Greens Caverns was among the 14 haunted places I wanted to Haunt Jaunt to in Tennessee, but I have a feeling it’s going to get dropped from the list. There’s one big reason why:
- I don’t think such a place exists.
I only started looking for it in earnest because of this comment a reader named Christy left:
Can someone plz tell me where Green’s Cavern is located at in Cleveland, TN? I have lived there my entire life and have no idea where it is nor does anyone I know have a clue as to where it is. Directions, a street name, anything would be of great help to me. Thanks!
I told Christy I’d look into it for her. I have. So far I’ve turned up nada.
I first heard of Greens Caverns from the Shadowlands Haunted Places Index. (Which can be found among the listings on the Find Real Haunted Places page.) I think the legend of the reaper-like shadowy figure who lives in the caverns is going to turn out like the list of “officially” haunted places. (i.e. It’s all a big fat lie.)
However, I haven’t exhausted all my research avenues yet. I’m going to see if I can track when the legend first started being told.
It might not help us locate the cavern, though. Whoever started the rumor could’ve just named Cleveland, Tennessee as a convenient place in which to base it.
After all, there are a lot of caves in that region of the state. It’s not uncommon for them to have haunted lore associated with them either.
But the big difference there is those stories can all be traced to actual caverns. Greens Cavern doesn’t show up anywhere, except for a small blurb on Shadowlands and identical ones on Strange USA and Appalachian Ghost Walks. (Which is also a bit concerning. Just exactly who is plagerizing who? Not to mention spreading potentially incorrect information. Bad, bad, bad!)
So, Christy, for now I’m ruling this one an urban legend. But if I turn up any additional information about a real Greens Cavern and exacty where is it, I’ll be sure to let you know.
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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We have a house, “Billington House”, which is haunted and located somewhere in the middle of the city of Phoenix. The location is a mystery and I can’t find any information on an address for it. I did try and find it. I hope you have better luck looking for Greens Caverns.
Interesting, Julie! I’ve never heard of that house but it’d be intriguing to know if it really does exist or if it’s just a complete myth.
Hey there! My name is Justin, and I’m a resident of Cleveland, TN, I have been my whole life. My cousin Richard and I became interested in ghost hunting about 6 months ago, and have really enjoyed it so far.
Since we started ghost hunting, we’ve heard all these stories and such about Greens Cavern, and have tried to locate it for what seems like forever, but we always come up short. I’ve talked to many people here in Cleveland, and the general consensus is this: Many people don’t know where it is, or some people have actually been to Greens Cavern before when they were younger, but forgot where it’s located, and how to get there.
I’m here to tell you that Greens Cavern does actually exist. My girlfriend and I were talking about ghost hunting and such, and when I brought up that I’ve always been frustrated because I can’t find Greens Cavern, she tells me this: “I’ve been to Greens Cavern before! My brother took me there about a year and a half ago, it was pretty damn creepy!”
At first I was skeptical, because it seemed too good to be true. But then I thought to myself: “She’s never lied to me before, so why would she start now about this?”
So, according to my gal, the location of Greens Cavern is as follows. It’s not an exact, pin point location, but it’s close enough to that:
1. It’s some where in the area behind Toby McKenzie’s (local millionaire) new house that is currently being built. His new house is enormous, you really can’t miss it. (His new house is near a rich housing community called Anatole.)
2. You have to travel on a gravel road for a bit (1-3 miles, she said she couldn’t remember the exact mileage). She said they had to park their car and walk some of it (Not sure why, since it’s a gravel road. Maybe some part of the road was blocked, or under construction or something, may not be the case now)
Aside from that, she just said it was a really spooky place (they went at night), she didn’t really give any more info on the location/directions, so I’m assuming that’s all of it. I’m actually going to check it out myself (hopefully this weekend) to see if her directions are accurate.
Justin, this is exciting info. I hope you find it and can report back whether you found something or not, and maybe can give even more specific directions how to get there. That would ROCK! Either way this is something to go on and I’m really glad you found this post and stopped by to share this info. THANK YOU!!!!!!
I’d like to know if you find the exact location also. We’re planning a trip to the area in June to try & find some of my ancestors haunts. A suggestion, that popped into my head because of the name, might be to look at old plat maps and see if the name Green stands out anywhere. The reason it popped into my head….my great great(several generations) step grandfather was named Greene Bradley and he lived in the area somewhere!
Dink, what a fabulous idea! Also intriguing your step-granddad’s name was Greene. Of course now I’m wondering if there’s any connection and maybe the cavern is named after that part of your kin. If you happen to find anything out I’d love to hear about it! I will check out those maps though. Super suggestion. Thanks for sharing.
I can say to check clevelands local library for more information. They should have old maps with precise longitude and latitude of the location. You could also try the city’s building permit directory as they also have a huge assortment of maps of the local area. I’m about as dumb founded as all residence of Cleveland. I grew up in Cleveland all my life and the only places I know of that are haunted and have some history behind it is Fletcher Park, Craigmiles family mosuleum, and definitely the graveyards here. Hope the small information might help.
Wow! That is not only super helpful, Josh, but super smart. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave your suggestion!
About twenty years ago, my family lived in a house in Cleveland Tn on Heritage Hills Circle. I don’t remember the house number, but when the road forks to the circle, you turn left and it is the first house on the right. The house is up on the hill on very rocky grounds. We had some odd things happening after we moved in, so we called the police a couple of times thinking someone was breaking into our house. The police showed us some ways to track if anyone was actually entering. After calling them out a couple of times, they thought we were crazy. So we stopped asking for help.
It was an evil house. You could sense it and it always seemed to bring out the worst in everyone. We experienced whispers and mumbles in the hallway, the sounds of running water in the bathroom when nothing was on, and slamming of the front door-even when we would place the back of chairs under the door knobs so we knew it wasn’t possible. We experienced bedroom doors slamming and opening. My child’s toys flew around the room on one occasion. We had a storm door with glass in it on the back door. It unexplainably shattered 3 or 4 times in a year. Our bed shook at times as if someone was lifting the end of it shaking it, The bed would compress down as if someone would sit or lay with us. My daughter, who was two when we lived there, would scream often crying about seeing the “bad man”.
They craziest thing that ever happened…on the day of BCHS 1992 graduation (my baby sister was graduating), we left the house to attend the event, but turned around at the stop sign and had to go back to get something we forgot. In about the minute and a half that we were gone, something very unexplainable happened. The basement door was open when we arrived back, Bags full of trash that was in the basement were shredded open and scattered all over the basement. As we entered into the kitchen, the drawers were all removed and placed upside down on out counters. The chairs, upside down. We continued to the living room and all of the furniture and coffee table were upside down. The couch was turned upside down and pulled up on the stairs entering into the hallway. We entered our bedroom and all of the drawers were removed and upside down. Of course the nightstands were upside down too. Our Paul Bunyan style head board was removed from the base of the bed and laying on our bed. Nothing from the house was stolen.
I told my parents what was happening. My dad was sure that someone was in the neighborhood was terrorizing our family. So one night, my father came over. As it started to get dark, I left with the kids to make sure that the “intruders’ knew the house was empty. My husband and father stayed back at the house. My father was armed with a shot gun to make the sickos pay for scaring his daughter and grand daughter. They waited a couple hours and my dad got to experience the ghostly events himself. He finally concluded that the house was indeed haunted.
The final major event that happened to us in the house around July of 1992. The basement had the framings of a bedroom that they were building, but it was never completed. It had absolutely no electrical outlets…just two walls of concrete bricks & two walls of wood framing. One evening we all went to bed and my husband was awoken by a strange dream of his late grand mother telling him that he had to wake up. He noticed some smoke and got the family up and outside. When he went to find the source of the fire, it was originating from the middle of the wood frame wall in the basement under our bedroom. The fire was already out when he found the black flame stained damaged wood still hot. There was no explanation as to why the fire started there our how it went out.
We didn’t have much longer on our lease at all, so we were able to move very soon after this occurred. I always wondered if people who rented or owned the house after us had problems too, but quite honestly, I don’t ever want to go near that house again.
Wow. I don’t blame you!!! I wouldn’t want to go near the house after all you went through either! We often get people leaving comments about hauntings they’ve experienced, but it is the rare one that is so chilling and well detailed and coherently related. Holy cow. Thank you for sharing this…although I’m also sorry you lived through this to share it. This is some seriously spooky stuff! Glad no one was harmed in your time there!
So, has anyone found this cave yet? Using the comment by “Justin” from February 2011, I found the Anatole housing community on Google earth, and there are indeed heavily wooded areas to the north and west where a cave could be hidden from view. I am going to be in Cleveland next week on the annual Hwy. 11 yard sale and would like to see it if anyone can provide good directions.
He Eric, I wish I had more info for you but I personally don’t. Hoping someone else sees your comment and responds. If you happen to discover anything and have time to write back, would love to hear from you!
I know you have already visited the area, but I did ask one of my Cleveland facebook groups about the caverns. I will let you know what they say. It has people of all ages on it, so someone may remember.
Oh how exciting! Thanks so much for this comment and following up.