The Bell Family Farm Near Nashville Might Just Be The Strangest Tourist Trap Yet
By Tori Jane|Published January 14, 2021
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Tori Jane
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Tori Jane is a storm chaser, writer, photographer, and the village idiot - in that order. When she's not out and about dancing with the meanest storms on planet Earth for funsies she can be found wandering, shooting landscapes, writing, editing photos, and otherwise up to no good. Legend has it that she can also be occasionally spotted typing up short bios in the third person, but those rumors are unsubstantiated.
If you’re seeking the ultimate thrill out of a strange, hole-in-the-wall (so to speak) kind of place, this legendary farmland right here in Tennessee attracts thousands of curious visitors per year. It’s not quite in Nashville – it’s about 45 minutes north of there, in Adams – but this particular attraction is literal centuries in the making…and it’s weird. Very weird.
You might think, upon approaching the old Bell family cabin, that it's just that - a cabin. It doesn't seem terribly interesting from the street.
But this cabin harbors a truly bizarre and unsettling history; in the early 1800s, the Bell family was terrorized by an invisible force that called itself "Kate" and claimed it was the "witch" of a neighbor. The name stuck, and to this day, people are still incredibly curious about the poltergeist that came to be called the Bell Witch.
The Bell family moved onto the 320-acre-property in 1804. They had been living there for over a decade - 13 years - by the time the high strangeness began.
It started when members of the Bell family began noticing very strange-looking animals on and around the property. In all their years of living here, they'd never seen these things before, and they'd never heard of any critters that looked or behaved this way, either. Shortly after the animals began to appear, the family began experiencing loud, disruptive knocking on interior doors and exterior walls of their home.
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Eventually, the sounds escalated. They began hearing the sounds of someone choking or gulping in the pitch-black dark of night and through the day.
Soon enough, the invisible terror really began. Furniture would move on its own, the windows would break, things would go missing only to return in strange places. The family, utterly distressed by the strange happenings, finally opened up to a neighbor about the incidents about a year after it all began.
Upon witnessing the phenomena himself, he told John Bell, the head of the family, that they ought to form a committee and try to investigate this stuff.
During this time, it had also begun to speak in a human voice, which is how they got its "name." It claimed that it was there for a couple of reasons, one of which, it hissed, was to kill John Bell. For what? It wouldn't say, and it never did.
"Kate's" assaults on the Bell family escalated further after the touring of the property for the public began, and both John Bell and one of his daughters were routinely physically accosted by the force. It would bite, yank hair, push, stick with pins, severely scratch and otherwise pester them with every chance it got.
John Bell began experiencing swelling of his airways and throat, until finally, in 1820, he died. The Bell Witch claimed that it had poisoned him, and it promised it would return again in seven years.
It did return, once, for a few long weeks in 1828. This time, it harassed John Bell's son, John Bell Jr., now an adult, at his own homestead. Once again, it claimed it would return, but in 107 years this time.
It did not, and has not, returned. The Bell family cemetery is still where it has always been, and it visitable as well.
Today, curious tourists can visit the very homestead where all of this occurred and was documented.
They can tour the cabin (which is an exact replica of the Bell farm (the cabin is in the same spot, replica furniture included) and a very bizarre, small cave found on the property. It's said that visitors to the cave report very strange noises like, you guessed it, choking and gulping sounds, among other things.
Cabin tours are just $8, and any brave soul wanting to check out the Bell property cave can do so for just $12. Tour both for $18 so you can get the full experience.
For a much more in-depth account of what occurred in the early 1800s to the Bell family of Adams, Tennessee, visit the cabin and cave’s official website here.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever experienced that you just can’t quite explain? Tell us your spooky stories in the comments below.
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