char *(null)=" ghost.lantern

ghost.lantern

The town of Maco, N.C., (outside Wilmington) would probably garner little
attention outside of its neighboring communities in North and South Carolina
were it not for "Joe Baldwin's light."
 
Joe Baldin's light began to appear along the railroad tracks that run through
Maco shortly after a train accident in the mid-1800s in which Baldwin was
decapitated. According to legend, Baldwin was riding alone in the last car of
a passenger train going through Maco when the car became uncoupled from the
rest of the train. Baldwin knew that another train was coming up the tracks
immediately behind his train, so he ran to the back of the car and began
swinging his lantern to signal the engineer of the other train. It was a
futile gesture, for the locomotive plowed into the car, separating Baldwin's
head from the rest of his body and sending the lantern into the marsh
paralleling the track. Bystanders who witnessed the accident said the lantern
appeared to make an arc as it left Baldwin's hand and fell beside the tracks.
 
Shortly after the accident, people began noticing a signal light along that
stretch of track. The light, which resembled that emitted by a trainman's
lantern, was suspended at about the level a man's hand would carry a lantern,
although no one could be seen carrying the light. Word soon spread that Joe
Baldwin had come back to search for his head.
 
The "ghost light" even threatened to disrupt the signalling system of the
railroad (a line that later became part of the Atlantic Coast Line, now CSX),
so that the railroad was forced to implement a unique type of signal light
for the Maco station so that crews would not confuse an earthly signal with
one from another realm. One version of the story has President Grover
Cleveland's train making a stop in Maco and the president inquiring as to why
the signalling system was different from that used on the rest of the
railroad.
 
During the 1950s and 1960s, the section of track at Maco became a popular
place for people to park at night and wait for the light to appear. Some
witnesses said they saw the light hover by the tracks and then make an arc
through the air, as if it was being thrown from someone's hand. Those who
were present when a train passed by said the light would rise above the cars
and hover, illuminating the top of the train. And one woman who remained
"safely" seated in the automobile while her husband walked down the tracks to
get a better view of the light said she saw a flash of light in front of the
car, then the headless form of a man passed by in front of the vehicle.
 
A personal account -- in the early 1970s my family vacationed in Wrightsville
Beach, which is the beach resort outside Wilmington. Though we didn't visit
Maco at night -- Wilmington was going through a period of racial unrest, and
at the time it was not advisable to drive through the city at night -- we did
stop by on the morning we left Wilmington. To get to Maco today you have to
watch for a lone sign on the main highway directing drivers to a side road.
We turned on the side road and soon came to the Maco railroad crossing. A
state highway crew was working near the crossing, and the foreman volunteered
that he was aware of the Joe Baldwin legend, although he had personally never
seen the light. He also said that there was a woman living in Maco at the
time who was a psychic and who claimed to have conversed with Baldwin while
in a trance in her living room.
 
The thing that struck me about the visit to Maco (almost two decades ago) was
the close proximity of middle-class homes to the railroad. There was one
house in particular that was closer to the tracks than the others, and its
kitchen window appeared to look out on the section of track where the light
is said to be most apt to appear. I remember thinking that that would be one
way to relieve the monotony of dishwashing -- watching a spectral light weave
and bob outside the window.
 
BTW, there was an old cemetery by the tracks in Maco (but on the opposite
side of the crossing from where the light is said to appear), but I don't
think anyone has ascertained whether Baldwin was buried there after the
accident. If someone has found records that indicate that Baldwin was
definitely buried in that cemetery, I don't know if they have determined
whether his head was interred with the rest of his body.
 
D Lewis
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