Hales Bar Marina

Hales Bar Dam was a hydroelectric dam once located on the Tennessee River in Marion County, Tennessee, United States. The Chattanooga and Tennessee River Power Company began building the dam on September 13th, 1905 and completed it on November 11th, 1913, making Hales Bar one of the first major multipurpose dams and one of the first major dams to be built across a navigable channel in the United States. It began operation on November 13th, 1913.

In 1939, the Tennessee Valley Authority assumed control of Hales Bar Dam after purchasing TEPCO's assets. TVA spent two decades trying to fix a leakage problem that had plagued Hales Bar since its construction, but after continued leakage, and after it was determined that expanding the dam's navigation lock would be too expensive, TVA decided to replace the dam by building Nickajack Dam 6 miles downstream. Hales Bar Dam ceased operation on December 14, 1967.

Hales Bar Dam was 113 feet high and 2,315 feet long, and its spillway had a combined discharge capacity of 224,000 cubic feet per second. After improvements by TVA in 1949, the dam had a generating capacity of 99,700 kilowatts. The dam's lock, which went into operation on November 1, 1913, was 60 feet by 260 feet, and its 41-foot lift was the highest in the world at that time.

Previously located on the property were two cemeteries that were desecrated and never relocated. You could see three headstones peering out of the water 70 yards from the bank where Dry Creek empties into the Lake. They are the marked graves of Henry, Moses and Sarah Long. Henry died in 1875 and Sarah in 1860. Moses birth is noted as November 25, 1880 but the date of death is illegible.

In 1906 a worker was shot and killed by an unknown gunman, another fell from a rock crusher and was severally injured. Two black men were killed by two white men and they got away with murder. Guild, the project engineer, died from an ear infection in 1907 before the damn was completed. In 1911 the body of one of the Hales was found run over on the railroad tracks that lead to the damn. Yet another murder occurred in 1912. Apparently at least three men fell into concrete that was being poured and their bodies were never recovered.

Address: 1265 Hales Bar Rd., Guild, Tennessee 37340

Phone: 423-942-4040

Website: www.halesbarmarina.com

Hauntings: Due to the hundreds of deaths in and around Hales Bar Dam during its construction and operation, and the battles here between Chief Dragging Canoe and settlers, Hales Bar Dam is considered by the paranormal community as the number one most haunted structure in Tennessee, number four in the United States, and the most haunted dam in the world. Paranormal investigation teams from around the world have traveled here to investigate the unexplained.

There have been reports of shadow figures seen in the control room and within the underground tunnels. There is an area deep within the tunnels where some who have broken into the facility have practiced occult rituals. Numerous dolls and other trigger objects are located in this area and visitors are warned not to touch the figures. A casket is another weird object in the tunnels.

There are countless ghost stories involving Hales Bar Dam. Some say the souls of the workers, the children, and the buried whose graves flooded are among the spirits that continue to haunt the site. Examples include: workers who were supposedly trapped in the walls during its construction, men who drowned during those first few years, the spirits of Cherokee natives-including Chief Dragging Canoe-who still haunt the property, a presence called Chris, an alleged murdered young girl named Linda, and apparitions from the school children who haunt the tunnels.

Many people have felt their shirts pulled and something playing with their hair. Cold chills are sometimes reported at the dead-end section of the tunnels.

The Ghost Research Society visited Hales Bar Marina June 6, 2020 and the team members included: Mike Rosario, Kelly Griffey and Dale Kaczmarek, with help from Jason Snide and Courtney Mendenhall from Crawford County Illinois Ghost Hunter's Society

Equipment setup: Since this was more a historical public tour, mixed a bit with the paranormal encounters and ghost stories, we were constantly moving from place to place, so no equipment was set up. We deployed some hand-held equipment such a K-II and Melmeter, digital recorders and the 4k IR camcorder.

Experiments performed: Jason did conduct a very brief EVP session near the table where all the dolls are located. We mostly just toured the building and tried to have any physical encounters along the way and also possibly capture anything on video or audio as well as still photography.

Personal experiences:

Kelly Griffey: We visited the marina on one day and took a tour the following day. As a group, Dale, Courtney, Jason, Mikey and I visited the marina, looked around the small pier side store, and looked around the outside of the big haunted building. My initial thoughts, looking at the big closed-down plant, were that a lot of people died there. Little did I know that was true, and there were still bodies entombed in the walls.

I followed Dale, Courtney, Jason and Mikey throughout the entire tour. I brought my Zoom H2 recorder. I did not conduct any experiments because of our constant movement and the tricky terrain of the building.

I did have 2 personal experiences with the group.

We were in a larger room, and I recall the guide saying they used it as an office and he said someone had died of a heart attack in the room. I felt a sudden and sharp pain in my left shoulder, as if someone were grabbing me from behind and digging their fingers into my shoulder. It was a sharp pain that went away after a few seconds but it still hurt in the area of my shoulder later that night. I did not notice anything else when that happened.
The tour guide brought our group into a room that appeared to be covered wall to ceiling with granite tiles/panels. He encouraged everyone to cram into the room because he wanted to show us (he never did get the demonstration point) the acoustics in the room. As he corralled the group into the room, I was on the tail end of the crowd. Everyone was silent as I entered the area, he must have told them to be quiet and not speak. As we entered the group area, the guide said, “You can talk now,” and just as everyone started to chatter I heard what seemed to be a disembodied voice coming from behind me, to my left. It sounded to me like, “waa waa waa waaa.” If I were to assign an emotion to the disembodied sound, I would assume the spirit was speaking up and trying to convey something urgent. I also noticed immediately that most people in the group, including the tour guide, heard it. I suggested we be quiet again and he recreate what he said, “you can talk now” but he seemed too unsettled to re-construct the situation.

Mike Rosario: Introduction: This year, we went and investigated four (4) notorious haunted locations down in the great state of Tennessee! I, personally, haven’t been down there in a year, so it was nice to see the old state again in its everlasting glory! This report will include the Stones River National Battlefield (3501 Old Nashville, Hwy., Murfreesboro, TN.), Hales Bar Marina & Resort (1265 Hales Bar Rd, Guild, TN.), The Old South Pittsburg Hospital (1100 Holly Ave., South Pittsburg, TN.), and The Historic Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary (9182 TN-116, Petros, TN.). I have never been to these sites before, but I was completely looking forward to investigating them!

Equipment and Initial Historical Tour: Our group tour took off at approximately 12:00pm with some members of the CCGH team, Dale Kaczmarek, Kelly Griffey, and I on Friday, June 5, 2020. The weather was quite nice out, although it was a very hot and muggy day. I believe we were supposed to have a small investigation at this location, but that did not come to fruition for us that day. However, we were very grateful for our very awesome, fun and professional tour guide that did show all of us around the entire area! For this tour, I only brought my iPhone with me to take some pictures and videos with here and there, because I already knew that we were going to frequently walk in and around the facility, and didn’t want to be weighed down by so much equipment for just a tour. For this historical tour, all of us stuck together as one large group whilst we ventured the grounds.

Investigation Wrap-Up: The tour ended approximately around 4p.m. on Friday, June 5, 2020.

Evidence: No evidence was depicted on my pictures I took of the facility, unfortunately, except for a very loud female voice, a shriek of some sort that came from the third or fourth floor of the building whilst our entire group was present! We didn’t have the foggiest clue of who or what had made that eerie wail. I wished I had captured that on film, however, it was captured on audio/video by a fellow paranormal investigator who belonged to another group in that room where we heard it, and she said that she would forward that evidence to us when she had the time to do so. ‘Twas extremely fascinating, and creepy!

Conclusion/Overall: I loved this place very much! I would, indeed, enjoy pursuing an investigation or even a private investigation here at this location in the future! With so much history caked into those walls, there’s bound to be at least some kind of activity to happen there!

Dale Kaczmarek: The only encounter that the entire group had including those outsiders who were touring the location was a very loud female disembodied scream. We were all gathered in a room that our guide stated was very acoustically sound when all of us suddenly heard a extremely loud female scream emanate from the other room. Judging by the wide-open guys and reaction of our tour guide, I would conclude that this wasn’t a hoax perpetrated by the staff. We immediately all went into the other room, the guide stopping his presentation in the acoustically-sound room, to find a cause. We looked outdoors in the parking lot and river and while there were a few people around, none were females. Most of those we saw were male fishermen on the river.

Jason and I were not recording at the time. My camera’s battery went from ¾ to ¼ as soon as I had entered into the building so I was saving my battery for certain locations. Normally, I would have recorded the entire session since I had never been inside this damn before.

There was another paranormal group there, Black Pearl Paranormal. I immediately pointed at her and asked if she was recording and her response was that she was recording the entire time since we entered the structure. I was sure that she had captured the voice. Upon contacting her on Facebook Messenger, her response was, “I went through the whole video and did not catch it, which was weird because we all heard it.” It’s a total mystery to me why she was not able to record this very loud disembodied voice!

Evidence collected:

Howl scream Hales.MP4 – while waiting for the tour to start, I faced my 4k IR camcorder towards the Control Room and heard a long howl followed by a high-pitched scream.

There would have been an incredible capture if others, including Jason and I was recording at the time.

Conclusions: I believe this a definitely an area we need to come back and conduct a nighttime private investigation sometime in the future. A private investigation only costs $80 for five people which is very reasonable.

Some areas are underwater but there are plenty of locations that I would like to investigate further such as the Control Room and the underground tunnels. Our guide showed us a spot where some workers had fell into the concrete pillars and never recovered. It is my belief that area should yield some interesting results and, of course, the area where all of us heard that strange female scream. I look forward to the opportunity of returning here one year for a more thorough investigation.