If you’re from Tennessee, you most likely know the legend of the Bell Witch. But if you’re not familiar with the story, here’s a simple synopsis: an entity that is referred to as the “Bell Witch,” named for the cave she haunted, plagued John Bell and his family for years, ultimately leading to his death.
One of the biggest (and scariest) tales is that years ago an MTSU student was doing research on the Bell Witch for a paper. She had written down notes and organized them on note cards like a lot of students do. She would keep them neatly on her desk, but she noticed that every time she left her dorm room and returned, there would be an odd smell, everything would be in a disarray, and her notes would be all out of order. This kept happening. She also had dreams of the Bell Witch every night that continually worsened.
When Thanksgiving break came, the student decided to stay on campus in order to finish her paper. When her roommate returned back to Lyon Hall after the break, she found her roommate dead by hanging.
The story goes that MTSU was ashamed and ended up sealing off the girl’s dorm room and covering the door with plaster so that no one would dwell on the fact that the girl lived in there.
No one has found the room, and there is no real evidence of this ever happening, but either way it’s enough to scare a student straight out of their socks, and to haunt anyone who dares live in Lyon Hall.
