The tragedy of the 1953 tornado still on my mind, I decided to make my next dark tourist destination the Haunts and Legends of Waco Mobile Tour, a part of the Brazos Tour company.
What makes this haunted tour unique is that it's an immersive experience. You don’t just hear stories of ghosts, you get the opportunity to talk to them yourself.
ALYSSA: “I really wanted it to be a unique experience, I also really wanted it to be pretty mild, so that people feel safe doing it. They have someone leading them through their first initial experiences using these different types of technologies.”
Alyssa, the creator of the tour, is talking about the technologies that paranormal investigators use to determine if there is a paranormal entity in their presence or to try and communicate with those on the other side.
Some of the tools include spirit boxes, which capture electronic voice phenomenon and dowsing rods which are believed to draw in energy, allowing for spirits to move the rods in order to answer yes or no questions.
Alyssa assures me that I will most definitely have some sort of paranormal experience during my time on the tour.
ALYSSA: “Every time people are on the tour they at least get one solid interaction in, but they usually get three.”
Eager for what the night will bring, I head to the Waco Tours headquarters around 8 PM, and I’m not the only dark tourist here.
A mix of people await me. Skeptics, paranormal enthusiasts and some people simply searching for answers from loved ones who have passed too soon.
As we all load into the tour van, our guide, Adam, dressed up as a zombie in true ghost hunting fashion, prepares us for what to expect.
ADAM: “My name’s Adam. I’m your ghost host for this evening’s festivities. I get to show people what it really means to interact with intelligent spirits.”
Our first haunted location is downtown Waco. As he drives, us dark tourists take in the sights of the Alico, Waco city hall and pedestrians walking the streets, until eventually we arrive at a memorial site, and Adam tells us more about the 1953 tornado.
ADAM: “It still to this day remains the 11th worst tragedy of its kind to befall our entire nation. It obliterated us. It was just this laser-etched perpendicular line, right through the heart of us.”
Adam is one of the greatest storytellers I have ever met, and I realize there's so much more to dark tourism than just ghost stories and scary thrills, it's a recounting of history, the stories of lives taken too soon by tragedy.
As we reflect at the memorial, Adam tells us it’s time for the first communication session of the night.
ADAM: “Everybody in downtown Waco, I have come back to visit you. I told you I’d be right back, and look, as always I bring friends.”
A fellow dark tourist, Charlee, volunteers to be the first to try and speak with spirits on the other side.
ADAM: “Have you ever done this?”
CHARLEE: “No.”
ADAM: “So, introduce yourself.”
CHARLEE: “Hi, my name is Charlee. What month was I born in?”
“...I’m sorry.”
Emotional from what she hears from the spirit box, Charlee begins to weep.
It becomes clear to me at this moment that The Haunts and Legends of Waco ghost tour gives people more than paranormal interactions, it honors the local lives of those who have passed on, it continues their story and keeps their memory alive. Something that all of us hope for when it's our own time to pass on.
But what exactly are ghosts? And why are they trying to communicate with the living? Many people assume ghosts are spirits of the dead, but Cindy tells me that no one really knows.
CINDY: "I mean there’s a lot of theories out there about what ghosts really are, and if you look at it from a scientific viewpoint, which is what I try to do from a research viewpoint, we really don’t know what ghosts are.”
While the mystery of the paranormal remains, individual experiences still leave a lasting impression on the lives of those who have claimed to interact with spirits.
Alyssa tells me that one interaction in particular affected her more than the rest.
ALYSSA: “One of them at the Hippodrome theater. This experience is actually what catapulted me into even being interested in exploring the paranormal. I just felt this cold air move through me. I asked a coworker a little bit later, ‘I just had a really weird feeling, do you know if this building is haunted?’ and he was like, ‘oh yeah it is.’”
Tune in tomorrow for the final part in the Waco Haunted Heritage series where I visit Hippodrome theater myself, things take a turn for the surreal and I have my first experience with the paranormal.
For 103.3 Waco Public Radio, I’m Autumn Jones.
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In the final installment of the Waco Haunted Heritage series, KWBU's Autumn Jones visits two haunted locations and has her first experience with the paranormal. -
Continuing KWBU's four part Halloween series, reporter Autumn Jones dives deeper into the dark tourism industry by visiting the Dr Pepper museum to learn more about the buildings ghostly history and the deadly 1953 Waco tornado. -
In this four part Halloween series, KWBU's Autumn Jones investigates the dark tourism industry in Waco, explores local lore and legends and gets a taste of ghost hunting. In our first episode, Jones gets to know local paranormal investigator Cindy Little and ghost tour guide Alyssa Hawkinson.
