Today, I’m going to focus on one close to home – the historic Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia. Oakland Cemetery was bought in 1850 and was originally named Atlanta Graveyard or City Burial Place. It was renamed to Oakland Cemetery in 1972.
Oakland Cemetery offers twilight tours of the cemetery – how scary huh? And around this time of the year, the cemetery even offers what they call “Capturing the Spirit of Oakland Halloween Tours”. What a way to catch some things that go bump in the night. There are over 70,000 residents in over 40 acres that are just dying to meet you whether you have a guided tour or walk the cemetery by yourself… if you’re brave enough.
A lot of the history of this wonderful cemetery centers around the Civil War. There have been stories in the Confederate portion of the cemetery of hearing names being called as if in a roll call. But to look around, there is no one living there, just the statue of a lion guarding the unknown Confederate dead and he’s not talking.
Often the guides at the cemetery will tell you that people actually die three times. Once on their last breath, once when they are laid to rest and once when they are no longer remembered. Sounds just like a situation for a few people to come out and be remembered, doesn’t it? So the next time you’re in the area, drop by for a visit. I’ve heard they’re alway looking for a good soul to fright.
Mom and dad take a vacation usually every year in historic Savannah, Georgia, I thought today I would focus on a wonderful cemetery in Savannah. Mom/dad have been here often and walked among the graves and tombstones… and perhaps some living and unliving. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
The cemetery I’m focusing on today is the Colonial Park Cemetery. It was established in 1750 and has been restored. It is located at the corner of Abercorn and Oglethorpe Streets in Savannah, Georgia. What an amazing archway they have to enter into the cemetery. This cemetery is amazing – so mom/dad says – snorts. I wouldn’t know first hoove but mom/dad did give me a lot of information by phone last night.
There are over 10,000 people buried here; however, there are only around 1,000 grave markers. Many people were buried in mass graves, others have had their grave markers knocked over and/or destroyed. The cemetery was actually closed for new burials before the Civil War and there are no confederate soldiers buried; however, the war did leave a mark. Federal troops took over the cemetery grounds during their occupation in Savannah. Many of the graves were looted and desecrated. It’s said that a lot of the union soldiers changed the dates on many of the headstones. Some dates look like the persons died before they were even born! Can you imagine with a lot of this information why some people are not having their final rest in peace? I’m sure some are still looking for their grave markers wanting to be remembered. Others are perhaps upset over the desecration of their headstones. It makes you wonder really who is walking beside you that you can’t see while you are visiting.
This cemetery closes at dark and there’s a good reason. Savannah has many Voodoo practitioners still living in and around the area. Before the cemetery started closing at night, it wasn’t uncommon for early morning visitors to find remnants of Voodoo rituals from the night before. Sometimes the soil from the graves was used in rituals and sometimes graves were raided in order to obtain human bones.
And, we can’t forget the story of Rene Asche Rondolier. He’s one of the most famous ghosts of Colonial Park Cemetery. Rondolier was a disfigured orphan who was said to call Colonial Park Cemetery his home in the early 1800’s. He was accused of murdering two young girls and their bodies were found in the cemetery. Rondolier was dragged to a nearby swamp, lynched and left for dead. More dead bodies turned up in the cemetery in the days that followed. The people in the town were convinced it was Rondolier’s ghost. Some even say that the cemetery is Rondolier’s playground.
Shivers! If that’s not enough to make you jump at things that go bump in the night! I’ll leave this cemetery for mom/dad to explore.
Oh, and before I go. I want to share something I found on YouTube on the Colonial Park Cemetery. A family was actually on vacation and caught something on camera. Their video made it on the news and is kind of intriguing. Here is the news clip from what they caught. Do you believe? What do you think now?
Hello sweet friends. Today we continue our Travels in the South series with our friends Fozziemom and Fozziedad who visited all the way from Australia. Now this little piggy is jealous over today’s adventure. I think I could have had a ball roaming the grounds with everyone exploring the way they did. You see, on this day everyone visited Ft. Pulaski National Monument which is a national park near Tybee Island in Chatham County.
This is an aerial view of Ft. Pulaski National Monument courtesy of Ft. Pulaski 🙂 Thank you Ft Pulaski! Ft. Pulaski was going strong in the days of the American Civil War. It is over 5,000 acres consisting of tidal marshes and mud flats. There are canon and musket reenactments throughout the day. The park is open daily from 9AM to 5PM.
You can go throughout the yards either on a guided tour or you can venture around by yourself.
Your tour really starts when you park your car. The grounds are absolutely beautiful! You start down paths walking to the entrance and you also see the moat. Now, go ahead and raise your hands my friends.
How many of you want a moat around your house? I’m raising my piggy hoof. I think it would be kind of cool for sure. I bet back in the day they didn’t have solicitors knocking on their drawbridges – snorts with piggy laughter!
Now when everyone first got there, they heard loud noises that sounded like cannon shots. But, upon further investigation, mom/dad found out that actually it was from muskets being fired at a kind of show and tell. Even the guy shooting the musket, was dressed in attire from the Civil War days. Cool huh?
But after the shots of the musket, things were silent. Mom said that you could close your eyes, smell the musket from when it was fired, you could feel the wind blowing around you, the water hitting the moat and you could almost visualize life as it was in the fort. Mom might have said a moan from a soldier could also be heard. Was the place haunted?
The fort was built in 1861 and is still in remarkable condition. You do see some of the stonework falling inside of the casemates as you can see in the picture with the fireplace. But overall, it is still an overwhelming fort.
Some people – like Fozziemom and Fozziedad – climbed onto of the fort to get a better view and to take some amazing pictures over the wall looking out over the water. If you look closely at the picture with the cannon, those two specks at the top – that would be Fozziemom and Fozziedad the adventurers.
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And as Fozziemom was taking pictures, mom captured her in a picture of her own. This is Fozziemom in her glory, aimed and ready to shoot something fantastic.
So the question remains. Is Fort Pulaski haunted? Is it spooky – yes. Do you pick up “feelings” of days gone – yes. Mom said they could close their eyes and hear and picture in their minds the activity that happened once upon a time.
Since mom/dad have been back home, I’ve done a lot of research on Fort Pulaski. To my amazement, there have been many encounters with the unknown at the Fort over the years. There was a story about a mother and son visiting the fort that were crossing over the draw bridge to enter into the fort. They met a Confederate sentry dressed in uniform with his sword. They spoke to him about his outfit and the fort. The mother then inquired about a restroom and he advised that he could not leave his position to show her. She thanked the man and with her son she continued into the fort to ask about the restrooms. There she was advised that the restrooms were at the entrance. She became upset and told the man about the soldier she spoke to at the drawbridge. The man advised her that they had no soldiers dressed in Confederate uniforms at the fort.
Then there was a time that a group of Confederate reenactors placed a wreath at the graves in 1994. They then settled down for the night and camped out. During the night, a young 12 year old boy couldn’t sleep and was walking around the fort. Nearing the graves, he saw a figure of a Confederate soldier in uniform on his knees near the grave they had put the wreath. The soldier had his hat in his hand, then stood and faded away into the air.
Then during further research, I learned that an actor that you might have heard of did a movie at Fort Pulaski back in 2009. The movie was called The Conspirator and the actor was Robert Redford.
It’s up to you to decide if it’s haunted or not. Maybe someone needs to let the worker at the shop know that there has been some cases of mysterious sightings. It was definitely an adventure!
Last week we started the Gone with the Wind tour in Jonesboro, Georgia. We spoke of the Patrick Cleburne Memorial Cemetery. The above picture was taken by Bill. What an awesome picture, you think? Today we continue our tour. There was one thing that I forgot to mention last week that I think you might find fascinating.
In this picture, you see the front entrance to the Road to Tara Museum where the Gone with the Wind tour starts and drops off. This building is important – not on historically but movie wise. Have I intrigued your interest now?
You see, Georgia is like little Hollywood and there are lots of movies made here. Heck not too far from us in Atlanta, they filmed the movie The Walking Dead. That explains all of the zombies downtown – snorts with piggy laughter.
But back to this Road to Tara Museum. Do you know what famous movie actually took place in downtown Jonesboro? In fact, there was a scene in the movie that was filmed right behind this building. That’s right – Smokey and the Bandit with Burt Reynolds. Notice the building now in this picture – this is the back of the building. In the movie, Jonesboro was turned into Texarkana. Cool huh? So you see we have our own little bit of Hollywood right here in the south 🙂
There are lots of other important places in Jonesboro. There’s actually the R.K. Holliday Office Building. R.K. Holliday was the cousin of Margaret Mitchell and the father of the woman who served as inspiration to Mitchell’s character Melanie Hamilton. Then there is the Carnes Homes that was built in 1850’s by Stephen Carnes. Carnes was a casket maker and after the war he was hired to re-inter the Confederate soldiers that had been buried around the city into the Patrick Cleburne Memorial Cemetery that we spoke about last week.
The tour also brings you by the 1898 Clayton County Courthouse. Margaret Mitchell visited this courthouse to research local records during her writing of Gone with the Wind.
Our next stop on the tour was the Courthouse/Masonic Lodge. From 1858 until the first County Courthouse was completed on this site in 1861, Clayton County Court met in the Masonic Hall. This courthouse was used until 1898 when the new courthouse was built. Now inside of this building it houses all kinds of history along the ways in Clayton County. It had original policeman uniforms, jails, Gone With the Wind pictures of Scarlett and Rhett to ghosts. Yep I said ghosts. Our tour guide says that psychics have been to this building and spoke to ghosts from years past. Interesting huh?
I’m sure you recognize this movie poster from Gone With the Wind but can you read it?
And do you know what happens to people on the tour that can’t behave? Go ahead guess. I bet you can’t guess. Stay tuned next week my friends for the continuing tour.
Today we are going to start sharing another tour that we went on that was called Gone With the Wind Tour. The funny thing is that this tour has been in downtown historical Jonesboro for as long as I can remember and mom/dad have never went on it. Now, they have been to some of the places that the tour visits but never the ‘official’ tour that shares all kinds of information. And well Jean is such a fan of Gone With the Wind that everyone *had* to take this tour. This posting will definitely have to be in several postings to share all of the highlights that we saw and the pictures we took. So are you ready? Here we go.
The tour picks up at the Road to Tara Museum which is a 1867 Train Depot. Back in the day at the peak of railroad travel, both passengers and freight passed through downtown Jonesboro day and night.
It was once made of wood and stood near the Confederate Cemetery (which we will get to soon). But that building burned down in 1864 during the Civil War’s Battle of Jonesboro. After the building burned down, they built this building of granite and placed it more in the center of the town. You bought the tickets for the tour in this museum and also could shop for all kinds of gifts and trinkets.
In fact inside of the museum, they had all kinds of items for Gone with the Wind including this picture, paintings, books, pens, bells – you name it and they had it. I can assure you that mom and Jean walked out with more than the hub units wanted – snorts with piggy laughter.
Mom said she could have spent hours inside of the store just looking at everything – it was like walking on a movie set.
This beautiful house is called The Warren House and it was built in 1860 by Guy Warren. Guy Warren was an agent for the Macon & Western Railroad and one of Jonesboro’s first town commissioners. On the tour, you go by the house but currently it has new owners so you can’t go in to explore. It was on and around this house where the majority of the Battle of Jonesboro took place. The house at that time was used as a field hospital and was headquarters to the Confederate Troops until the Union Army took possession of the house for the same use. The tour guide told us that in some of the walls in the downstairs parlor, you can still see signatures of the soldiers that were recuperating at the house during the war. They left messages and signed the wall for all to see in the years to come. Cool huh?
The next stop on our tour was the Patrick Cleburne Memorial Cemetery. Now there are some graves that are marked with the names. But this cemetery also holds the remains of over 1,000 soldiers that died during the Battle of Jonesboro who were buried in unmarked graves. The unmarked headstones are laid out in the shape of a Confederate battle flag that can be seen from the air when you are overlooking the cemetery.
AND, in all the years mom has grown up in the area she has heard plenty of stories about this cemetery. Mom knew of a friend that grew up in a house across the street. One night her parents had gone out and she stayed home alone. It was dark and rainy with a heavy fog in the area. She looked out her front door and saw the image of a Confederate soldier walking down the street. Just the thought of that makes my hair stand up on end – shivers.
Well friends, I hope you enjoyed the first installment of the tour of Gone With the Wind. Come back next week for more in the Travels of the South with my mom/dad and Bill and Jean from Canada 🙂 ❤
Mom and dad take a vacation usually every year in historic Savannah, Georgia, I thought today I would focus on a wonderful cemetery in Savannah. Mom/dad have been here often and walked among the graves and tombstones… and perhaps some living and unliving. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
The cemetery I’m focusing on today is the Colonial Park Cemetery. It was established in 1750 and has been restored. It is located at the corner of Abercorn and Oglethorpe Streets in Savannah, Georgia. What an amazing archway they have to enter into the cemetery. This cemetery is amazing – so mom/dad says – snorts. I wouldn’t know first hoove but mom/dad did give me a lot of information by phone last night.
There are over 10,000 people buried here; however, there are only around 1,000 grave markers. Many people were buried in mass graves, others have had their grave markers knocked over and/or destroyed. The cemetery was actually closed for new burials before the Civil War and there are no confederate soldiers buried; however, the war did leave a mark. Federal troops took over the cemetery grounds during their occupation in Savannah. Many of the graves were looted and desecrated. It’s said that a lot of the union soldiers changed the dates on many of the headstones. Some dates look like the persons died before they were even born! Can you imagine with a lot of this information why some people are not having their final rest in peace? I’m sure some are still looking for their grave markers wanting to be remembered. Others are perhaps upset over the desecration of their headstones. It makes you wonder really who is walking beside you that you can’t see while you are visiting.
This cemetery closes at dark and there’s a good reason. Savannah has many Voodoo practitioners still living in and around the area. Before the cemetery started closing at night, it wasn’t uncommon for early morning visitors to find remnants of Voodoo rituals from the night before. Sometimes the soil from the graves was used in rituals and sometimes graves were raided in order to obtain human bones.
And, we can’t forget the story of Rene Asche Rondolier. He’s one of the most famous ghosts of Colonial Park Cemetery. Rondolier was a disfigured orphan who was said to call Colonial Park Cemetery his home in the early 1800’s. He was accused of murdering two young girls and their bodies were found in the cemetery. Rondolier was dragged to a nearby swamp, lynched and left for dead. More dead bodies turned up in the cemetery in the days that followed. The people in the town were convinced it was Rondolier’s ghost. Some even say that the cemetery is Rondolier’s playground.
Shivers! If that’s not enough to make you jump at things that go bump in the night! I’ll leave this cemetery for mom/dad to explore.
Oh, and before I go. I want to share something I found on YouTube on the Colonial Park Cemetery. A family was actually on vacation and caught something on camera. Their video made it on the news and is kind of intriguing. Here is the news clip from what they caught. Do you believe? What do you think now?
Hello ghouls and ghosts – Mom/dad vacation yearly in historic Savannah, Georgia, I thought today I would focus on a wonderful cemetery in Savannah. Mom/dad have been here often and walked among the graves and tombstones… and perhaps some living and unliving. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
The cemetery I’m focusing on today is the Colonial Park Cemetery. It was established in 1750 and has been restored. It is located at the corner of Abercorn and Oglethorpe Streets in Savannah, Georgia. What an amazing archway they have to enter into the cemetery. This cemetery is amazing – so mom/dad says – snorts. I wouldn’t know first hoove but mom/dad did give me a lot of information by phone last night.
There are over 10,000 people buried here; however, there are only around 1,000 grave markers. Many people were buried in mass graves, others have had their grave markers knocked over and/or destroyed. The cemetery was actually closed for new burials before the Civil War and there are no confederate soldiers buried; however, the war did leave a mark. Federal troops took over the cemetery grounds during their occupation in Savannah. Many of the graves were looted and desecrated. It’s said that a lot of the union soldiers changed the dates on many of the headstones. Some dates look like the persons died before they were even born! Can you imagine with a lot of this information why some people are not having their final rest in peace? I’m sure some are still looking for their grave markers wanting to be remembered. Others are perhaps upset over the desecration of their headstones. It makes you wonder really who is walking beside you that you can’t see while you are visiting.
This cemetery closes at dark and there’s a good reason. Savannah has many Voodoo practitioners still living in and around the area. Before the cemetery started closing at night, it wasn’t uncommon for early morning visitors to find remnants of Voodoo rituals from the night before. Sometimes the soil from the graves was used in rituals and sometimes graves were raided in order to obtain human bones.
And, we can’t forget the story of Rene Asche Rondolier. He’s one of the most famous ghosts of Colonial Park Cemetery. Rondolier was a disfigured orphan who was said to call Colonial Park Cemetery his home in the early 1800’s. He was accused of murdering two young girls and their bodies were found in the cemetery. Rondolier was dragged to a nearby swamp, lynched and left for dead. More dead bodies turned up in the cemetery in the days that followed. The people in the town were convinced it was Rondolier’s ghost. Some even say that the cemetery is Rondolier’s playground.
Shivers! If that’s not enough to make you jump at things that go bump in the night! I’ll leave this cemetery for mom/dad to explore.
I want to thank my new friend Deborah Petite at http://www.visit-historic-savannah.com for allowing me to use her pictures. If you get a chance, check them out – tell them Bacon sent you 🙂
Oh, and before I go. I want to share something I found on YouTube on the Colonial Park Cemetery. A family was actually on vacation and caught something on camera. Their video made it on the news and is kind of intriguing. Here is the news clip from what they caught. Do you believe? What do you think now?
Hello ghouls and ghosts – Count Baconula here for Day 21 of my 31 Days of Spook. Since mom/dad are on their vacation in historic Savannah, Georgia, I thought I would focus on a wonderful cemetery in Savannah. Mom/dad have been here often and walked among the graves and tombstones… and perhaps some living and unliving. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
The cemetery I’m focusing on today is the Colonial Park Cemetery. It was established in 1750 and has been restored. It is located at the corner of Abercorn and Oglethorpe Streets in Savannah, Georgia. What an amazing archway they have to enter into the cemetery. This cemetery is amazing – so mom/dad says – snorts. I wouldn’t know first hoove but mom/dad did give me a lot of information by phone last night.
There are over 10,000 people buried here; however, there are only around 1,000 grave markers. Many people were buried in mass graves, others have had their grave markers knocked over and/or destroyed. The cemetery was actually closed for new burials before the Civil War and there are no confederate soldiers buried; however, the war did leave a mark. Federal troops took over the cemetery grounds during their occupation in Savannah. Many of the graves were looted and desecrated. It’s said that a lot of the union soldiers changed the dates on many of the headstones. Some dates look like the persons died before they were even born! Can you imagine with a lot of this information why some people are not having their final rest in peace? I’m sure some are still looking for their grave markers wanting to be remembered. Others are perhaps upset over the desecration of their headstones. It makes you wonder really who is walking beside you that you can’t see while you are visiting.
This cemetery closes at dark and there’s a good reason. Savannah has many Voodoo practitioners still living in and around the area. Before the cemetery started closing at night, it wasn’t uncommon for early morning visitors to find remnants of Voodoo rituals from the night before. Sometimes the soil from the graves was used in rituals and sometimes graves were raided in order to obtain human bones.
And, we can’t forget the story of Rene Asche Rondolier. He’s one of the most famous ghosts of Colonial Park Cemetery. Rondolier was a disfigured orphan who was said to call Colonial Park Cemetery his home in the early 1800’s. He was accused of murdering two young girls and their bodies were found in the cemetery. Rondolier was dragged to a nearby swamp, lynched and left for dead. More dead bodies turned up in the cemetery in the days that followed. The people in the town were convinced it was Rondolier’s ghost. Some even say that the cemetery is Rondolier’s playground.
Shivers! If that’s not enough to make you jump at things that go bump in the night! I’ll leave this cemetery for mom/dad to explore.
I want to thank my new friend Deborah Petite at http://www.visit-historic-savannah.com for allowing me to use her pictures. If you get a chance, check them out – tell them Bacon sent you 🙂
Oh, and before I go. I want to share something I found on YouTube on the Colonial Park Cemetery. A family was actually on vacation and caught something on camera. Their video made it on the news and is kind of intriguing. Here is the news clip from what they caught. Do you believe? What do you think now?
Perhaps you’ve heard of this area called historical Jonesboro, Georgia. Do you know the story of Gone with the Wind that was written by Margaret Mitchell? Parts of this novel and movie were actually set in Clayton County in historical downtown Jonesboro.
In fact, the plantation in the book/movie, “Tara”, is an important part in Clayton County. One of our main north/south roads is named after Tara and is called Tara Boulevard. They actually even made two sequels to Gone with the Wind – did you know this? They were called Rhett Butler’s People and Scarlett. Both take place briefly in Clayton County.
AND, I bet you didn’t know this fact. Parts of the film Smokey and the Bandit were actually shot in and around Clayton County, specifically downtown Jonesboro.
This is a picture taken off of thebanditrunphotos.com It actually shows Burt Reynolds in his famous car in front of what is actually the historical downtown Jonesboro depot. Although there is a sign up on the building that states “Texarkana”, if you look in the lower left hand corner you will actually see a sign that states Jonesboro Days. 🙂 A little oversight by the movie company.
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Another known fact about our little town – the Jonesboro Confederate Cemetery also known as the Patrick Cleburne Confederate Cemetery. This cemetery is opened daily between dawn and dusk. Mommy highly recommends the visit. This cemetery is north of Jonesboro where the heaviest fighting took place during the second day of the Battle of Jonesboro. This battle took place August 31 – September 1, 1864.
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This cemetery is home to between 600-1,000 men who died during this battle. If you look closely at this picture, on top of the monument that states Confederate Dead, you will see on the arch 12 cannonballs. Once you enter this walk way, it takes you inside of the cemetery. It really does take your breath away when you think about all of the blood shed in such a short time.
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As you walk through the cemetery, you notice something just a little different about the layout. The headstones are patterned in the shape of a confederate flag. The walkways are shaped like a X and the graves fill in the triangles of the X.
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You can spend hours in this cemetery just looking at the different headstones reading the names. Names of people that you actually don’t know in person but can feel and reconstruct in your mind the battles they must have went through during the time. It is an emotional feeling to say the least.
It’s a great read into this area. I hope you enjoyed my little taste of some of the famous things about my home town. I would love to hear about your home town 🙂 XOXO – Bacon
Miniature pot bellied pig and friends - Bacon, Houdini, Hemi and all of the Rock Clan with Journalist Rocky the Squirrel all out looking for adventures from the Hotel Thompson.
en everyone first got there, they heard loud noises that sounded like cannon shots. But, upon further investigation, mom/dad found out that actually it was from muskets being fired at a kind of show and tell. Even the guy shooting the musket, was dressed in attire from the Civil War days. Cool huh? 
place in downtown Jonesboro? In fact, there was a scene in the movie that was filmed right behind this building. That’s right – Smokey and the Bandit with Burt Reynolds. Notice the building now in this picture – this is the back of the building. In the movie, Jonesboro was turned into Texarkana. Cool huh? So you see we have our own little bit of Hollywood right here in the south 🙂
t the tickets for the tour in this museum and also could shop for all kinds of gifts and trinkets.
Piglove 