Haunted Smoke Stacks of Millington

The Smoke Stacks in Millington, Tennessee, once better known as The Chickasaw Ordnance Works, may seem like just another piece of industrial scenery. However, there is something that stands out about these strange, somber pillars. While the factory remains standing today, you can see the stacks from miles out and were once said to be the tallest ever constructed in the mid-south. There are several swirling, smoky rumors of haunting and unease so let's dive in.

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The smoke stacks have a long and storied history in Millington, built in 1940. In fact, during World War II, it was used to create gunpowder to support the war efforts. However, as the decades have passed the stacks have gone from a symbol of American ingenuity to…something more sinister.

After the war effort began to wind down and the 8,000 women who worked there during the war effort and more than $50 million in American and foreign investment, the award-winning plant was deemed too dangerous for conversion to civilian uses after the army deactivated it in mid-1946.

Perhaps this has something to do with the large subterranean tunnels that snake underneath the building. It was said a man who had gone mad in the woods would stalk victims and bring them to these tunnels to kill them before running back to the woods. It is whispered urban legend that if you get too close to the stacks you may run into the ghost left behind by this man…both his evil ghost, and the somber ghosts of his victims.

It's no surprise that there is some mystery around this. On April 8th, 1944 when a Liberator bomber took off from town carrying a crew the plane engine failed over the powder plant and exploded. The plane crashed in a field nearby and only one of the 10 men involved survived. Some say it is these men, lost before they ever saw battle, that haunt the planet to this day stalking the fields and forests where they met their demise.

Another tale tells the story of a man who was working at the plant when it was active. When this man was dumping the waste barrels, he stood by a tree in the hot Tennessee climate to take a break. He went to light a cigarette...but the flame didn't have time to ignite as the tiny spark ignited the residue on the man's hands. The miniature explosion, though it would spare him, would mar his face and scalp. His heavily scarred face left behind, sadly, a barely human-looking face. If you believe any of this at all, when he returned home his family left him, his friends spurned him, and so he returned back to the factory. As his anger grew and his lifestyle moved from family men to living on a bridge by the factory, his mind slowly lost connection with the world and he went insane. He soon got the name “Pig Man” and it was believed he captured children and would eat them if they dared to cross his bridge.

Local urban legend says if you find and drive to this bridge in the middle of the night during a full moon, you may catch a glimpse of him. Simply turn off your car, roll down your window flash your lights three times, and call him each time. “Pigman, Pigman, Pigman!” and then he will appear. Many have claimed to try this summoning ritual, but no serious reports of Pigman sightings have come of it. However, campers in Meeman-Shelby Forest have claimed to see and hear strange sounds and figures in the woods

This site continues to be a hot spot for paranormal investigations and there have been EVPs, unexplainable experiences, photographic anomalies, and strange lights. 

The featured image does not include the Millington Stacks, but does portray what perhaps the water that the alleged Pigman was looking at before he blew up. The photo depicts Edmund Orgill Park (Millington, Tennessee) taken by Thomas R Machnitzki. It is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Thanks to Tona F for this blogstonishing suggestion!