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CHAPTER 1

Haunted Hales Bar

AMY PETULLA

You have bought a dark and bloody land, and it is cursed.

–Dragging Canoe

Those are the words attributed to aggressive and outspoken Cherokee chief Dragging Canoe about Tennessee and Kentucky land given up by the Cherokee to white settlers in a treaty signed in March 1775. Some say that the exact words were: "You have bought a fair land, but there is a cloud hanging over it; you will find its settlement dark and bloody," but in any event, it has been accepted by all as a curse put on the land by the famed warrior in disgust as he walked out of the meeting, having adamantly opposed the transfer of any portion of the land.

Before this time, Chattanooga was continuously occupied by Native American peoples, beginning in the Upper Paleolithic Period (14,000–8,000 BC). Archaic, Woodland and Mississippian Indian sites have all been unearthed in and around Chattanooga. Cherokee Indians claimed the area in the late 1600s, after defeating the Shawnees occupying the region. In 1776, after the signing of the treaty, Dragging Canoe formed the Chickamauga Cherokee, urging likeminded tribe members to join him. They established — in an area near Chattanooga's present-day Brainerd Village shopping center — Chickamauga Town, which was destroyed twice by his enemies. After the second time, he moved his followers to a less accessible area and directed attacks from Running Water, Tennessee, near present-day Hales Bar.

Under Dragging Canoe's leadership, they vigorously endeavored to stop white settlement by attacking settlers all along the frontier. A fierce warrior, sometimes called "Dragon" by his enemies and suspected by some of possessing supernatural powers, he and his men captured and killed thousands of white men, women and children. Dragging Canoe died in March 1792 at Running Water. The accounts of his death vary. Some say that he died from exhaustion or a heart attack, complicated by a small wound that became infected, after a night of celebrating and dancing after securing either a battle victory or an alliance with other tribes; some report it as a scalp dance after the killing of the Collingsworth family, with his brother, Turtle At Home, grinding a scalp in his teeth as he danced; and some say that he died in battle with John Sevier, who later became Tennessee's first governor. The reports of his burial likewise vary. While some say that he was buried in a sitting position, in typical Cherokee fashion, others say that his body was stolen and cut in half, with the pieces buried miles apart, to prevent him from rising from the dead.

Perhaps those concerned about Dragging Canoe rising from the dead had a point. While at least one witness claims to have seen a cursing Indian ghost at University of Tennessee–Chattanooga (UTC), many folks insist that Hales Bar, just a couple of miles down the road from his death and burial site, is haunted and that, furthermore, the curse of Dragging Canoe is the reason it has been sinking for years. Many people, including the folks with Paranormal Researchers Of the South East (PROSE) who run the tours at Hales Bar, have had plenty of supernatural experiences there.

Up until the building of the Hales Bar dam, travel by river to Chattanooga was a perilous endeavor. The intrepid traveler who dared to attempt the journey had to navigate hazardous waters from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to Chattanooga. The dangers while roaring through the Tennessee River Gorge, a twenty-six-mile stretch of canyon, included a number of shoals and shallow rapids, as well as a series of whirlpools, including "the Boiling Pot," "the Suck" and "the Skillet." In fact, the stretch between Shellmound and Chattanooga was considered to be the most formidable section of the entire Tennessee River. Because navigation by land was likewise hazardous, occupation by white settlers was sparse until about 1817, when John Brown, known as "the most skilled river pilot in the area," established his ferry across the river, along with a tavern to put up traders passing through. Still, while the ferry made navigation easier for traders once they got to the area, arriving in Chattanooga with goods intact continued to be difficult and impeded growth and trade until two events occurred: the arrival of the railroad and the taming of the Tennessee River.

In 1900, Josephus Conn Guild first came up with a plan to both increase the use of water resources and curb the river's pitfalls. He wanted to build a dam to raise the water level and alleviate navigation dangers, as well as a powerhouse to harness the immense potential of hydroelectric energy afforded by the river. Studies were undertaken, money assimilated and federal legislation passed over the next five years, and construction on the first multipurpose hydroelectric dam in the country began in 1905 at Hales Bar. Five hundred men worked around the clock, six days a week, and the town of Guild, Tennessee, sprang forth to meet their needs. Stores, a schoolhouse and even an electrified train car were established to serve the community.

The Hales Bar dam, lock and powerhouse were completed in November 1913. However, a 1905 description of the dam's concrete gravity section as "keyed into solid rock" proved a fateful error. In fact, the foundation rock was limestone, with extensive fissuring and honeycombing that continued to erode over the years of constant water flow. A group of men known as "the Rag Gang" was hired to patch holes with rags and old carpet, but that barely put a dent in the implacable onslaught from the river. The Tennessee Electric Power Company acquired the dam and power plant in 1922, but all efforts to stem the water seeping under the dam were unsuccessful, and the caisson (the giant concrete box resting on the foundation) continued sinking. In 1939, TVA acquired the structure, believing that it could succeed where others had failed. After spending countless hours and millions of dollars in repair attempts, the curse of Dragging Canoe prevailed in 1963 when TVA decided to throw in the towel and replace Hales Bar with Nickajack Dam, since as much as 1,500 to 2000 cubic feet of water per second continued to escape the dam. In 1968, the Hales Bar lock and dam were demolished, with only the powerhouse remaining. Even the powerhouse continues to sink, however; the bottom three floors are submerged underwater.

The PROSE folks have had many supernatural experiences and have captured many electronic voice phenomena (EVPs) at the power plant. They believe that there are several different entities haunting Hales Bar. One is a woman, believed to have been murdered and raped in the powerhouse building itself. Michelle, a PROSE team member, heard the name "Rachel" spoken softly in her ear, but when she turned to see the speaker, no one was nearby. They believe that the ghost was identifying herself. Feelings of dread, fear and melancholy often creep over visitors in a particular portion of the upstairs of the powerhouse, particularly near one window. The terror of this woman's last moments on earth seem to cling to the very walls themselves, as guest after guest is overwhelmed with the impression of a woman, struggling for her life as she is pushed ever closer and finally out of the window — falling, screaming, to a horrible death below. PROSE members have gotten EVPs there saying, "Don't leave," and, "I told you a secret." A man has also been seen looking out of an upstairs window when no one was in the facility. Is he looking for Rachel's body? If so, is it in despair over her loss or to ensure that the murder attempt was successful?

Other portions of the powerhouse have entities as well. More than one person says they have been grabbed to the point that they couldn't breathe. Dragging Canoe certainly had no aversion to such violence. Many appearances seem to be males, stalking individual PROSE members or the tour groups they are leading. At one point, a man in old-fashioned 1940s garb was walking right behind the tour group so clearly that he seemed to be real, though no one was wearing any costume, and the gentleman vanished. As I listened to the radio not long after my visit to the plant, a host began talking about an encounter he had at Hales Bar about a week after I was there. He mentioned that he had caught a mist on film and had seen an odd man who disappeared when he looked briefly away. Other than curiosity about the man's strange appearance, he thought nothing of it until he heard later that the television show Ghost Adventures was there investigating the same day, which caused him to wonder if that explained the sudden disappearance. As he wondered aloud what the ghosts of Hales Bar were supposed to look like, he described the man he saw — wearing, in his words, old-fashioned 1930s clothing! When I called in to tell him about PROSE's description of the man in old-fashioned clothes that they thought was real until he disappeared, he initially was dubious; he was very much a skeptic when it came to ghosts. However, when he realized that I had not made up the description previously reported, his skepticism was shaken enough for him to follow up. He later posted a photo that a ghost hunter had sent him from that location that, he said, matched the phantom he had seen exactly.

On other occasions, the stalking spirit has appeared as a black shadow figure following people on the stairs near the entrance of the powerhouse. On the last investigation the group did before my visit, PROSE member Joseph's knees locked on the stairs, freezing him for a few seconds, and a team member at the foot of the stairs watched in horror as the shadow descended the stairs after him. On another occasion, the same shadow was seen going up the stairs after a group. From the main portion of the powerhouse, an upstairs level with several old lockers and a door can be seen, and one night the door became illuminated even though there was no one there. More than once, a shadow has been seen walking back and forth in front of the lockers. The Ghost Adventures crew actually secured thermal imaging of the pacer during the visit.

Located in the main part of the powerhouse is a short length of railroad tracks, going nowhere. Back in its heyday, however, Hales Bar had its own train for getting around. That vehicle is long gone, as are most of the tracks. Yet the train is still heard in the powerhouse and has even been caught on tape. Near the tracks is a staircase, and though you can only walk down half a flight of stairs before they become submerged underwater, that did not deter the shadow man from descending. On my visit, I walked the few steps above the flood line on this and another nearby staircase. It is an eerie, almost surreal feeling to look down from the top of the flight and see nothing but water everywhere, the floor invisible in the muddy depths.

The water around the powerhouse has its own mysterious rumors. Not far outside the building, just as at Suck Creek, is a "suck," a small whirlpool. According to PROSE member Victoria, Cherokee legend has it that the faces of those lost there over the years can be seen swirling in the pool. When the water current is flowing strongly, you can see an eddy spinning gently in the waters inside the building, as well, as the whirlpool is echoed there in smaller proportion.

Some people believe that one of the EVPs secured near Hales Bar is in the Cherokee or Choctaw language, although those unfamiliar with those tongues say it sounds like German. However, Cherokee contains some of the guttural sounds you hear in German, which could account for the confusion.

Dragging Canoe, the stalker and the murdered woman are far from the only ghosts at Hales Bar. An entire community developed around the building of the plant, including a small school for the children of the families who lived and worked there. Some of the children would cross from the other side of the river, through a narrow tunnel under the dam, to get to school. According to those who used it, even the tunnel leaked, causing those passing through to be sprayed with water. That tunnel was destroyed with the dam. Another tunnel continues to exist in the control building, and it is easy to see that children would have found it an entertaining place for hide-and-seek and other games. It is believed that at least one little girl continues to play in the tunnels.

On one occasion, two of the team members recorded their daughter asking questions, as if to another child, and they played the tape in the part of the tunnel where the child had been reported. Team members asked her to turn a flashlight with its top loosened on or off for responses. After several minutes of no results, they finally said, "We'll have to leave here if you don't communicate." At that point the light came on, very brightly. At another point, they asked if the child thought that one of the tour members sitting nearby looked like her father. The answering bright flash of light was enough to cause the man to jump out of his seat and flee down the hall. At other times, PROSE members have left gifts for the child on a table of sorts, including a Slinky, a pink stuffed bunny, a teddy bear and candy. The toys were all missing on later visits, though the candy was left behind.

When I visited, as we stood at the table, an app on one group member's phone said, "Play." My son, who was with me at the time, refused to ask the child any questions, although he did say inexplicably, "Her mother and father are coming." While no one at PROSE mentioned the presence of the girl's parents, "JoeBob" with Tennessee Paranormal Investigative Team, which was actually the first paranormal group to explore Hales Bar, told me later that TPIT had encountered a ghostly family in that tunnel — mother, father and child! In addition, they had gotten responses to questions using the flashlight test and also by requesting the spirit to increase or decrease EMFs for yes or no. JoeBob, who debunks 99.9 percent of the photos I send to him and is not known for flights of fancy, also told me that something had clearly whispered, "Hey," in his ear at Hales Bar. After their investigation, he believed that there were ten to fifteen entities haunting Hales Bar — and not all of them nice.

Whistling and moans have been heard in the tunnel, and someone has been seen peeking around corners there when no one else was present. One girl was scratched by an unseen presence in this area. In other parts of the tunnel, it is rumored that bodies are buried in the wall. The company had a duty to take care of the men who worked there and their families, including disposal of the bodies of any who died there. Mixing them in with the concrete was an efficient solution. The walls may also have claimed workers for their own via industrial accidents in those days before OSHA. There is also a small cemetery on the grounds around the plant. As we stood next to the only grave for which they had reported prior paranormal activity, that of a man named "Barney," my phone began dialing numbers on its own. It stopped as we left the grave. Maybe Barney was trying to figure out the newfangled technology.

Upstairs, footsteps and a woman's scream have also been heard in another area, though a hunt for the origin of the sound revealed no living person in the building. As we left by the red exit door, I got one final report. Rick is the skeptic of the group, the one who says he never experiences anything. Nevertheless, Rick described on a previous occasion hearing a voice distinctly say, "I'm here," as he stood alone next to the door. Whether this was an invitation to come back or a gentle reminder not to return (as the building is already occupied) remains to be seen.

On April 24, 2010, on the eighth annual Day of Prayer for the Western Band of the Cherokee Nation, a resolution was presented to and accepted by the Cherokee leaders at Tahlequah, Oklahoma, to release the land from the ancient curse spoken by Dragging Canoe more than two centuries before. Perhaps both he and the land are finally at peace.

The Legendary Ghost of the Delta Queen

JESSICA PENOT

The Delta Queen is one of the most famous steamboats in the South. It was one of the longest-running steamboats of its time, and it even managed to continue running until 2007. Despite its long history, the Delta Queen is silent now. It no longer roams the rivers searching for adventure. It sits quietly docked in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where history lovers can spend the night in its old rooms and imagine themselves transported back in time. Their transportation is made easier by the ghost that wanders the halls of this old boat. The Delta Queen is considered by many to be one of the most haunted boats in the United States. It has been featured on television documentaries and has been explored by numerous ghost hunters. All of these sources seem to agree that the Delta Queen is haunted and that the ghost that haunts it isn't going anywhere any time soon.

The Delta Queen is an American stern-wheel steamboat. The boat was built in 1926 for use in the Sacramento River in California. The boat was designed to be lavish and expensive. It was one of the most expensive stern-wheel passenger boats ever built. It was the queen of the stern-wheel boats, designed to transport the very rich in the complete luxury they deserved. Attention was paid to every detail of this extravagant boat, and for a few years it did exactly what it was designed to do. Until 1940, the Delta Queen carried California Transportation Company's guests up and down the Sacramento River in the lap of luxury.

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Excerpted from "Haunted Chattanooga"
by .
Copyright © 2011 Jessica Penot and Amy Petulla.
Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
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