The Gray Man has to be South Carolina’s most famous ghost. The spirit
of John C. Calhoun himself could not top the Gray Man’s long enduring
history and tragic legend. Pawleys Island sits along the coast and is
home to small cottage homes, inns, and one very famous spirit. The
story is always the same - the Gray Man warns residents to flee the
island from an impending hurricane.
My favorite version of this legend tells a tragic love story. A young
man returning from a long absence was eager to see his fiancee. He rode
on horseback from Georgetown, SC to Pawleys Island. The young man was
so eager to see his beloved young girl that he decided not to follow the
road, but take a short-cut across the marsh. In this untraveled marsh
the young man’s horse fell in quicksand, both horse and rider were
killed. The young girl was devastated and began to forlornly walk the
beach, mourning her lover. One windy summer day, she saw a man dressed
all in gray approach her and recognized him as her dead fiance. He told
her to get off the island immediately because there was danger.
Without another word, he vanished. The young woman told her parents
what she had seen and they fled to the mainland. That night the
hurricane came ashore destroying nearly every home on the island. The
home of the young woman was left somehow untouched by the storm as
though it had been protected by an unseen force.
The first recorded sighting of the Gray Man is from
the hurricane of 1822 that hit Charleston and caused over 300 deaths on
the outlying islands.
In 1893 the Gray Man appeared to the Lachicotte family. He was silent,
but his meaning was clear. The family fled the island and survived the
storm. This hurricane, called the Sea Islands Hurricane, killed an
estimated 1,500 people and Lachicotte’s surely would have been part of
that tragic number.
October 1954 found Bill Collins and his new bride honeymooning on the
island. Around 5 AM Bill heard a knock at their door. Too early to be
anything unimportant, Bill answered the door. Before him stood a man in
rumpled gray clothing and a gray hat which hid his features. He said
that the Red Cross had sent him to tell them to leave because a big
storm was coming. Bill could smell salty brine on the man’s clothing
and heard the urgency in his voice. Suddenly the man in gray
disappeared leaving Bill stunned and shaken. Bill and his new wife left
the island and Hurricane Hazel struck soon after as a Category 4
storm. Hazel eventually killed 95 people and destroyed 15,000 homes.
September 19, 1989 residents of Pawleys Island, Clara and Jack Moore
were walking along the beach. They saw a man dressed all in gray
suddenly appear among the dunes. He approached them, then vanished.
This was warning enough for Clara. She and Jack packed bags and fled
inland. Two days later Hurricane Hugo struck the coast as a Category 4
storm killing 76 people along its path and causing $10 Billion in
damage.
Often when the Gray Man is seen the homes of his audience will be left
completely untouched by the storm while the neighboring homes are
decimated. Is the Gray Man somehow protecting these homes? If his
warnings were not heeded, would the homes and residents truly be
destroyed? For people who have seen the Gray Man it is without question
- he came to warn them and if they hadn’t listened their lives would’ve
been taken by the storm.
Source
Until we meet again,
Claudia
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