With Homecoming Weekend fast approaching, students and alumni can look forward to a spooky, scary, historical tour of Plattsburgh.
The Greater Adirondack Ghost and Tour Company tells “spine-tingling” tales about things that happened here hundreds of years ago.
Matthew Boire founded the company three years ago with his business partner Wendy Cribb. Starting out, the company gave only one tour in October, but the tour quickly gained popularity. Now, they have tours from April into November and are trying to make their business year-round.
Cribb said, “We are it. We are all there is,” when referring to tour companies in Plattsburgh. “There are a few other historic tours, but no one is developing new tours like we are.”
There are many tour offerings down the east coast. For instance, Gettysburg has around 14 tour companies. About three years ago, Plattsburgh had little to offer when it came to tour opportunities.
“Plattsburgh has just as much history as anywhere else, if not more,” Boire said. He realized the potential Plattsburgh’s history had to offer, and thought, “Why can’t we?”
Boire said there are about four tours each weekend, each themed differently and jammed with never-before-heard eerie stories.
“Eclectic. Surprising. Entertaining,” Cribb said describing the spooky tours. During the Halloween season, which is the busiest time of the year for the tour company, they try to push the creepy tours.
According to the company’s Facebook page, “The Ghosts of the Old Post” tour is a lantern-lit walking tour through Plattsburgh’s historic Old Post Cemetery. This is the final resting place of over 100 unknown soldiers. “Dr. Beaumont’s Tour of Terror” is about a nineteenth century mad doctor and features ghost stories about his gruesome experiments and his less-than-willing patients.
“The Specters and Soldiers” tour is a cemetery tour of Plattsburgh’s most mysterious graveyard. People also get to visit the ruins of Fort Brown, which saw gory fighting during the pivotal 1814 Battle of Plattsburgh.
Lastly, “The Spirits of SUNY Plattsburgh” tour is where people can hear about what really happens in the buildings late at night. One can also find out which dorm has a forgotten graveyard buried beneath it.
People may wonder where they get this information from and try to convince themselves that it’s all a bunch of hocus-pocus. But Boire said, “It takes a lot of work. We spend about six months preparing tours with researching and interviews making sure the facts are correct.”
“I love seeing people’s faces light up,” Boire said. For both Boire and Cribb, the most rewarding part of the job is seeing people’s reactions after telling them what people saw and heard hundreds of years ago.
Homecoming Weekend is featuring an event hosted by the Greater Adirondack Ghost Tour Company on Sat. Oct 18. from 7 to 8:15 p.m. They will be taking “The Spirits of SUNY Plattsburgh” tour, starting at Seltzer Road adjacent to Riverside Cemetery.
For more information on upcoming tours, visit their Facebook page, Greater Adirondack Ghost and Tour Company.
Email Jessica Miles at jessica.miles@cardinalpointsonline.com.
