ath town on the Pamlico river is the source of two famous North Carolina legends. The first one also names Bath one of the few towns in North Carolina brought down by a curse.

In the early 18th century, Bath was an important commercial center, it was even the residence for Edward Teach, who practiced his piratical trade more usually under the name of Blackbeard. When your mayor hangs out with a guy who lights his beard on fire for kicks, you know it's a pretty relaxed town.

This easygoing attitude didn't impress the 18th century traveling evangelist George Whitefield, who was famous for mesmerizing crowds and using the press as a vehicle for evangelism. On a visit to Bath, the talk of hellfire and damnation was greeted with less than full enthusiasm by a crows that had come to see the financial benefits of a lifestyle built around boozing, piracy, and whoring.

Disgruntled, Whitefield placed a curse on the town that Bath would lose its prosperity and dwindle away to nothing. Sure enough, the nearby town of Washington soon began to suck away Bath's prosperity, and by the middle of the next century all that remained was the sleepy little hamlet that's there today.

The second story involves another stranger visiting Bath, but a stranger of a distinctly different character than Whitefield.

A man named Jesse Elliot was a resident of Bath and the proud owner of a powerful racing stallion. Elliot would race any comes, and he and his stallion would always win.

One day, a tall man appeared in the town and approached Elliot, saying he'd heard of his racing fame and had a horse he'd like to try against his stallion. Elliot quickly agreed, and the two men arranged to meet the next day.

When Elliot arrived at the course, he saw the stranger already waiting for him on a midnight black stallion, larger and more fiery than any Elliot had ever seen. And atop that angry horse was the stranger, also dressed all in black, with an evil fire in his eyes that burned into Elliot's soul.

Frightened, Elliot paused for a moment, but his greed for racing consumed him and he urged his stallion on, shouting "Take me a winner or take me to hell!"

Elliot's horse charged ahead, but the stranger's stallion soon drew aside. And as soon as it did, Elliot's own horse dug its feet into the grown, throwing his rider into a tree and killing him instantly.

As for the stranger, it's said that he just laughed, and rode back to his home in hell with Jesse Elliot's soul astride his black stallion. And the footprint's where Jesse Elliot's horse dug its feet into the sand can still be seen to this day.