Tombstone and other tourist ghosttowns

I was just curious on the consensus of the validity of tourist trappy towns.

What i mean is, as a amatuer hunter myself i find it odd some of the stories that come out of some of these towns. I think they are way overblown for business.
And even trickery and fakery tactics occuring.

Example.

Seems at night you can hear poker being play in the Bird Cage Theatre at night sometimes.

I cant seem to think how easily these people could set a random timer with a voice recording of a poker game and playing it at certain times of the night just to boost commerce of return visit and giving people that "WOW" factor.

Living 15 minutes away from Tombstone, AZ i have frequented there alot. And back in the 80's there was no "Ghost" tours going on. Now with the advent of all these (IMHO edited , or partially edited) shows. Now everyone has a ghost tour in which they can capitalize on with tourists.

The most seemingly haunted places i have found IMHO are not touristy places like Fairbanks, Charleston, Millville, and others in Arizona.
Im sure the industry isnt just located to Arizona for ghost tours.
I firmly believe it is so bad that there is numerous hoaxes going on in some of these places. Especially haunted hotels... just to get people to saty there and WOW, BOOM, they get their experience they were seeking by trickery. Which further leads to more visitors and word of mouth stories about places.

Thoughts?

Well personally I do believe that about 99% of these ghost tours are happening for a reason so yes in other words I do believe that there has been a genuine ghostly experience or someone has been led to believe they have experienced a genuine paranormal experience from that particular area at some point to warrant having the tour.

But it's seriously crossing a line when those same people try and hoax the rest of us by creating some of their own (fake) paranormal phenomenon (as you have mentioned) to fool us into believing what we have just experienced was a real paranormal experience.

I mean it’s just wrong isn’t it? We will have an experience if we are patient and if we continually go looking for it and we don’t need people forcing it upon us IMO and it’s actually quite frustrating to me knowing that people are making it up, I'm very much into the paranormal myself and I'm constantly looking for that 100% undeniable evidence and I know if I thought I experienced it and then found out someone hoaxed me I'd be pretty darn annoyed.

But sadly the paranormal is an unpredictable mistress and we won’t always get activity when we want it or even expect it to happen which is bad for business so in my opinion yes it is wrong and it really does annoy me that people try and fool others into thinking they have just experienced something extraordinary especially when it’s for personal profit but it does happen and probably always will happen because of the fascination we have the paranormal.

It's all about profit and it's bad for business to not have activity all the time (look at most haunted for example)

Life is a money game and the guys with the most money rule the rest.

I wanted to thank you for posting this thread.

It randomly led me on hours of investigation into the History of the Earps and Holliday, and the surrounding histories of the region/people.

I actually learned a lot more than I anticipated when I opened this thread.

It is all very fascinating stuff.

Although I cannot really comment on if any ghosts are there, I must say that the ghosts of history came to life in my mind as I read many pages about the people and their experiences.

I started with your Wiki Link for Tombstone. From there I pretty much read every link I could find in relation to it.

Absolutely fascinating stuff. Thank you very much for bringing this topic up. Starring and flagging your thread so other people may discover this lost history.

reply to post by muzzleflash


Thanks for liking it.. you should try researching into Brunckows Cabin and
Millville, AZ or
Charlseton, AZ and
Fairbank, AZ and
Clanton gang

There are others including, Gleeson, AZ, Boston mill (by fairbank, az) the Los Boquillas Ranch (near Fairbank, az)

I have been to and investigated all these places and Brunckows seemed to have the most activity even during the day i heard strange noises.
I basically know the in's and out's of alot of off track locations that some people cant even seem to find.


Back on topic i agree there are legit phenomena. But there has to be people jumping ship on the hoax bandwagon.

Its just a way to satisfy the customer. I was out near the Whaley house in San Diego I believe it was. So i decided to do the tour, i like walking around old buildings and I've never been there. Its a lovely house, that's for certain. Half the upstairs is blocked off by plexiglass and they had a chick in a mourning gown go sit in one off the blocked off rooms for a few minutes. I thought it was funny and the local children enjoyed it. It could be haunted, but with that many people milling around everyday it'd be impossible to tell.


The only "touristy" place I've been that could have paranormal activity is the church at the San Gabriel Mission in San Gabriel(?), California. I'm not sure about the city. It was a lovely catholic church. It was a hot summer day and the church was warm, but not as warm as outside. In short: Everything is original and all came over on ships from Spain. Nothing was replaced. It was relatively warm and I was sitting in one of the pews, alone in person and with my thoughts. A few minutes later i notice the sudden temperature change. There were no air conditioners or drafts, no wind that day.Yet i was cold, very cold as it kept dropping.I stared over at the altar, thinking again and admiring the statues of the archangel and various saints. A few minutes later i note a presence and something sitting near me. Nope, still alone. A friend of mine walked in(i had been waiting for her) and didn't notice anything odd. When she walked over to sit next to me she stopped and gave me the funniest look. According to her, the closer she got to me the colder the room felt. She was spooked so we left shortly after.The mission founders are buried beneath the floor and all the others in the graveyard, literally right outside the church door.

Most places are easily debunk-able but sometimes you will come across the real deal, you just have to be able to recognize it.

[edit on 1-5-2010 by ItsAgentScully]