The Spirits of Camp Rutledge

Posted: 06.12.2025 | Updated: 10.09.2025

A haunted campground in the woods…

It’s a classic, scary setting that has been prevalent in horror movies, comics, and books for decades. The most prominent of which, of course, is Camp Crystal Lake from the Friday the 13th movies, but there’s certainly no shortage of examples. 

One example comes from real life, in the form of Camp Rutledge. It’s a historic Atlanta campground that has existed since the Great Depression and has garnered a reputation for being quite haunted.  From mysterious entities to creepy children, the amount of ghosts running around here has prompted the TV show Ghost Hunters to dedicate an episode to it. 

Keep reading on to learn just who these ghosts may be and where they came from.  After you’re done, we’re sure you’ll want to learn even more about haunted Georgia, and the best way to do that is by booking an in-person ghost tour with Atlanta Ghosts.

Is Camp Rutledge Haunted?

Is Camp Rutledge haunted? It’s a difficult question to answer, considering that most of the ghost sightings there occur in the dark and in conditions that are hard to replicate. However, there are so many odd incidents that have popped up in this camp over the years that make many people wonder just what is going on over there.

History of Camp Rutledge

Camp Rutledge owes its existence to the New Deal. 

The New Deal was a series of programs and laws enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression, aimed at stimulating the economy and helping people. To achieve this, various programs were initiated to put America back to work, one of which was the Civilian Conservation Corps. 

The Civilian Conservation Corps served multiple functions. It helped create and maintain America’s large national park landscape while putting many young, unemployed men to work doing things like planting trees, clearing trails, and fighting forest fires. 

In 1943, one CCC project was Camp Rutledge. It was part of an initiative to reclaim unusable farmland and turn it into recreational areas. Over 850,000 trees were planted on the site, and two manmade lakes and numerous campgrounds and trails were constructed as part of this development. 

Eventually, the camp opened to much fanfare, especially because it represented the nation’s recovery from the depression and the fact that its construction helped employ and train a large number of young people in the workforce.

But Rutledge’s history wasn’t always so sunny. Long before the Civilian Conservation Corps ever arrived at the place, it was deep in the heart of Creek territory. The Creek were a First American tribe and, in 1813, they were embroiled in a conflict with the United States government over hunting rights and land use. 

Like so many conflicts of the Indian Wars, these disagreements spilled over into bloodshed, and that year, Creek Indians attacked what would later be Rutledge territory. 

The attack cost nine people their lives, including a woman, a child, and an enslaved girl. Only a man named Lewis Brantley would survive to tell the tale, and the nearby Lake Brantley is named in his honor. 

Camp Rutledge Hauntings

This massacre has gone on to cast a dark pall that has followed the camp for much of its history. Lewis Brantley, the patriarch of his family and its only survivor, would go on to warn others of what had happened. 

He would eventually recover from his injuries, sell his farm, and move to another location in Atlanta. It was here that he would remarry and try to move on from what had happened at Camp Rutledge.

But his story may not end there. You see, there are persistent rumors that a mysterious, unknown entity is plaguing the camp with its haunted presence. 

Some say that the identity of this unnamed ghost could be Lewis Brantley himself, perhaps drawn here after death to the site where he lost his first family. Maybe he’s searching for them in the afterlife, or maybe he’s trying to enact vengeance on those who took them from him in the first place.

Still others say that the entity isn’t Brantley at all but, instead, an unknown man whose corpse was found right next to Brantley’s family. Perhaps this unknown hero was fighting to protect a family that wasn’t even his, and even in death, he is still trying to protect others in the camp.

If that’s true, he certainly has a funny way of doing it. Whoever the entity is is known for stomping around the campgrounds ominously, always late at night. He’ll go down the road, hitting every cabin and banging loudly on their walls before disappearing without a trace. 

Is this knocking on the wall the entity trying to give camp guests a good scare, or is he trying to warn them of something ominous to prevent another killing? 

Other Hauntings 

One group that tried to answer this question was the popular TV show, Ghost Hunters. The crew went into the forest and set up recording equipment to try and see if they could catch the mysterious entity plaguing the forest. This was done after receiving reports from scared children who recently attended summer camp there. 

This equipment was actually able to see bright red eyes coming from the woods! And they found more than just those eyes, too; from creepy, cracking sounds coming from the forest to the sounds of someone who appeared to be running through the woods, despite it being supposedly empty that night. 

You’ll have to see the full episode to see all that they uncovered there, but if you’re interested in getting to the bottom of the camp’s many mysteries, it’s well worth the watch.

However, the entity isn’t the only one who is said to cause trouble in the camp. In fact, one of the ghosts on the campground, unlike the mysterious cabin-knocker, actually has a name. This ghost’s name is Ethan and his favorite pastime is chasing an otherworldly red ball up and down the campground. 

Rather like a bizarre combination of The Shining and Sisyphus, he’s perpetually chasing this ball but always unable to catch it. Some say that Ethan wandered away from his campsite during a family vacation in the 1970s. Despite repeated searches, this Ethan was never found. 

A little boy, similar to the description of Ethan, was also spotted staring at a man intensely from the woods. When the man tried to flag the boy down and ask who he was, he tripped over three smashed gravestones. When he looked up, the staring boy had vanished.

Haunted Atlanta

Maybe you’ll also be able to get a glimpse of Ethan if you take the road up to one of the areas he’s known to lurk in at Camp Rutledge. Just make sure not to take his ball away from him, or you may end up encountering something scarier than a couple of broken headstones.

If you liked this story and want to learn similar tales, check out our Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. They spotlight other offbeat ghost stories all over the United States. Checking our blog is another good way to stay up-to-date with all the latest ghost stories and haunted spots in Georgia.

If you want to explore Atlanta ghosts up close, a ghost tour with Atlanta Ghosts is the best way to do that. Our guides are knowledgeable and enthusiastic and can provide even more information on the area. 

Sources:

• https://livingnewdeal.org/sites/hard-labor-creek-state-park-rutledge-ga/
• https://stuckeys.com/flashback-fridays-ghost-stories-from-the-campfires-of-camp-rutledge
• https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/stays/georgia/ga-most-haunted-campground
• https://www.syfy.com/ghost-hunters/season-8/blogs/episode-recap-camp-fear