Tale of Petrified Witch of Kanawha County nearly forgotten

Surely few English speakers who have observed the “Witchers Creek” road sign on U.S. 60 have done so without considering the association with the word “witch,” surely a coincidence. But it turns out a witch-legend is indeed associated with the stream, though few seem to know how believable much of the tale might be and fewer seem to know of the tale at all.

Jim Comstock, an admitted serial teller of tales, recited the following account of the witch in volume 17 of The West Virginia Heritage Encyclopedia, which he edited in 1976. We’ve included the entire tale here as Comstock rendered it with few emendations:
https://wvexplorer.com/2017/04/21/tale-petrified-witch-kanawha-county-nearly-forgotten/