Booger Jim, Cherokee Falls, SC - A True Story (As Told to Me)

If you have ever lived anywhere near Cherokee Falls, South Carolina, you know about Booger Jim.  My Daddy, who was born in December 1900 and lived many years of his life in Cherokee Falls, said he saw Booger Jim the first time when he was about six years old.  He said Booger Jim was standing at the edge of the woods, taller than a normal man and black as soot.

Daddy ran home quick when he saw Booger Jim.  I don't much blame him.

There are all kinds of stories floating around about Booger Jim.  I've heard a few about Booger Jim living under the Cherokee Falls bridge, but I've never really known that to be true.  I did hear a truthful sounding tale of Booger Jim when I was small though.  That is the tale I will tell you now.  The woman who told me swears it is true.

First off, for those of you not fortunate enough to have been born in the Upstate of South Carolina, I'll tell you about Cherokee Falls.

No.  There is not an actual waterfall there that I've ever known, but the Broad River flows through Cherokee Falls, so there may have been a little falls thereabouts probably before they built the cotton mill.

Cherokee Falls was a mill town that grew around the Cherokee Manufacturing Company that was built there on the Broad River.  The people who worked in that mill for the most part lived in mill housing on the "Mill Hill" above the mill. Poverty was rampant there, as the cotton mill did not pay very much money even though the hours were long. The men, women, and children of that little community oftentimes were working in the mill from dawn to dusk. Yes, they used child labor in that mill until it was outlawed, but that is another story.

The woman who told me today's story lived on that Mill Hill in the early days of the 20th century.  This story haunted her even as she spoke it, wide eyed and horrified decades after it happened.  Here's what she said:

I just got supper on the table when my ol' man come running up the hill a'yellin', "OPEN THE DOOR!!! FOR GOD'S SAKE, WOMAN, OPEN THE DOOR!!!" 

I told the children to sit on down for supper, as I hurried to open the front door. 

He was around the bend in the road down the hill when I first went to the porch, but soon I could see him comin'.  He come runnin' faster'n I'd a'thought possible.  He never slowed a bit coming up those porch steps and through that door pushing me inside as he slammed it, bolted it, and pushed a chair under the knob a'fore running for the shotgun.

That thing a'chasin him hit that door so hard the door groaned under the weight, 'bout the time my ol' man got the shotgun loaded.  He shot both barrels point blank at that door.  Blowed a hole in it big enough for me to push my fist through, if I'd been so a'mind. 

Whatever that was on our porch screamed like a Banshee.  High like. Made my blood run cold, that scream.  We heard that thing bolt off the porch and leave, but we never went outside that night, and I didn't sleep much at all.  Took forever to get the children settled. 

The next morning we went out and there were claw marks a inch deep on our front door, and a dark trail going into the wood.  We followed that trail a'ways, but it trickled and ended like the thing was healin' quick as it run.  Darnedest think I ever did see.  Didn't leave narry'a footprint.  Like it was a ghost or somethin' worse.

After that we'd hear it now and then a'screamin' out in the wood.  Always at night.  High pitched like a woman screamin'.  Give you cold chills to hear it.

My ol' man said it was Booger Jim chased him.  He said that thing was near eight feet tall and black as soot. It could put its hands on the ground and run like a beast or walk on two legs like a man. 

They give him an awful hard time about it at work.  They said it were a bear or a panther, but if my ol' man said it was Booger Jim, then it was Booger Jim.  That's all I got to say about it.  That shotgun would'a killed a bear or a panther. 

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That's the best of my Booger Jim stories.  It was told to me as true.  You decide.

Cherokee Falls, South Carolina

Cherokee Falls, South Carolina

Cherokee Falls, South Carolina

Broad River in Cherokee Falls, South Carolina