Georgia's first railroad tunnel pierced Chetoogeta Ridge just north of Dalton, and the town of Tunnel Hill grew up around it. In the Civil War soldiers died in hospitals here and in skirmishes that erupted during the Atlanta campaign. The land today is very haunted.

Connie Scott, who writes for the Dalton newspaper, lives in Tunnel Hill and has extensively researched its' ghosts. Most of the stories originated with Ken Sumner, a preservationist and reenactor who became interested in the tunnel years ago.

One morning as Sumner approached the tunnel with a group, they observed a figure forming in the mist. As they walked closer, "it became obvious that the shape was a sharp, distinct outline of a human standing just inside the tunnel mouth," Sumner recalled. It disappeared as they neared. Sumner thought it was the ghost of a Civil War soldier. People in the tunnel have heard screams and been pushed or touched by phantoms.

Sumner related one unique story to Corrina Underwood in Haunted History: Atlanta and North Georgia. While taking a group through the tube, a train was approaching the modern, adjacent tunnel. For a moment, it seemed as though the locomotive had bypassed the neighboring tunnel and was thundering toward them, its headlight illuminating the old tunnel. At the last moment the light vanished and the train could be heard roaring through the new passage.

One of the strangest and most horrific experiences occurred as Sumner led a group to clear land for a camp. In thick woods he encountered "a death stench, the smell of rotted human flesh." The powerful odor was only sensed by Sumner. "Since that time many others have smelled it," Sumner claimed, five or six at a time, but always there were people who detected the sickening stench while others could not. The foul odor of decaying flesh is detected by about one third of all visitors to the site, Sumner claims.

One day a woman repeatedly smelled fresh boiling coffee nearby and Sumner caught whiffs of it. A ghostly, grinning Confederate revealed himself to Sumner as he held a cup of coffee under the woman's nose. Suddenly the lady screamed-her nose was bright red.

Another Tunnel Hill weirdness is phantom campfires. It was a cold December night when Sumner and another man observed campfires on a hillside. They hiked up the ridge to within 75 feet of the fires and observed two sets of gray uniformed legs and a pair of hands extended toward the warmth of the fire. As they approached "the legs disappeared without a trace." Spooked, the men withdrew. The campfires disappeared until they reached the bottom of the hill, when they spontaneously re-ignited and burned for hours.

"I've seen soldier ghosts walk around the perimeter of the camp in spring," Sumner continued. "They just walk around the edge of the fog like camp guards securing their posts. I've also seen some of them trying to get in and that gets scary..." The haints bang pans, whack logs against trees, and scream from the woods at night.

A reenactor was sitting on the field when another man joined him. The reenactor turned to greet the newcomer, only to watch him dissolve. Reenactors walking along a road found a Union soldier asleep on the roadside, his head lying on his pack. They quietly passed, then glanced back to find he had disappeared. A reenactor saw an "extra" man eating at their table-no one else could see him.

Sumner believes he knows why Civil War ghosts appear at Tunnel Hill. "Ghosts have to remind everybody, ‘Hey, we suffered here.' If you're sincere they pretty much leave you alone. If not, they try to run you off. ..I've seen people run out of the woods screaming."

On March 16, 2002, several members of the Foundation for Paranormal Research (FPR) met Sumner at Tunnel Hill. At one point a field strength meter (FSM) started shrieking," their report read, indicating a paranormal presence. Sumner instructed the entity to beep once for "no" and twice for "yes." The ghost cooperated and Sumner communicated with it, asking if the spirit were a soldier. The sound increased in volume and there were two beeps. He ascertained the entity's name to be Thomas or Tom. Sumner asked if Tom wanted to have a cup of coffee by the fire. Tom beeped yes and Sumner left the tent, feeling "something" follow him. Sumner filled a cup for Tom and one for himself.

The FSM indicated that Tom had wandered off, but a few minutes later the machine emitted a louder sound. Sumner initiated contact with this new entity. It informed Sumner that it was evil. This spirit "defiant, would not leave and displayed arrogance," Ken wrote.

The extraordinary psychic phenomena manifested at Tunnel Hill encouraged the FPR to continue its investigation. In November David Chastain set off down a wooded slope. "Suddenly," Chastain wrote, "I heard leaves being disturbed behind me." He turned and by moonlight saw "a disturbance throwing the leaves up in a straight line as it made its way toward me." The phenomenon originated 15 yards away and covered that distance in seconds. Chastain, alarmed, leaped several feet into the air, and the activity immediately stopped in front of him. He knelt and searched the leaves for an answer to the phenomenon, but found nothing.

On February 21, 2004, a FPR team encountered three ghosts which "looked malnourished, tired, scared, and...cold."

On July 12, 2006 a FPR team spending the night saw a white mist roll in, then one saw "a black silhouette of a human running towards the woods" in front of her. The being, visible from the thighs up, vanished. The black figure was distinct against the mist.

The railroad tunnel, an antebellum house, and additional property are being developed by Whitfield County. Check with the Tunnel Hill Historical Foundation for developments.

From Georgia's Civil War Ghosts (sometime in 2011)

Jim Miles is the author of two Weird Georgia books and nine books about the Civil War.  See Jim's books.

Tagged with: Weirdness in Georgia