Paranormal investigation: Bear Creek Swamp near Prattville's definitely creepy, but is it haunted? | Community Spirit

Bear Creek Swamp in Autaugaville, not far from Prattville, has long been reported to be haunted by disembodied voices, strange lights and peculiar happenings. Many who have made a nighttime trip out Alabama 14 toward Selma have come back with stories of weird goings on.

Shawn Sellers is a Montgomery man who founded Southern Paranormal Researchers, and along with his colleagues investigates paranormal happenings in the region. Bear Creek Swamp is the first place he ever investigated and he returns there often.

Here's his report on one of his favorite spooky places in the River Region:

Bear Creek Swamp was our first investigation. Since then we have gone back numerous times. Bear Creek Swamp is a very interesting and extremely creepy place. The dirt road that cuts through the swamp is two to three miles long and winds through woods and a couple of fields or pastures as well as the swamp. There are only a few houses on the road.

The swamp used to be huge and the surrounding area was a virtual jungle. There is also an artesian well in the swamp. People still go there today and collect water that many believe holds magical powers. Every time I am there I drink some of the water. I figure that as much as I deal with the spiritual world, I need all the magic I can get. The swamp is not as big as it once was but when you are there you can feel the energy of what used to be there. There was a Creek Indian village on the land until 1814 and a lot of the settlers that settled that area were veterans of the Creek Indian War. The Creeks used the artesian water as healing water.

There have always been stories of sightings of little people and strange creatures in Bear Creek Swamp. Local residents will often refer to them as nature spirits in the Native American sense. In addition to the creatures there are also phantom lights that are seen by people passing through the swamp. Normally they are much brighter than the normally appearing swamp gas and move in what is described as an intelligent way. There have also been sightings described as Civil War soldiers by a few people who live near the swamp. The people who live in the area also report hearing unusual noises and have an unusually high amount of snakes and lizards around their homes.

 Through some of our research into the area, we found that the area has several natural underground springs. We could not find any Civil War encampments or activity in the area. We feel that the sightings of soldiers are most likely soldiers from the Creek Indian War. With the natural spring waters, Indians and settlers felt the water had healing power and with the Indian background, this could explain the sightings of little people which come from Native American beliefs in nature spirits.

 During our numerous visits to the swamp we have had a lot of strange occurrences. We have seen strange balls of light float across the road that we could not dismiss as swamp gas due to its behavior. There was one particular night that a ball of light crossed the road and turned.

 Shortly after, we heard what sounded like two hard knocks on the back of the truck.

One night we had some cameras set up near the well and were walking down the dark swamp road.

 Suddenly, we saw two cars’ headlights coming from opposite directions. As we backed off as far as we could to the side of the road, one of the cars raced past us suddenly going far faster than it should on such a road. We were afraid that there would soon be a collision. As we looked towards the other car, it slowly went past us in the opposite direction. To our amazement there was no collision or even a beeped horn. There was no place for the speeding car to go except into the swamps. We raced back to the well where we had our camera facing the road. We rewound the tape to see where the other car went and found no sign of the speeding car, only the slow car from the other direction.

Links: http://www.ghosttraveller.com/alabama.htm

http://www.crossroadspararadio.com

http://www.southernparanormalresearchers.org/

Investigation into Rawls Hotel in Enterprise: http://enterprise.wsfa.com/content/notes-paranormal-investigation-rawls-hotel-enterprise