Belled Buzzards

Stories of “belled buzzards” were prominent in the Appalachians during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These were turkey vultures with a bell affixed to their necks, and oftentimes seeing one was thought to be a harbinger of doom. The phenomenon is explainable in that there are a number of reports of folks back then catching buzzards and tying bells to their necks, though why anyone would do such a thing is beyond me!

It is interesting to note in the following article, from 1920s southwestern Virginia, a belled buzzard was spotted around the same time as the appearance of annual lights thought to be the spirits of the victims of a vicious hate crime. The following newspaper article recounts the tale:

BELLED BUZZARD WITH US AGAIN

The Graham Daily adjunct to the Telegraph reports the appearance in in that town of the famous bell buzzard, whose absence from the community has been of many years duration. It is said to appear in Graham daily between the hours of 11 and 12 noon. The exact location at the bird has not been established, but those who desire to hear the beautiful music given out daily can communicate with the Mayor of that Town who keeps informed on all events worth chronicling.

 Along with the appearance the belled-buzzard comes the news that a strange lights can be seen on the hills near the town of Richlands, and the opinion prevails among some of the people of that town, and some in other towns, that, this strange light is the reappearance in that community of the spirits of the seven colored men who were lynched hear Richlands some thirty years ago. It is said that these spirits return annually, and the mysterious light can be seen on the mountain north of Richlands every spring during the month on which the Negroes were lynched. There are few people living in that community who were there, at the time of the outrage. The files of this newspaper contain an account of the affair, and note the fact that two of the Negroes had escaped, and had boarded an eastbound train, but were overtaken by the mob, taken from the train and hanged to tree. The method of killing the men was to put each on a horse, tie a rope around his neck, and attach the rope to a high limb of a tree, and then give the horse a sharp blow with a whip, leaving the victim suspended in the air. The expression "bring on another horse" was current, in the country for sometime afterwards and probably had its origin from the lynching.

—Clinch Valley News (Tazewell, VA) June 30, 1922

As mentioned, the belled buzzard phenomenon is easy to explain, but in this case, was it a harbinger of doom or dread? Was this an eerie reminder to local townspeople of a horrific crime that occurred in their midst? Or was it a simple coincidence? Coincidence or not, the ghostly lights and the buzzard did serve to remind the locals of the evil that had taken place—an act that forever stained the town’s history.

In my book Strange Tales from Virginia’s Mountains, I devote a section to the many sightings of belled buzzards in western Virginia during the late-1800s to early -1900s.


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