TEXARKANA - Downtown Texarkana is becoming the happening place on Friday and Saturday nights, so much so even the ghosts want in on the action.
On Friday, Sept. 18, the Haunted Texarkana Ghost Walks return to bring a different sort of entertainment to the downtown neighborhood, complete with scary tales and historical settings.
Brandy Aaron is bringing the spooky tours back now that more people are coming downtown, she says.
The ghost tours will run Friday and Saturday nights, starting at 8 p.m. at the Kress Gap on the Texas side, 114 W. Broad St. They'll continue throughout the rest of the year as long as there's interest, Aaron said. She last conducted the tours two years ago.
With the lights and murals, the Kress Gap is the right place to start as people assemble for the tour, Aaron said. "People can come and take all the selfies they want while we're waiting for everyone to arrive. It's about a one-mile route, what I've got mapped out," she said.
She's been doing research to include new stories in this tour. She'll discuss both Texarkana ghosts and Texarkana history.
"We found some good stuff we're going to add to the tour. We just want this to be fun. We've got new people coming downtown all the time now that it's an entertainment district," Aaron said.
After the tour, there's nightlife to enjoy, drinks to be sipped. "We just want to get in on some of that downtown action. It's a whole new ballgame down there from the last time I did tours," Aaron said. Now, there's much more going on and a ghost walk is part of the array of entertainment.
When Texarkana formed, the city was pretty much at the end of the line for the East and start of the West, and that makes for interesting stories.
"There was a lot of lawlessness here, lots of gambling, lots of prostitution, lots of murder. We'll tell a little bit about all of that on the tour," Aaron said.
Sordid and scary tales will be told about such places as the Landmark Building, the Hotel Grim, McCartney Hotel, Foreman Building, Union Station and more.
"Lots of nefarious stuff has gone on in this town in its early days," Aaron said. People handled their business here with pistols in the olden days, she said. Also, as a railroad hub, Texarkana had plenty of people coming in with various backgrounds.
One story to tell will focus on an opium den, circa 1890. Newspaper research has helped, in addition to paranormal expertise.
"The most haunted building on the Texas side was the Grim, and on the Arkansas side it's the Arkansas Municipal Auditorium," Aaron said. "Lots of stuff has gone on there."
With resurgent activity downtown, she suspects this is the perfect time to revive the tour.
"People are coming downtown looking for things to do. We just think this is one more thing to add to the list and I think it will be beneficial to our town, both sides. Just ready to get out there and start telling our stories again. People enjoy the tour. It's not too long. It's about a mile, it'll take a little over an hour," Aaron said.
And after the tour, people can catch a drink and keep enjoying the heart of the city.
If the demand is there, she's open to adding additional time slots for the Haunted Texarkana Ghost Walk. Aaron is also interested in finding people to act out some elements of these stories on the tour. Anyone interested can contact her at [email protected].
(More info: Facebook.com/hauntedtexarkana or search for Haunted Texarkana Ghost Walk on Facebook. The $15 tickets are available on the event page or via Eventbrite.com.)
