Halloween tours explore spooky ghosts and local history

WASHINGTON – On a cold October night, a few brave souls gathered under the light of the first days of autumn. full moon in the heart of the country’s capital.

A crowd of tourists from the Midwest waited for Anna Surratt, whose mother was hanged as an accomplice in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Although Surratt, like her mother, was long dead, she emerged from the darkness wearing a long hooded cloak and carrying a lantern to lead the group around Capitol Hill to the places inhabited by her fellow spirits.

Surratt, played by stage actress Victoria Sova, told horrific stories of deaths that occurred in and around some of the country’s most iconic and historic sites.

A haunted tour of the nation’s capital brings added resonance and prominence to what has become an American pastime: getting scared on Halloween. Among the ghosts still haunting Washington: Lincoln, who was seen wandering the corridors of the White House, just like him 11 year old son Williewho died there in 1862 from typhoid fever. At the US Capitol, where John Quincy Adams suffered a fatal stroke after voting against the resolution, his ghost can be heard late at night shouting “No!” and the cat ghost known as Demon cat often seems to scare people in the basement.

Owl herself said that at midnight on Halloween, she saw a cat with piercing green eyes race towards the Supreme Court, a place that is also reportedly haunted. ghosts of Confederate prisoners of war.

True believers like Owl, who run haunted tours here and across the country, say spooky walks aren’t just a good way to send a chill down your spine on Halloween, they also teach real local history and boost tourism in sometimes overlooked areas. historical places. And while ghost guides can’t guarantee that everyone will encounter a spirit (although they say many do), the guides promise to provide an entertaining evening for believers and skeptics alike.

Death befalls everyone, and Owl warned tourists gathered in Washington one night that they might not survive the night. They may suffer the same terrible fate as those condemned to frequent stops on the tour.

“Whoever dies on the hill will remain on the hill,” she warned.

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How ghost tours became America’s favorite hobby

Paranormal tourism has long been part of America’s fascination with the macabre, scientists say. Rachel IronsideAssociate Professor at Robert Gordon University studying dark tourism. She said the industry has roots in the heyday of spiritualism in the late 19th century, when many Americans became interested in séances and mediums and the first paranormal research centers were founded.

According to Ironside, by the early 2000s, supernatural television shows emerged in which ordinary people explored haunted places, such as “Ghostbusters“helped birth the modern ghost tour. Frankie Harris said it was around that time that he and his wife Kim decided to start their own ghost tour company.” Amerigost Toursin Nashville.

At the time, Harris recalls, so few people knew what ghost tours were that he was stopped one day by a police officer who wanted to know why he was telling ghost stories outside a church so late at night. Over the past two decades, they have expanded to Louisville, Kentucky and Washington, and members have become more dedicated to their cause.

“People who do ghost tours, it becomes kind of a hobby for them. They often take a ghost tour of any city they visit,” he said.

Visitors to Harris are escorted by actors in Victorian costume on foot to haunted sites around Nashville, including the Ryman Auditorium – the former home of the Grand Ole Opry and the ghost of music legend Hank Williams Sr., according to legend. In Louisville they are regaled with stories of poltergeists such as Lady in blue in the old Hotel Seelbach.once frequented by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Al Capone.

“Ghost stories are actually kind of clever historical excursions in some ways,” he said.

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Ghost tours cost tourists more money

Paranormal tourism is a multimillion-dollar industry in some cities that has allowed historic sites such as abandoned hospitals, schools and prisons to rebrand themselves while “remaining untouched or receiving much-needed funding and renovations,” according to 2020 study published in Cornell Hospitality Quarterly.

When Mike Witka first started working at Enchanted Tours in 2000 he said they had only one competitor in Salem, Massachusetts. Now, according to his estimates, there are more than 80 tour operators in the city, which attracts more than a million visitors annually.

“He’s very, very busy right now,” Vitka said. “Salem, it’s gone from being a day trip, an afterthought about going to Boston, to something that people from all over the world plan for their entire vacation.”

Vitka said that he conducts tours detailing the history of the witch trials, in which 200 women were convicted. accused of witchcraftand 20 were executedthe city’s “thriving vampire community”, serial killers such as the Boston Strangler who visited Salem, and “horrifying true ghost stories”, many of which he said were based on personal experiences.

Competition can be tough. Several guides, including Vitka and Harris, told USA TODAY they have to compete with national chains entering their market and even hijacking stories from local tours.

“Our approach to this is to just ignore it, just do our thing and just focus on our customers,” Harris said. “But if you talk to people all over the country, you hear about these different feuds and lawsuits and all of this.”

How ghost tours deal with dark history

Guides who spoke to USA TODAY stressed that their tours are thoroughly researched, but Ironside said research has shown that the accuracy of ghost tours can vary, and over time, stories of real crimes or tragedies can become exaggerated for entertainment.

“It can be a compelling way to engage people in the history of a place who might not normally be interested in the topic,” she said. “But at the same time, there are ethical issues.”

In the South, for example, ghost tours on plantations can turn the horrific realities of slavery into compelling stories, according to Tia Miles, author of Tales from the Haunted South: Dark Tourism and Memories of Civil War Slavery. But Miles said if the stories are handled carefully, they can shed light on the plight of people marginalized during their lives, including people of color, women and people with disabilities.

“This is something that ghost stories can do that maybe other types of cultural works or creations can’t do,” she said.

Vitka said some Salem locals may be hesitant to embrace the town’s history, either because they are frustrated by the tourist crowds or because they don’t want to promote its violent past. But he said: “The best way to deal with the witch trials is to accept history so that we can learn from it so that something like this doesn’t happen again.”

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Why do people go on ghost tours?

Unlike haunted house or horror filmghost tours aren’t necessarily designed to raise your blood pressure with jump scares. As a result, tours attract not only thrill-seekers, but also people interested in the supernatural, history buffs, true crime fanaticsfamilies and even skeptics, Ironside said.

For some, tours can also be a spiritual experience. Lopaka Kapanui said he became interested in ghost tours when he went on one in the late 1990s and saw many similarities to the lessons of Hawaiian culture and spirituality his mother taught him as a child.

Kapanui now rules Secrets of Hawaii takes a trip with his wife and shares stories about their trip to Hawaii. from kingdom to state and its melting pot of spiritual practices. He said he ends each excursion with a prayer, asking the spirits to help everyone get home safely.

“This is my favorite part because at the end, when I say the prayer in Hawaiian, I see family members and friends coming together, hugging each other, holding hands,” he said. “So that makes me feel good.”

So, will I see a ghost on a ghost tour?

Many haunted tour operators say they got into the business because they have had their own paranormal experiences, but the likelihood of seeing a ghost on a tour depends on who you ask. Kapanui said that sometimes he sees a deceased relative – his own or someone who accompanied him on an excursion.

“It doesn’t happen all the time, but it does happen…in the past these spirits would basically take over everything until I said something,” he said.

IPSOS survey 2023 found that 39% of respondents said they believed in ghosts, and about 25% said they had seen or been in the presence of a ghost. Ultimately, Ironside said, it may not matter much whether ghosts appear on the tour or whether they exist at all. She believes what keeps people coming back again and again is the simple possibility of seeing something they can’t explain.

At the U.S. Capitol, the marble steps became inexplicably slippery, and Sova said the phenomenon caused several reporters to fall and break bones in retaliation for murder of William P. Taulbeelobbyist and former congressman whose long-running feud with journalist Charles Kincaid turned deadly in 1890.

Tensions grew between the men over Kincaid’s scandalous story exposing the Kentucky congressman’s case, until a reporter shot Taulbee on the steps. Blood stains can still be seen to this day.

“With so many bloody deaths, duels, wars and battles, it makes you wonder,” said Owl, “how much of this marble city is simply covered in blood?”