One of the nights on vacation in the Outer Banks we went on a walking ghost tour. Not a tour about ghosts that are walking, it was a tour that we walked on and heard stories about ghosts.
The tour was in the town on Manteo. This poster is for a different tour, not the Ghost one we went on. That's not going to be confusing, right? Turns out I did not have an "intro" picture for this blog post, and this was the closest we could find. Just pretend this has the word "Ghost" on it somewhere.
We've been to Manteo before, and our early arrival let us explore for a tiny bit. We went over to the dock and found the sailboat we rented a few years ago! It was cool to recognize it and see that it's still here.
This picture reminds us of the intro to Gilligan's Island with the ad sign like the one Jonas Grumby was leaning over. Who's that? The Skipper, of course! Didn't recognize his actual name? Who's up for a three hour tour? A three hour tour?
Exploring time almost over, we spot this ancient doorway which somebody told us was an entrance to an exclusive rooftop restaurant. So... you need to be invited in order to unlock this? That sounds like a cool secret to uncover later, but we didn't get to do it this trip.
Waiting at the entrance to the bookstore where the tour is to begin, we look up and spot something terrifying! The ghost of the 2020 Election! There's a Trump 2020 banner still in that window! AHHH!!!! The horror! Haha just kidding. Seriously though someone might want to check on whoever owns that apartment to see if they are okay, because they probably should have taken that down by now.
The sun is about to set and here's our tour guide. Everybody believes in ghosts, right? Because if you don't, this might be a little boring for you.
The first stop was a nearby theatre. One of the stories was about a local girl who was murdered and all of her friends saw her obituary on the back of a close-up newspaper in a movie. They all went "WTF!" and asked the theatre to stop the film and play it again, and they all saw it the three times they played it! Later viewings of the movie did not have it nor did other places see the obituary in that film.
Ye Olde Pioneer Theatre still plays movies, er... movie. there's only one at a time. This day it was playing Free Guy. So if you are reading this post from any time, that's about the time when we went on this walk. When Free Guy was the new movie.
Another ghost story about this theatre was that the late owner used to enjoy old western cowboy movies, and sometimes when you are about to enter the place, you can hear that type of movie playing just outside the door. The sound stops when you actually enter. They told that story but didn't let us try to enter because all of the ruckus that would make for the actual theatre customers tring to watch a real movie.
At the beginning of the tour, the guide pulled out a EMF Meter that measures ElectroMagnetic Fields, and let a kid walk around with it. When we turned this corner it started going nuts! The poor kid looked confused rather than scared, and the tour guide mentioned this was a place where spirits roam around.
The spirits probably just want some sandwiches from that shop over there. It's like... their nightly hangout spot? I took some pictures of the windows there because the guide said sometimes the cameras can catch things you can't readily see. I don't think I see any ghosts...
The tour got a little less exciting from this point forward. Not that the stories weren't interesting, they were, it's just that the stories started being about the Outer Banks in general, and not about "This happened here" like the theatre stories.
We were near the water so she talked about Blackbeard and how he was only a pirate for a short time but remains a legend due to his various hauntings. Pirates were a major part of the Outer Banks all over and victims were often given "no quarter" which really ups the chances for lots of hauntings.
There were more stories of pirate victims and if you are walking around the various nature preserves at night, they will sometimes go super-silent all of a sudden. If that happens.... RUN! You're probably about to be haunted.
Giant ancient metal thing? Probably haunted. But there were no stories about it. Just something we passed on the walk.
The sign said "Screw Pile" which is funny. Good 'ole ancient Screw Pile.
Another non-ghost thing we passed was this weather tower. Even the great Andre the Giant was only 7'4" tall and would have been underwater at this mark. C'mon global warming, we can beat that record! Haha just kidding that's high enough.
The guide said this was the last old-school weather tower still being used. Because I guess we have computers or satellites and stuff? Why don't we need towers? Is my phone better than this tower now?
I was told by my friend that the house over there, in the middle of this picture, is where they filmed an episode of the TV show Matlock. That sounds like a believable story. Among all of the other ghost stories, we get a Matlock one?
The light on the top of that building over there used to be on the top of a lighthouse, when they were trying to move it, it fell off of the barge and right sploosh into the ocean it went. So that one's actually a replica. I thought it would have been a funny question to ask if the sunken lighthouse lamp haunted the bottom of the ocean where it fell, but didn't.
There was a lengthy story here about Theodosia Burr, daughter of the 3rd Vice President Aaron Burr. She was captured by pirates and went insane and just walked right into the ocean never to be seen again. Later a different woman who had been discovered with no memories saw Theodosia's portrait when she was old and started rambling on about her past life; did she survive and live another life? I think the guide liked telling these stories because of the Burr-Hamilton connection.
There was another story about a lighthouse and how one room had people who died in it, and the people who operate it now stay far away from that one room. The cleaning staff get all sick when they go in there, which is rarely. I don't remember too many details of that story, I only hope that if I ever visit anyplace with a haunted room that might make me sick, I hope they tell me about it.
Way off in the distance you can see a couple of light houses. We were told that you can identify them by the pattern of the light blinks, but that sounded less believable that the ghost stories. Is there that much difference to spinning lights? There must be hundreds of lighthouses all over the place!
Last stop on the tour was this regular-looking field. It was cool that despite the many stories about far-away stuff, the tour ended with another actual-haunted spot. She said that there have been several spirits caught on camera around here, and even showed us some that she had saved on her phone. So everybody quickly took pictures all around here.
A funny thing happened when we were looking at the pictures to see if we caught any spirits, and noticed... those odd circles over there on the left! They didn't seem to match the reflections of those tail lights on the car? Did we actually see something?! AHH!!! Oh, wait... that's Minty's head. Hahaha we all got a good laugh out of Minty haunting her own picture.
Anybody out there? We just want a selfie with a ghost!
The tour guide put down her lantern, and we snuck over there to get a picture. Maybe this lantern has been carried around long enough around these ghosts, could it be haunted?
Nothing? Anything? I think the local lights might be reflecting around on those benched and tables and stuff, but nothing that looks like a person or anything.
Back to the book store and the end of the tour. How was it? Kinda neat. Sort of a theatre-like experience with the tour guide telling us good stories, and telling them well. So a little like theatre, but with walking around. And maybe some ghosts were there.
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