MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — When you think of a haunted city, you might immediately think of Savannah and maybe Macon, but how about Milledgeville?
They started a ghost tour in October and it was so popular they've run it once a month ever since. Jackie Turner is one of the tour guides and she has some stories to tell.
"There are a lot of hauntings and the ones I talk about on my tour are all in the downtown area," said Turner.
She loves history -- it's why she became a tour guide. She's sharing stories on some of those hauntings, like at a house called The Homestead.
She says one homeowner named Jack caught typhoid fever.
"And he fell out of his bedroom window. It was on the second floor," she explained. "He fell to the ground and died, so Jack is known to haunt the grounds, but he's also in the house."
One house looks pretty cute on the outside. It's turquoise with black-trimmed shutters, but it holds secrets inside the walls.
Jackie says a man named Sam Walker had a son, Joe, who caught meningitis in 1928.
"His father was the meanest man in Milledgeville, "Jackie said. "He told his son that illness is just a sign of weakness."
Well, you can imagine how this turns out. Joe fell to his death down a flight of stairs.
"But at night you also hear Sam walking the halls of that upper floor. Some think it's because he had remorse for being such a horrible man," said Turner.
Not every tale tragic, though. Turner says a woman named Molly used to cook in the Old Governor's Mansion.
"She had specialties like pork and beans and blueberry muffins, and they say from time to time you can smell those items being cooked," she explained.
They're all colorful tales, and maybe this ghost tour has flourished because folks want to connect with the unexpected.
"I think it's the mystery and the hopes that one day we can all see feel or find a ghost," said Turner.
The walking tour will cost you $12 and one happens next Saturday.
You might wonder why we didn't mention Central State Hospital. That has its own tour where you ride on a trolley. You can hear ghost stories on that trip too.
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