Are there ghosts in southwest Georgia? SGPI investigates.

/Home/Ghosts and spirits

Are there ghosts in southwest Georgia? SGPI investigates.
July 6, 2009
By Jennifer Emer
WALB News

ALBANY, GA (WALB) - There may be more to south Georgia's history than meets the eye. Savannah has been deemed one of America's most haunted cities and national ghost hunting groups consider Americus' Windsor hotel haunted.

Now a local south Georgia group of 13 is investigating to see if southwest Georgia has its own haunted hideaways. Chehaw Village along New York Road in Lee County is an unassuming picnic spot with a lot of untold history.

"The young men, the warriors from that group joined the military to help fight the United States military to help fight the Seminoles, to help bring the Seminole rebellion down," said Tripp Robbins, South Georgia Paranormal Investigator Lead Investigator.

A marker placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution only tells part of the story.

"The Georgia militia came through here and killed several of the women and children and old elders in this particular area," said Robbins.

South Georgia Paranormal Investigators want to know the whole story, so they're going to the source, so to speak.

"Mainly what our focus is is to document what's there or document what's possibly there, hopefully catch something and bring it to light," said Robbins.

There are no Ouija Boards or seance, using a camera and equipment that measures electromagnetic fields the investigation begins.

"Before every investigation we say a prayer, after every investigations we say a prayer. Every team members is a Christian, we're all God fearing individuals," said Robbins.

The crew spread out, snapping pictures and taking readings, looking for anything that isn't easily explained away.

"I took a picture out here, the last time we were here, of what looked like a wood pile, a fire pile. The first picture nothing, the second picture had what looked like an illuminant in the middle of it and we can't figure out where it came from," said Amanda Hoxsie, South Georgia Paranormal Investigators Tech Specialist.

"My flash light went completely out, her camera died, and about the same time we both got an uneasy, queasy feeling like we were both going to get sick, so we decided to walk away and as we were walking away, I physically got choked," said Michelle Williams, South Georgia Paranormal Investigator Web specialist.

Our own goose bump experience came when the group plugged in it's paranormal puck.

"It takes energy in the air and it converts it into language via a database it already has built into the software, it takes whatever it thinks its saying and turns it into words so you can read it," said Hoxsie.

It translated thousands, Indian, night, words not uncommon for this area, but then it starting reading words including video.

"News. That's the first time it said news, corn, history, see it's really beginning to pick up on things that relate to us," said Hoxsie.

Coincidence?

"Coincidence or something there? Who knows, who's to say? You can't prove it one way or the other, it's just take it how you feel," said Robbins.

Then explain the voices caught in the background of the recorders running the entire time.

"Help me, help me," said a voice.

Or increased readings from trees that are descendents of the trees that stood when the massacre occurred?

"There was a couple of areas where the meter had gone up higher than our normal reading that we couldn't debunk," said Williams. The group knows there will be skeptics.

"The easiest thing to do is tell them, you listen to the voices and you tell me, you explain what it is. If I can't, we go into a situation trying our best to explain away what it is," said Robbins.

For the South Georgia Paranormal Investigators its proof enough something exists at this site, what that is will take further investigation and more research.

"Curiosity, some of us have had experiences in the past and you just can't explain you want to know more about it," said Robbins.

So when you get that uneasy feeling in what should be a familiar place, or can't explain a strange smell, or you hear a strange sound when you know you're the only one there, but can't explain it, you can call south Georgia's ghost hunters.

The group is really interested in investigating some of downtown Albany's building, and they've spoken to city officials asking for permission to get into those buildings. This is a volunteer group and all of their investigations are done free of charge.

If you want to learn more about South Georgia's Paranormal Investigators you can log onto their website at www.georgiaspirits.com.