Savannah Georgia is perhaps a paranormal
investigators dream whether you visit here, reside in this historical town
or even read about it. I put alot of work into this project because I want
others to feel like they were there with me. Perhaps this is one of
the most interesting informative investigations. You can learn about ghost
and Haunting's just walking down the side walk or get into the history by
reading dozens of plaques scattered across the city.
Throughout
our pages you will find information on the entire city I have divided
everything up because it was such a massive investigation. I call St.
Augustine Savannah's sister city due to the similar circumstances they
faced.... which I also torued a few times. However Savannah was bigger and
a deeper investigation. I was intrigued with the history of Savannah
as it has been plagued by Pirates, Wars, Epidemics and even natural
disasters. People died in Savannah alot of people and alot of sad
deaths.
There
was at one time a total of 24 squares now only 21 remain. Each square has
historic plaques, monuments, brick walkways with dim lamps. Each square
has some significance like the Chippewa Square for example was named after
a famous battle in the War of 1812. Oglethorpe wanted a colony built
around squares where the locals could gather for public events and
community occurrences. Very little has changed in Savannah even today! One
good example of seeing a square in a movie would be Forest Gump which was
filmed in 1994.
As you tour
Savannah you will notice colonial houses but then you will see Victorian
and so forth. You will see mansions with giant wrought iron gates and you
will see cozy little restaurants built into historic buildings. You can
tour Olde Harbour at once time pirates landed here their is a small light
house.
Just outside of
Savannah is the very well known famous Cemetery
called Bonaventure...beyond that is an island with an asylum....and
just across the river is South Carolina. Many live oaks surround the
city including the very famous Chandler Oak just as one could view the
Washington Cannons. Its rated as the best walking city and today The
Garden Of Good and Evil has made it a famous city. Some of its cemeteries
are rated the top in the country with gothic looking vaults and
crypts.
Its is a city
that has forts...battlefields...and even Indian ground. Many
historical...wealthy land and plantation owners settled here. Plantations
like Wormsloe for example just to name one. To promote our site you
will see a PGS banner on our Savannah pages. We want to let the world know
were NOT Taps that we are The
Paranormal & Ghost Society and that our work is original, unique
and that this investigation took alot of sacrifice.
Sometimes
others forget the groups who do not get as much media attention and those
sometimes those are the groups really producing paranormal evidence. We
have our own traditions...talents...and were NOT affiliated with anybody.
We did not visit here cause other groups have we visited here because we
wanted to give you a look at how beautiful the paranormal is. Savannah is
beautiful and so are its ghost that haunt it!
Savannah
is a place you could visit two times or one hundred times their is always
something new to see. Its a city of beauty, history, and the
unknown. Despite all the ghostly sightings their is alot of evidence which
lacks. What we will show you not just with the City Of Savannah but our
other additions from there as well some pretty good evidence of
afterlife. Most of the photos are ours with a few borrowed off
various sites for educational purposes to show you various haunted
locations no harm just straight up knowledge.
This
perhaps may have been one of the most challenging investigations put
together with the help of a few great members to donating for equipment
and traveling. So we want to show those people what they invested in and I
would say we provided that alone in just these updates. I had to map out
every point of interest and plan it accordingly. You will understand when
you visit other sites around Savannah that I toured. Many famous
sites exist around Savannah sites like The Waving Girl, Olympic Torch,
Pirate House Tavern which has in the basement a tunnel leading to the
river....lets not forget Pulaski Square just to name a few
locations.
Our
photos on this page tell you a tale...a journey not something you see on
television but over 24 hours of traveling, hiking, sickness, hunger,
ghost, coldness, loneliness, and even resting on a sidewalk near a church.
These are the things very few groups would ever share with you but PGS
will cause this is reality and true accounts of The Paranormal!
In
light of things the song on this page is done up by musician Mike
Dijital called Dig Up Her Bones with lead singer Becky. Please
consider promoting them. You can click the link at the bottom of the page
to go to his myspace music page to listen to some of his other
works. Email
Mike Dijital is our sound producer for The
AngelOfThyNight Radio Show, Administrator Of PGS's UEParadise,
and a friend to our society. So if you like his music get in touch
with him by contacting me or checking out our Musicians
Page.
The
journeys we create now will be told and last forever....Savannah was a
journey one that I hope will reach millions. This update and addition to
our site comes fairly close with the NJ Pine
Barrens. It was the first series of investigations that we actually
worked with EVP on a more committed level. Over 10 hours of audio was
recorded on this investigation. I covered miles of the city on foot
walking down dark alleys in search of the unknown and so I bring you
Savannah known as Americas Most Haunted City!
Savannah's
recorded history begins in 1733. That's the year General James Oglethorpe
and the 120 passengers of the good ship "Anne" landed on a bluff
high along the Savannah River in February. Oglethorpe named the 13th and
final American colony "Georgia" after England's King George II.
Savannah became its first city.
The plan was to offer a new start for England's working poor, and to
strengthen the colonies by increasing trade. The colony of Georgia was
also chartered as a buffer zone
for South Carolina, protecting it from the advance of the Spanish in
Florida.
Under the original charter, individuals were free to worship as they
pleased and rum, lawyers and slavery were
forbidden - for a time.
Upon settling, Oglethorpe became friends with the local Yamacraw Indian
chief, Tomochichi.
Oglethorpe and Tomochichi pledged mutual goodwill, and the Yamacraw chief
granted the new arrivals permission to settle Savannah on the bluff. As a
result the town flourished without warfare and accompanying hardship that
burdened many of America's early colonies.
Savannah is known as America's first
planned city. Oglethorpe laid the city
out in a series of grids that allowed for wide open streets intertwined
with shady public squares and parks that served as town meeting places and
centers of business. Savannah had 24 original squares with 21 still in
existence.
During the American Revolution, the
British took Savannah in 1778, and held
it into 1782. A land-sea force of French and Americans tried to retake the
city in 1779, first by siege and then by direct assault, but failed.
After independence
was secured, Savannah flourished. Soon, farmers discovered that the soil
was rich and the climate favorable for cultivation of cotton and rice.
Plantations and slavery became highly profitable systems for whites in the
neighboring "Low country" of South Carolina. So Georgia, the
free colony, legalized slavery. The trans-Atlantic slave trade brought
many African-Americans through the port of Savannah. Many who stayed in
the area formed the unique Gullah culture of the coastal communities in
Georgia and South Carolina.
With the wealth brought by cotton,
residents built lavish homes and churches throughout the city. After the
invention of the cotton gin on a plantation outside of Savannah, the city
rivaled Charleston as a commercial port. Many of the world's cotton prices
were set on the steps of the Savannah Cotton Exchange. The building is
still in existence.
But Savannah was not spared from misfortune.
Two devastating fires in 1796 and 1820 each left half of Savannah in
ashes, but residents re-built. The year 1820 saw an outbreak of yellow
fever that killed a tenth of its population. Savannah also survived fires,
epidemics and hurricanes, but always
bounced back.
Pre-Civil War Savannah
was praised as the most picturesque and serene city in America. It was
known for its grand oaks festooned with Spanish moss and its genteel
citizenry. The Georgia Historical Society was founded in that era.
Magnificent Forsyth Park got its ornate fountain, a sight worth seeing.
During the Civil War, the city suffered
from sea blockades so strict that the economy crumbled.
"Impregnable" Fort Pulaski at the mouth of the Savannah River
was captured by Union soldiers in 1862. The city itself did not fall until
Union General William Tecumseh Sherman entered on December 22,1864, after
burning the city of Atlanta and everything else in their path on his
"march to the sea." Upon entering Savannah, Sherman was said to
be so impressed by its beauty that he could not destroy it. On December
22, 1864, he sent a famous telegram to President Abraham Lincoln, offering
the city as a Christmas present.
Reconstruction began. Food was scarce in Savannah, and the economy was in
ruins. Despite these hardships and the added burdens of prejudice, the freed
slaves who remained in Savannah built a
thriving community, with its own churches, schools and economic strength.
Savannah became one of the most historically significant African-American
cities in the nation.
At the turn of the 20th century, cotton was king again. Savannah thrived,
as did her new industries, including the export of resin and lumber. Then
the boll weevils came, destroying most of the cotton and the state's
economy—about the same time that the Great Depression began.
It wasn't until the post-war years that Savannah bounced back again, not
just economically but also culturally and aesthetically. A group of women
banded together in the 1950s to preserve
historic structures threatened by the
wrecking ball. Their brave endeavors began the Historic Savannah
Foundation, which is credited with saving the beautiful architecture that
was the foundation of Savannah's charm.
Savannah's Historic District was designated a National Historic Landmark
in 1966. It is one of the largest historic landmarks in the country.
Significant buildings
that were saved and restored include the Pirates' House (1754), an inn
mentioned in Robert Louis Stevenson's book "Treasure Island";
the Herb House (1734), oldest building in Georgia; and the Pink House
(1789), site of Georgia's first bank. Also saved were the birthplace of
Juliette Gordon Low, (completed in 1821), now owned and operated by the
Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. as a memorial to their founder. The Telfair
Academy of Arts and Sciences, built in 1812 as a mansion, was one of the
South's first public museums. Restored churches include the Lutheran
Church of the Ascension (1741); the Independent Presbyterian Church (1890)
and the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (1876), one of the largest Roman
Catholic churches in the South. The First African Baptist Church was
established in 1788. Savannah's Temple Mickeve Israel is the third oldest
synagogue in America.
In the 1990's, more than 50 million people
came to visit Savannah, drawn by its elegant architecture, ornate
ironwork, fountains and green squares. Savannah's beauty is rivaled only
by the city's reputation for hospitality. It has become one of the
country's most popular vacation spots. We look forward to seeing you here.
James Edward Oglethorpe, founder of the Colony of Georgia, was born in
London, England on December 22, 1696. He attended Eton College and Corpus
Christi College in Oxford, joined the military, and in 1722 was elected to
the English Parliament.
After a good friend, Robert Castell, died in a debtors prison, Oglethorpe
headed a committee investigating prison
conditions. During the course of the investigation Oglethorpe learned that
many honest and honorable men whose businesses had failed were jailed
solely for their debts. This had a profound effect on him and his
committee, many of whom were recruited as the first Georgia Trustees.
England’s reasons for the founding of the colony of Georgia were varied
and included the following:
To provide relief to the debtors of England
To help the English poor and unemployed
To remove the poor, so England would not have to support them.
To provide relief to persecuted Protestants such as the Salzburgers.
To act as a buffer to protect South Carolina from Spaniards in Florida.
To strengthen the British Empire by the success of the colony and its
population.
To have the colony supply raw products such as wine, hemp, silk, flax,
etc. to manufacturers in England.
To establish another market for exported English made products.
The original Georgia Charter was issued on June 8, 1732. In it’s opening
statement it names the desperately poor as proper colonists, persons, who
“through misfortune and want of employment” were “reduced to great
necessity, insomuch that by their labor they are not able to provide a
maintenance for themselves and families”. The Charter was twenty one
pages long and listed twenty one persons, including James Oglethorpe, as
the original Georgia Trustees.
The Charter was to be valid for twenty one years at the end of which
Georgia would become a Royal Colony. The charter also specified that:
The land granted was south to the south branch of the Altamaha River, west
to the river’s sources and north
to the northern branch of the Savannah River.
No person could own more than 500 acres.
Trustees could never be salaried.
Trustees could own no land individually.
Colonists were to pay Quitrent, a fixed rent, paid to the English crown at
a rate of 4 shilling per 100 acres.
Colonists kept their English citizenship including any children born in
Georgia James Edward Oglethorpe and his group of 114 settlers arrived from
England on February 12, 1733. They landed in Beaufort, South Carolina,
then traveled eighteen miles up the Savannah River to what is now known as
the City of Savannah. In one of his first letters to the Georgia Trustees,
Oglethorpe wrote that he had chosen a forty foot bluff, high above the
river with sandy soil and a spring. He noted that he felt that the area
was healthy as the local Indians liked it too, so he decided it would be a
good site for his colony. The original city plan accompanied General
Oglethorpe to Savannah. The plan provided that the town be laid out in a
perfect grid pattern with individual lots given to the colonists and
additional space provided for public buildings. Peter Gordon was
commissioned to draw a map of the City to show the Georgia Trustees in
England the progress of the new colony.
Above
from left to right...My Arrival Standing At Savannah
Battlefield....Candler Oak....The Waving Girl Statue....Resting near a
church on the concrete by a bush....and lets not forget Santa Claus!
Below:
A Burger King Breakfast After The Investigation.....Greyhound Station In
Deland FL and The Historical Greyhound Station In Savannah GA
"This
is NOT TAPS Ghosthunters This Is The Paranormal & Ghost Society Where
Legends Are Born"
