a student of the Bible and you know the story, you’ll know why I named it Sheoll Creek. A spookier place is hard to come by. Parts of the camp are swampy, so it’s foggy at night, with cicadas and bullfrogs covering the sounds of the creatures that stalk the place at night. The buildings are going to ruin, dark with windows broken and screens clawed apart. Feral cats and mangy dogs roam freely. The swimming pool and what used to be the cinder-block shower rooms are riddled with large, ugly cracks.
After telling the story one typical night, a 23-year-old assistant Scoutmaster pronounced it hogwash. So the Scouts made a bet with him that he would not go down to the bridge alone. His manhood challenged, he strode off toward the creek. The Scouts shadowed him some distance behind. The young leader made it to the overgrown parade ground, about a hundred yards shy of the bridge—and there found he had not the courage to go farther!
“The Sheoll Creek Incident” is one of ten harrowing stories in the upcoming book HAUNTED CAMPS: The Campfire Stories of Scoutmaster B.C. Justice, available in September of 2007.
