All the way back in May, we discovered the Huntsville Ghost Tour thanks to a flyer hanging on a bulletin board at Fuzzy’s Taco Shop. We wrote an article found HERE, and promised to go on the tour and write a review article. That long awaited article has finally arrived, because last Friday we had the pleasure of FINALLY taking the tour!
We purposely waited until October to take the tour, because even though the tour takes place all year round, we wanted to go during the creepiest month out of the year. October automatically makes you start to think about ghost stories, and there is no better place to hear a good ghost story than right in front of the ghost’s grave. The weather was great last Friday—it was slightly breezy and the moon was 97% visible (BTW, unlike most percentages, I didn’t make that one up. I looked it up on THIS moon calendar). It seems like the weather is getting even BETTER for a ghost tour this week.
Local ranchers, David and Karen Rice, have been in business as Huntsville’s leading guides to the ghostly world for two years. While Huntsville has several walking tours, their tour is the only guided tour. They were inspired to start the ghost tour in Huntsville after taking trips to Europe and going on haunted ghost tours such as The Jack the Ripper Tour in London. David and Karen realized that with Huntsville’s rich and sometimes genuinely disturbing history, along with local sites—such as the Oakwood Cemetery, Walls Unit, and Prisoner’s Cemetery –that Huntsville would be the perfect place for a ghost tour.
The tour takes you through those three locations, although, when you arrive to the Walls Unit, you merely stand on the corner in front of the Unit while David and Karen share stories of ghost encounters that they have read about or been personally told by different guards that have come up to them while they have been doing their tours. They actually have been given permission to stand that close to the unit with their tour. The Walls Unit is very strict about what goes on both inside AND outside of the tall walls. No pictures or video footage of the unit is allowed, because they don’t want the place to get a reputation for being haunted or creepy. TOO LATE.
Even though some of the ghost encounters they related were already somewhat familiar to me, I don’t want to share any of them in this review. The best part about the tour was hearing the stories in the perfectly eerie atmosphere that the cemeteries, walls unit, and night sky created. I will say that Karen and Dave have done their research, they are genuinely excited and intrigued by the stories that they share, and they seem to be constantly researching ways to improve their tour.
They even bring equipment along on the tour. They brought plenty of flashlights, a thermometer to measure if someone gets a chill, and also a ghost detector which was supposed to flash red whenever ghosts were near. It didn’t flash in the Oaks Cemetery. It went off for the first time behind the Walls Unit, which according to Karen, is the location of many deaths in the Walls Unit, because that is where prisoners try to escape from the Unit. It also went off like crazy when we were driving on Sycamore. CREEPY.
Overall, we enjoyed the tour quite a bit. If you are interested in going on the tour, we recommend it. However, I wrote in my first article that I thought that the tour seemed a little pricey, and after going on the tour I still agree. I compared prices with other ghost tours, and even the Jack the Ripper Walk in London is only around $10.00. The $12.00 price tag for adults seems a few dollars too expensive, but keep in mind that we also run the Huntsville Cheapskates page. =)
Thanks again, Karen and Dave, for allowing us to be guests on the tour!
If you are interested in taking this tour, visit their website HERE and reserve your spot today. Tours are every Thursday and Friday.
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