Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainA recurring ghost-light on a Colleton County road tied to a 19th-century preacher, active for decades.
Parker's Ferry Road, Jacksonboro, SC 29452
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
No admission charge; public roadway.
Access
Limited Access
Rural two-lane road; no designated parking area; uneven roadside shoulder.
Equipment
Photos OK
Colonial-era Edisto River crossing · Colleton County Revolutionary War activity · Documented regional ghost-light tradition
Parker's Ferry Road traces the path of one of the earliest documented crossings of the Edisto River in South Carolina's Lowcountry, used by soldiers, traders, and settlers from at least the 18th century. The area around Jacksonboro, the former seat of Colleton County, saw significant Revolutionary War activity, including a 1781 skirmish near the ferry crossing.
The legend central to the Jacksonboro Light originates in the late 1800s, when a local preacher is said to have gone searching for his daughter along the road at night, lantern in hand. He was struck and killed by a passing train at a railroad crossing that has since been removed. Local oral tradition holds that his lantern continues to appear on dark nights, swinging in the manner of a man on foot.
For decades, Colleton County residents have described the light appearing as a bobbing, orange-white glow that moves along the road before vanishing. The ritual of flashing headlights five times is specific and consistent across multiple independent accounts. The Walterboro Live newspaper has covered the phenomenon as an established local ghost story, and the lowcountry-focused regional press has documented the legend in detail.
Sources
The Jacksonboro Light is among the most consistently documented ghost-light phenomena in South Carolina. The encounter protocol is highly specific: drivers stop on Parker's Ferry Road after dark and flash their headlights five times. Multiple sources across independent publications describe the same result — a light appears in the distance and moves toward or along the road before disappearing.
The preacher narrative is the dominant local explanation. He is described as carrying a lantern while searching for his daughter, and the swinging motion of the light is said to match a walking man holding a lantern at his side. Some witnesses have also reported handprints — not attributable to rain, condensation, or their own hands — appearing on the exterior of their vehicles after the experience, suggesting physical contact of some kind.
The light has been described variously as orange, white, or yellow, and its behavior — appearing, moving, and vanishing — has remained consistent across accounts spanning multiple decades.
Visitors park on Parker's Ferry Road at night and, following local tradition, flash their headlights five times; witnesses report a bobbing orange-white light appearing down the road. Some also report unexplained handprints on car exteriors after the experience.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Gatlinburg, TN
Great Smoky Mountains National Park preserves 522,427 acres of southern Appalachian terrain across Tennessee and North Carolina. The land was the heart of the Cherokee Nation before forced removal in 1838 along what became the Trail of Tears, and home to Appalachian Scots-Irish and English settler communities through the early twentieth century. Congress authorized the park in 1926; it was formally dedicated by Franklin D. Roosevelt on September 2, 1940.
Travelers Rest, SC
Constructed in 1820, Poinsett Bridge is the oldest surviving stone bridge in South Carolina and potentially the oldest in the southeastern United States. The 130-foot Gothic-arch span over Little Gap Creek was built as part of the State Road connecting Columbia to the North Carolina mountains, named for Joel Roberts Poinsett, then-president of the state Board of Public Works. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, it is now the centerpiece of the 400-acre Poinsett Bridge Heritage Preserve managed by SC DNR.
Grand Canyon Village, AZ
Grand Canyon National Park encompasses 1,217,262 acres of canyon, plateau, and Colorado River corridor in northern Arizona. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the Grand Canyon a national monument in 1908; Congress established the national park on February 26, 1919. The park's South Rim Grand Canyon Village Historic District and North Rim Grand Canyon Lodge are landmarks of early National Park Service architecture.