My interest in the odd began well before I ventured into North Georgia.
My brother, Bradford, had found a website promoting a book about oddities in the United States and after further research, discovered there were state-specific editions. One day, he came home with “Weird Georgia” by Jim Miles. We read through it and giggled at whatever interested us.
Bradford and I have always been very close. Despite that, he still loved to scare the pants off his little sister by telling me that Dracula was going to live in the Lego brick house I had made, or that witches had sacrificed my friend, who had moved away, around a special “witch tree,” or that I was responsible for the death of Santa and was going to jail. Luckily, we look back and laugh about these mildly-traumatizing stories now.
The point is, my brother’s wild imagination and creativity impacted me a little differently than expected. It inspired me to be very creative and expressive and to unleash that wild imagination, but it also made me very curious. I wanted to know more details about this “witch tree” that witches allegedly gathered around, where they allegedly sacrificed a childhood friend (who actually had moved away.) A curiosity developed, and it was fed heartily.
Fast-forward to my days as a freshman at Brenau University in 2009. If you didn't know, the school is supposedly chock full of ghosts. I went full force into ghost mode, learning all I could about Agnes, Little Red and others. I lived in a haunted room by my own free will as a sophomore and junior and actually regretted taking a senior (and larger) room in my sorority house because I missed my “ghost” roommate. I spent hours in the Brenau historical archives, crying over letters past presidents had written to their dying wives, digging through boxes for photographs, wondering, “What was life like when all this was happening?”
I remember specifically reading a letter from then-President T.J. Simmons about the loss of his wife, Lessie. He had a building built in her honor and wanted it to be used to further the Christian fellowship. The building, one of my favorites on campus, is now used as an art gallery. The fellowship group hasn’t been on campus in decades.
I also remember finding the charred remains of what appeared to be a painted face on petrified wood. I later learned it was all that was left of a totem pole on campus that had been struck by lightning and burned up. All that was left was the painted face of a raven on petrified tree bark.
I began working for Jacobs Media in April 2013 and, while learning the ropes, let my curiosity feed during slow hours. Hunting wire stories for updates, typing everything imaginable into search engines, and researching old stories, hoping for a solution or a new development. It irked me, long after I had left for the day, murder stories that were ten years old with no killers, no suspects and no arrests. Cold cases literally gave me the chills.
And I fed the curiosity again when I agreed to write these blogs. It crept up on me, really. I decided to purchase my own copy of “Weird Georgia” and discovered there were a lot of strange things in North Georgia, living right under my nose. I realized that there was a lot more to explore and it was just the excitement I needed.
I am delighted to take a closer look at things we drive by every day – like Poultry Park and the Gainesville Midland – and also to find the stories about their construction, as well as controversies surrounding them and local legends. I’ll visit the places I’ve reported on but never been to. On this journey, I’ll learn more about statues, museums, local artists, abandoned buildings and lost stories. Maybe I’ll get some conclusions. Maybe I won’t – maybe, I’ll be part of it.
My first stop is the Georgia Guidestones in Elbert County. It’s a little out of the AccessWDUN coverage range, but I had been told it’s worth a trip to “the Stonehenge of the South.” My dad has wanted to go and it was near his birthday when a story about the stones landed on my desk. All of those things are the recipe to an adventure, I think. They’re a very strange sight: several granite blocks with commandments – not the Ten Commandments from the Bible – written in several languages, with a perfect pin hole in the center. Since the monument was commissioned in the late 1970’s, the Guidestones have been a hotbed for controversy. But we’ll get to all that next time.
Until then, stay curious.
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This introductory article scratches the surface of my bizarre desire to seek the unusual, but the interpretation of my utter weirdness is up to you. The comments made in this feature article, by myself and by those who have been mentioned, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Jacobs Media Corporation. Read, enjoy and explore at your own risk.
