The Devil's Tramping Ground
Bear Creek, North Carolina, United States
A bare ring in the Chatham County woods where, by generations of North Carolina legend, the devil walks at night, and where objects left inside are found thrown out by morning.
In the woods near Bear Creek lies a perfectly bare circle, about forty feet across, in which nothing grows. The legend that Chatham County has told for well over a century is that the devil walks this ring each night, trampling what grows there, and that anything left inside overnight is found thrown out by morning. North Carolina's own encyclopedia and PBS North Carolina have documented the lore, and generations of students from nearby Chapel Hill have made the pilgrimage to test it.
The scientific explanations, ultramafic soil and other growth-inhibiting factors, are real research and do not retire the story; the ring's cultural force is the point. It is one of the classic American legend-trip sites, and the community recognition is exactly the kind the record keeps: documented, continuous, and local.
Visiting
On private-adjacent land reached from the Devil's Tramping Ground Rd area near Bear Creek; the ring is viewable from the roadside area. Respect property lines; see NCpedia.
Photo: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ADevil's_Tramping_Ground_2.jpg), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Associated traditions & practices
Visitor stories