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Sil King will be giving 'Ghost Tours' around downtown Fredericksburg starting this Memorial Day weekend. The tour will feature local spots, including the Visitor Center on Caroline Street, where ghostly occurrences have been reported. |
GHOSTLY footprints that appear out of nowhere, and vanish just as eerily.
The spectral sight and sound of an 18th-century harpist and singer.
And buildings where candles mysteriously appear, silverware rearranges itself and an unseen someone tugs on women's skirts.
To Mark and Carol Nesbitt, these are the building blocks of a new business that steps off tomorrow evening.
Nesbitt's "Ghosts of Fredericksburg Tours" is a first for the region, a business that provides regular tours to introduce tourists from nearby or afar to things here that go bump in the night.
To scare up some interest in the tours, Nesbitt--a former National Park Service historian and the author of a dozen books on the Civil War and ghosts--touts the region's ghostly bona fides.
"From its Colonial heritage to the horror of being the focal point of four major Civil War battles, Fredericksburg has more history, more battles and more ghosts than any other city in America," he claims in his ghost-tour circulars.
He continues, "Combining history with mysterious tales of the still-lurking dead, costumed guides will conduct 80-minute, comfortably paced, candlelight walking tours filling the evening with folklore and stories spawned when 100,000 fell in the fighting in and around town."
To convey those tales, guided tours will depart every Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. this summer (and possibly beyond) from the Ghosts of Fredericksburg Tour Headquarters, known by most as The Chimneys building at 623 Caroline St. downtown.
For prices that range from $7 to $10 a person--local folks get a special tour price, groups are discounted and those 7 and under are free--people will be treated to a candlelight tour highlighting some of the city's more well-known ghosts and tales.
It's not a new business for this couple, whose daughter, Katie, will be supervising much of the operation here.
For 13 years, Nesbitt has been operating "The Ghosts of Gettysburg Candlelight Walking Tours," a successful business that last year offered more than 600 tours of various ghostly attractions there.
Nesbitt, who began collecting ghost stories while working for the National Park Service as a ranger and historian at Gettysburg, said they eventually became a book, "Ghosts of Gettysburg," and the topic of varied ghost tours.
Now, he's written seven books on that subject, including one called "A Ghost Hunter's Field Guide: Gettysburg and Beyond."
The freelance writer and businessman said he and his wife were looking for another spot to launch tours similar to those in Gettysburg when he was invited to speak to a Mid-Atlantic tourism group a while back.
"We were asked if our tours might work in Fredericksburg," said Nesbitt. He quickly realized it was a good fit--an area with a rich history, a much-visited national battlefield park and more ghost stories than you can shake a skeleton at.
When he began visiting the region, the Gettysburg phenomenon began repeating itself.
"Everywhere we'd go into, a restaurant, a bar, whatever, people would ask what we do," said Nesbitt. "When they heard we have a ghost tour, they started sharing their Fredericksburg ghost stories with us."
Slowly, those are joining the tales Nesbitt has gathered.
Which begs a question of this fellow who is also an active paranormal investigator.
After all the stories he's collected and disseminated, does he, in his heart of hearts, really believe in ghosts?
"I'm still skeptical about everything I see and hear," said Nesbitt, who occasionally works with "sensitives" and psychics. "But with more than 800 stories collected, many with similar patterns and features, it's getting harder and harder to dismiss it all."
He prefers to turn the tools of his historian's discipline to these tales and experiences, keeping meticulous notes and records of all the cases and stories he comes in contact with.
The investigating started when a radio station near Gettysburg asked Nesbitt to join them for a live telecast from a supposedly haunted site one Halloween evening.
Before long, he was reading up on paranormal investigating, electronic voice phenomenon and more. Then he started visiting sites armed with gear ranging from thermometers to sound equipment to check spots suspected of being haunted.
The historian hopes to do some of that in Fredericksburg, and has already been on a panel here with a group that investigates ghosts on American battlefields.
For now, the business at hand is getting the first Fredericksburg ghost tour rolling, and adding to the list of ghostly tales in our environs.
"That won't be a problem" said Nesbitt, who's already heard about more houses than he can put on one tour. "It appears this is a ghost-filled place."
For more information on the tours, for which a reservation is recommended, call 540/710-3002, or go online to ghostsoffredericksburg .com.
To reach ROB HEDELT:
Email: rhedelt@freelancestar.com
| 'Everywhere we'd go into people would ask what we do. When they heard we have a ghost tour, they started sharing their Fredericksburg ghost stories with us.' Mark Nesbitt, ghost tour leader |
