The Hilton Head Blue Lady
Keeps Watch Over Palmetto Dunes
Residents of Harbour Town and environs are no strangers to this story of paranormal activity and haunted places. It is one of the true scary stories associated with Hilton Head Island. In spite of all of the recent modernization, the island has an abundance of ghost stories.
Lovers' Lane
Just by the Leamington area in Palmetto Dunes, down a winding dirt road, there once stood a lighthouse and its accessory keeper's house. Both houses were abandoned by the United States Light Service when the light was automated.
It was a balmy summer evening. In search of a secluded spot for some private romance, a young couple pointed their car down the old access road, long deserted. What they encountered instead was paranormal activity in the person of the Blue Lady. As the couple embraced in their car the moon rose seductively over the Atlantic. The balmy night air and sound of the waves hitting beach had a mesmerizing effect.
Suddenly they saw it. A chill ran down their spine when a soft, bluish light caught their eye. Transfixed they watched it floating through the light keeper's house behind darkened windows. Suddenly the glowing figure appeared on the front porch of the old house and gazed at them with mournful eyes. The figure of a young woman was adorned in a beautiful Victorian dress. It was exactly like the dress that Caroline Fripp was said to have worn the night of her death in the hurricane of 1898.
All thought of romance now vanished and the couple quickly retreated from the scene leaving the haunted house in their rear view mirror. Next day they reported to their parents and not long after a small group of adults decided to check out the lighthouse for themselves. They didn't have to wait long before the Hilton Head Blue Lady materialized, just as the youngsters had reported.
Today the location at Palmetto Dunes has been transformed by a world famous golf course and the haunted house has been relocated to Harbour Town near CQ's Restaurant. The stories of these haunted places associated with the Hilton Head Blue Lady have several variations. There are reports of sobbing and some claim to have sensed her presence. But many believe the Blue Lady has been laid to rest and paranormal activity ceased since the haunted house was moved.
by Dennis Woods