In 1993, TikToker @thebellwitchcave and her family moved to the farm where the Bell Witch Cave is located. The previous owners warned them never to take rocks out of the cave.
If you’re not from Tennessee, you may not have grown up hearing about the Bell Witch, so let me fill you in on the story real quick.
It starts with the Bell family, who in 1817 began noticing things they couldn’t explain: scratching sounds inside the walls, chains dragging across the floor, and something invisible yanking blankets off sleeping family members in the night.
Their daughter, Betsy, was reportedly slapped, pinched, and had her hair pulled by whatever had taken up residence in their home.
The entity, which people eventually started calling “Kate,” seemed to have it out for the family’s patriarch, John Bell, and by 1820, he was dead.
The leading theory was always that Kate was the spirit of a neighbor, a woman named Kate Batts, who’d had a bitter falling out with John Bell, but it couldn’t be proved. As for the Bell Witch cave, it’s on the property that the Bell family owned.
So, when TikToker @thebellwitchcave was about 13 or 14 years old, she decided to take a rock from the Bell Witch cave. At the time, they grew tobacco on the farm, and their tobacco barn fell.
The harvested tobacco in the barn immediately began to rot. It was a huge loss, especially since her parents had worked all summer in the field to harvest it.
She admitted to her parents that the barn’s collapse was her fault because she had taken a rock out of the cave.
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Initially, her dad dismissed her, saying she wasn’t to blame. But later, he told her and her mom to return the rock to the cave and not to take anything else out.
At one point, her mom found an arrowhead in the cave and brought it out to show her dad and uncle. She did not return it in a timely manner and ended up having to get two back surgeries.
“Over the years, we’ve had a lot of people mail rocks back to us,” said @thebellwitchcave.
“So, actually, when you come here and go on a tour, we have a whole album of people who have mailed rocks back to us, asking us to put them back in the cave, and some of them detailing the bad luck they’ve had.”
One guy, in particular, had toured the cave with his daughter and grandson. They had taken rocks from the cave, and the next day, his grandson broke his collarbone.
His daughter did not want the rocks in her possession, so he took them over to his own house. He placed them on the windowsill in his kitchen, and every appliance in the kitchen broke. They all had to be replaced.
His wife didn’t want the rocks in the house anymore, so he tossed them in the flower bed in their backyard. The next morning, a storm rolled in, and lightning struck the tree in their flower bed.
The tree fell on top of his house. So, he called @thebellwitchcave, saying that he was bringing the rocks back to the cave.
Many TikTok users described the strange and unfortunate events that occurred in their homes after taking a rock from the Bell Witch Cave.
“Don’t take a rock! I was walking through the cave last summer with my son. A small rock had gotten into my shoe by accident. Within two days, strange things happened at my home,” warned one user.
“My boyfriend took a rock years ago and has been having horrible luck ever since. Unfortunately, he can’t find the rock to take back,” commented another.
“My roommate took a rock, and he put it in our kitchen. The next morning, all of the cabinets were open, some of the drawers were open, and three mirrors were broken. He took it back after a few weeks of the same activity, only in the kitchen where the rock was,” shared a third.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
