The ghosts and the goblins have knocked on the door, filled their bags with candy and returned home where they are transformed back into Flagstaff boys and girls. But the real ghosts will continue to haunt the historic buildings in Flagstaff.  This year, for the first time, our Visitor’s Center offered Haunted Tours of Flagstaff and demand has been heavy.  This is the time of year when many towns brush off their lore and their legends for a bit of scary fun and Flagstaff is no exception.

I’m a member of the Flagstaff Exchange Club. At today’s meeting, James Hardy, Flagstaff’s Haunting Expert, was the speaker.  Now Flagstaff isn’t old by most standards.  Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago and other cities in the country have a history that goes back several hundred years while Flagstaff didn’t become a city until the late 1800’s.  But, nevertheless, we have our share of stories that can make chills run up and down your back. 

I’m not going to spoil Hardy’s fun if you decide to take advantage of next year’s Haunted Tours, which I highly recommend but I’ll entice you with a few highlights.  Our current train station, located on Route 66, wasn’t built until 1926 but there are tales of cold and errie feelings, conversations and shadows that disappear when the door is opened.  There is even  a fantom conductor who runs up the stairs from the basement to catch his train.

The current library was built on the site of Emerson School, a large 2-story brick building that served Flagstaff’s early school children.  Built in 1896, it was torn down to make way for a new library building.  Stories of a shadowy figure who was a custodian at the school, who killed his family then went to the school and killed himself, are told.  The former library building, originally a home for one of the Babbitt families and now the home of Flagstaff Theatrikos, has three resident ghosts.  One is a kindly-looking old lady who occasionally visits during a period production and then disappears.  She doesn’t seem to enjoy those modern plays.

And then there’s the Weatherford Hotel and the Monte Vista  Hotel with strange visitors and spirits that make noises, move things around, ring the lobby telephone and knock things over. 

If you happen to be a believer in the spirit world, the ancient ones who lived here thousands of years ago and disappeared can be felt at sites where they once lived and hunted.  A visit to Wupatki or Walnut Canyon can give you the same eerie feelings that I’ve felt when standing over the site where the USS Arizona was sunk at Pearl Harbor or when visiting a Civil War battlefield. 

Tales and legends can be fun to hear about and to tell on a tour of town or around a campfire.  But I feel that the real haunts are our feelings and emotions as we relive in our minds the scenes of another time and another place.