farm spirit

An abandoned apple orchard with ripe apples and a faint elderly figure tending trees

The Orchard Keeper of the Shenandoah

by Elizabeth Fabowale

January 23, 2026

American Ghost Stories·American Regional Hauntings

Autumn arrives gently in the Shenandoah Valley. The hills do not announce the season with drama. Leaves turn quietly. Morning fog settles low and lifts slowly. Old fences reappear from summer growth. Among these changes, there are places where time seems to hesitate, where the land remembers what it was asked to do long ago. One such place is an

Parchment-style artwork of the Sun and Moon facing each other in the sky, Cherokee folktale scene.

The Sun and the Moon Are Man and Wife: Cherokee Folktale (United States)

In the ancient days, before the world found its rhythm of day and night, the Sun and the Moon lived together on

Parchment-style illustration of Rip Van Winkle waking on a Catskill Mountains slope, American folktale.

Rip Van Winkle, The Man Who Slept for Twenty Years: American Folktale of Time and Change

At the foot of the misty Catskill Mountains in colonial New York, there once lived a good-natured man named Rip Van Winkle.

Parchment-style illustration of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox in snowy woods, American folktale.

Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox: An American Folktale that Teaches Lessons on Strength, Teamwork, and the Power of Legend

Long ago, in the rugged northern forests of America, where towering pines whispered to the wind and the snow stretched farther than

Go toTop

farm spirit

The Orchard Keeper of the Shenandoah

Popular

The Sun and the Moon Are Man and Wife: Cherokee Folktale (United States)

Rip Van Winkle, The Man Who Slept for Twenty Years: American Folktale of Time and Change

Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox: An American Folktale that Teaches Lessons on Strength, Teamwork, and the Power of Legend