New Orleans is said to be one of the most haunted cities in America, and there are several tours which delve into its ghastly tales of voodoo, ghosts and even vampires. Haunted History Tours claims to be New Orleans’ oldest, largest and most renowned walking tour company. It has been featured on the Travel channel, History Channel and Discovery channel, to name just a few. This company offers both day and night time tours, pulling together documented research based on police reports, newspaper archives, personal diaries and their own paranormal research. One of their most popular tours is the two-hour New Orleans Ghost Tour, which focuses on the grim past of the French Quarter. Tour-goers walk to several locations with documented hauntings, even visiting a haunted bar along the way. This tour is offered at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. year-round and also at 3 p.m. during October and November and January through May. Cost is $20 per person and $17 for students and seniors. www.hauntedhistorytours.com
Scores of ghost sightings have been reported from the once bloody battlefields of Gettysburg where thousands of soldiers perished in a brutal fashion. Today, there is a booming paranormal business in the town of Gettysburg. The Ghosts of Gettysburg Candlelight Walking Tours are based on the research of Mark Nesbitt, a former park ranger and historian. Nesbitt compiled hundreds of stories of unexplained sightings and paranormal activity around Gettysburg, and has written a series of books called the Ghosts of Gettysburg. Tour guides, who are dressed in period clothing, point out locations and explain many of these strange sightings such as the site where disembodied voices have been recorded and a ghostly child has been spotted a century after his death. This tour company offers several tours to choose from. The Baltimore Street and Seminary Ridge tours last about an hour and 15 minutes and cost $9.50 for adults, and the Carlisle Street tour lasts an hour and 45 minutes and costs $10 per person. www.ghostsofgettysburg.com
claims to be Salem’s original ghost walk and an internationally recognized and recommended tour. With lanterns to light the way, the knowledgeable and licensed ghostly guides combine storytelling and humor to present Salem’s haunted history. Delve into the city’s dark past as costumed narrators recount the town’s documented paranormal activity, chilling cemeteries, Victorian murder, Colonial witchcraft as well as share their own personal encounters with the city’s departed. Tours start at 8 p.m. daily and additional tours can be added upon demand. Cost is $14 for adults and $8 for children ages 6 to 12; $10 for students, military or seniors 60 plus. www.salemhistoricaltours.com
Chicago Hauntings gives a chilling introduction into Chicago’s dark and violent past, including the great Chicago Fire and its gangster days of the ‘20s and ‘30s. Their 2.5 hour tour is partially on and partially off a bus. Some of their most common stops include murder sites, disaster sites, a serial killer’s body dump, gang sites, haunted houses, and abandoned graveyards. The tours are based on Ursula Bielski’s nearly 20 years of Chicago ghost hunting and her “Chicago Haunts” series of books. Their guides are not professional actors, but according to their website are “passionately engaged Chicagoans, involved in the daily study of the city and of the paranormal.” Cost is $28 per person and $25 for seniors and military; $20 for children ages 8 to 12. This tour, however, is not recommended for small children who might find it too scary. Times are 7 p.m. daily and 10 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Cameras are encouraged! ■ www.chicagohauntings.com
The witch trials of 1692 left a dark mark across Salem that can still be experienced today. The Haunted Footsteps Ghost Tour OCTOBER 2012 | TRAILBLAZER
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