A streetlight flickers as you walk on a desolate road over an ancient Indian burial ground. Across the street, weathered headstones mark 400-year-old graves. Goose bumps form on your arms and an ominous presence sends a chill down your spine.
This may seem like a nightmare, but don’t count on your alarm clock to save you.
You aren’t dreaming, you’re on a guided walk through the nation’s oldest city courtesy of Ghost Tours of St. Augustine.
Developed in 1994, the tours use more than 200 carefully-researched, fact-based stories crafted using city records and historical journals dating back hundreds of years to give a spooky air to the ancient city’s history.
"We don’t try to go for the scare tactic of jumping out of the bushes yelling ‘boo’ or projecting holographic images," said Assistant Manager Allison Edwards. "We want people to hear the truth and if they see something or take pictures and get something in it, they’re actually seeing it and they’re actually getting that, we’re not creating it in any way. We like the stories to tell it for us, not enhance it, because there’s no need to."
Skeptics might dismiss the tales but even non-believers can enjoy the historical quality of the tours which shed a light on St. Augustine’s darker past that isn’t seen on daytime tours.
Edwards is a believer.
"I was collecting [tickets] for a tour a few years ago and it was a very slow evening where there was nobody on the streets and I started smelling cigar smoke and all the lights shut off around me," Edwards said. "We had an old lighthouse keeper, Capt. Rasmussen, that loved to smoke cigars and blow smoke in people’s faces, so people have that happen at the lighthouse and every so often he travels downtown."
Ghost Tours offers three distinctly different experiences, each one featuring guides dressed in period costumes from the 16th to early 20th century. There is a walking tour, a riding tour and a sailing tour aboard a 72-foot schooner in the Matanzas Bay where guests are enlisted as crew members and provided beer, wine, soda and snacks.
The tours last an hour to an hour-and-a-half and cost $12, $22 and $35 respectively, and are held each night of the year.
Joe West of Ft. Worth, Texas, who was on vacation in Daytona Beach, drove all the way to St. Augustine to take part in the tour because he saw it on the TV show "Ghost Hunters." West snapped a picture on his digital camera that showed a large red orb, which he said indicated the presence of a spirit. He said the trip was worth the money.
"I love history, especially ghost stories," he said. "It was pretty exciting."
Looking for something to do on Halloween besides a costume party or trick-or-treating? Ghost Tours of St. Augustine has a special tour planned. The theme this year is insanity. The tour will include a haunted walk through Potter’s wax museum, and unlike other tours, will feature actors who will play characters designed to scare tour patrons.
"It’ll be fun," Edwards said. "We’ll be focusing on different insane people … and the murdering sprees we’ve had in town."
There will also be a regular walking tour for those with children who spook easily.
On the web: www.ghosttoursofstaugustine.com
Jason Yurgartis is an applied Journalism student at the University of North Florida.
October 30th 2008 - 9:49PM