Appalachian Ghost Walks and the American Cancer Society Relay for Life of Carter County are offering a live ghost hunt and historical walking tour Thursday at 8:30 p.m. beginning with a ribbon cutting at the Covered Bridge.
The staff and volunteers of Relay for Life will partner with Appalachian Ghost Walks to provide an opportunity for the community to learn about Carter County while supporting the nation’s largest not-for-profit investor in cancer research.
Appalachian Ghost Walks offers, among other adventures, 15 different historical ghost tours and has now made this experience available in Elizabethton, with the inaugural tour benefiting the American Cancer Society. Regular tours, for which people must register in advance, will take place year-round beginning Friday.
During the lantern-led inaugural tour, for the first time, guests will see the investigation efforts of the staff, which has never been witnessed by the general public. The walking tours will delve into years of research into the history, people, businesses and entertainment of the area and then, during preproduction, the staff of Appalachian Ghost Walks will explore these places in search of lingering spirits.
“It’s going to be a live ghost hunting tour,” tour director Stacey Allen McGhee said. “People will get to see us in action as we produce the tour that will run year-round. We’ve got some good surprises lined up for folks that night.”
People always get the wrong idea about this type of tour, McGhee said.
“This is family-oriented experience,” he said. “It is a positive, Christian viewpoint of the afterlife that is faith-building and extremely mind-broadening. I don’t like to leave people with a feeling of fear; I like to leave them with a warm-fuzzy feeling.”
The tour will feature Native American, Revolutionary War and Civil War elements. Appalachian Ghost Walks researches Carter County and interviews local business and property owners, connecting the information and offering guests insight into the connections between people, places and events of the past.
Appalachian Ghost Walks has guided tours for more than 10 years, and in 2004, Haunted America, based out of New Orleans, ranked it seventh nationally for ghost and history tours.
“I think that so much happens for people on this tour because we tell people’s stories,” McGhee said.
Tickets are $30 and include the tour, investigation and a gift. Thirty Tickets are available and can be reserved by calling the American Cancer Society office at 423-975-0635.