Free walking tours of Haunted Flagstaff are being held each Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 5 and 7 p.m. through October to explain and explore that Route 66 town’s “ghostly tales, unexplained phenomena and hair raising accounts,” reports the Arizona Daily Sun.
The reporter didn’t see any ghosts, but this is what happened in the basement of the train station during a tour:
When the station was first built, the railroad tracks would have run right through the building just above the basement. In an unfortunate accident, a brakeman was crushed and killed between the couplings of two boxcars along those tracks. Suspense hung in the air as Hardy continued, “It seems the spirit of the brakeman never left.” Employees have reported that while working in that very basement, a cold, eerie feeling has come over them as trains pulled into the station. Those who dared to turn around saw the apparition of a man appear out of thin air and run past them as if to catch the coming train, Hardy said.
Then, as if on cue, the sudden hoot of a coming train caused everyone to jump and shriek with fright, half expecting the brakeman to appear.
Nice coincidence. Considering that trains come through Flagstaff at all hours, unnerving moments like that probably occur fairly regularly.
If you want to do a haunted tour of Flagstaff before Halloween, you can call 888-697-7778 and make reservations. Or, if you feel brave enough, you can do your own with this self-guided map.