Till Now

In 1954, Hub Pugh hit an object with a road grader. When he got off his tractor, he realized he had hit something that was beyond anything he had ever read about or heard of on Sci-Fi radio serials. It was an oblong, metal box with hook-like appendages on the sides. It resembled an ancient rusted over submarine with a green-tinted glass over the head. He looked in and peering back at him, was a face. Inside, perfectly preserved, was a young woman in an ornate, flowered dress.

 

Salem, Alabama, with a population of less than 100 and full of superstition, put her on display for three days before reburying her further back in the woods, where she was found. No investigation. No marker. No identity.

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She became Alabama legend, a campfire ghost story. That is until 2017, when a non-fiction writer, compelled since childhood to find her identity, did just that. After years of searching through documents, her resting place was rediscovered and her name and story resurrected.

 

Some tales are all too real. It is her story: a woman taken in the prime of her life and so loved as to be sealed in time in an airtight iron casket that cost $100 when a pine box was only $2. Her story is that of a soul out of place and lost to time, who may again be found.