By Laura Lyon
Citizens of Gwinnett County often go about their day without thinking of what or who has gone on before them, and who may still be lingering among us. Halloween reminds us to explore the dark corners of our shared history and cultivate our morbid curiosities.
Despite being surrounded by streetlights and apartments, Duluth Church Cemetery somehow remains completely isolated after dark. This is the perfect backdrop for the Duluth Disembodied Dirge Ghost Tour, hosted year-round. The tour meets in front of the Gwinnett Public Library and follows a mile-long path through town, pausing to discuss apparitions and paranormal activity at landmarks like the Red Clay Music Foundry, a former Baptist church that became a Maple Street Biscuit Company and, of course, the Duluth Church Cemetery.
Tour guide Niamh West shared with me the story of John Victau Dowis, a sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed two brothers during a Prohibition-era scuffle while searching their car for whiskey without a warrant. After being acquitted, he was killed in cold blood a year later. His killer was never found and the trail goes cold at Dowis’s grave in the Duluth Church Cemetery.
One town over at the Gwinnett Historic Courthouse in Lawrenceville, the Southern Girls Ghost Tour offers those interested in the macabre a chance to get in touch with them. For two nights only, September 17-18, the ghost hunting crew comes to the courthouse with “thousands of dollars worth of investigative equipment”, according to founder Lesley Hyde.
Equipment available for participant use includes newer techniques like EMF detectors, since ghosts are historically thought to be made of electricity, REM-Pods, which measure ambient temperature changes and dousing rods, which detect unseen energy. Older technology on hand includes a Victorian tipping table, where people gather around and wait for spirits to move or tap to communicate and a dead bell that can only ring by paranormal activity. Hunters will be able to explore all three floors of the courthouse, including the basement that is typically inaccessible to the public and was once used as a temporary jail cell.
After spending almost an hour searching cemetery plots alone well after sundown, jumping at the sound of each passing train, I can attest that the world is a lot less scary with a group. For bolder Halloween explorers, solo may be the way to go. There are historic cemeteries all over the county, such as the Lawrenceville Historic Cemetery right next to the courthouse and historic homes like the Wynne-Russell house in Lilburn that are said to be haunted. Whatever adventure you choose, Gwinnettians beware!