Haunting experience returns to Fort Scott

Fort Scott Community College theatre students (from left) Ben Cole, Amanda Shotton, Aaron May, Matt Blunt and Ryan Clark pose in costume aboard the Fort Scott Trolley on Thursday at the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce Visitor Information Center during a practice run for the Fort Scott Believe It Or Not Ghost Tours, which begin Monday and continue through Oct. 31. The nightly tours, which will be narrated by the theatre students, take passengers on a tour of some of Fort Scott's most haunted locations.--Jason E. Silvers/Herald-Tribune

Fort Scott, Kan. -- The return of fall this year will also see the return of a popular Halloween event that is sure to get local residents in the spooky spirit.

The Fort Scott Believe It Or Not Ghost Tours, which start Monday and continue through Oct. 31, will take passengers on a narrated tour of some of Fort Scott's most haunted locations. The 50-minute tours will run each hour from 7 to 9 p.m., daily, starting Monday and will board at the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce Visitor Information Center, 231 E. Wall St.

Passengers should be prepared to take a chilling trolley tour where they will visit and view firsthand some of the eeriest locations in Fort Scott and hear about many of the town's myths and legends.

This year, the tours will be narrated by eight students in the Fort Scott Community College theatre department, who will be dressed in a variety of costumes and ready to present passengers with a frightening, memorable atmosphere and experience. As stories of Fort Scott's haunted past are told, passengers will need to decide for themselves which stories are fact, and which are fiction.

During the tour, riders will visit several sites where people have seen or interacted with entities they believe to be ghosts -- some of them from Fort Scott's early days and others who have died more recently. At many of the sites, the dead have reportedly "reached out" to the living in various ways.

Fort Scott Community College theatre students (from left) Aaron May, Ben Cole, and Ryan Clark pose in costume aboard the Fort Scott Trolley on Thursday at the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce Visitor Information Center during a practice run for the Fort Scott Believe It Or Not Ghost Tours, which begin Monday and continue through Oct. 31. The nightly tours, which will be narrated by the theatre students, take passengers on a tour of some of Fort Scott's most haunted locations.

Locations along the tour route will include a pasture just northeast of town where an alleged murder took place during the early 1920s; the Bourbon County Fair-grounds, where another alleged murder took place in 1980; Gunn Park, where it is reported that a young couple died in 1894 after the horse and buggy they were riding in plummeted into the Marmaton River, and where a young girl reportedly drowned in a lake many years ago; and Bridal Veil Park, where a young boy reportedly disappeared in 1892 after falling off a bridge into the river.

The tour will include a few other stops in Bourbon County where mysterious events are reported to have occurred, and where spectral sightings still occur to this day.

The tours began in 2002 as a way to allow local residents the chance to experience Halloween-themed activities locally as opposed to traveling out-of-town to participate in Halloween festivities in other cities.

Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Vicki Pritchett said the tours, which were last conducted in 2006, are now held every two years rather than annually in an effort to create more of an appeal for the tours in the community.

Tickets for the tours cost $7 for adults, and $5 for children between 3 and 15 years of age.

Advance reservations, which are currently available, are required.

Seating will be based on reservations that are made and paid for in advance of the scheduled tour, chamber officials said.

Call the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce at (620) 223-3566 for more information.