Weird Liberty County Georgia

 How Bizarre

Strange and Interesting Facts of Liberty County

October. The month where we can start to buy pumpkin spiced – everything!

October is the month that brings nearly everyone’s favorite holiday - Halloween. Liberty County has a rich history of haunted places and things that go bump in the night. However, you may not know about these quirky, eccentric bizarre factoids and one abandoned yet interesting place.

Is that T-Rex I see?

There have been sightings of a seven foot tall Tyrannosaurs Rex in Hinesville. People claim to see the top of its head jutting out from the tree tops. During the days the supposed creature is said to be tall enough to cast eerie shadows across the road. In the evening its silhouette is vaguely visible deep in the woods off the dirt road.

Turns out those sightings are accurate, well almost. Years ago there was putt-putt and later a mini go-kart racing course off of E. G. Miles Parkway.

The land is now owned by a veterinarian and houses his animal clinic. The mini-golf course was once owned by ‘Red’ Pipkin. Currently the putt-putt course is not in use and for the longest time was obscured by over-grown grass, trees and brush. However if you peered into the brush or were brave enough to walk through the old chain link fence, you could see the remnants of T-Rex and Humpty Dumpty, a kangaroo, an octopus, a castle, an alligator and various other putt-putt course designs.

Recently, a good portion of Mother Nature’s over-growth has been cleared making T-Rex and friends much more visible. There are visible signs the location has been used for possible teen-aged gatherings, however it should be noted this is private property.

Big Foot

Did you know Big Foot has been spotted more than once here in Liberty County? It has and also in neighboring Long and Tattnall County.

According to The Big Foot Field Researchers Organization about nine soldiers stationed on Fort Stewart described seeing something ‘non-human’ that stood about seven to eight feet tall in the woods during a war-games training procedure. It was seen in the summer of 2004 around dusk time.

One witness said he heard a very loud growl. He said the creature had long reddish hair about four inches long and matted in places. It moved on two legs and had arms that were longer than a human’s coming to the creature’s knees.

Yet another soldier reported a sighting in 1998 in the northeast section of Fort Stewart, in a training area deep into the woods and swamps. The soldier said he was a gunner on a Bradley fighting vehicle and that his group was in a training exercise. Around 2 a.m. they were moving along a dirt road. He was using the night vision, thermal sighting system to navigate in the darkness.

Suddenly he spotted something come out of the woods and cross the dirt road, in three strides, according to the report. The soldier said the road was 10-15 feet wide across. He added that the creature appeared to be one constant color in the thermal sight, an indication it was not wearing clothes. He said it appeared to be seven to nine feet tall.

That same year but closer to Gum Branch a hunter said he came face to face with Big Foot. The hunter said it was at least eight feet tall with red eyes, broad shoulders and dark long brown and black hair. The hunter said he started to back away from the creature, it suddenly turned and walked deep into the woods.

The most recent sightings were in Walthourville and Long County in 2014. In the Walthourville sighting in January at least two people said they saw the beast in the woods. The witness in the Long County encounter in May, said her family bought a mobile home that sits on more than three acres of land that includes a pond and swamp. They reported hearing loud howling and screeches and smelling a foul animal type odor. The family said they have seen something big run across their property and found huge foot prints afterwards.

Some Big Foot researchers believe that the creature is actually from the Gigantopithecus species.

Gigantopithecus is an extinct genus of ape of that existed from perhaps nine million years to as recently as one hundred thousand years ago. Fossil records suggests that individuals of the species Gigantopithecus blacki were the largest known apes that ever lived, standing up to nine feet tall and weighing up to 1,300 pounds.

To see where else Big Foot has been spotted go to:  http://www.bfro.net/

Flying Saucers

There always seems to be mysterious lights and flying objects in the sky in locations close to military installations. But are they Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) from outer space or specialized aircraft created and being tested by the army? Hmmmm.

It seems that more than 200 UFOs were reported between North Florida and Charleston, between Nov.1, 2012 until August of this year, according to ufo-hunters.com.

One recent sighting, on Aug. 18, of this year was of a UFO flying above Ludowici. The witness reported that it looked like a flash of light in the sky and thought at first it was a shooting star. They reported the lights in the sky kept flashing, in a manner different than that of a star. He said the event lasted about five minutes.

On July 14, 2016 a Glennville resident reported a craft with lights circling around it. The craft made several passes over town. They noticed the craft was flying too low for regulated aircraft.

Someone reported a UFO flying over Hinesville the day after Christmas in 2015. They described the UFO as three yellow and red circles in a triangular shape. They witnessed the craft for 10 minutes.

In 2012 a Midway resident reported a frightening encounter of bright green lights beaming throughout the house. The terrifying report noted the witness felt as if he was being laid on their back as something beamed through them. Like being scanned.

There was a UFO spotted in Richmond Hill in March 2016. The witness said he observed two stationary reddish white lights hovering approximately 30 degrees above the horizon. The two lights hovered for about a minute. The witness said the two lights abruptly turned into five reddish white lights all in a straight line. The witness said it was nearly identical to a sighting he had in 2011 in Effingham County.

There were two sightings reported in Jesup. A woman reported coming to a full stop at a stop sign at Northview Road in Bethlehem in February of 2015. She said she looked to her left and thought she had spotted a low flying plane. She soon realized it was a circle of bright white lights which suddenly zipped off and vanished. The second sighting was noted in October of 2014, where a witness said they saw a large triangle illuminated by three steady burning lights. They said the object was hovering in place for a bit then vanished.

There are several other reports in the Savannah area, Wilmington Island and Tybee Island.

Check out the various reports here: http://www.ufo-hunters.com/sightings/index

Screven Lights

According to the Wayne County Tourism Bureau the Screven Lights is a bouncing orb of light seen for over a century at Milligan’s railroad crossing on Bennett Road. Those who have seen the light say it moves back and forth and glows bright and then dim. It reportedly is seen after rain and after a train has gone by.

That section of the railroad track is part of the old Seaboard Coast Line. According to a blog posted on Haunted Highway, sightings of the lights are usually seen near or after midnight, sometimes after rain storms and coming from the direction of Jesup. A popular explanation of the lights is that a flagman was decapitated by an oncoming train as he walked along the tracks carrying his lantern. They say he continues to walk the track swinging his lantern from side to side in search of his head.

Bennett Road is located 4 miles out of Screven on Highway 84 East.

Altamaha-Ha (Altie)

The expansive Altamaha River in Darien is said to be the home of a massive river creature known locally as the Altamaha-Ha, or Altie for short. It has been described as having a sturgeon like body with a bony ridge on its top, front flippers and no back limbs that swims like a dolphin but has the snout of a crocodile. This creature is said to have protruding eyes, sharp teeth and be roughly 30 feet long. The first reported sighting dates back to 1830 according to legendsofamerica.com.

Sightings continue to this day. Stories of the Altamaha-Ha have been featured in the Darien News, The Island Packet, a book called “Weird Georgia” by Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman published in 2006 and more recently in a book by author Taylor Brown called “The River of Kings.”

A sculpture of the creature currently sits at the Darien-McIntosh County Chamber of Commerce office located at 1111 Magnolia Bluff Way, Suite 410 in Darien.