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Ghosts! If only we could see them! I am sure that they are everywhere. Sometimes, they live in ancient mansions, bed and breakfasts. They haunt cemeteries, hospitals, prisons and battle grounds.

Folks are always trying to talk to them. They go to haunted areas and have seances so they can contact them, with the idea that they can tell us what the afterlife is like or help them go “into the light”. In some places, the ghosts have existed for a long, long time. However, there are ghosts that are hard to pin down. They like to travel. They live in tents, campers, trailers and such. They hitchhike along roads. They jog and sometimes have parties in junk yards.

While on my trip to the east coast, I heard stories and legends of hauntings of every type, that have occurred along the many dirt roads, that spider web all over the wooded pine forests. Some of these roads just seem bad. Sometimes, they are dark, even in the day time. Others just give you the unshakable feeling that something is definitely wrong. Some even make your hair stand on end. Maybe, it is because that some have had an inordinate number of accidents.

I thought that you would enjoy hearing of some of these roadside legends. So, let’s play pretend. There is a campfire roaring in front of us. We have coffee and beer sitting on a rock. You can take which ever you prefer. Now, let me share some of these stories with you. After you hear them, you may want to be sure you are home by dark.

Let’s start with the story about a jogger. He is a lonely figure, that is seen making his way on down a red dirt road, that eventually leads to the tiny town of Cox. The story goes, that many years ago, a man was killed while out taking an evening jog. As he went along, he was struck and killed by a passing motorist that just kept on going. This driver was never found.

Since that time, the ghost of the victim has been walking the road, trying to flag down passing cars. The legend says that he is searching for the driver who killed him and then left the scene. An interesting part of this story is that drivers who see this man are encouraged to pick him up, rather than simply pass him by. He appears to them at three different locations along the way. Those who tell this tale claim that if you do not pick him up, after the third time, he will appear in your passenger seat and force you off the road. There are those who tell of a number of accidents that have occurred on this dark and haunted roadway and say, without hesitation, that they happened because a driver passed by the man one too many times.

On a trip out near the coast, I heard this story. It is about a phantom who likes to walk along the coastal roads, especially in bad weather. He seems to appear on the wettest, bone chilling nights, when the winds off of the ocean are at their strongest. When winter time comes, you will see him more often. The soldiers from Fort Stewart seem to see him the most, while they are on patrol out by the Ogeechee River. Some have said that seeing him is a very unnerving experience. There is something that makes his sighting even worse. That is that some of the soldiers recognize him, because they served with him several years ago.

While alive, he was in the Army and was stationed at Fort Stewart, in the mid 1990s. For reasons that he never told anyone, he became very depressed and withdrew inside himself. One night, he decided to end it all and committed suicide. It was two of his friends that found his body, hanging from a rafter in his quarters, the following morning.

Even though this young soldier is dead, he still makes his appearances along Highway 204 and several of the sandy roads that branch off and go on down close to Fort McAllister State Park and Ossabaw Sound. It seems that this was the area that he most often patrolled during his assigned duty.

No one knows what he wants or why he appears here, but many have seen him as they travel along these deserted, no name roads. Both soldiers and civilians have slowed to ask him what he wants and if they can help him. He angrily motions for them to keep on going past him. When the drivers look in their rear-view mirrors, he is gone.

Probably the most dreaded roads of all of Georgia are the ones that are very dark and snake their way through heavily wooded, rural areas. These dangerous curves have claimed many a life in their time. Not surprisingly, many ghosts haunt these roadways. The weird stories about these narrow, scary drives date back many years and involve several ghosts. One of the most famous of these is about the spirit of Mrs. Prebble.

Mrs. Prebble’s friends and neighbors became concerned when they had not seen or heard from her in a while. They decided to call the police and find out where she is or what had happened to her, if anything.

At first, the sheriff thought that she had just left the area without telling anyone. However, everyone agreed that this did not sound like her, so the police came and investigated. When they arrived at her house, they found the back door had been broken into by breaking a glass pane, leaving the shards on the floor. All of the lights in the house were still burning and the television was on in the living room. The police called out but no one answered.

As they began to search, they found a number of things that just didn’t seem to add up. First, she had left her dinner, untouched on the table. Second, her car keys were still resting on a small entry table, just inside the front door. Third, there were no signs of life.

Everything in the house seemed to be just as she had left it. Only the broken glass at the back door was out of the ordinary. Now, the police went upstairs following the scent of copper.

In Mrs. Prebble’s bedroom, the police found a horrific scene of walls painted deep red by dried blood. The bed was soaked in blood and it had run onto the floor. The room had been torn apart and Mrs. Prebble’s body was nowhere to be found.

The mystery of her disappearance was never solved and eventually the case went cold and it was filed away. Realtors tried to sell her house for years but when perspective buyers found out what had happened, they backed out of the deal. Finally, the house was torn down. All traces of the fact that Mrs. Prebble had ever lived there were gone, but certainly not forgotten.

To this day, her ghost is seen walking down the road to her house and that she wears her favorite pale blue robe, but it is streaked with dried blood. Where the house used to be there are lights still burning. She keeps walking along. However, she stumbles in the yard near where her house once stood. Getting up, she then walks up onto where the porch was and vanishes when she gets to where the door was. Actually, all that is there is the crumbling foundation of the house that once stood there.

Another phantom of this same road is a man who died one night while running with his dog. To this day, no one knows his identity. However, the legend is that it was almost dark and he was walking swiftly along the roadway with this dog on a leash, when he was struck by a semi-truck that was coming from the opposite direction and went over the center line. The truck slammed into him, then shuttered to a stop. The brake lights flashed for a moment and then quickly, the truck driver drove on.

Another motorist on the road saw the accident occur and he called the police and an ambulance. The driver of the truck was never caught and the man tragically died before making it to the hospital. His dog was never found. However, when his ghost is seen going down this road, he is still clutching his dog’s leash. When you first see him, he seems to be a real person, but when you get close, he vanishes.

The most recent accident on this roadway took place in the late 1990s. It happened some time after midnight and involved a car that was traveling at a very fast speed. The driver must have misjudged the road and his speed. He lost control and slammed into the ditch. Then, the car became airborne and landed on the opposite side of the road. No one knows how long the folks that were in the car waited for help that night for there was very little traffic on the road. Eventually though, another motorist passed by and stopped at the scene. When he saw the car, he hurried to a nearby house, woke up the residents and called for help.

Two of the passengers in the car died at the scene. One of them was an infant who had been sleeping on his mother’s lap in the front seat. He was thrown through the windshield and died instantly. The other person was a fifteen-year-old girl that had been riding in the back seat.

This was just one more of the accidents that have occurred along this stretch of lonely road. Now many folks report seeing a mother carrying her baby and rubbing its back as a young girl follows her. They all get to the opposite side of the road and disappear. There also is an unknown young man, who stands by the side of the road and is waving his arms, trying to get any oncoming cars to stop. When they do, he disappears and reappears farther down the road.

It is the opinion of the local residents that most of these accidents are caused by the many spirits that haunt this roadway. Perhaps, they want to have more company to join them.

Georgia’s gorgeous Golden Isles have not escaped having ghosts inhabit their beautiful shores. First, let’s visit Jekyll Island and the Jekyll Island Club Hotel.

With so many very old buildings, some of them restored and some are just crumbling ruins, there are said to be many hauntings by former workers and some of the millionaires who stayed here.

There have been several sightings of women in maid outfits reminiscent of the 1920s, coming and going all along the hallways. There is a man, in a top hat and a cloak who seems to be trying to find his room as he stops and checks all of the room numbers. Then there are the footsteps and noises that come from the dining room after it has been closed.

Tybee Island is also the host to several spirits of those who have passed on. One of the places is old Fort Pulaski, which is now a National Monument. This is what happens every full moon. Residents and vacationers alike, say that you can hear the sounds of gun and cannon fire along with cries of death. Then, while looking in that direction, out over the ocean, you can see the water turn the color  blood red.

However, amongst the Golden Isles of Jekyll Island and St. Simons Island, the ghost of Mary the Wanderer is being claimed by both of them. Some folks say that Mary the Wanderer is a ghost that haunts Jekyll Island’s main beachfront area and not St. Simons Island. The Wanderer Hotel operated for many years on Jekyll’s Beach View Drive. The Island’s main drive is where Mary is seen, wandering the coast, waiting for her lost love, who never returned from the sea.

However, St. Simons Island also claims to be home to the ghost of Mary the Wanderer. Orphaned during her journey from Scotland, she was adopted by the Demere family and fell in love with their son, Raymond. The young man returned Mary’s love and wanted to marry her, something his father did not want. Raymond argued with his stubborn father and in the heat of anger, set off to sail to the mainland and buy Mary a wedding ring.

Soon, the sky darkened and a raging storm formed. Seeing Raymond leave, Mary quickly lit a torch. Then she paced the dock carrying it, waiting for his return, but this was not to be. To this day, Mary’s light is frequently spotted on the beach and roads of St. Simons, still intent on welcoming home her lover.

On stormy nights, island folks have also reported seeing a small figure with a lantern held high, running through the fog. This is believed to be Mary the Wanderer and she haunts the entire coast of St. Simons, looking for her lost love who was killed in a hurricane.

I hope that you have enjoyed these ghost stories.