Chichota Cottage: an excerpt from Haunts & Hollows: Georgia Backroads.
A few hundred feet north of the main lodge on Jekyll Island, a pair of stone lions stand guard over an empty plot off Riverview Drive. The home that once stood here, Chichota Cottage, was a lavish retreat for the wealthy Gould family.
In 1917, young Edwin Gould, Jr. and a friend were raccoon hunting near Latham Hammock. When Edwin found a raccoon in one of his traps, he attempted to club the animal to death with the butt of his gun so as not to ruin the hide for a coonskin cap. The animal had its comeuppance as Edwin’s gun discharged, shooting him in the lower abdomen.
Despite a frenzied rowboat rise back to Jekyll Island, the young man died from his wounds in the early evening. The family then abandoned Chichota Cottage, a too-painful reminder of their loss.
Locals report two distinct paranormal occurrences associated with Chichota. In the late evening, a shaded figure can often be seen silently hunched over in the small patch of scrub guarded by the lions. It is thought to be the young Edwin, waiting for his family to return to him.
The second is the smell of Cherokee roses that often lingers around Cherokee Cottage to the immediate east . The cottage was the home of Edwin’s grandmother, to whom he would often bring the fragrant roses as a gift. Many evenings just as the sun is setting, passersby can smell the flowers even when none are in bloom.
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