The Devil's Courthouse

 

DEVIL'S COURTHOUSE

 

The mountains around Western North Carolina have been the setting for several movies. The most famous was Thunder Road starring Robert Mitchum and featuring Toxaway falls. Another was the Last of the Mohicans. My mother would alternate when she was mad at her 12 kids sometimes calling them Mohicans and other times referring to them as Ethiopians.

 

I grew up in those mountains fishing hunting and just exploring. I walked a lot of old Indian trails and found caves and arrowheads. I fished the rivers and streams, wandered about the canebrake, hunted squirrels, rabbits and deer. I gathered moss from old chestnut trees and found ginseng, wild flowers, Indian paintbrush, and picked mountain ivy and mistletoe.

 

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a big tourist attraction for visitors to Asheville and surrounding areas. One of the favorite hiking destinations is a place high on the Parkway named Devil's Courthouse. The Department of Interior placed a granite slab with information about the Devil' Courthouse. Legends and rumors abound in the mountains of North Carolina. There is hardly a mountain stream that has not fed water to the many whiskey stills in Western North Carolina. My Dad and my brothers had many whiskey stills in the Transylvania and Jackson County and Buncombe County areas. I hesitate to admit my involvement since I don't know the statute of limitations.

 

Devil's Courthouse  is located at the Western edge of the Pisgah National Forest about 10 miles northwest of Brevard. Cherokee legend has it that the Devil used to hold court on the large rock outcropping. There was a Cherokee story about the cave underneath Devil's Courthouse where a slant -eyed giant Jutaculla lived and danced  in the cave chambers. I don't know much about this giant except when I was younger and drinking high proof moonshine, I sometimes came across him. He carried a tomahawk on his leather throng belt and a knife larger than Jim Bowie's. He could not speak English and I could not speak giant talk but we got along O.K and we shared a few bottles of my Dad's 100 proof moonshine. We swapped some tall tales together and had a few laughs.

 

Devil's Courthouse is a mountain in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina in the United States of America. The mountain is located at the Western edge of the Pisgah National Forest about 10 miles northwest of Brevard and 28 miles southwest of Asheville. Located at milepost 422.4 of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Devil's Courthouse has a moderate/str…

In Cherokee lore, this cave is the private dancing chamber and dwelling place of the slant-eyed giant, Judaculla. The Cherokees call Jutaculla or Judaculla

 Tsul'kălû' which is hard to pronounce unless you have had a few drinks.

As you can expect,  one or more of the Owen family in Western North Carolina often turn up in places like Devil's Courthouse .  There was a murder at the Courthouse of a girl called Wendy Owen which is another story for another time. Judaculla was allegedly spotted around Haywood , Jackson and Transylvania Counties. Legend has it that he liked to spend a lot of time at Tanasee Bald.

I have never figured out why the Devil had to hold court because by the time he gets a hold of you, your are already guilty. Maybe he watched the Judge Roy Bean movie with Walther Brennen. My favorite scene from that movie was when the Judge asked why a man was brought before him and he was told the man stole a horse. Roy Bean said to the man: "I sentence you to die at daybreak" Oh, by the way how do you plead." That scene always reminded me the Brevard Courthouse.

If you do travel up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Devil's Courthouse , do it in the daytime and be careful. Around dusk is usually when the slant eyed giant is wandering about. If you do happen to see Judaculla, ask him if he remembers our drinking bouts.

See Picture below.