Ghost tours bring historic places back to life across the South

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Lesley Ann Hyde believes in ghosts. 

“My entire life, I have had different paranormal experiences,” Hyde said. “I’ve always believed in guardian angels. I’ve had spirit guides, and I’ve always gotten messages.”

That’s why she started the Southern Ghost Girls Tours, a group of women using spiritual investigations of historic sites as ways to preserve pieces of Birmingham’s history. The tours open up some of the oldest, most haunted buildings in the state to the curious, the believer, and even the skeptic of supernatural events. 

One dark, rainy night a dozen people toured Arlington House – a former plantation home in west Birmingham. 

Hyde guided the explorers through the process. She gave them glowing dowsing rods: L-shaped rods that swivel parallel to the ground, pointing, ideally, at ghosts. Hyde then directed one tour member to stand in the middle of a living room rife with vintage furnishings and trimmed with crown molding. The 19th century floor boards creak and echo ominously in the antebellum home. 

“We’re going to ask that spirit come forward and communicate with us through the rods,” Hyde told the group.

Machines around the room began to beep. The dowsing rods swung.

“There’s probably a lot of energy going on,” Hyde said.

Armed with boxes that look like old VHS players that spirits are said to send words through, along with flashlights spirits can turn off and on, and other ghost hunting paraphernalia, those on the tour explored the halls and grounds of Arlington. As far as any encounters? They found varying results.

“I’m definitely open minded about it,” Erin Owens said. “It would be pretty exciting to see something. Also, it would probably be pretty scary.”

“Seeing anything?” Nicole Clines said. “No. Not yet. I hope so. I’m not expecting to, but I really hope so.” 

“I already believed it,” Lindsay Warren said. “I have seen nothing so far. I mean, there’s been a few, like, little weird things.”

While not everyone on the tour was convinced the grounds of Arlington are haunted, one tour member did believe in spirits.

“The other day, I was sitting in the recliner at my father-in-law’s house,” Trina Owens said. “He passed away a couple of years ago. But I smelled his tobacco. He chewed tobacco sitting there and I had to scrub that recliner. But I smelled his tobacco. I smelled his cologne.” 

That faith in the supernatural is the heartbeat of the Southern Ghost Girls. Their first tour at Arlington house drew 200 people back in 2018, according to founder Lesley Ann Hyde. 

“The ladies on the team, including myself, we’re what you would call empaths,” Hyde said. “We’re very sensitive people. All of us have had experiences of the paranormal.”

Hyde said she has heard messages from spirits during the tours. But she said spirits can demonstrate their presence in many ways – even in WBHM’s studio. 

“As we were just doing the interview, your recorder kind of just went out and died,” Hyde pointed out. “With a lot of our recording equipment, the spirits will actually drain the equipment. They drain batteries. They’ll mess with electronics.”

Whether or not the studio is actually haunted, the recorder batteries did drain very quickly during the interview. 

The Southern Ghost Girls Tours run at historic and allegedly haunted sites all across the South. And while not all may believe in the ghostly aspect of the tours, what is undeniable is the cash they raise. Whenever a tour is held at a historic venue, Hyde said some of the proceeds go to help fund preservation there.

“I feel like it is very important to continue talking about these places so that our children and grandchildren will know the history,” Hyde said. 

Bill Cagle, president of the Pickens County Historical Society in Georgia, said money from the tours can prove vital.

“There’s always something that needs to be done for 120-year-old buildings,” Cagle said. 

Cagle added the ghost girls tours donated around $15,000 to the society over the last seven years. Ticket proceeds have helped fund HVAC systems, windows and replastering at historic sites. 

Dowsing rods may not be typical historic preservation tools, but for the Southern Ghost Girls they are part of the effort – one tour at a time.