When I first came to the city, I was shocked by the amount of people I met who claimed to have a ghostly encounter – roommates and classmates, bosses and even professors. I never gave it too much thought, but when GhoSt Augustine gave us a chance to decide for ourselves, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do some investigation. So one chilly and even gloomy night, the team set out on the Haunted St. Augustine tour.
Our tour guide, Colby, warned us as we set out that this is not a manufactured tour. They would not guarantee that anything would happen tonight – the ghosts of St. Augustine would have to speak for themselves. We were handed electromagnetic field (EMF) meters, a tool typically used to diagnose electrical and wiring issues but here used to test the energy manipulated by the paranormal. Colby told us to speak up if we got any spikes into the red but to be aware that false readings were certainly possible (triggered by power lines, fuse boxes, or wiring underground). Armed with our equipment, we set off to the Plaza de la Constitución.
The first part of the tour consisted mostly of tales of eerie ghost sightings and the history behind them. We listened, eyes on our meters, and waited to feel a chill or see something unexplainable out of the corner of our eye. Colby was an excellent storyteller, and despite the crowds wandering around us, the late night streets of St. Augustine were imbued with a kind of mystery. Be forewarned – the tour is lengthy and not for the faint of heart. One by one, our team bowed out, making the trek home to their warm beds.
Soon only myself, Colby, and two others were left. Colby guided us to a spot he called the Minorcan Market (which is now a dirt parking lot off of Spanish Street) and let us loose to do some investigating of our own. Standing in a spot near the fence, I glanced down to see my EMF meter spiking into the red. Colby was delighted, telling me to stay in that spot to see if it happened again. Just as I watched the red light blink to life, I felt a sharp pressure on the back of my neck. I whipped around but was greeted only by the sight of dark windows peeking over a wooden fence. Back at the group, Gareth, one of the others on our tour, lifted my hair to find a bright red spot where I had felt the pressure. Trust me when I say that I am a skeptic, but at that moment, all I wanted to do was leave.
So we made our way to the final stops of the tour – Tolomato, the Huguenot cemetery, the Castillo de San Marcos. As Gareth and Colby both saw balls of hovering light on the far side of Tolomato, Colby commented, “They sure are active tonight.” Living in the Ancient City, you may believe in the paranormal or you may not. Take the Haunted St. Augustine tour (or one of GhoSt Augustine’s other tours like it) that won’t force you into a belief with manufactured moments, but rather surrounds you with the history and the tales and lets you decide for yourself if St. Augustine really is haunted.
Learn more about GhoSt Augustine’s tours by visiting www.ghostaugustine.com. Photography by Brian Miller.
