The Moonlit Road - Hell Hole

	Storyteller's Cabin
	Part One - Ghost Hunting
	Part Three - The Hunt

Written by Craig Dominey
(Part Two of a Three Part Series)

They say there are places on this planet which have seen such tragedy and sorrow that they are forever cursed. It's as if the earth itself holds some dark supernatural force beyond our understanding. A few years ago, I found such a cursed place just a few miles west of Atlanta, Georgia - a tiny hamlet called New Hope. And even though many people don't believe the story I'm about to tell, my visit there haunts my dreams to this day.

At one time, I was a 35-year-old small business owner living in a tiny town in rural Virginia. This town was so tiny and remote that it took us several years to finally discover a brand new invention that was already revolutionizing the world - the Internet. But once I was online, I quickly left my nine to five job and went into business for myself in the new "dot com" economy.

I didn't have a brilliant business mind, but my father, a rabid Civil War enthusiast, had taught me to do one thing very well - hunt for Civil War artifacts. Bullets, belt buckles, coins, uniform buttons - the Virginia battlefields were full of them. So I quickly opened up my own Web site hawking Civil War memorabilia at high prices.

I'm a bit ashamed to admit it now, but profit was much more important to me in those days than respect for the dead. It didn't matter to me if a battlefield was located on protected land or not. Under cover of darkness, I would sneak onto the property with my shovel and trusty metal detector, and would steal away as many artifacts as I could find. But it wasn't long before other relic hunters got in on the act, and competition became fierce. Verbal threats and fistfights became common amongst rival hunters, and I knew it was time to hunt for relics elsewhere.

I remembered studying about Union General William T. Sherman's devastating "March to the Sea" in Georgia, and figured that somewhere along that long path from Chattanooga, Tennessee, down through Atlanta, and south to Savannah there must be a treasure trove of artifacts. So that spring, I hopped in my truck and drove south to Georgia to see what I could find.

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