Halloween gets local flavor in 'Haints and Haunts'

By David Snow (Contact) | Demopolis Times

Published Tuesday, October 20, 2009

DEMOPOLIS — Demopolis will be the site of another historical tour, this one including a more haunting flavor.

Actually, there will be two tours, one on land in a hay-covered wagon and another on the river, as the Marengo County Historical Society, Canebrake Players and the Demopolis Area Chamber of Commerce present “Tombigbee Haints and Haunts.”

The tours will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 27; Thursday, Oct. 29; and Friday, Oct. 30. The Tuesday tours will take place at 6 and 8 p.m., while the Thursday and Friday tours will take place at 6, 8 and 10 p.m.

A limited number of tickets is available for the tours. There are only 24 spaces available for each tour, with each tour including the land and river tours together.

“It will be a rotating tour,” said Kirk Brooker. “Twelve people will begin on the river while 12 people will be on land, and then, they will swap. Each tour begins and ends at the city landing. The land tour will have stops at Bluff Hall and Gaineswood, and then go back to the landing, and then you will get on the boat and go around the bend of the river and back to the landing, or vice-versa, if you begin on the boat.

“There is very little walking involved. Everything begins and ends at the city landing, so you park there or close to there, the tours begin there and will bring you back there.”

Tickets are selling quickly, although a number of tickets are still available for the Thursday and Friday 10 p.m. tours.

Brooker noted that Demopolis High School fans can go on the tour after the football game on Thursday night, remembering that at last year’s game at Thomasville, DHS fans toured that city’s haunted house after the game.

“We always wanted to do 10:00 tours,” he said. “I mean, 10:00 on the river is going to be spooky enough! When we realized that the football game was going to be on Thursday night, we thought, ‘What a great idea!’

“Thomasville has a ghost walk, and they had something after the game in Thomasville last year and a lot of Demopolis people went to their activities, so we thought we’d return the favor.”

Tickets are $15 apiece for all ages.

“And it is for all ages,” Brooker said. “This is not a ‘horror’ tour. These are true Demopolis stories that have an air of ghostly tellings about them.”

Tickets are available only through the Demopolis Area Chamber of Commerce office at 102 E. Washington St. or at 289-0270.

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