Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Colonial Park Ghost Tour, Savannah

WARNING: NOT FOR THE FEINT OF HEART:



When you're cool like us ;-), what's the first thing you do when you visit a completely new city?
That's right, you sign on for a Ghost Tour. Why? #1, 'Cause that's where all the other cool people are, and you want to be seen with them, and #2, you can learn some fun and interesting history about a city for a fraction of the cost of a real tour guide.

Due to her lack of animation (and the red eyes caught on this picture), we believe our ghost tour guide was either having a bad day, or she was really one of the ghosts.
We met in front of an old Colonial Park Cemetery. Eerie fact: although there are something like 600 grave markers, over 10,000 people are really buried there. When the roads surrounding the cemetery where built, instead of moving the bodies, only the markers were moved. Yikes!
Another Eerie fact: Savannah was captured relatively early in the Civil War, so it was spared from the firestorm of Sherman's March through the south. While trying to keep warm that first winter, Union troops requisitioned some of the tombs, throwing out the bones, and appropriating some of the other contents.
The Marshall House is the site of many spooky sightings. Ghost tours are only allowed to see it through the windows. Do you see the strange orbs of light? (Promise, it's not my camera or anything)
The Owens-Thomas has its share of unearthly visitations, too.
I can't remember the name of this house, but here's the story: A young Irish girl worked as a maid when this house served as a hotel. She fell in love with a sea-faring man who promised that he would return after his next voyage and marry her. One thing led to another, and... you get the picture. Well, he didn't return - ever, and she was left a soiled dove, ruining her chances for happiness with a more deserving fellow. One day, she heard that he had in fact returned, but not to her. She threw herself out of the 3rd story room pictured above, and died days later. Her ghost still roams this house!

Two things make Savannah one of the most beautiful cities in the world: the architecture....
and the town squares, most of which have moss-covered tree. However, in Wright Square, the site of an infamous hanging of an indentured servant and her lover, no moss grows. Read the full story on the link. I'd like to say that scientist the world over are investigating it, but I can't. As the ghost tour guide reported, no one has any explanation for the phenomenon.

Above, classier ghost tourist have rented an old hearse.

Had to throw in this picture I took at Fort George of Robert Gould Shaw, a Civil War hero.

2 comments:

  1. I'm so jealous of your trip! I'll make it to Savannah someday.

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  2. Dane's going to Airborne or Ranger school or something. That's in Columbus.

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