They came. They saw. They Concord.

Wow - what a month so far! A fantastic whirlwind of tours, stories, walks in the dark and heaps of new friends!


Many thanks to everyone from North Dakota, Rhode Island, Washington, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and even Australia who made the pilgrimage to Concord and delighted us with their company, interesting tales, generous smiles and photos.


Below you'll find just a few of the things our visitors "Concord" while on one or another of our tours...


Enjoy!

Author's Ridge in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. 

(No, no. Not THAT Sleepy Hollow - the one with the headless fella is in NY.)

Well over a million people visit the Old North Bridge every year. 

Good thing they don't all come at the same time.

Oh, Concord. Stop showing off and being so darn picturesque already! 

Ditto.

More of Sleepy Hollow. We only recently learned that you can still 

buy a plot here. Is it wrong that Joan was very excited about that?

Speaking of Joan, here she is with the girls from Park Tudor on a literary tour. 

Could they have been more charming and adorable? Nope! Perfect. Loved them all!

One of the windows in Henry's replica cabin out at Walden Pond. Since 

there were only two windows, that's 50% of the view right there.

This view of Walden from the beach ain't too shabby either.

Quick author's (blogger's?) note on these last few pictures:

First off, we're not ghost hunters, nor is that the point of our haunted walk. We're 

historians with a healthy amount of skepticism who happen to enjoy old, mysterious stories. 

We make a clear distinction between legend and history during our tours because we've 

found that truth is often a lot creepier than fiction.

But having said that, we LOVE the idea that some people come along and look for 

ghosts on their own. These pictures were sent to us by guests who did just 

that, so we thought it would be fun to share them here! 

Hmm... the white orb hovering just above the Colonial Inn sure looks 

like the moon, but we're forced to concede that, actually, it's not. 

The moon that night was still rising in the east when this photo 

was taken, and this is facing northwest.

The supposedly haunted Room 24 at the Colonial Inn. (Upper two windows)

There's so much history to this portion of the building that it's

hardly surprising people claim to have seen ghosts here!

Old Hill Burial Ground and orb (upper left)

Though this picture was taken in Boston, not Concord, we thought it was

just so pretty and reminded us of snow falling on the gravestones. 

Do you have photos to share of your visit in Concord? Send them to info@gateposttours.com  - We'd love to post them here or on our Facebook page!

And if you haven't taken a ghost tour with us yet, but would like to, there are still spots available on this Saturday's (the 29th) Ghosts in the Gloaming, at 8pm. 

Send us an email or call 978.399.8229 to make a reservation!

For those of you from out of town, book a room at the Colonial Inn and 

our tour is included as part of their Haunted Happenings package. 

Let us know if you stayed in Room 24! 

Last, many thanks to our new friends Deb, Doris, 

Jenny and Jan for the wonderful pictures!

It's October. Get yer ghost on!

Though we've been quiet on the blog-front, it's only because we've been geeking out so hard with tours, research and many, many lovely books to read. In fact, our current favorite, Death In Early America, is geekishly unputdownable, while providing excellent fodder for our most recent tour offering: Ghosts in the Gloaming.

We know. How cliche to offer a haunted tour in October. But really, it's not like July is idyllically ideal (Phantoms on the 4th?) or that peoples' thoughts naturally turn to ghosts during the December holiday and Christmas season. Well, except for yours, Mr. Dickens.

In any case, it's become difficult to overlook all the spooky jiggery-pokery that's gone down in Concord over the last 375 years.

Just for kicks, let's trot out this charming sample from 1845, shall we?

"I never saw nor imagined a spectacle of such perfect horror. The rigidity...was dreadful to behold. Her arms had stiffened in the act of struggling; and were bent before her with the hands clenched. She was the very image of death-agony; and when the men tried to compose her figure, her arms would still return to that same position; indeed it was almost impossible to force them out of it for an instant. One of the men put his foot upon her arm, for the purpose of reducing it by her side; but, in a moment, it rose again... It is impossible to express the effect of it; it seemed as if she would keep in the same posture in the grave and that her skeleton would keep it too, and that when she rose at the day of Judgement, it would be in the same attitude."

Ah, Nathaniel Hawthorne. You melancholy man! 

Rather than a dark bit of fiction however, this gruesome imagery is taken directly from Hawthorne's own journal while he lived here at the Old Manse. He was describing the recovery of the body of young Martha Hunt - a neighbor and school teacher - who apparently came to the irrevocable conclusion that throwing herself into the river was a far more enticing prospect than carrying on in this life. For Nathaniel, it became almost like a real-life haunting as the entire episode affected him so strongly. Not to mention, a truly bizarre twist in this story turned up during our research. It would appear that Ms. Hunt wasn't the only female in her family to perish beneath the cold waters of the Concord river...

Oooo. Good stuff, isn't it? 90 minutes of ghost stories, burial customs, haunted places and graveyards that feature lost riders, ethereal ministers, disturbed damsels and um...chamberpots.

If you think you're ready for more, give us a call and we'll give you - a flashlight! All the better to see where you're going while we explore Concord and all her creepy tales after dark.