What's the oddest thing in your STRs?

Question

Oil well pump jack head.  Some tenants left it in the fireplace about 5 years ago.  It's been there ever since.  What's yours?

Collin Hays · Answer

I owned an STR in downtown Gatlinburg that was haunted.  It was a log cabin, right on the Roaring Rork Creek, that was circa 1800 made out of Chestnut logs from the now-extinct Chestnut tree.  There was the original dwelling which was basically just a 12X16 room with a large walk-in fireplace.  In the 1800s and even 1900s, families all lived together in one room next to a fire.  Then later, a bedroom and bath was added, and then later, a kitchen was added and a small dining room.  There also is an underground meat storage next to the creek that is still there, next to the new cabin.

If you wanted to stay in a super modern cabin with pool tables and heart shaped tubs, this wasn't it.  But if you wanted to walk back in time 200 years, this was your place.

There was a ghost there.  Many, many odd things were reported.  It seemed to be an adolescent female who was always wearing white.  No one was particularly frightened, although we had a few guests over the years check out early just because it was a bit unnerving.

Sadly, the cabin was destroyed in the Gatlinburg fire several years ago.  Several weeks later, I phoned the last guests to stay there, and they were shocked that it had been destroyed.  The guest said "We loved the cabin, and we were not to depart until the next day, but something in that house was telling us to  leave immediately, so we packed up and left about 6:30pm."  The cabin would burn to the ground sometime between 2 and 3am that night.  Nothing was left except the fireplace and an antique porch lantern that welcomed guests.