There's really nothing fall-like about it.
Yup, October in Savannah. Such festive colors. |
But they do rock the pumpkins. |
But Halloween is coming, I should totally get my scare on and check out some haunted houses!
You know, like Gates of Misery, Slaughter at Sundown, and my personal favorite, Haunted Farm of Terror.
Yes, I want all of that. Plus Rob Zombie's greatest hits. |
Except instead of being directed to gory attractions where teenagers and college students jump out of the dark with fake chainsaws and hockey masks, I'm greeted with a list of bed and breakfasts, restaurants, museums, and old theaters.
Huh. |
Don't believe me? Google it. I'll wait.
Still waiting...
Granted, most of the reported hauntings aren't so much Amity Horror as they are things that go bump in the night.
Still, seeing apparitions and witnessing doors creak open by themselves are not exactly how I'd like to end my day at the local B&B.
Fake scares I can handle, real ones tend to degrade me into a quivering puddle of goo.
Check out the creepy tunnel of death, you say? Sorry, no. I'm too busy crapping my pants. |
Aside from the creepiness, the she-crab soup is pretty decent. |
Their brochure claims that Captain Flint, of Treasure Island fame, hung out there, despite being a fictitious character. Also, Blackbeard's ghost supposedly roams the halls.
Ooooooo! Also: Aarrghh! |
And if I've learned anything from Sid Meier's Pirates!, besides that governor's daughters really dig dancing...
Spin her enough times and her |
But privateers were still a thing during the early years of the Pirate Houses' existence in the 1700's, and it has always operated primarily as a bar/restaurant/swashbucklers retreat. And if anything is haunted there it probably is the tunnel. Just not by Blackbeard's ghost.
Back in the day the majority of able-bodied men weren't exactly keen on the idea of seeking adventure on the high seas as a privateer. Conditions were lousy and they didn't even get a decent cut of the plunder.
The chances of hanging out and drinking rum with the likes of Kiera Knightly or Johnny Depp were also slim. Weird, I know. |
And guess how they sneaked these knocked out soon-to-be sailors over to their ship?
Why do I feel like I've been here before? |
Eerie.
This cannot possibly end well. |
Another purportedly haunted establishment is the Marshall House. An upscale hotel, it was originally built in 1851, and certainly has it's fair share of disturbing lore.
Conveniently located minutes from everything creepy. |
This. But not as sexy. |
Is it just me, or is this is almost as disturbing as the real thing? |
That's a hell of a surprise to have when all you're trying to do is upgrade the plumbing.
Dammit! No way are the HVAC guys going to come back after this. |
So yeah, all your typical haunted, let's get the hell out of here, type stuff.
It's been theorized that the dead soldiers miss their severed limbs and are looking for them.
C'mon guys! I just want my right arm back, is that so much to ask?! |
Either way, I really hope they got the idea from watching Ghostbusters II.
You know, that scene where the Ghostbusters use positively charged slime and played Jackie Wilson's "Higher and Higher" to animate the Statue of Liberty? Awesome. |
Times were tough back in the day. Savannah endured several yellow fever epidemics, was almost burned to the ground twice, and it's citizens actively participated in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
So, yeah, a lot of people died there.
That said, finding bodies while digging in the city is extremely common. When old cemeteries closed, headstones were moved. But, in true Poltergeist fashion, they didn't always move the bodies.
Not really sure where these go. Guess we'll just lean them up against this wall here... |
"Some road crews and utility companies have been accompanied by an archaeologist, and they usually turn up a few of Georgia's earliest inhabitants when they do any sort of maintenance. A man working for Georgia Power relayed a grisly tale about laying some cable using a machine that burrows sideways through the ground. He said, 'A human body makes a sound unlike any other when that machine bores through it. We are supposed to keep a log of when we hear that sound. When we laid a cable in an alley downtown, I was busy all day writing down the fact that we kept on hitting body...after body...after body.' He then described the sound, likening it to a wooden spoon caught in a garbage disposal."
Except not. |
And since we're getting our haunted Halloween on, here's another story that takes place just east of town at Old Fort Jackson.
Originally built in 1808 as a stronghold against the British, Fort Jackson was also utilized by the Confederates during the Civil War.
The details surrounding the incident and subsequent haunting are unknown, but what we do know is that a Private Garrity was on guard duty near the drawbridge when he was approached by Lt. Dickerson.
Good lord, old forts are frickin sweet. |
Garrity! You are such a dick! |
Dickerson somehow survived, but never fully recovered. He was also neither able to remember the incident or the reason for it, or just didn't want to say.
Anyway, there has been a ghostly figure seen at the scene of the attack. Most assume that it's Garrity. Supposedly he is only visible from the waist up, walking alone, his legs a misty blur.
Eh, probably just a bunch of overactive imaginations.
Happy Halloween everyone!
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