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Storyteller's Cabin |
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Part One - Ghost Hunting |
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Part Two - Hell Hole |
AUGUST 23, 2000
Met for coffee with Cheri Mohr Drake, founder of the Georgia Haunt Hunt Team. We decided to go on a ghost hunt at Chickamauga Battlefield near Chattanooga, Tennessee, and set the date for October 1. Many strange occurrences are said to have taken place here. Chickamauga will be a long drive, and we may need to stay overnight. Cheri will mail materials to me on the battlefield next week.
SEPTEMBER 5, 2000
Received package of materials from Cheri. After reading about Chickamauga, it seems that it will be too far to drive, and the park may be hard to gain access to at night. But within the package of materials was a copy of an article from a Civil War magazine called BLUE AND GRAY about New Hope, Georgia and the "Hell Hole." The Hell Hole is a ravine in New Hope where an intense Civil War battle took place, and there's said to be strange noises at night. There was also a horrible plane crash there in the 1970s.
The story in BLUE AND GRAY was about two Civil War historians who encountered ghosts while hunting for artifacts at New Hope in the 1960s. I recognized this story as the same one I clipped out of the Atlanta paper a few years back around Halloween. New Hope is only a few miles west of Atlanta, so I figured this would probably work, especially since Cheri has to drive all the way from Athens that night. We both decided to give up on Chickamauga and drive to New Hope instead.
SEPTEMBER 18, 2000
Took the day off from work and scouted New Hope. The area where the Battle of New Hope took place is now an intersection with a tire store, two churches, a convenience store, a pizza delivery place and an old cemetery. From speaking with some park rangers at nearby Pickett's Mill Battlefield Historic Site, I reason that the Hell Hole must be at the back of the cemetery, but I'm soon proved wrong. After fighting my way through the thick brush, all I find is drainage ditch.
I went back to Pickett's Mill, and was told by the groundskeeper that I had looked in the wrong place. He drove me back to the real Hell Hole in his truck and left me there while he ran some errands.
I was left on the side of a busy two lane road. I spotted a small path going into the forest, followed it, and found myself above a large ravine that cut through the forest like a giant scar. I had heard there was a lot of trash in the ravine, but it looked like someone had been trying to clean it up (I was told later that the State of Georgia had purchased the land). But I could see houses through the trees, and the two lane road behind me was very loud. I couldn't imagine this as the scary place I had read about in the article. There was much more development now than there was back then.
The groundskeeper returned and brought me back to Pickett's Mill. As a backup, I decided to explore the battlefield, which is on state protected land. It wasn't so much a battlefield with clearings as it was a deep forest with dirt trails. It was easy to understand why the soldiers who fought here became so disoriented during battle. In its own way, it was a creepy place.
I returned to the Visitor's Center and asked the rangers about the possibility of a ghost hunt at night on the battlefield. They told me numerous stories about ghost sightings on the property, especially around the anniversary of the battle. One of the rangers agreed to meet Cheri and I on the evening of October 1st to guide us around the Pickett's Mill area.
I informed Cheri about my findings. She was not very enthusiastic about the development around the Hell Hole, and felt that whatever was haunting the area might have been chased away. But we agreed to explore both the Hell Hole and Pickett's Mill.
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