Ghosts of the Relic Room go a-haunting

The ghosts of the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum are on the move.

For years, Joe Long – curator of education at the museum – has presented spooky stories associated with the Relic Room’s history artifacts, and the long-dead (allegedly) people who once owned and used them.

Until last year, those lectures were presented at the museum itself. Last year, Joe delivered a full load of fright to Richland Library. This year, at noon on Friday, Oct. 31, he’ll take the whole show across the river, and present “Tales of Gore and Folklore” at the Cayce-West Columbia Branch of Lexington County Public Library at 1500 Augusta Road in West Columbia. The free lecture, open to the public, is another installment in the Relic Room’s roving Noon Debrief series of free, live (or at least “undead”) programs.

Joe has a lot to tell, and not just about historical ghosts. He’ll also trace the history of the holiday itself in South Carolina. He will explain how most of the customs we associate with Halloween were unknown in the first half of our state’s history, but developed during the 20th century.

But the tales he’ll tell of ghostly South Carolina legends occurred well before that. He will tell about such mysteries as:

• The general who, it turns out, had not lost his foot after all.
• The ghost who had misplaced his cane, and sought it in the museum.
• The bullet that wounded a horse – “Old Jim” of Aiken – but didn’t stop him from being a legend later on.
• How South Carolina sailors during the First World War helped create the legend of the Bermuda Triangle.
• Weirdness arising from some of the deadly duels fought in the Palmetto State. In case you haven’t heard, there were a lot of those.

If you’ve never been to the Relic Room – where many of these stories originated – this is your chance (if you dare). Free passes to the museum will be available after the lecture.

About the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum

Founded in 1896, the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum is an accredited museum focusing on South Carolina’s distinguished martial tradition through the Revolutionary War, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Vietnam, the War on Terror, and other American conflicts. It serves as the state’s military history museum by collecting, preserving, and exhibiting South Carolina’s military heritage from the colonial era to the present, and by providing superior educational experiences and programming. It recently opened a major new exhibit, “A War With No Front Lines: South Carolina and the Vietnam War, 1965-1973.” The museum is located at 301 Gervais St. in Columbia, sharing the Columbia Mills building with the State Museum. For more information, go to https://crr.sc.gov/.