The fairytale-esque Angel Oak tree in Charleston, SC, is thought to be one of the oldest living organisms east of the Mississippi River. It stands 65 feet (20m or 6 stories) tall, is 28 ft (8.5 m) in circumference, and an area of 17,000 square feet is shaded by its tentacular crown. The largest branch reaches 187 feet.
As historical accounts suggest, the live oak stands on land that was part of Abraham Waight’s 1717 land grant. The oak tree reportedly picked up its name from when the estate was owned by a slave owner named Justus Angel and his spouse, Martha Waight Tucker Angel. As a few local stories tell it, ghosts of former slaves appeared as angels around the old oak.
At more than 500 years old, the breathtaking Angel Oak on John’s Island has long been a draw for daytime visitors who photograph the massive tree and relax under it's shade. But Angel Oak by night offers a very different experience. The tree is rumoured to be inhabited by numerous spirits who venture out when the sun sets. There have been reports of glowing lights appearing in the branches and fiery apparitions emerging from the tree
Local Legend
A local couple who was married under the giant tree in 2008 returned to the site on a full moon many months later to recapture the moment in solitude. All around the ancient oak, they saw spirits. They described them as glowing human forms, around a dozen of them in different hues of light, gathered next to the enormous trunk, with several others up in the branches.
The husband, delirious in the experience, decided to carve a heart on one of Angel Oak’s branches with a pocket knife. As he put the blade to the tree, the paranormal display vanished. They began to hear things moving in the darkness. His wife asked that he put the knife away when she saw the bright flash of a devilish face that looked like it was on fire, a visage she described as a theater mask—part animal and part human. She spotted one more fiery face moving between the trees as the husband put his blade away. Hurriedly returning to the unpaved Angel Oak road, they looked back and saw the starry forms reappear.