Is it still cursed?: No timeline set for plans for the Haunted Pillar

Thursday, October 31, 2019

News 12 at 6 o'clock /NBC 7

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) -- The legend is it's cursed and if you touch it, you will die. It sounds like a Halloween legend but it's one of Augusta’s most infamous downtown spots.

The Haunted Pillar may no longer be standing but its creepy historic tale lives on. On 5th and Broad, the old Haunted Pillar used to be right on the corner. While the structure is gone, the legend still stands. The haunting resurrection may come soon.

Probably only one of the few times it was touched. Cleaning up its pieces, a pillar in pieces now stored somewhere in a city garage waiting to be rebuilt.

"I go around, it's not there anymore but you can see where it was."

A driver crashed into the cursed pole back in 2017 and now the replacement is so daunting. Augusta has yet to pull the trigger on plans for the killer pillar.

"I grew up believing that was very mystical. So just in case, I didn’t touch it, you didn’t try to move it."

Although only a stump remains, locals still don't want to test their fate.

"I’m scared to touch it though.”

The historical marker tells the story or curse, originating from the 1800s. A man predicted anyone touching it would meet their doom and death. Legends swear of its grim-reaper like truth.

"A man tried to move it with a tractor or some type of mechanical device and he died of old age. Within like a week or two weeks his hair turned gray. He just aged and died of old age."

No matter the stories held on its corner, no matter the narratives written on its marker, the haunted history is engraved in the garden city.

There are designs to rebuild the pillar and the Vistors & Convention Bureau has money set aside for it too. But just as gloomy as the skies on a Halloween Night, progress for the pillar seems to be eerie.

Cranston engineering tells News 12 they've turned in all their required plans to the city.

Augusta CVB says they can't move forward until the city administrator agrees to a timeline. In the meantime, we're told a private company wants to redevelop the spot and possibly take over pillar plans.