Sorrel Weed House, Savannah Georgia 2011

If you read my previous post, then you know that I was (and still am to a great degree) a skeptic when it comes to stories concerning paranormal occurrences.  Even though I have had many documented encounters of unexplained occurrences over the past few years, I am still very skeptical when I go to a location that has many stories of paranormal activity but very little evidence to support it.  This is particularly the case when the site in question is a for profit institution such as a restaurant, hotel, etc. that has a great deal riding on convincing people that the establishment is haunted.  On the other hand, I love history and I truly appreciate the work of historians who separate fact from fiction to create accurate written documentation that can be preserved for generations to come and allow individuals in the future to learn form the significant events in our past.  I also enjoy legends and the lessons that they can provide in an allegorical manner.  However, it is disturbing to me when legends are accepted as historical fact without any examination of the veracity of the stories that have been past down over many years.  Often times ghost stories suffer from this syndrome. Many individuals, with their desire for intrigue and need to find "proof" of an afterlife, are far too willing to believe legends at face value and fill in the cavernous gaps left by disparate evidence collected at a location that is believed to be haunted.  In truth, it is extremely difficult to provide unequivocal evidence for the existence of a particular entity in an attempt to lend support for a long standing legend. However, through sound paranormal research, the investigator can provide additional information to previous findings which may in turn someday be pieced together to provide answers to those experiencing paranormal occurrences, increase our historical understanding of a particular location and maybe even support a long standing legend. With this being said, I will provide links to the locations that we have examined so that you can read up on the legends, but I won't go into the back story too much myself.  What I hope to provide is an even handed examination of what we found so that you can compare our findings to the legends and make up your own mind about what (if anything) has been gained in our attempt to uncover the truth behind the stories of paranormal activity.

After I was made to see the light by the unseen little girl laughing in my living room, I became fascinated by the paranormal and began reading everything I could find on the topic and watching every show on television that had anything to do with ghosts.  However, prior to my personal experience with the paranormal I had no interest in the subject and had never seen shows such as Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Paranormal Witness, My Ghost Story, Dead Files, A Haunting, etc.  As I began consuming all of this new information, I quickly began to realize that several cities were mentioned over and over again, each claiming to be the most haunted.  These turned out to be the focus of our earliest paranormal investigations.  The stories regarding Savannah captured my attention initially due to its beauty, civil war history, multitude of ghost stories and magnificent historical homes.  However, it wasn't until I saw a re-run of Ghost Hunters' first Halloween Special at The Sorrel Weed House that I was truly drawn to travel to Savannah on our first Haunted Holiday.

The Sorrel Weed House

Savannah is an amazing city, seemingly trapped in a time capsule of the old South with all of its beauty, elegance and tragedy.  Nothing captures the beauty, elegance and tragedy of Savannah more than The Sorrel Weed House.  During our first stay in Savannah we toured all of the haunted homes, stayed in haunted hotels and went on every haunted tour we could find to see if there was anything to the stories we had heard.  However, when we got home and examined all of the evidence, the time we spent at the The Sorrel Weed House proved to be the most significant with regards to paranormal evidence.  We owe a great deal of thanks to Bradley Dilling, our tour guide, for letting us into the root cellar of the carriage house (which is usually off limits to tourists).  When my wife and I went into the root cellar with two other ladies from the tour while Bradley locked up the main house, we received some of the most interesting and disturbing evps we have ever encountered.  The two evps that always stand out in my mind when I think of the Sorrel Weed House are the following, which seem to be from the same spooky sounding woman (exact same voice) that both reference a particular "secret".

These two evps occurred only a few minutes apart during the 15 minutes or so that the four of us were alone in the dark root cellar at around 12:30 AM.  And if these weren't scary enough, right before we left the basement we received the following demonic sounding evp.

We were so taken by the stories associated with the house, we decided to try another company's tour of the Sorrel Weed House the following evening.  When we listened to the recordings we found similar auditory anomalies.  In the foreground you hear the voice of our tour guide who has a heavy southern drawl going through the stories about the house while everyone else in the house was silent.  However, in each instance you hear another female voice chime in with responses to her statements that are not at all pleasant.

Another response our guide received from an unknown source that evening occurred when she mentioned the fact that her daughter had seen things in the basement of the main house when she brought her on the tour one evening.  The following evp seems to be from a woman who is concerned by the fact that living people are beginning to see things and that another entity may be "changing the outcome".

The last evp I will share (and we have a lot more) is that of a little boy speaking over a woman who was having an argument with the person she was with on the tour.  The funny thing about it, there weren't any little kids on the late night ghost tour we took that night but his voice clearly states "she's the drunk", something I would have remembered hearing, and a comment that would have received a response if heard by the woman in question.


To say the least, after examining all of the evidence, we were truly impressed by the paranormal activity that we found at the Sorrel Weed House and soon planned another trip to do a follow up investigation.  In my next blog I will show you the amazing visual and auditory anomalies we uncovered on our second trip.  For now I will leave you with two photos taken in the courtyard of the Sorrel Weed House.  In each photo, you will see rather large, bright orbs.  Typically, I don't put too much credence into photos with orbs since they tend to be pretty common from our experience.  However, because of what we found on our second trip in this courtyard, I have begun to re-think my skepticism regarding orbs.

Sorrel Weed Courtyard

Sorrel Weed Courtyard

See other posts about the Sorrel Weed House at Sorrel Weed House Savannah, Georgia 2012 & The Sorrel Weed House - Carriage House Second Floor.