May 21, 2015
|Bob H Boyd ~ Investigative Reporter | Knoxghost.NET
Some of our oldest stories warn against disturbing the ground where we lay our deceased. It’s a concept that seems instinctual across many cultures and times. From Dia de Los Muertos in Mexico to holding your breath while walking past Old Gray Cemetery, these superstitions reach deep in our collective psyche. Could there be something to this innate desire? Perhaps the energies in these places need our consideration, are prone to being thrown out of sync.
Certainly these “horror” stories fascinate us. They receive top billing at our theaters and sell right off the shelves of our bookstores. One of the most striking works on this topic has to be 1982’s Poltergeist. This story of upsetting a Native American burial ground, and the paranormal violence that ensues, was certainly my first deep, unsettling fright. So popular was this film that a remake is hitting theaters this very night.
Now, some of our investigators here at Haunted Knoxville Ghost Tours have heard rumors of burial mounds, similar to those described in the movie Poltergeist, in South Knoxville. Sources confirm that there are burial mounds, each housing between ten and one hundred graves, on Cherokee Boulevard and the Agricultural Campus of the University of Tennessee. What kind of latent energies lie in wait at these sites? One of the fundamental principles of the work that we do (keep an eye out for upcoming articles relating to this topic) is that great amounts of trauma often accompany paranormal activity. It begs the question of how these mounds affect our fair city. Furthermore, could there be similar, undiscovered sites in South Knoxville, paved over by time and development?
If the archetypal story put forth in Poltergeist holds any truth, then these burial mounds could be rich centers of history as well as paranormal energy. Have we done all that we can to preserve and honor these sights? What might the consequences be for neglecting them? As always, we at Haunted Knoxville Ghost Tours will continue to investigate, and ask that, if you know any of these sites or have witnessed any hard-to-explain occurrences, you please come forward.
For more information on this topic read:
http://www.agriculture.utk.edu/archivednews/releases/2011/06-NAIGdedication.html