I'm not sure if I believe in ghosts. I mean, who am I to say that they don't or do exist? I have never really had any actual experiences with seeing or feeling ghosts, but I have heard stories. On March 10, my friends and I decided to go on a ghost tour in Dahlonega. We started the tour in a building in-between a jerky store and an old antique store. The women, whose name was I think Penny, started the tour telling us about how the building was a pool room at one time, and a lot of partying and fights broke out there. She told us how people have gone to the bathroom and felt creeped out because they felt like someone was watching them, and supposedly a man was stabbed in the crawl space of the bathroom.
I was a little creeped out at this point, but also a little skeptical, because it seemed too convenient that the ghost touring building would be haunted. Also, she mentioned other ghost ladies who supposedly haunted the building, but she didn't mentioned how they died. I kept wondering this out of curiosity.
We next walked into front of the Dahlonega Historic Gold Mine site, which used to be the town's courthouse. She told us stories about how a man was pushed down the stairs of the building because he had fighting over land with another guy. She also mentioned other potential ghosts in the area.
A story that I really found interesting during the tour was the story of Sarah's Ghost. A women named Sarah supposed haunted one of the buildings near the Dahlonega Market Place and the Giggle Monkey Toys store. When people were renovating the building, they found a cane in the wall that had the name "Sarah" on it. The man renovating the place took the cane home and turned the place into a bed and breakfast. One of the first people to stay in the bed and breakfast room was an old woman, and the next morning she seemed really creeped out and told the owner of the bed and breakfast to give the cane back. The old woman said that the night before, she kept hearing someone say "Give it back."
Penny also told us stories of a house of a physician that supposedly has 7 boys haunting the place. I am not sure if I believe this story or n because when I looked up the story online, I kept getting conflicting stories on who was possibly haunting the place. I also couldn't find any story about how the people could have died, making me think that it was a little bit of urban legend, but who knows? One story that was consistent, however, was that something very wrong was going on or had happened in the attic of the house.
For some reason, the story that freaked me out the most was the story of a woman named Eta. She was a wife of a professor, and she passed away. Now, the two story house that sits close to the University of North Georgia's campus, is a facility for the college. Penny told us that a student working on a paper there one night said she say an old women with old frazzled hair. Penny also said when they had paranormal investigators look into the house, and one investigator said that there wasn't something quite right with Eta's head. They guessed that she had a brain tumor, but later found out that she had a mental illness. By the time we got to this part of the tour, I was hanging out to my friends for dear life, demanding to not be left alone. Something about an old woman haunting the house, and especially seeming to like to haunt college students, freaked me out a lot.
Now, my friends and I were curious about these stories, as any 20 year olds would be. During the ghost tours, we hadn't gone in any of the buildings, so the next day we decided to check the areas out for ourselves. We went in one building, and walked up to where Sarah's room was. We didn't see anything, but my friends and I automatically felt uncomfortable when we were up there. My friends complained of having a tightness in their chests, and feeling uncomfortable. We hurried down the stairs away from her room, and automatically felt better. I don't know if it was just all in our heads, but I do admit it felt really weird being in front of "Sarah's room" and there was even a plaque labeling her room, which I thought was super creepy.
We also went in a chocolate store, and my friend said she had weird vibes in there. We asked one of the ladies working there, if they thought the place was haunted. She didn't hesitant saying, "Yes!" She told us about a little girl who died there named Betsy. The woman pointed out a light above our heads that was always swinging, when all the other lights don't swing and there was no wind in the building. She also showed me a camera security footage of something flying off the wall one night when no one was there. The video seemed pretty honest, as I didn't know how they could photoshop that. Some of the pictures we were shown during the ghost tour looked very photoshopped.
However, not everyone in the town of Dahlonega is convinced that the place is haunted. We went to the Holly Theatre, a place named after the granddaughter of the man who opened the theatre. During the tour, we were told that the place was haunted. However, when we went to check out the theatre ourselves the next day, the woman who worked there rolled her eyes when we asked her if she thought the place was haunted. "I have never experienced anything," The woman said. She seemed convinced that nothing and nobody was there.
The ghost tour didn't really convince me either way because honestly, I would have to see a ghost myself in order to believe that it was real, and even then, I don't know if I would believe my own eyes.