EDITOR’S NOTE: Strangeville explores the legends, folklore, and unexplained history of Western North Carolina. From Cherokee mythology and Appalachian ghost stories to Bigfoot sightings and UFO encounters, the Blue Ridge Mountains have long been a hotspot for the strange and mysterious. Join us as we dig into the past and uncover the truth behind the region’s most curious tales.

WAYNESVILLE, N.C. —Tucked along the rolling hills of Waynesville, Green Hill Cemetery holds more than a century of mountain history and one enduring urban legend.

Locals still tell the story that Curtis G. Logan, an undertaker turned automobile dealer, was buried inside his car after his death in 1936. The tale has circulated for decades, gaining new life through word of mouth, ghost tours and online posts about Waynesville’s most curious grave.

No records support it.

Town burial ledgers list only a standard grave, and Logan’s 1936 obituary in The Mountaineer makes no mention of a car or unusual burial. Even so, the legend endures.

A 2017 Facebook post from the Town of Waynesville, promoting its Green Hill Cemetery Tour, describes Logan as “said to have been buried in his most beloved car.” The careful phrasing reflects how such stories persist, thin on evidence but rich in imagination.

Historians say these kinds of myths often grow around people whose lives already carried a touch of spectacle. Logan fit that description.

Born in Madison County in 1873, Logan came to Waynesville around the turn of the century. He worked as an undertaker before he opened Haywood County’s first car dealership by 1908. At a time when most residents still traveled by horse, Logan filled Main Street with “benzine buggies,” selling Overland and Willys-Knight models from his garage in the Frog Level district.

Later, he served as Waynesville’s fire chief and superintendent of the town’s water and light department, positions that kept him central to the town’s growth. In his final years, he worked as an electrical engineer and superintendent of water works at Smokemont and the Cherokee Indian School under a Works Progress Administration project.

On Aug. 19, 1936, while driving from Smokemont to the Cherokee Reservation, Logan stopped his car, stepped into the road and collapsed. He died instantly. His funeral was held three days later, with Masonic rites at the grave in Green Hill Cemetery.

From there, fact fades into folklore.

Whether the story of the car came from admiration for Waynesville’s first auto dealer or from a misunderstanding that grew over time, no one can say for sure.

What is certain is that Curtis G. Logan helped steer Waynesville into the modern age, and the story of his final ride still rolls on.

---