Spirits and history go hand-in-hand

The Founders Cemetery is visited during the Roswell Ghost Tours. The guide of this particular tour no longer enters cemeteries, but guests are welcome to walk around. Shown are three gravesites (left to right): Unknown marker, remains of husband and wife - John Dunwoody, Esq and Jane Bulloch - and Roswell KIng.

Credit: Kathryn KI

Credit: Kathryn KI

The Founders Cemetery is visited during the Roswell Ghost Tours. The guide of this particular tour no longer enters cemeteries, but guests are welcome to walk around. Shown are three gravesites (left to right): Unknown marker, remains of husband and wife - John Dunwoody, Esq and Jane Bulloch - and Roswell KIng.

Q: I’ve got guests coming into town who are big on ghost tours this time of year. Can you tell me about the Roswell Ghost Tour?

A: The Roswell Ghost Tour offers multiple tours Tuesday-Sunday nights in October. The walking tour lasts about 2½ hours and is about 1 mile long.

Guests are taken through Roswell’s historic district from Bulloch Hall, Mimosa Hall, the original funeral home of Roswell (now The Mill Kitchen and Curl Envy Salon), Barrington Hall, the Public House, Founders Cemetery, the Old Bricks and ending back at the square.

No buildings are entered, but you get a little history lesson at each stop and learn about odd “sightings.”

“About 1 ½ years ago, during a bachelorette party at Bulloch Hall, I was explaining sometimes we see things,” said David Wood, the Roswell Ghost Tour owner.

“While I was talking, one of the women said a curtain just opened. It shocked me at first and I said you’re kidding, but they were right, it did open.”

Other than October, the tours are on Friday and Saturday nights throughout the year. Sundays are open according to the owner.

There are five active guides. Wood prefers to keep the tours to about 40 people.

On a recent Sunday evening, there were two walking tours at the same time.

Several stories were shared about pananormal activity at each stop.

Walking up Sloan Street to the Founders Cemetery the neighborhood was quiet with sounds of rushing water.

The burial site of many founding families, including Roswell King, the founder of Roswell, is Founders Cemetery. What remains of the landscape is a small portion of the original grounds. Bodies are buried beneath modern streets and houses, according to the tour’s website.

Standing in front of the Voila Salon, once a residence of mill workers, a picture taken by one of the guests showed a haze in a corner of the image. The salon’s mailbox door opened once on its own and reports of smelling smoke and peanut butter were voiced by a few guests, however, no one in the group was smoking.

For more information, visit http://roswellghosttour.com/ or call (864) 517-0688.

The tour costs $20 per person ($10 for children 12 and under).


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