Join the Swannanoa Valley Museum for an evening of haunted history in Black Mountain! In these outdoor walking tours through Black Mountain’s downtown historic district, visitors will learn about the humorous, haunting and harrowing history of the Swannanoa Valley while being visited by some of its most famous spirits. This event, which is a fundraiser for the museum, will highlight the town’s many tragedies and triumphs- and the many ghosts, friendly and frustrated, born from these events. Tours will take place the evenings of Friday, October 22nd and Saturday, October 23rd.

When: Friday, October 22nd and Saturday, October 23rd. Tours start at 5:00pm, and take place every half hour: 5:30pm, 6:00pm, 6:30pm, 7:00pm, 7:30pm, 8:00pm and 8:30pm.

Length: Tours will last approximately 2 hours.

Where: Downtown Black Mountain. Check-in will take place at the Swannanoa Valley Museum at 223 West State Street. Attendees are recommended to park at the public lot behind the Black Mountain United Methodist Church at 101 Church Street.

Distance: Less than one mile on sidewalks.

Cost: $25 for museum members, $30 for non-members. Some fees apply.

Covid Policy: Tours will take place outside to provide a covid-safe environment for attendees, with a limit of 20 attendees per tour. Masks are encouraged but not required. Attendees with possible exposure or positive covid tests should not attend the tour.

Please arrive 15 minutes before your tour is scheduled to depart. 

On the evenings of Friday, October 22nd and Saturday, October 23rd, the Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center will be hosting Haunted History walking tours in downtown Black Mountain’s historic district. Traveling some of Black Mountain’s most storied streets, visitors will learn about the humorous, haunting and harrowing history of the Swannanoa Valley while being visited by some of its most famous spirits. This event, which is a fundraiser for the museum, will highlight local tragedies and triumphs- and the many ghosts, friendly and frustrated, born from these events.

This is the 8th year that the museum has hosted its annual haunted house tours. In past years, the tours have been hosted at various landmark sites in the Valley, including In-the-Oaks, the historic estate of Franklin S. Terry, first Vice-President of General Electric, now a part of Montreat College’s Black Mountain campus. This year’s tours, with their focus on downtown Black Mountain, will dig into the long history of the area and the ways that floods, fires, tourism, trains and even pandemics have shaped its past. Tours will depart from the museum, with ghostly guides taking visitors to notable spots, each of which will be hosted by historians who will deliver tragic and fun facts about the history of the town. At many spots, people associated with Black Mountain’s past will appear in spirit form, while fabrications of other spirits will also be found along the tour route. Tour stops will include the Inn Around the Corner, an early 20th-century home that used to serve as a boarding house and is now reported to have a resident ghost, Sassafras-on-Sutton, a former livery stable and site of a significant downtown fire in 1912, and the McKoy Building, which served as an emergency hospital for victims of the Spanish Flu in 1920. 

The tours, which serve as a significant fundraiser for the museum, are made possible through the help of a large team of volunteers, coordinated by museum staff and board members. “These tours are a staple for the museum, and our volunteers always bring a lot of enthusiasm and creative ideas every year,” says the museum’s executive director, LeAnne Johnson. “The tours help visitors and locals realize how much history they are walking through every day, even if they’re just visiting a bookstore or admiring our local depot. So many stories lie just below the surface.” 

Attendees can register for the tours at www.swannanoavalleymuseum.org/event, or call the museum at 828-669-9566. The tours take place on the evenings of Friday, October 22nd and Saturday, October 23rd, starting at 5:00pm, and taking place every half hour, with the last tour leaving at 8:30pm. Tours will last approximately two hours. Tickets cost $25 for museum members and $30 for non-members. Some fees apply when paying online. The museum can also accept checks in person.