Georgia’s strangest places — Ghosts, doll heads and graves beside a runway
Halloween is often associated with haunted houses, ghost tours and horror movies. But some of Georgia’s eeriest stories don’t require special effects.
Across Georgia, history, folklore and local legends linger in unexpected places. A nearly century-old Atlanta theater is said to be home to unexplained encounters. A DeKalb County nature trail doubles as a doll-filled outdoor art installation. And at one of the state’s busiest airports, graves remain embedded beside an active runway.
Recently, AJC producers visited each site to explore why these unusual stories have endured and what they reveal about the places where they began.
The ghost stories that won’t leave Atlanta’s Fox Theatre
Atlanta’s Fox Theatre has spent nearly a century entertaining audiences with concerts, films and Broadway productions. Along the way, it has accumulated a collection of ghost stories that has become nearly as famous as the performances themselves.
Visitors and staff members have reported hearing footsteps in empty rooms, seeing unexplained figures in photographs and encountering strange sounds in areas rarely accessed by the public. Those accounts form the backbone of the theater’s seasonal Haunted History Tour, which takes guests through some of the building’s most storied spaces.
AJC producer Fraser Jones joined the tour to investigate some of those claims. Guides pointed to reports of doors slamming in the sub-basement and unusual activity surrounding a former hospital room hidden within the building.
Among the stories guides tell most often is that of a mysterious woman reportedly captured in visitors’ photographs. According to the tour, guests have occasionally shared selfies that appear to show a woman in a late-1800s dress standing behind them.
Many of the stories are impossible to verify. Yet that uncertainty may be part of their appeal. The legends persist because no one can fully explain them.
Near the end of filming, an unexpected technical issue added another mystery to the collection. As discussion turned to some of the theater’s most notorious ghost stories, both microphones suddenly stopped working. Whether coincidence or something else, the timing left the crew with one more tale to add to the Fox’s haunted reputation.
Editor’s note: The following excerpts are from AJC producer Fraser Jones’ visit to the Fox Theatre’s Haunted History Tour. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability. Watch the full video above.
Tour guide: “We have had this building almost 100 years, so there has to be a lot of paranormal activity. We have reports of doors being slammed down in the subbasement, tools flying off shelves on their own. There are apparitions that will stand behind you in mirrors sometimes. We have had guests that will show us their selfies, and there’s a woman that is standing behind them in a late-1800s gown.”
Fraser Jones: “I don’t really want to see a ghost behind me, but I do want this video to do well on social media. Maybe I should try a cellphone selfie.”
Jones takes a selfie.
“There is a flare in the exit sign light. Kind of a floating orb object. I don’t know. I’m getting out of here. Kind of freaked out.”
Later, in the theater’s Egyptian Ballroom, the tour guide described reports of unexplained footsteps.
Tour guide: “At the very end of the evenings, our private events supervisors … they’re the only ones in the room, but they can still hear somebody walking and getting closer and closer and closer to them.”
At that point, both of the AJC’s microphones mysteriously stopped working.
Fraser Jones: “Was it the work of a friendly poltergeist or something far more sinister?”
Tour guide: “Our ghosts, I would say, except for one, are usually pretty friendly.”
Fraser Jones: “What’s the ghost that’s not friendly?”
Tour guide: “Oh, he’s all the way down in the subbasement.”
Atlanta’s strangest trail is lined with doll heads
The Doll’s Head Trail inside Constitution Lakes Park feels like the setting of a ghost story long before visitors learn its history.
Doll heads stare from tree trunks. Discarded toys emerge from the underbrush. Found objects arranged by visitors transform ordinary stretches of forest into something that feels equal parts art installation, scavenger hunt and horror movie set.
What appears unsettling at first glance carries a deeper message. The trail was created by artist Joel Slaton, who began repurposing trash he found throughout the park into temporary installations designed to spark conversation about waste and consumption.
Many of the dolls, toys and household objects scattered throughout the trail would otherwise spend decades, centuries or longer decomposing in landfills
“The truth is, our trash doesn’t just go away,” AJC producer Najja Parker notes in her exploration of the trail.
Today, the result is one of metro Atlanta’s most unusual destinations, attracting both Halloween thrill-seekers and visitors interested in its environmental message.
“A lot of people are kind of spooked by them,” Slaton says. “If you think it’s going to be spooky, it’s going to be spooky. If you think it’s going to be whimsical, then it’s whimsical.”
The graves beneath Savannah’s runway
Ghost stories often begin in cemeteries. At Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport, the cemetery came first.
Most passengers never notice them, but two graves are embedded alongside one of the airport’s active runways. The markers belong to Richard and Catherine Dotson, members of a farming family whose land once occupied the property.
According to the airport, the graves remained in place when the military acquired the land and expanded the former Chatham Field during World War II. Other graves from the family plot were relocated, but several remained where they had been for generations.
Today, millions of passengers travel through Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport each year, many unaware that two grave markers remain visible near an active runway. Their presence has become one of the most unusual reminders of Georgia’s ability to preserve pieces of its history in unexpected places.
AJC producer Jordan Pettiford found that Savannah is not the only airport where growth collided with preservation.
In Atlanta, planners faced similar questions while expanding Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Rather than build over two historic cemeteries, engineers designed portions of the airport’s fifth runway project around them, preserving the burial grounds while accommodating future development.
The stories illustrate a challenge faced by growing cities across Georgia: balancing progress with the obligation to preserve traces of the past.
Even when new roads, neighborhoods and runways reshape the landscape, some reminders prove difficult to move.
When the past refuses to disappear
At first glance, the Fox Theatre’s ghost stories, the Doll’s Head Trail and the graves near Savannah airport’s runway appear to have little in common.
Yet each demonstrates how places accumulate meaning over time. Some become the source of legends. Others become art. Still others survive simply because someone decided they were worth preserving.
Long after the original stories fade, people continue to visit, photograph and speculate. And every Halloween season, those lingering mysteries find a new audience.