Spooky, paranormal activity in downtown Fort Myers is afoot, and it isn’t coming from a made-up haunted house. It’s in real stories told by longtime residents and workers who stress that what they saw was real.
1 of 4
Andrea Stetson
Seth Ford, a Haunted History Tour guide, stands on the steps of the Lee County government building telling stories of strange images seen inside.
2 of 4
Andrea Stetson
Seth Ford, a Haunted History Tour guide, stands on the steps of the Lee County government building telling stories of strange images seen inside.
3 of 4
Andrea Stetson
Eddie and Wendy Llamas and their teenage children Julian, 15, and Isabella, 13, enjoy the Haunted History Tour in downtown Fort Myers.
4 of 4
Andrea Stetson
Eddie and Wendy Llamas and their teenage children Julian, 15, and Isabella, 13, enjoy the Haunted History Tour in downtown Fort Myers.
On the Haunted History Tour by True Tours, a guide walks a group of people around the city after dark and weaves these tales and local history together. He also shows eerie photos taken by former tour guests of strange ghostly faces in the windows of downtown buildings and unusual orbs of light.
“This tour is a lot of fun for kids because it has a dual purpose,” says tour guide Seth Ford. “It has the history of downtown Fort Myers with a paranormal theme. There are stories that go along with the locations and the times that are unexplained.”
Eddie and Wendy Llamas and their teenage children Julian, 15, and Isabella, 13, took the tour when they visited Lee County from Chicago.
“It’s historical,” Isabella says. “It gives you a lot of knowledge about the time.”
“I liked the guide. He was funny,” Julian adds.
Isabella loves scary movies — and anything scary — so she loved the stories told during the tour.
Their parents liked having time with their teenagers engaged in something other than electronics.
“It’s bonding time,” Eddie says.
“It’s education,” Wendy adds.
The first stop on the tour is in front of the big banyan tree downtown. Seth says it’s not really part of the tour, but since it’s a “big tree that is spooky,” many people want to stop to learn its secrets. Seth then leads the group to the Old Lee County Courthouse nearby, where he relays his first tale of paranormal activity. After telling the story that a workman relayed of an unexplained encounter, Seth shows people photos of an image in a window.
Next, he takes the group through Bootleggers Alley and tells stories of ghostly appearances and strange, sickly feelings workers have had inside the buildings.
He stops inside a former vintage clothing store for creepy stories retold from the owners of the store about items that mysteriously moved each night.
He says this is one of the favorites among teenagers.
“It’s dark, and it’s a little bit scary,” Seth explains.
Beside an old 1911 school house, he shows guests photos of strange images captured in a window and on top of the building. He describes stories of people in the building who have seen the image of the old strict school mistress.
There are stories of skulls and skeletons that have never been identified and stories of strange paranormal activity in the middle of the night in many buildings downtown, including the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center and the Arcade Theatre on First Street.
Gina Taylor, owner of True Tours, had her own unexplained experience downtown. In the 1990s she ran the old Burroughs home.
On Mondays, the home was closed, and the alarm and sensors were on. Three different Mondays, the bathtub on the upper floor began to fill. The third time, all the faucets were turned on. One night, she saw a light on in the attic and an image of a veiled person.
“You have the motion detectors on and all the alarms on,” she describes. “I never ever got satisfaction from what happened there. I am an historian. I am not into that paranormal stuff. I was so flipped out about the image in my head. I needed to make sense of that.
”Guests on the tour love those stories, especially since they’re tales originally told by people who experienced the abnormal.
“They love these things,” says Erwin Gumapac, of Naples, who brought his teenage son and nephew to the tour. “They love zombie movies and things that scare them.”
John Gumapac, 13, and his cousin E.J. Gumapac, 12, love scary things, so the haunted history tour was perfect for them.
“It is pretty fun,” E.J. says. “The school place was my favorite. It was creepy.”
The boys took photos of every site hoping to capture a ghostly image. Seth told them sometimes the images don’t appear until the next day, so the boys remained hopeful.
“The pictures were interesting,” John says about the photos Seth showed him.
E.J. was hoping to get some images on his phone.
“I might check my phone tomorrow and see something,” he said.
Gina says it’s a great experience for older children and teenagers.
“Instead of people dressed up and jumping out and saying boo, I try to use this tour with accurate history,” she explains. “Then we talk about the reputed paranormal activity. If we infuse it with historical data, it will have more credibility than a ghost tour. There is definitely something to it, because there are too many unexplained things. A lot of our teenagers are more receptive to it, because they are getting the spooky factor, too.”
IF YOU GO
What: Haunted History Tour of downtown Fort Myers by True Tours
Where: Departs from The Franklin Shops, 2200 First St., Fort Myers
When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays throughout the year and every night October 23-31
Cost: $15 per person» Details: 239-945-0405 or truetours.net (reservations required)
New this year: The Haunted Boat Tour and Haunted History Tour package takes groups of 25 to 30 on a 1.5-hour cruise on the Caloosahatchee River with Pure Florida where participants hear ghostly stories of the river and eat spooky themed food. The cruise is followed by the 1.5-hour walking Haunted History Tour. $75 per person. Reservations required.