Devil's Tea Tables

West Virginia, because of its geography, is home to all kinds of beautiful unusual rock formations. If you look, you might spot a formation that looks like a giant stone mushroom with a narrow column of rock supporting a flat slab of rock on top of it. Some people think they look like giant tales. I suppose that's why they are commonly called tea tables. To be more exact, West Virginia folk call them "Devil's Tea Tables".

People call these formations Devil's Tea tables because that's what they are actually believed to be. There are people who will swear that the devil himself visits them. It is said that when the devil is around a heavy mist will shroud the tea tables and hide him. 

Legend goes that "One day two men were traveling down the Elk River in a boat. It was a beautiful day and they had finished work, so they took their time. A magnificent tea table formation that they had often passed came into view. One of the men wanted to stop and hike up to it. Since they had time, the hiker's friend was happy to stop. He agreed to sit and wait with the boat.

When they reached the tea table, they saw that it was hidden by an odd mist that clung on it and nothing else. The man's partner didn't give the mist a second thought and jumped from the boat as soon as they got to shore. The one started scrambling up the slope, while the other sat back and kicked his feet up. He figured it would take his partner a half an hour or so to get there and back. The man waited and waited and waited.

Hours later his partner stumbled back down the hill, climbing into the boat without a word. His eyes were empty, devoid of life. He never recovered. He spent the rest of his life an empty shell of a man for he had stumbled upon the devil himself.

He'd had the horrible misfortune of interrupting the devil having tea. The devil had loomed before him and looked at the man with cruel and merciless eyes. Then the devil had reached down and, with a mere pinch of his finger, he pulled away the man's 'soul'. He crumbled it up and sprinkled into his cup of tea like a bit of sugar. Then the devil waved the man away and returned to his tea. This was not the first time someone unwittingly stumbled upon the devil, and it sure won't be the last. So take heed. If you see a devil's tea table, admire it from afar. If a mist surrounds it, look away and run!"

References:

Monsters and Ghosts of West Virginia by Eric Turner and Issac Mckinnon