Hello ETSU! Much to my surprise, another school year is beginning, and I couldn’t be more excited to be back on campus! In my opinion, the first article of the semester is the hardest one to write, but as I considered what I would write about this time, I realized the answer was close to home. About seven minutes from home actually. So, today, I bring to ETSU the Bemberg Factory and all its mysteries and local lore.
The Bemberg Factory was built in the 1920s as a plant that produced a sort of yarn called “cuprammonium rayon” or “rayon”. Aside from being a deeply creepy space, it is also a historic landmark as it was the starting point of the women’s civil rights movement in the southern U.S. Due to unfair treatment and low wages, the women who worked there staged a walk-out and were then barred from re-entry where they began a march that spread throughout the rest of the southern states. While it’s not common information to find, the company had worries about the workers forcing their way in, especially amidst the strikes and history with unions attacking scabs (people who broke the strike or were hired specifically so that companies could ignore the strikes) there were soldiers stationed along the roof with weaponry as a preventative measure.
But today, Bemberg has a much less interesting, though more sinister presence in the lives of the townspeople. Throughout high school, there was regular gossip about the Rayon Dogs, who had been transformed by the chemicals in the factory and roamed the field behind the factory. Others claim that the factory is haunted and this second legend, seems to be much more common than dogs.
According to an anonymous blogpost on cartercountyhistory.com, once the factory shut down, it became a shelter to the homeless and dishoused for a while. That was until 1998 when a woman was seen falling out a window by someone who worked at an ajoining factory. When she was looked for, the two who had gone to find her said they could find nothing. As did a city worker. As did many others until 2006. However this post is not the first time I’d heard of her.
As someone who grew up in the shadow of the Bemberg smokestack, I understand the allure that the factory holds. I do not condone breaking, entering, or any sort of trespassing, but I’ve heard rumors that people have gone in and have seen that same falling figure that is described, though the details are hazy and seem to change from person to person, the only unchanging fact that a woman is seen falling in the evening and leaving no trace behind.
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