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2004 was the year that NETHERWORLD\u2019s most popular Icon Character would emerge – The Collector from SPIRITS OF THE DEAD! Featuring a more elaborate version of the classic creature Top Hat from our first year, this haunt would contain an ancient graveyard filled with tilted monuments and ghastly undead, the emergence of the cannibal clan the Bostwicks, and increasing large animations and special effects that would totally wow audiences. The Collector eventually became so popular that albums, T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, shot glasses, buttons and even a bobble head featuring his likeness would be created and eventually sell out! To this day he is the main icon character of NETHERWORLD, and is well known in Atlanta for the many billboards his grim visage has graced. Many guests are thrilled to encounter him in the parking lot and pose for a picture with this most famous of monsters!<\/p>\n
This year also marked the return of the 3D attraction, this year called VERY SCARY TALES which contained a series of fractured fairy tales and legendary horrors themed on a twisted book of childhood fears.<\/p>\n
The downstairs haunt remained very, very dark but added an element of massive gore and Hellraiser-like characters with the twisted nightmare world of OBLIVION. This edgy attraction would continue to be aimed at more mature audiences over the years to come, with more blood, grime and shocking elements that wouldn\u2019t be seen in the other shows.<\/p>\n
From its beginnings, NETHERWORLD was a well known attraction in the haunt industry, but after the success of the previous years Dark Harvest and THE HARVESTMAN, the 2004 shows catapulted to national fame after appearing on Top Ten lists and capturing the imaginations of other attraction owners. From this point forward NETHERWORLD became one of the most well-known Haunted Attractions in the USA with the COLLECTOR leading the charge!<\/p>\n
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SPIRITS OF THE DEAD<\/strong><\/p>\n After the cemetery was flooded in 1932, Whyshburg Burial Grounds was purchased by the mysterious Professor Victor Chillighast, along with an old manor house and funeral home located on the property. A wealthy recluse, he is rumored to have performed strange rituals involving spirits of the dead\u2026some say to prolong his evil life.<\/p>\n Others say he was never a man at all, but rather an agent of the Dark Ones called the Collector, sent to gather souls for his masters and open the doorway to the NETHERWORLD! Whatever foul secrets are hidden in the sunken tombs and hidden catacombs of Whyshburg, it is certain that many who have sought the truth there have never returned!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Spirits of the Dead<\/b>– In 1864, the Whyshburg Burial Ground began as a mass grave for thousands of soldiers slain in the Civil War. Although a bit swampy for a traditional graveyard, it was chosen due to its proximity to major roads, the unsuitability of the land for farming, and a long history as a final resting place for the local farmers and the Native Americans before them. Following the war, many families on both sides of the conflict began erecting monuments and crypts of great variety in honor of the slain soldiers: almost as if the battle had begun anew, this time to determine which side could create a more impressive army of funeral monuments.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The small settlement of Whyshburg began to prosper as a stream of stone masons, rock carvers and laborers moved in to supply the growing monument industry. Proximity to another natural wonder, the Jackson-Burroughs ridge, also made the growth of the necropolis much easier. This largely underground ridge of solid granite, the largest known in Georgia after Stone Mountain, bordered the burial ground on the south and provided much of the raw material to create the graveyard. New graves and crypts began mingling with older ones when in 1905, the Bostwick Mortuary was established. Now many well to do southerners and northerners began to bury loved ones here next to their famous warrior kinfolk.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n By 1925, the Whyshburg Burial Ground was an amazing site filled with ornate crypts and statuary as far as the eye could see; bordered by the ridge on the south, the Mongahala creek on the north and east, and the massive Bostwick Mortuary and Funeral Home on the west. Sporadic acts of partisan vandalism in the mid 20s caused the Bostwicks to erect a large stone wall from the ridge to the creek, as they now owned all the land that comprised the burial ground.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n More trouble began in 1932, when the Bostwicks began quarrying stone from an unusual outcropping of black granite for a World War One monument. The locals had long considered the formation cursed, and the setters called it the Devil\u2019s Throne, due to its unusual color and shape. Midway into the blasting, they uncovered a hidden spring that flooded the Whyshburg grounds all the way to the creek, tilting monuments, exposing graves, and ruining the chance for further burials. For months, many attempts were made to stop the spring (Now called the Devil\u2019s Wound) or divert the flow, but nothing worked. Within 10 years the small settlement of Whyshburg was all but abandoned, as the burial ground was no longer usable. The Bostwicks almost went bankrupt, until a mysterious benefactor agreed to pay the bills as long as the grounds were tended. They continue to operate the Mortuary to this day, focusing now on cremations and handling funeral arrangements for old money families in the surrounding counties, but their work has all but dried up.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As to the Whyshburg Burial Ground, it was closed up and hidden from the public, until historians and antiquarians began sneaking into the place in the 1960s. They found an amazing place totally overrun by nature, but brimming with weird supernatural phenomena. Throughout the 60s it became known as one of the most haunted places in America, as a stream of followers of spiritualism and other odd groups broke into the place to commune with the dead. Soon the Bostwicks were forced to string barbed wire all around the property to keep the unwanted visitors away.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Today the Devil\u2019s Wound has dried up, due to changes in the water table caused by to the huge amounts of water consumed by nearby Atlanta. Once again urban explorers and paranormal investigators have begun breaking into Whyshburg, and they have reported many unusual things. Some say the grounds are honey combed with tunnels, almost as if someone has been burrowing into crypts and graves for years. Another legend tells of a weird black tomb sitting on the old site of the Devil\u2019s Throne. Below the tomb is said to be a pit going deep into the ridge, filled with unusual artifacts. Many also tell of a tall ghastly phantom in a top hat roaming the grounds, digging up graves and consorting with the dead.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Bostwicks have redoubled their efforts to keep the public out in recent years, even as massive lawsuits by the families of the dead are demanding admittance to the grounds. One way or another it seems, the dead of Whyshburg Burial Grounds will soon give up their secrets, and join the rest of us in the 21st century.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fearworld.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Gargoyle-Rider-837x1024.jpg\")
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