Desiree DeCoste
Beaver Staff
Back by popular demand is the Bath Haunted Tours, which are now running every Friday evening through Oct. 31 with cost of $10 per person.
The length of the walk is about an hour, depending on how many people have questions at the end.
The walk starts off at the Lafarge 1812 Discovery Centre and continues up County Rd. 7 where they stop and talk about a house with signs of a spirits living in it. They continue around the corner to talk about a house with shackles in it.
“A lot of the time when we find shackles in basements, they were for people who had slaves during the time Bath was originally there in the 1700,” said Dave Fisher, tour guide. “So we have a little bit of a dark side to Bath itself.”
The next stop is a graveyard, and what kind of tour would it be without a graveyard stop?
“Love the graveyard stop,” Fisher told The Beaver. “I tell a few stories about sightings within graveyards and what we call, orbs.”
Also in the graveyard Fisher will tell of some grave robbing and the gruesome yet funny stories which go with it.
Among other talks along the way will be a story in Sillsville of grave robbing, ghost sightings in Bath Academy, history of the village itself, a bank robbery, hangings, the KKK who were in town and ghost sightings at the meetings of the KKK and many other ghost sightings which have happened around town.
Tour dates take place every Friday at 7:30 p.m. save for the final one, which falls on Halloween night. That one begins at 8 p.m.
Fisher will go into some detail of how these people (ghosts) have gotten there and why they remain.
“I basically keep everything in perspective of those were the days and you can still see some of them today,” Fisher expressed. “It’s pretty interesting when people have actually seen something on the tour and they don’t tell me until everyone has left.”
The first year Fisher had the haunted tours, stories were gathered from people who had showed up and had first had accounts of sightings they’ve seen in certain buildings or just things that have happened to them.
“We add those stories as we go each year and I think it’s just a hoot,” Fisher added. “I love doing this stuff, it’s a riot.”
The tours have been growing in popularity since the first year with one evening last year having 54 people on the walk with an average 20-25 people every tour night.
“I think a lot of people who even have a semi-peaked interest in the paranormal, it’s a good way for them to get out,” Fisher stated. “Come take some pictures and see if you can catch some orbs on your cameras, that’s half the fun.”
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