An 1859 county jail in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, now a museum, where folk-ballad outlaw Tom Dula awaited trial for the murder of Laura Foster and where visitors on candlelight tours report footsteps, voices, and cold spots.
203 North Bridge Street, Wilkesboro, NC 28697
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
A guided tour of the Old Wilkes Jail is included with admission to the Wilkes Heritage Museum (about $6 per person; children 5 and under free). Evening Candlelight Ghost Tours are a separate seasonal program.
Access
Limited Access
Historic multi-story jail with steep, narrow stairs and original ironwork
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1859 · Built 1859; among the best-preserved 19th-century jails in North Carolina · Held Tom Dula before his trial for the 1866 murder of Laura Foster, basis of the 'Tom Dooley' ballad · Held outlaw and escape artist Otto Wood, who died in 1930 · Restored in the 1960s-70s and operated today by the Wilkes Heritage Museum
The Old Wilkes Jail stands on North Bridge Street in downtown Wilkesboro, the seat of Wilkes County in the North Carolina mountains. Completed in 1859, it served as the county jail until 1915 and is regarded as one of the best-preserved examples of nineteenth-century penal architecture in the state. Its security features included a front door studded with nails set an inch apart so prisoners could not saw their way out. During the Civil War the jail held Union prisoners and stored Confederate provisions and ammunition.
Its most famous occupant was Thomas C. 'Tom' Dula, a Confederate veteran and fiddle player. In 1866 Dula was arrested for the murder of Laura Foster, a young Wilkes County woman, in a case bound up with a romantic triangle that also implicated Ann Melton. The crime drew some of the earliest nationwide newspaper coverage of an American murder. Dula was held in the Wilkes jail before his trial was moved to Statesville, where he was convicted and hanged in 1868. His story became the basis for the folk song 'Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley,' a national hit for the Kingston Trio in 1958.
The jail later held other notable prisoners, including Otto Wood, a Wilkes County outlaw and escape artist nicknamed the 'Houdini of cell blocks,' who died in 1930. After the jail closed, it fell into disuse until the nonprofit Old Wilkes, Inc. (now the Wilkes Heritage Museum) restored it in the late 1960s and opened it as a historic site in the 1970s.
Today the Old Wilkes Jail is a centerpiece of the Wilkes Heritage Museum campus, offered as a guided tour and as the setting for the museum's seasonal Candlelight Ghost Tours. It is marked by a North Carolina historical marker and is a stop on the Blue Ridge Heritage Trail.
Sources
The Old Wilkes Jail is among the most actively investigated haunted sites in the North Carolina mountains, and its lore is anchored to documented history rather than anonymous rumor. Visitors and museum staff have reported cold spots, sudden foul smells, phantom footsteps, knocking on the walls, and voices whispering through the cell doors, especially in and around the cell where Tom Dula awaited trial. Some accounts describe the spirit of a prisoner who bangs against the bars, protesting his innocence (Triangle Around Town; Wilkes Journal-Patriot).
The most often-named presence is Dula himself, the fiddle-playing Confederate veteran hanged in 1868 for the murder of Laura Foster, whose ghost local tradition says never left Wilkes County. Laura Foster's specter is said to drift through Wilkesboro in a white dress, still seeking the man who betrayed her. The outlaw Otto Wood, the 'Houdini of cell blocks' who died in 1930, is sometimes counted among the restless spirits as well. A separate, gentler story tells of the spirit of a little girl killed by runaway horses.
Paranormal teams including The Ghost Guild and Piedmont-Triad Paranormal Investigations have conducted investigations at the jail, and the Wilkes Heritage Museum embraces the reputation through its long-running seasonal Candlelight Ghost Tours, which sometimes allow guests to take part in an investigation. Because the jail is a confirmed historic site with a well-documented history, an operating museum program, and paranormal coverage from multiple independent sources, this entry is published, though the ghost stories themselves are presented as tradition rather than proof.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
A docent-led tour through the 1859 jail, one of the best-preserved examples of nineteenth-century penal architecture in North Carolina, including the cell where Tom Dula awaited his murder trial and the building's notorious saw-proof security door.
A seasonal evening program run by the Wilkes Heritage Museum that explores the jail and downtown Wilkesboro's ghost lore, sometimes with the chance to take part in a paranormal investigation.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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