[dramatic music] ♪ - When I'm there, I feel uneasy.

It's like a really kind of a sinking feeling.

Sometimes I'll stand in the middle of the circle and just look up at the trees and think, "Gosh, this is like..." I mean, who in the world would ever have come across, you know, anything like this?

♪ - Well, this story is one of North Carolina's most notorious ghost stories.

- The circular piece of land in Chatham County where nothing has grown for centuries.

- The fact that there are written accounts going back hundreds of years makes me think there's something going on here.

- Are you a spirit?

[alarm blaring] Okay.

[alarm blaring] - It's the devil himself who keeps it there.

And he tramps the ground at regular times, and he tosses things off.

- Well, do you think the devil is tramping that ground?

- I certainly believe in a sense of evil.

Does that--is that a fair answer?

♪ - My name is Tamara Dowd Owens.

We're on my family's farm here in Bear Creek, North Carolina.

My husband Keith and I, we have about 60 head of beef cattle, so we still continue to raise.

It's an active, working cattle farm.

We have three boys, one of which, our middle son, is very interested in the farm, so that's kind of nice.

I mean, it's nice to have something that, you know, that they're interested in continuing on 'cause it's a--you know, it's a lot to continue to maintain and manage.

♪ Dad was very active.

He went to Chatham Central High School, where I went, where my husband went, you know, and he was all around sports and very well-known for all of that.

Went to East Carolina.

Came back when my grandfather got sick and continued to, you know, run the farm.

When Dad passed, it actually rolled to my mother, so she decided to go ahead and pass that, you know, on down to me.

So it really--you know, family's very-- it's very strong, and I feel like, you know, with the farm, I always knew that this is where I would, you know, be.

♪ So the Devil's Tramping Ground is actually located in the furthest corner of the property on the backside.

♪ And it's very--it's about 100 feet off of the main highway.

I think a lot of people think that it's much further back in the woods, and they're very surprised to see that it's really not.

♪ I've never been up there at night by myself.

I've never stayed up there ever.

If I go during the day, once the-- you know, once it starts to get dark, I leave.

♪ The Tramping Grounds is actually a clearing in the woods, a circle where nothing grows.

♪ As you can see, there is the two paths that are coming off the circle, and as the legend goes, the Devil will come up one path and tramp--make many, many, many circles around the area and then disappear into the other path.

♪ Over the years, there have been soil scientists that have come out and actually taken, you know, different samples.

- When I first investigated this site over 15 years ago, I was theorizing that there was some natural cause that would have done that.

What we found out here last time was that we did have some elevated readings of certain things inside here, but none of the readings, none of the data we got showed us that plants could not live there.

- So there's really no-- it doesn't give us any explanation of why it's like it is now today.

♪ So what's in front of me right now is actually some newspaper articles that I found in a folder that my dad had.

This really shows how long the Devil's Tramping Ground has been documented.

And it even, you know, speaks to-- I mean, Chatham County, you know, being a historical county, was settled in 1771.

And even then, there was Chatham natives that were already speaking about it, and there was documentation at that time of this cleared spot surrounded by trees and very barren area.

So this was another letter that I found in my dad's files, and I don't know-- this looks like it may be my grandmother's handwriting.

"Origin of the Tramping Grounds is speculation, "but in the fall year 1746, "a party of surveyors were in the area.

"They made a mark of reference to a point, "the center of a circle, "and modern maps show it today as the Tramping Grounds."

I mean, it just is astounding that there would be such a reference dated all the way back to 1746.

♪ I contacted the state historical group over in Raleigh and had asked if there was any possibility if the Devil's Tramping Ground could be part of the historical sites in North Carolina, and she said that I should contact this Legends and Lore Society, and it was accepted.

So it was very-- this is just really exciting.

The really sad part of this is that I have not been able to actually install it at the Tramping Grounds, just because of concern that somebody would actually steal it.

So here, unfortunately, it continues to sit.

♪ Preservation, to me, is key to try to maintain it, you know, the best that we can.

We've had so many people visiting it and, you know, people trashing the place.

♪ So here's some examples.

You can see this brown is actually where I painted.

There's still some remnants of some of the blue spray paint, but there was 666 on this tree, and there was also a tree right there that had the all-seeing eye on it that was facing the circle.

♪ We developed a website for the Devil's Tramping Ground to educate people on the fact that it is private property, things that we want people to do when they do visit, things not to do when they visit, and have people know that it's very important.

It's a very special place, and we just don't want you to go out there and trash it.

♪ [pounding] My boys know that it's there.

The two youngest ones enjoy, you know, visiting, especially when the paranormal groups, you know, come up, but I feel like I'm going to be the one that needs to really establish the direction that we go.

Who knows where it'll be in 100 years from now, but I think if we can, you know, lay some groundwork and, you know, continue to make sure that we're sending, like, the right information out there, that hopefully they'll be able to kind of build on that.

♪ So I think Dad would be pretty proud.

[laughs] I think he would be like, "Wow, you know, I never knew that we could, you know, develop this logo, have this trademark, have a website."

He loved the farm, and he loved having, you know, anything that would continue to keep the farm going for generations to come.

As far as where the Devil's Tramping Ground is today, I feel like I'm more ingrained in it probably because of social media.

You know, I've seen all these podcasts and YouTubers.

- Are you trapped here?

Okay, step away.

- Oh!

Oh, no!

No way.

No way.

[laughs] - I mean, it's very astonishing that it would have that much of a far reach.

♪ It's like the mystery, I feel like, will continue on.

♪ [dramatic music] ♪