It’s 8:30 when my friend and I walk into Mesquite Creek Outfitters (MCO), looking for our Spell Caster Ghost Tour guide. The text from Trip Advisor said they’d be “in the back, near the bathrooms,” and it’s easy to spot the woman who is likely our guide in a black and grey dress printed with skulls, relaxed and glancing at her own cell phone.

We identify ourselves, and I ask, “are you the Ghost Tour guide?” She affirms that indeed, she is. Her name is Ellie, and she lets us know that we’re the only patrons of her tour this evening. We decide to use the restroom upon her encouragement to do so, and grab a drink at the bar before stepping out the backdoor of MCO and into an appropriately creepy alley full of dumpsters, a few cars, and the lingering scent of fried food.

I’m a bit nervous, I have no idea what to expect from a Ghost Tour. Will Ellie try to frighten us? Will we feel the spirits and spectres detect us as we amble past buildings older than any others in Georgetown, down streets and alleyways that have seen over one hundred years of growth and change? Ellie settles my mind immediately, as she begins to narrate the history of the MCO building. 

It quickly becomes clear this isn’t a tour version of a haunted house. There is friendly, entertaining banter between the three of us as my friend and I reveal we are members of the Megaphone, taking the tour to write an article. We laugh (sometimes nervously) as we learn about the founders of Georgetown, including Emzy Taylor and George Glasscock, the latter of whom donated his entire government bestowed tract of land to the city. And yes, this man is why we hold the name Georgetown, today. Just think, we could have been Glasscock, Texas.

The first goosebumps of the night grace my arms just a few minutes into the tour, as Ellie introduces the historical figure of Luther St. Paul Miller, a prodigious drinker who was a bit too free with his opinions and owned a dry goods business inside the MCO building. Ellie points out an indentation in the pavement of the alley and pitches her theory that the depression is an indication of a dead body, buried and forgotten. 

You see, Luther disappeared without a trace, much to the chagrin of the city of Georgetown who missed his rent and property tax payments. No one knows for sure what happened to Luther, but Ellie proposes her theory that he got good and drunk, passed out in the alley behind his store, and either drowned in the mud or was finished off by one of the townspeople to whom he expressed his critical opinions. 

I take a good, close look at the dip in the pavement as Ellie begins to relay the results of her conversation with one of the current General Managers. She has already regaled us with tales of ghostly figures in the building during construction and remodeling, and one especially creative spirit who allegedly stacked all the tools of the workers in a jenga-style tower overnight. (Those workers finished the job faster than usual after that unexplainable event.) Back to modern day, Ellie is explaining how the GM at MCO was in the building overnight, and experienced hearing a *BANG!!*  I jump and squeal at Ellie’s enthusiastic impression of a gunshot. The three of us laugh at my reaction, and Ellie apologizes before continuing the story. Apparently the GM felt a brush of wind pass him in the empty building before *BANG!!* I jump again. We’re all giggles now as Ellie wraps up the story and it’s time to move to the next location of spooky sightings.

We cross the street to stand in front of the Williamson County Courthouse, and I snap a few photos of the eerily lit building as Ellie tells us about the three most commonly sighted ghosts; a friendly shadow-man who likes to play with children and entice them to chase his shadow on the lawn, a suffragette whose visage disappears when you get to close, and an unseen paranormal force in the law library on the top floor that has only been seen in the high-gloss reflections of the study tables. 

I glance at my phone to check the angle on my photos, and y’all. I took 3 photos back to back, hitting the shutter button 3 times. In the first photograph, it’s a normal photo of the limestone facade and darkened windows. The next photo, taken a fraction of a second later has 4 visible orbs, the third shows two orbs in the same general place in front of one of the dark windows.They don’t look like reflections of car or building lights, so what are they?

I’m enrolled this semester in an Anthropology course, Myths and Mysteries of Anthropology. The entire premise of the course is debunking the supernatural, paranormal, unusual things that happen, through the science of anthropology and common sense. So, I’m definitely asking myself, what are those orbs of light?! What is the logical explanation? I can’t think of one.

The rest of the tour is interesting, with a plentitude of historical facts and figures peppered throughout the telling of unusual occurrences at other old buildings like The Palace Theatre, the Freemason Building, and a bank building that used to house a brothel, then a nickelodeon, then a hotel. An hour and a half after the tour officially started (and when it’s technically supposed to end), Ellie tells us she is going to give us some extra tour time and we walk along Austin Avenue towards the Old Williamson County Jailhouse.

Arriving at the jailhouse, which was built in 1888 and began housing prisoners in 1889, Ellie recounts tales of what might be the most haunted building in Georgetown. We listen to stories of the grisly crimes committed by inmates, including serial killers James St. James, Thomas Young and Henry Lee Lucas. The moon isn’t very bright, so the steel and concrete French Bastille-style beast of a building is lit only by passive lighting from streetlamps and the parking garage a block away. It is eerie as all get out. 

We listen to Ellie talk about how she has knocked on the door of the abandoned building and heard an answering knock in return. She tells us that there have been folks on her tour who heard some very ominous words and phrases through spirit boxes (physical electronic devices that rapidly scan radio frequencies to produce white noise, which some believe spirits manipulate to communicate). 

The most chilling of these stories is the tale of one of her past tour groups that asked their spirit box, “do you know Ellie?” with the box answering “yes.” The group followed up with the question, “do you like Ellie?” and the response that they all heard from the box, “rude.” As she is telling us the story, Ellie puts on some bravado and says, “at which point I said, ‘hey, if telling the truth is rude, then yeah, I’m f*cking rude!’”

There is so much more that I could write about this experience, but instead I’m going to end the article by encouraging you to go on the tour yourself! Spell Caster Ghost Tours is the only company offering ghost tours in Georgetown, and they offer both a family friendly, ice-cream infused tour and an adults-only experience (with optional adult beverage consumption). Here is my review of “The Ghost Maker” adult tour:

If you find yourself in Georgetown, Texas, make time for an entertaining and informational tour with Spell Caster Ghost Tours! Our guide, Ellie, was fantastic! Intermixing history with engaging storytelling, she’ll make sure you come away from the experience knowing much more about this part of Texas, the early days of Georgetown, and how it seems that some of the early citizens haven’t completely left their home. Is it spooky? Yes. Is it scary? Maybe. Is it boring? Heck no.