Mossy Legs and the Forgotten Canal
Updated: Sep 5
When my children were little, my dad would always gather them around and tell them a story called “Mossy Legs.” It was a true story, or so he said, about camping in the woods right outside of Savannah with his Boy Scout troop in the late 1950s. He told them that he and his friend, Edward, had passed a convenience store on the way to camp. So, they stayed up late one night, and after all the other boys had gone to sleep, they snuck away to get candy at the store. But on their way through the woods that night, they ran into a ghost-like woman with long grey hair flying in the wind and feet covered with Spanish moss. He would then lower his voice and whisper, “She raised her arms high in the air and growled, ‘GO AWAYYYY.’” My children would always scream, then excitedly ask him hundreds of questions about Mossy Legs…and boy, did he love every one of them.
It’s true that a good story never completely leaves your mind. Parts of it linger in your subconscious until something, or someone, pulls it forward. For me, it was the Savannah-Ogeechee Canal. A few years back, while passing under the old bridge on Boundary Street, I wondered where the canal led. When I pulled it up on the map, I realized it began on the Savannah River and ran for miles inland.
The canal became an important part of Savannah’s economy in the early 1800s, transporting large quantities of local crops and goods from inland producers to the port of Savannah for export. But as I dug deeper, I found that the Savannah-Ogeechee Canal actually followed an existing waterway, shown on early maps as a small creek branching off the Ogeechee River and winding through rice fields, timberland, and tidal swamps.
Evidence of the area’s much earlier history has also been discovered near the canal’s western end at the Ogeechee River, including a dugout canoe dating to the region’s pre-contact Native American period. That small piece of history was all my imagination needed. Somewhere between my dad’s old ghost story and the history buried along the banks of the canal, my own Mossy Legs character began to take shape.
That’s one of the things I love most about researching Savannah—you never quite know what you’re going to uncover or how one small piece of history and an old family story might find their way into a novel.
I encourage you to explore the canal and its history for yourself through the Savannah-Ogeechee Canal Museum and Nature Center.
But if you decide to camp out in the woods near there, please remember that most tales are usually based on a touch of truth. So, don’t leave your tent in the middle of the night to get candy…unless you want to be scolded by Mossy Legs.
Visit their website - https://www.savannahogeecheecanal.org/
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