UA Museum Ghost Tour Ready to Spook and Delight

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Creaking rocking chairs, the sound of footsteps and whispers but no one there and ghostly apparitions appearing on foggy nights are key ingredients to a good haunted tale – and The University of Alabama has several.

The community is invited to experience some of the legends that have been passed down from generation to generation during the third annual Haunting at the Museum from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29.

Sponsored by UA’s Alabama Museum of Natural History, the free event is open to all ages and features guided, candlelit ghost walks around the Quad, followed by children’s activities, a scavenger hunt and ghost stories at the museum.

The tour includes five stops, and the corresponding stories for the following locations: the steps to nowhere (Madison Hall), Gorgas Library, Franklin Hall, the Round House and Gorgas House.

“Maybe it happened, maybe it didn’t,” said Todd Hester, museum naturalist and tour guide.

The ghost tour initially started because people constantly wanted to hear stories about Smith Hall, which is where the natural history museum is located.

“They all knew someone that knew someone that had an experience in this building,” Hester said. “So we decided to put together this haunted tour of campus.”

While there are numerous legends surrounding multiple buildings around campus, the tour focuses on those buildings or locations around the Quad. From the smell of smoke in the air that reportedly represents the burning of Madison Hall, one of the last dormitories built before the outbreak of the Civil War, to the ghostly appearance of three men, one supposedly wearing a confederate officer’s uniform, wandering around the ruins of Franklin and Washington Halls and talking to each other on foggy or hazy nights, tour participants will have an opportunity to make up their own mind on whether they believe the campus is haunted.

“I’ve never personally experienced a lot of these stories, so I don’t have a belief on it one way or another. I just like a good story,” Hester said.

UA’s Alabama Museum of Natural History is in Smith Hall near the Quad at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Capstone Drive on The University of Alabama campus.