Moon River Brewing Company - Savannah, GA - Active Spirits: Inside & Out Of The Bottle

"Moon River"  
- music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, from the movie Breakfast At Tiffany's, as sung by Audrey Hepburn)
                                             

.
Moon River, wider than a mile,

I'm crossing you in style some day 

Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker,
wherever you're going I'm going your way.
Two drifters off to see the world.
There's such a lot of world to see.
We're after the same rainbow's end--
waiting 'round the bend,
my huckleberry friend,
Moon River and me.
Moon River, wider than a mile, 
I'm crossing you in style some day. 
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker, 
wherever you're going I'm going your way. 
Two drifters off to see the world.
There's such a lot of world to see. 
We're after the same rainbow's end-- 
waiting 'round the bend, 
my huckleberry friend, 
Moon River and me.



This haunting melody, composed by Henri Mancini, with mystical lyrics, written by Savannah's favorite son Johnny Mercer, helped catapult Audrey Hepburn to super stardom and eventually won the Academy Award for best song in 1961.  It is from this great song, whose title and story line sprung from the amazing lyrical mind of Savannah native Johnny Mercer, that our next location took its' current moniker.  However, the building that currently houses the Moon River Brewing Company has had an extremely storied past filled with tragedy, death & murder (click here to read more about the history of The Moon River Brewing Company).  You would never know when you walk into this unassuming tavern, that the building is filled with multiple spirits, many of whom are not at all pleasant.  Some of these spirits have even attacked patrons, employees and the occasional television personality.  Ghost Hunters & Ghost Adventurers have both filmed episodes at Moon River. And I think it is safe to say that each group of paranormal investigators left Savannah with a new found respect for the spiritual activity that they encountered at Moon River, and some even left a bit confused about what actually happened to them there.

Moon River Brewing Company - Savannah, Georgia

During our two trips to Savannah, we made a special point to investigate the basement and second floor of Moon River Brewing Company.  These two areas are known to be some of the most active in Savannah, a city that is believed by many to be the most haunted city in the country.  On our first visit, my wife and I managed to tour the basement and second floor of the brewery as part of the  Haunted Pub Crawl, led by James Caskey of Cobblestone Tours, which I mentioned in my previous post about the 17 Hundred 90 Restaurant & Inn.  The very last stop of the tour that evening was at Moon River.  At that point it was around 11:00 PM and everyone was feeling pretty "happy" after visiting several bars during the course of the evening.  I believe that the  liquid courage that  I possessed that evening made me believe that it would be a good idea to start provoking the nasty entities that I heard haunted the basement and upper floors.  While we were in the basement we took the following pictures after the rest of the group had already started up the stairs to the second floor.

The first photo shows an orb in the room adjacent to where we were standing.  In the second photo the orb has disappeared in a matter of seconds.

Moon River Brewery - Basement

Moon River Brewery - Basement

In the next three photos you will be able to see an orb move from one part of the room to another before finally disappearing in the third photo.

Moon River Brewing Company - Basement

Moon River Brewing Company - Basement

Moon River Brewing Company - Basement

By the time we made it up to the second floor and met up with the others, the tour guide was wrapping things up and people were starting to head downstairs and make their way to the exit.  We stayed upstairs for a while after the tour, walking from room to room snapping photos in rapid succession and taking audio recordings. While taking photos in the keg storage room, we captured the following images.

If you look closely above the four pony kegs lined up in a row, you will see a large orb against the dark gray wall.

Moon River Brewery - Second Floor

In this photo you will notice that the orb is gone.

Moon River Brewery - Second Floor

On the left side of the following photo you can see two small, bright orbs appear, and in the lower right hand corner (towards the bottom of the keg)  is a blue orb.

Moon River Brewery - Second Floor

The last image in this series of photographs, shows a large, very luminous ball of light form in the vicinity of where the blue orb was in the previous picture.

Moon River Brewery - Second Floor 

After getting this visual evidence, I began to think that there might actually be something to legends I had heard., so I decided to try to provoke the spirits even more to see if it would increase the amount of activity we were receiving.  After I did this, the following evp was recorded in the keg storage room.  At the beginning of the audio clip you hear me speaking to my wife.  Next, you hear a voice that sounds like a little girl at first, but soon changes as the entity completes its' statement.  Keep in mind, we are in a bar on a 21 and over pub crawl late at night - there were no children in the building!  Finally, the clip concludes with a sinister sounding laugh.

In the final evp that we captured on the second floor that evening, you will hear the same exact sinister sounding laugh from the previous clip recorded a few minutes later.  However, what is even more impressive to me is what follows. The recording concludes with a woman saying "Hitchhiker Ghost".



Now, you have to understand that I reviewed these audio clips two years ago, and when I first came across this part of the recording all I heard was the laugh.  But when I gathered up the audio clips that I wanted to use for this post last week I listened to it again and heard, to my amazement, "Hitchhiker Ghost" for the first time.  What makes this astonishing (and you will have to take my word for this one), is that last year after a trip to Disneyland, my wife and her brother decided that they would start putting together a You Tube Channel so that we could finally share the evidence we were collecting with other people who are also interested in the paranormal.  Being big fans of Disneyland, they decided to call the channel Hitchhiker Ghost, after the hologram apparitions that end up in your car to take their picture with you at the completion of the Haunted Mansion Ride.  I know this sounds hard to believe, but I had not heard those words in the recording until last week (two years after the recording was made and one year after my wife and her brother named our You Tube channel.  Is this a coincidence, possibly.  However, I have learned since I started doing paranormal investigations, that a lot of things similar to this start to happen when you go poking your nose into places that are spiritually active.  I have encountered this type of pre-cognition during other investigations, most notably outside a private residence in Albuquerque (but that is a story for another time). I'll leave the final decision to the reader, but the order of events is still extremely troubling to me since the presence of pre-cognition is one of the signs that exorcists use to verify that an individual is in fact possessed by a demonic entity and is not just psychologically disturbed.  I need to stop now because I'm freaking myself out and I need to go to sleep soon.

On our second visit to Savannah, we scheduled another pub crawl, but we weren't able to make it work with our other plans.  Therefore, we decided to head out to Moon River on our own one night after we ran ourselves ragged site seeing during the day and early evening.  After we had a couple of beers, we asked our waiter if we could go into the basement and up to the second floor to look around.  The waiter said that it would be fine so we headed to the basement with a few ladies that we had met at the bar that night who were also interested in the paranormal.  While we were in the basement that evening, we took the following pictures.

Now you see it.......................

Moon River Brewery - Basement

 Now you don't.

Moon River Brewery - Basement

Now you see it...........................

Moon River Brewery - Basement

Now you don't.

Moon River Brewery - Basement

We took several other photos like this in the basement before we finally decided to go to the second floor. Once we were on the second floor , we found a door that led to the roof where the mechanical units are located.  When we got outside, we took this picture with a large orb floating above the heating unit.

Moon River Brewery - First Floor Roof

When we went back inside, we took these photos up the stairs leading to the third floor (which is closed off due to structural problems with the floor framing).  In these four images, you will see an orb appear and disappear on two separate occasions.

Moon River Brewery - Third Floor

Moon River Brewery - Third Floor

Moon River Brewery - Third Floor

Moon River Brewery - Third Floor

Next, we joined the others  in a large room near the stairs leading down to the first floor.  In this room we took the following series of pictures (please note that the girl seated in the chair has an electronic device in her hand that emits a yellow light - that is not an orb).

Moon River Brewery - Second Floor

Moon River Brewery - Second Floor

Moon River Brewery - Second Floor

Moon River Brewery - Second Floor

If you believe that orbs contain spiritual energy, then these photos should provide adequate proof that there is a great deal of activity on the second floor of the Moon River Brewing Company.  Finally, I decided I would leave the group and do an evp session on the opposite end of the second floor where it was quiet. While I walked around by myself, I captured these two evps.

Pretty interesting evps considering I was walking in an area that was really quiet and far away from the rest of the group.  To say the least, I was really impressed with the paranormal occurrences that took place during our two visits to The Moon River Brewing Company and I look forward to investigating it again in the future.

Next up on the paranormal tour of Savannah is The Pirates House.

The 17 Hundred 90 Restaurant & Inn - Savannah, GA - Savannah's Haunted Bed & Breakfasts Part 3

In a previous blog about the hauntings of Savannah, I mentioned the three haunted bed & breakfasts that my wife and I stayed at during our two visits. The Marshall House, The Kehoe House & The 17 Hundred 90 Inn & Restaurant are all three fine places to stay and each has its' own collection of legends.  In fact, these three bed and breakfasts are known to be the most haunted places to reside while staying in Savannah, and each proved to have its' own unique character and supernatural surprises in store for us during our stay.

In this blog I will be reviewing the paranormal encounters that we experienced during our stay at The 17 Hundred 90 Inn & Restaurant (click this link for the history of The 17 Hundred 90 Inn & Restaurant hauntings).

17 Hundred 90 Inn & Restaurant

17 Hundred 90 Inn & Restaurant

On our first  visit to Savannah we stopped into the bar at the 1790 during a  Haunted Pub Crawl. led by James Caskey of Cobblestone Tours (author of Haunted Savannah: America's Most Spectral City Haunted Savannah one of the best books in existence concerning the legends of Savannah).  I remember walking in and ordering a drink for me and my wife and noticing that the EMF detector that I had placed on the bar had shot up to 14.9 milligauss (the highest reading I have ever received on a ghost hunt).  The readings remained over 12 milligauss until the moment we left the bar, when it once again went back to 00.0.  I was so amazed by the initial reading that I snapped the photo below of the EMF detector that had been sitting on the bar for about a minute.

14.9 Milligauss EMF Detector Reading At The Bar Of The 17 Hundred  90 Inn & Restaurant

After all of the ghost hunts that my wife and I have been on over the past several years, I have never seen an EMF detector go above a 5.0 since this time at the 1790.  When we went outside, we began to take photos and captured the orbs seen appearing and vanishing in the pictures below.

A single bright orb moving out of camera view in a matter of a few seconds.

Now you see it..............................

Now you don't.................................

Two bright orbs and one faint one.

Now you see it...............................

Now you don't...................................

One of the highlights of our second visit to Savannah was our stay in the notoriously haunted Room 204 of 17 Hundred 90 Inn.  The 1790 has the most basic accommodations of the three bed and breakfasts that my wife and I have stayed at in Savannah, but when it comes to paranormal activity, it is second to none.  And of all of the ghost stories you will hear in Savannah, none is more ubiquitous than the story of Anna Powell (or Powers depending on the version of the story that you hear).  Basically, it is a tale of a young, married girl who falls in love and has an affair with a sailor who hits it and quits it, causing Anna to throw herself (or her jealous husband to throw her) out of a second story window onto the sidewalk below. Well, as the story goes, Anna's Room was 204 and she still haunts it to this day.

Room 204 at the 17 Hundred 90 Inn & Restaurant

Me posing with the Anna doll that stands watch at the hallway window just outside Room 204

Locals believe that Anna likes to mess with women's clothing when they are staying in the room.  The two most famous stories are of the two women who came back to the room after being out all day to find their underwear hanging from the hotel's Christmas tree, and Miley Cyrus finding one of her boots placed on top of her suitcase with a hand print on it after she arrived back at the hotel.  At the time, Miley & her mom were staying in Room 204 while Miley was filming The Last Song in 2009.  When Miley returned to her room one evening after filming on nearby Tybee Island, she found the boot with the hand print and tweeted the following message:

mileycyrus uploaded a photo.
mileycyrus tweetd: Look what Ana did(ghost in room 204)
My boots were put on top of my suitcase & left with a handprint while I was out.

Even though Miley's word is usually good enough for me to believe just about anything (please read as extremely heavy sarcasm), I figured it might still be a good idea to check it out for myself.

During our two day investigation of Room 204, we captured some extremely fascinating evps, but as usual most of them did not correspond with one another or the legends that I had heard about the location prior to our stay. However, this first audio clip does seem to relate to what was playing on the television as we unpacked. In this sound clip, you can hear the voice of a man and some gun shots coming from the television program that we were watching at the time.  After the man on the television show speaks, you can hear a gasp and the words "GUARD ME" come through in a very creepy, but clear voice as the gun shots are heard from the television in the background.  It would seem to be a natural response to gun shots, but it wasn't part of the television program and it didn't come from me or my wife.

The following photos were taken while we were conducting our first evp session in the bedroom.  The first two show an orb moving from the mantle of the fireplace (in the first photo) to the television (in the second photo).

The next two photos also show anomalies on the same side of the room near the fireplace.

We recorded the next two evps while we were sound asleep.  The recorder was placed on the dresser all night.  When we listened to the recordings there was almost total silence until, at some point in the middle of the night, a voice (not mine) says in a very rough voice "I CAN'T SLEEP", which is followed by a strange groan.

Soon after that, you can hear the sound of the metal handles on the dresser being jiggled, followed by the sound of a loud door (or drawer) being slammed inside the room.



This recording was very surprising to me when I reviewed it for the first time since neither my wife nor myself were woken up by the loud noise.  This is why I can be pretty sure that the door/drawer slamming was an evp.

The next morning, we were a bit rushed because we had scheduled an early tour (and I hate to be late more than anything else in the world), so I was saying to my wife, "got to go".  However, I guess I said it a bit too abruptly based on the response that I received  from the woman and the man in the following audio clip (when ghosts call you out you know you have to slow your roll :).



That night, we decided to do an evp session in the room.  During this evp session I received the following recordings as my right arm began to tingle, goosebumps began to form and the hair on my arm stood straight up. This kind of personal experience had never happened to me before (or since), and the strangest thing about it was that it only happened to my right arm and the room was warm.  My left arm looked and felt perfectly normal at the time.





However, of all the evps that we captured during the two days that we spent investigating room 204, the one that I feel could potentially relate to the story of Anna Powell (Powers) more than any other is the one below.  Similar to the legend surrounding the suicide of Molly (the slave girl who was found hanging from the rafters of her room at The Sorell Weed House), Anna's death is believed, by many, to be a murder committed by her husband when he discovered that she was having an affair.  If this theory is correct, and Anna did not jump but was thrown out the window of Room 204 by her jealous husband, then this evp captured on our last night at the 1790 might just be Anna's husband's confession.



Hard to believe even for me (I just hit the record button).  I still don't know if these are random, residual voices or if they have a specific story to tell (maybe both can occur depending on the location and the timing). Your guess is as good as mine.  Leave me a comment and tell me your thoughts on the matter.  I would really be interested to hear other people's opinions because it is a question that I have had since the first evp I recorded.

In my next blog I will be focusing on the extremely haunted Moon River Brewing Company in Savannah, Georgia (and they brew some mean beers there as well).

See my other posts at Savannah's Haunted Bed & Breakfasts Part 1 - The Marshall House & Savannah's Haunted Bed & Breakfasts Part 2 - The Kehoe House.

The Kehoe House - Savannah, GA - Savannah's Haunted Bed & Breakfasts Part 2

In a previous blog about the hauntings of Savannah, I mentioned the three haunted bed & breakfasts that my wife and I stayed at during our two visits. The Marshall House, The Kehoe House & The 17 Hundred 90 Inn & Restaurant are all three fine places to stay and each has its' own collection of legends.  In fact, these three bed and breakfasts are known to be the most haunted places to reside while staying in Savannah, and each proved to have its' own unique character and supernatural surprises in store for us during our stay.

In this blog I will be reviewing the paranormal encounters that we experienced during our stay at
The Kehoe House (click this link for the history of The Kehoe House hauntings).

The Kehoe House

This four star Queen Anne Victorian mansion on Columbia Square has had quite a storied past.  Originally built in 1892 by William Kehoe (a self-made man who amassed huge fortune in the iron industry), the Kehoe House was originally a private residence, then became a funeral parlor for much of the 20th century & finally was turned into a bed & breakfast.  However, this is not just any b&b.  This is the only 4 star b&b in Savannah and probably the only haunted 4 star b&b in the country.  It may be a little on the pricey side, but keep in mind that they provide a fabulous breakfast and wine & hors d'oeuvres every afternoon from 5:00 to 7:00.  But don't be fooled by is elegant trappings; this place is truly haunted.

On our first visit to Savannah, my wife and I took a walking ghost tour from The Savannah Walks, Inc. which took us by many of the paranormal hot spots in the historic center.  When we reached Columbia Square the tour guide informed us about the many hauntings of The Kehoe House, including the tale of the twin Kehoe boys who died while playing in one of the chimneys in the house.  Once he had completed his speech about the Kehoe House, he directed our attention to The Davenport House across the street.  While the rest of the group moved across the square to get a better look at The Davenport House, I paused to examine the exterior of The Kehoe House more closely.  As I was looking up at balcony on the second floor located just above the main entrance of the house, I began to see two rather large balls of light, probably 18" in diameter, rising above and sinking below the balustrade.

Kehoe House Main Entrance - Balcony on second floor where orbs appeared above entry

I was really confused at first by what I was seeing.  They had no defining features, they appeared not to be connected to anything, and they were lit from within.  I began to believe that maybe this was some sort of practical joke that some kids staying at  house were trying to play on people taking the ghost tour.  So, after watching this for about a minute and a half, I decided to re-join the group.  However, as I was walking I had second thoughts and decided to turn around and look back at the balcony to see if the lights were still randomly moving up and down from behind the railing.  When I turned around and looked back at the balcony it was completely dark, with no sign of the glowing balls of light that had been previously very active. After the tour, I mentioned what I had seen to the tour guide, and he not only informed me that The Kehoe House discourages children from staying at the b&b, but he also indicated that the balcony was rarely used since it was off a bathroom and one would have to climb through a raised bathroom window to access it. It is highly unlikely that someone would do this since The Johnny Mercer Room also has another larger balcony with a floor level entry on the other side of the house.

After this extremely strange experience during our first trip to Savannah, I decided two things: we would return to Savannah soon and stay on the second floor of The Kehoe House and I would never take another ghost tour without a camera in my hand.  We ended up choosing the Tomochichi Room when we returned to Savnnah the following year.  This particular room was named after the Creek Indian leader who gave James Oglethorpe (the founder of Savannah) his land to build the city on.  Once we had settled in and unpacked, we turned on our digital recorders and started taking photos.  The photo below shows two orbs brightly lit in front of the drapes on the right side of the image. What is particularly interesting about this photo is that these orbs cast a reflection in the mirror; an occurrence that I have never seen before in a photo that I have taken.

The Kehoe House - Tomochichi Room

A few seconds later the two orbs were gone.

The Kehoe House - Tomochichi Room

In the next two photos you can see two bright orbs appear on the opposite side of the room near the bathroom door and then, in seconds, vanish without a trace.

The Kehoe House - Tomochichi Room

The Kehoe House - Tomochichi Room

Later that evening, on our way back from dinner, we took some photos out in front of the house and captured the orbs seen in the image below.

The Kehoe House - Exterior At Night

This is a strange photo to me because, of the three prominent orbs that are visible in the photo, two are blue and one is bright yellow.  Also, the blue "orb" in the upper right hand corner of the photo seems to be cut off on two sides; a strange phenomenon for objects that typical appear as perfectly round balls of light.

In the next photo the orbs had disappeared.

The Kehoe House - Exterior At Night

Here are just some additional photos of orbs that we took in front of the Kehoe House.

The Kehoe House - Exterior At Night

The Kehoe House - Exterior At Night

The Kehoe House - Exterior At Night

The Kehoe House - Exterior At Night

The Kehoe House - Exterior At Night

The Kehoe House - Exterior At Night

After a few minutes, we decided to go back to the room to do an evp session.  During this particular evp session, we captured the following auditory anomalies.  In the first recording you can hear me say "the chandelier is moving", then my wife says "it is" and finally you hear another female voice (not my wife's) say "I'm not happy".

This audio clip starts out with me reading a plaque on the wall of the bedroom which is followed by a voice of a man that says "I heard he's cranky" which in turn is followed by a woman's voice that says "guilty".



The following recording sounds like a father admonishing a boy for touching something that he was told he shouldn't.



Finally, this clip sounds like something straight out of a pornographic movie.



Good times!  You never know what you are going to get when you hit the record button in a haunted house. Who knows what went on in this house over the past 120 years!

Well that's all for now at The Kehoe House.  Next stop on our tour of Savannah's most haunted bed & breakfasts, The 17 Hundred 90 Restaurant & Inn.

See my other posts at Savannah's Haunted Bed & Breakfasts Part 1 - The Marshall House & Savannah's Haunted Bed & Breakfasts Part 3 - The 17 Hundred 90 Restaurant & Inn.

The Marshall House - Savannah, GA - Savannah's Haunted Bed & Breakfasts Part 1

In a previous blog about the hauntings of Savannah, I mentioned the three haunted bed & breakfasts that my wife and I stayed at during our two visits. The Marshall House, The Kehoe House & The 17 Hundred 90 Inn & Restaurant are all three fine places to stay and each has its' own collection of legends.  In fact, these three bed and breakfasts are known to be the most haunted places to reside while staying in Savannah, and each proved to have its' own unique character and supernatural surprises in store for us during our stay.

In this blog I will be reviewing the paranormal encounters that we experienced during our stay at
The Marshall House (click this link for the history of The Marshall House hauntings).

The Marshall House

The Marshall House

The hauntings of The Marshall House are too numerous to mention here but one stands out when I think back upon our stay at the oldest hotel in Savannah.  There was one story I read before we took the journey the first time, about a mother and son who were staying at The Marshall House several years ago.  The mother was in the bedroom and her son was in the bathroom.  The mother heard her son playing in the bathroom and talking (supposedly) to himself.  However, when the mother heard her son cry out she asked what was wrong and he said "the boy bit me".  She of course asked "what boy" and he said the one who he was playing with in the bathroom.  When the mother went into the bathroom she didn't see the boy but she did see a bite mark on her son.

The story stands out in my mind because of what happened to me on the second day we stayed at The Marshall House.  I woke up that morning and went directly into the bathroom and motioned to turn on the faucet to wash my face.  However, before I could, I felt a sharp pain on the left side of my stomach.  When I looked down I saw a cut that started to bleed as I watched in amazement.  I immediately tried to figure out what had happened, but I had not come in contact with anything on the short trip from the bed to the sink.  I retraced my steps and found no evidence that I had cut myself while sleeping or on the way to the bathroom. In addition to this very strange personal experience, I captured some photos of orbs near the front entrance of the hotel the following evening when we were returning from a ghost tour.

The Marshall House

The Marshall House

The Marshall House

The Marshall House

The Marshall House

The Marshall House

The Marshall House

The Marshall House

When we went across the street to take some photos of the facade of another building nearby we found an orb on the fifth floor moving from the window with the light on (in the first) to an area a couple windows over when we took the second photo a few seconds later.

Well that's all for now from The Marshall House.  Next up, The Kehoe House.

See my other posts at Savannah's Haunted Bed & Breakfasts Part 2 - The Kehoe House & Savannah's Haunted Bed & Breakfasts Part 3 - The 17 Hundred 90 Restaurant & Inn.