Maco Light Road — Brunswick County

Since 1867, a swinging lantern light has appeared along the former Atlantic Coast Line railroad right-of-way near Maco — interpreted as the ghost of brakeman Joe Baldwin searching for his head after a decapitation in a 1867 train collision. The light was so well established that the railroad installed special double signals at Maco to distinguish it from train approach lights. President Grover Cleveland witnessed the light during a 1889 visit to Wilmington and called it 'uncanny.' The light reportedly ceased when the railroad removed the tracks in 1977, though some witnesses still report it in the overgrown right-of-way.