Fresh, cool autumn air displaces the otherwise heavy, hot, and humid climate in Alabama. As the sun goes down, a light breeze blows the season’s withered reddish brown leaves across your path as you walk down a desolate and dark street of the city. Wait! Was that a voice you heard? Is someone there? Or is it maybe the voice of someone addressing you beyond the grave?
Stories of murder, suicides, lost cemeteries, and the inexplicable lurk around the next corner in cities across America – and Alabama is no different. These stories come to life as tour guides lead you through the dark streets of Huntsville, Birmingham, Mobile, and myriad smaller towns on one of the state’s many ghost tours.
Are you brave enough to face the unknown? Then join local historians as they guide you through the haunted streets to relive the state’s spooky and ghastly past on one of these spooky haunted tours.
Keep in mind that most of these tours sell out quickly. So buy your tickets as long in advance as possible. Pack a flashlight, wear comfortable walking shoes, and check the weather before you set off, and dress for the cool autumn breezes.
1. Birmingham Ghost Walk – Birmingham
As you walk the shores of East Lake in Birmingham at dusk, you might hear the sobs of a young girl calling for her mother. Some say they saw the girl who sat on the bank of the lake and stroked the geese that frequented its banks. As they approach her, she steps into the lake and slips under the surface of the water.
They saw the “mermaid of the lake”, the ghost of the seven-year-old May Hawes, who was drugged by her father in 1888, weighed down with railway irons and thrown into the lake to drown. Days later, her body and the bodies of May’s mother and her six-year-old sister were discovered in the lake. Anger swept over the city at the father’s horrific murders and a riot broke out in which 10 people were killed.
This is just one of the tragic stories of murder and suicide you hear – and maybe experience – when you book a ticket to the Birmingham Ghost Walk and the Hotels, Churches and Riots Walking Tour.
On another tour on offer, the Ghost and Graveyards Driving Tour, hop on a bus and visit the city’s only pre-Civil War mansion in Arlington, where you’ll stroll the grounds and visit the ghosts that are still in the cemetery and the lost one Friedhof, the city cemetery, live fabulous historical (and haunted) theaters and Sloss Furnace, where a ruthless overseer was killed in the steel mill but is still roaming the grounds. The driving tour is perfect for those who have mobility issues.
Pro tip
Free parking is available after 5:00 p.m. at the parking meters in the city center. Tours are about 1.6 km long. The meeting point for the start of a tour will vary and the location will be communicated to you in your confirmation email when you book your tickets. Admission is about $ 30 for adults and about $ 20 for children ages seven to twelve. The trip costs about $ 40 per person.
Huntsville’s Big Spring Park after sunset (Photo: Rob Hainer / Huntsville)
2. Huntsville Ghost Walks – Huntsville
On an occasionally cool fall evening, children can be heard laughing and giggling along Walker Street in Huntsville. The kids sing a nursery rhyme popular with the jump rope set during the tragic 1918 Spanish flu outbreak that killed 400+ people from the disease in Huntsville that year. The song went:
“I had a little bird
And his name was Enza.
I opened the window
And Enza flew in. ”
If you walk down the street, look around. There are no children. The streets are empty, but you know what you’ve heard.
This is just one of many stories you’ll hear on one of the Huntsville Ghost Walk Tours.
Tours run every Friday and Saturday from the first weekend in September to the last weekend in October. Three separate tours are offered each evening – the Twickenham Ghost Walk, Old Town Ghost Walk and Haunted Downtown, which are guaranteed to make you tremble with well-researched stories about a terrified Union soldier hiding from the Confederation to this day, ax murders, and more. Each tour group is led by very knowledgeable and informative guides as well as a medium. Oh, and bring your camera. You never know what might appear from the shadows.
Pro tip: The 90-minute tours start punctually at 6:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online.
3. Dark Secrets at Iron Hand Tour – Mobile
Guests arrive early at Iron Hand Brewery, where they will sample a craft brewer, before venturing into the dark streets of Mobiles De Tonti District, an area of the state’s oldest city that has survived countless hurricanes and devastating yellow fever epidemics and one of the most haunted areas in the city. In fact, the port city’s most haunted house, Richards DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) House, is one of the stops on Secret History Tour’s Dark Secrets at Iron Hand Tour route.
The 2 hour walking tour takes in the streets where your informative guides stop at each location to share stories of death, darkness and the people who once – and still – live here, like the DAR house where they are the giggles of the De. say Tonti children who once lived there can still be heard throughout the house.
The tour takes place entirely outdoors. No buildings will be entered, but the stories your guides tell are fascinating and guaranteed to leave you chill. Visit the Secret History Tour website for dates, entrance fees, and ticket purchases.
Pro tip
In the Port City of Mobile, visit the city’s second oldest cemetery, Church Street Cemetery. Located behind the city’s main public library on Government Street, the cast iron and wrought iron fences are from the 19th Post-Civil War Carnival Revival, Joe Cain. It is also the location of the Boyington Oak Tree where Charles Boyington, after his murder conviction, announced that an oak tree would grow from his heart to prove his innocence. Has his vow been fulfilled?
Lightning over Florence, Alabama (Photo: James A Ergle / Shutterstock.com)
4. Florence Ghost Walk – Florence
Disembodied steps, moans and screams. All normal when you join the Florence Ghost Walk guides for a spooky tour of the haunted downtown streets.
One of the most famous stops on the downtown Florence Haunted District tour is Pope’s Tavern and Museum. The tavern dates back to 1811. The original building was destroyed by fire in the 19th century. The rebuilt building is believed to be the oldest in Florence. During the Civil War, the tavern was converted into a field hospital, where many amputations took place and at least 33 soldiers died. Today visitors reported seeing the apparition of amputees in the master bedroom.
A second tour, Haunted UNA, explores the hidden secrets and hauntings of the University of North Alabama campus, where another Civil War hospital was established and the sounds of war victims can still be heard. The tour also stops at an on-campus antebellum mansion, where a ghost has repeatedly scared off staff and students, and the Guillot University Center, where the sad screams of Priscilla, a former student who committed suicide after failing her class, are also on the tour has to lift the hair on the back of your neck.
Pro tip
Tickets cost about $ 15 for adults, about $ 10 for children ages seven to twelve, and six and younger are free. You can buy tickets for each tour online or in person. Both tours start at 7:30 p.m., with the downtown tour starting at Wilson Park on the third and fourth weekends of October and the entire Halloween week. The UNA tour begins at the Harrison Fountain on the UNA campus. A portion of the proceeds from the UNA tour will help support the care and nutrition of the university’s mascot, Leo the Lion.
5. Athens Haunt Walk – Athens
The picturesque city of Athens is a typical southern city full of friendly people, southern hospitality, pre-war houses and ghosts.
Author Shane Black (The Spirits of Athens: Haunting Tales of an Alabama Town) guides those who dare to face the city’s “witty” past on the Athens Haunt Walk.
Your tour takes you to the town square, where you can hear the frantic knocking of windows from those who tried (and failed) to escape a fire that swept the city in 1893, the frightening sound of a grandfather clock that doesn’t exist in town George S. Houston Library and the piercing screams of a woman from the attic of the Vasser Lovvorn House.
The tours take place every Tuesday and Thursday in October at 6.30 p.m. and 7.15 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the Athens Limestone Visitor Center.
Pro tip
Credit cards are not accepted so bring cash or a check when purchasing tickets. In the event of heavy rain or storms, both tours will be relocated to the meeting room of the visitor center at 7:00 p.m., where the author will give a lecture on the ghosts of Athens.
There is always an interest in ghost stories and the supernatural:
Comments are closed.