Discovering Ghosts in My Own Middle Tennessee Backyard

What interesting things I learned today at tennis from the girls on my team about ghosts right here in my own backyard! They all know about my spooky little blog, but I never really talk about it much with them. I tend to keep my writing stuff to myself unless people show an interest in knowing more.

However today I spoke up and commented that I can’t play on a couple of other leagues that I’d like to because I have to have some days to work. (Spring tennis is mere weeks around the corner. If I wanted, I could play on a league 6 days a week. Which I actually would probably love, if I wasn’t trying to keep up with my blogs and get both the Haunt Jaunts Guide to Paranormal Tourism out along with a fiction book.)

Anyway, our coach was asking exactly what do I write. She sort of knew I do some articles and such, but she didn’t really understand my blogging. So I explained it and a new girl on our team (who I’ll call TT to protect her identity), who’s neighbors with one of the original players (who I’ll call KK for the same reason as TT) on our team, said, “You should come check out the cemeteries in our neighborhood. One of them is an old Indian one.”

Then KK said to TT, but wanting me to hear, “You know there’s people in our neighbor who swear their houses are haunted right?”

TT’s eyes got all big and she said, “No! Who?”

KK wouldn’t say because she didn’t want to breach her neighbors’ trust, but she said, “Some have even claimed to see a little ghost girl. None of them feel threatened and feel she’s a good spirit, but she does startle and sadden them.”

TT said, “All I knew about was the rumor of whoever had originally owned the land being poisoned by a slave or something.”

I was about to jump out of my skin with excitement. How had they held back on such juicy info? I’ve been playing with them the last two years!

But the topic of ghosts is one of those things you sometimes need to build trust with people first before you start discussing it. At any rate, it ended up that KK said she’d have me over sometime and give me a tour of the neighborhood and take me around the cemetery. TT wants to come along too, so we’ll have a sort of tennis team haunt jaunt.

TT also told me about some Indian burial mounds that were recently found in a neighborhood of Franklin, Tennessee. (Which is almost like a suburb of Nashville.) I think she said the name was West Haven. Also going to have to check into that.

Then another teammate, DD, spoke up after TT brought up the Indian burial mound and asked, “You know they found a bunch of children’s bones when they were excavating to put in the new parking lot at the Brentwood Public Library, don’t you? That was some sort of Indian grave too. In fact, if you see spots where they didn’t pave over, that’s why.”

No, I didn’t know any of that, but now I’m going to check into that more too.

But it might explain why I’m so drawn to Concord Park, River Park, and Crockett Park, which are all connected and is where the library sits. Besides having great trails to walk on, the tennis courts, and an abundance of beauty to enjoy year-round, I’ve always sensed something else there.

I don’t know what. Not spirits as much as an essence about the place. It has a sort of sacred feel to it.

Anyway, now I’m going to start digging a little more and see if I turn up any specific ghost sightings or stories involving the park and/or the library. (Besides the ghost deer of River Park, which was a real white deer that used to call the park home.) It’d be interesting to see if the time when the white deer was often spotted ties in with the same time the construction at the library revealed the bones of the Indian children.

Courtney Mroch

Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.

Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.