Top 10 Tuesday: Ghost Walks

Its that time of year again---Ghost Tour Season! 

Each year, Huntington Paranormal Investigations and Research hosts special walking tours of the downtown Guyandotte, featuring the neighborhood's haunted history. This year, you can join us on Saturday, October 28th for our Cemetery, River and Rail Trail and learn all about some of the town's most famous ghost stories and historic tragedies. And, if you're brave enough to come back, you can join us during the annual Guyandotte Civil War Days on Saturday, November 4th for our Ghostly Encounters of 1861 tour. This tour will feature an extensive walk-through of the town, pointing out all the hauntings and history associated with the 1861 skirmish that occurred here. As always, tours are FREE and open to the public, but this year we will be accepting pre-order online ticket "sales" through EventBrite. Please see below for details!

Cemetery, River and Rail Trail Tours (October 28th)
Ghostly Encounters of 1861 (November 4th)
Facebook page for HPIR's Haunted and Historic Guyandotte Tours

Obviously, I'm a little biased when it comes to ghost tours, lol. Even if I wasn't a tour guide for Haunted and Historic Guyandotte Tours, I'd still highly recommend taking one of these tours. The cost is FREE, yet the research and stories you're presented with are comparable to way more expensive tours around the country. We strive to make sure we share the folklore---but balance it out with plenty of historic fact, often presented by costumed interpreters. You're not going to get a bunch of made-up stories and evidence, but you MAY get a little spooked! Each year, we have visitors to the tours report personal experiences and strange photographs they've captured while joining us. It's a really fun experience and I sincerely hope you'll be able to attend, but if not, I've got a few more suggestions for ya close to the tri-state area!

Fall, especially October, is prime ghost walk season. It gives cities and towns an opportunity to showcase their history...and their haunts! This list of nine additional ghost tours are walking tours only---tours where you are led around town by a guide and that feature many locations, not just a single building. Of course there are plenty of historic homes and other buildings also featuring special tours this time of year, but I thought for this post I'd just focus on walking tours covering a broader area. And while most of the tours listed below are seasonal, some actually operate year-round! So let's get started, shall we?

1. Ghosts, Lofts, and History Tour of Downtown Ashland, KY. (October 14th)  If you're looking for something fun to do in the Ashland, KY area this weekend, check out this tour! It's being hosted by the Ashland Society for Paranormal Study and costs $20.

2. Haunted Parkersburg Ghost Tours with Susan Sheppard. Renowned author, Susan Sheppard, offers these wonderful tours of Parkersburg, WV's haunted history throughout the fall season, and during other times of the year by request. I've been a few times and have always learned something new about such places as the Blennerhassett Hotel and the Riverview Cemetery. Adult tickets costs $12 which is a great value since this season seems pretty darn active! If you follow Susan on Facebook, there's been some really crazy experiences and photos emerging from the tours this year!

3. Haunted History and Legends Tour of Martinsburg, WV. These tours are being offered every Saturday night through October. You'll be taken into both a haunted cemetery AND a haunted house as you're told spooky tales about this historic WV town. There's also an historic Old Town Ghost Walk coming up on Friday, October 13th. At $12 a person, this tour will especially appeal to Civil War history buffs!

Susan Sheppard, Haunted Parkersburg

4. Shepherdstown Ghost Tours, WV. Another tour featuring another one of West Virginia's historic Panhandle towns. These tours are offered at various times throughout the month and beyond, and cost $15. See their Facebook page (linked above) for more information.

5. Ghost Tours of Harpers Ferry, WV.  These ghost tours claim to be the oldest of their kind in the country, and are based off the original ghost walks by Shirley Dougherty. I HIGHLY recommend taking these tours if you're in the area. Harpers Ferry is one of West Virginia's most haunted (and historic!) towns and the ghost stories associated with it are fascinating. This tour company operates year-round, but is its busiest during the Halloween season.

6. Charles Town Ghost Tours, WV. Are you sensing a pattern here? West Virginia's eastern panhandle is extremely haunted...and its citizens know how to capitalize off that reputation, lol! This tour company offers two different tours March through December and the cost is $12 for adults.

7. Woodland Cemetery Ghost Walk (Ironton, Ohio). Each year, the Lawrence County Ohio Museum and Historical Society, along with scores of volunteers, put on an excellent event at the huge historic (and haunted!) Woodland Cemetery. The self-guided walk through the cemetery is FREE and focuses on the history of the city and the lives of its most prominent citizens buried within the cemetery walls. The ghost stories surrounding the haunted graves are definitely a part of the walk, but the main focus is history. Unfortunately, the walk is only held one day a year, usually in late September...so this year has already gone by.

8. Hidden Marietta Ohio. Located across the river from Parkersburg, Marietta is quite the historic and haunted little city, and Hidden Marietta offers a variety of year-round tours showcasing the history, the haunts, and sometimes, just the plain strange. Keep an eye out on their Facebook page to see what events are available and when.

9. Bardstown (KY) Ghost Trek. Ghost hunter Patti Starr offers these tours June through October. Featuring such places as the historic Old Talbott Inn, the tours have been around for 20 years. Visitors are encouraged to bring their ghost hunting equipment in order to help collect evidence of the town's many hauntings.