The first ghost tour I ever went on was in Charleston as a young teen on vacation with my family. I wanted to go to a mystery dinner, but I was overruled and because I have a strong interest in the spooky and unexplained, I was mostly fine with this decision.
I’m not going to say it was life changing, but what I am going to say is I thoroughly enjoyed the walk and now regularly take ghost tours while on vacation. I have found you learn so much about the location you are visiting, like where to eat, where not to stay [or where to, depending on how you want to be awakened in the middle of the night], and about the lives and history of the people who lived there. For an exploring, history and mystery junkie like me, that combination is irresistible.
In Charleston, there are many tours to choose from, and I have been on almost all of them, even vacationing in the supposedly haunted Battery Carriage House Inn — my room next door to the really haunted one. On the ghost tour, my guide asked to see my room key. After looking at it, he handed it back, telling me past ghost tour guests with my key staying at the Inn claimed to feel a presence while taking a shower, so basically my bathroom was haunted.
Since I was little, I have found the peacefulness of a cemetery to be captivating and always find myself wondering about the lives of those buried there. The Charleston graveyard ghost tour is fascinating to me because it involves traipsing around graveyards in the dark as well as hearing about the lives of the “ghosts” who haunt their hallowed grounds.
Other notable areas on Charleston ghost tours are Poogan’s Porch and the Old Jail, though I understand you can no longer go inside the jail, which is a real bummer because it is really neat.
When my family visited Boston, Gettysburg, and Saint Augustine — you guessed it, we took ghost tours.
Saint Augustine particularly interested me because most of the stories dealt with pirates and the idea of buried treasure holds a certain allure for me.
The grounds of Gettysburg are haunting and pretty much the whole tour of the battlegrounds is an unofficial “ghost walk.”
In Gettysburg, I heard the sad story of Mary Virginia Wade, also known as Jennie Wade. The only civilian casualty of the Battle of Gettysburg, Wade was kneading bread in her sister’s kitchen when she was struck by a stray bullet, hitting her in the back, and killing her instantly, or so the story goes. The home is now known as the “Jennie Wade House” and is a popular attraction in the area.
So, one takeaway I guess is that if you happen to die under tragic circumstances and at least one person possibly under the influence thinks they see you walking around, your tragic tale can be immortalized for the entertainment of future generations, legacy assured. Another is, next time you are on vacation and looking for something to do, think about checking out a ghost tour. Maybe, just maybe, you might end up learning more than you expected.