Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainWhere cars roll uphill and a mother's ghost is said to push them to safety
Corner of Stewartsville Cemetery Road and Old Maxton Road, Laurinburg, NC 28352
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free roadside site
Access
Limited Access
Rural road intersection; unpaved shoulder; no designated parking or facilities
Equipment
Photos OK
Documented Gravity Hill · Local Legend Site · Roadside Folklore
The intersection of Old Maxton Road and Stewartsville Cemetery Road sits in Scotland County, roughly seven miles southeast of Laurinburg. The surrounding landscape is flat coastal-plain farmland broken by woodlots, and the road itself is unremarkable except for the stretch that passes Stewartsville Cemetery — one of the oldest burial grounds in the county.
Local tradition, documented in the Laurinburg Exchange, holds that the haunting originates with a fatal collision at this spot: a mother and daughter whose car stalled were struck by a semi-truck before they could get clear. The story is a variant of a widely distributed American legend type, but the Laurinburg version has accumulated unusual specificity: the Laurinburg Police Department's Assistant Chief Cliff Sessoms went on record with the Exchange confirming that he personally observed the apparent uphill-rolling phenomenon.
The Robesonian newspaper in Robeson County also covered the site, extending its documented reach beyond a single local outlet. Whether the rolling effect is caused by an optical illusion — the surrounding grade creating the impression of an uphill slope — or by some other force has not been formally studied, but the phenomenon itself has been observed by multiple named sources.
Sources
The legend follows a clear moral logic: a mother who failed to escape a fatal collision now protects other drivers from the same fate by physically pushing their cars away from the road. Laurinburg Police Assistant Chief Cliff Sessoms confirmed to the Laurinburg Exchange that he had tested the phenomenon and observed the car moving. His account lends the story an unusual institutional weight for what is otherwise a regional roadside legend.
The Robesonian, covering Robeson County to the east, also ran coverage, suggesting the legend had spread beyond Scotland County by the time it was documented. Investigators have proposed that the effect is likely a grade illusion — the surrounding terrain creates a false horizon that makes downhill appear uphill — but the perceptual experience is consistent enough that the site continues to draw visitors from across the region.
Notable Entities
Park at the intersection of Old Maxton Road and Stewartsville Cemetery Road, place your car in neutral, and observe whether it appears to roll toward the hill. The effect is most commonly tested on the stretch of Old Maxton Road just past the cemetery.
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