As twilight began to creep across the evening sky, I found myself standing among a crowd of about 30 other ghost seekers at the Lewiston Visitor’s Center with camera in hand, anxious and uncertain of what would unfold in the next 90 minutes.
With the promise of ghost lore, stories of the paranormal, earth energies, and UFOs to boot, the historical Ghost Walks of Lewiston sounded like something straight out of an episode of “X-Files.” Presented with the opportunity to take part in my own adventure, I was intrigued.
However, my hopes of catching a my own X-File onto my digital memory card were dashed within the first few minutes, as tour guide and supernatural historian Mason Winfield explained right off the bat how rare ghost sightings are.
Putting a unique spin on the paranormal and challenging the popular revengeful ghost stereotype, Winfield went on to reject the plot of the movie “Ghost,” arguing that for the most part, spirits are pretty docile.
“The Hollywood reason ghosts come back is because of unfinished business,” he said. “Real-life witnesses have seen people doing ordinary things. They have come a long way to finish mopping the floor.”
On that note, we were off to our first stop known to have things go bump in the night. The red, two-floor structure on Center Street was formerly home to Hotchkiss Enterprises, which in its heyday included a quarry business, a casket manufacturing operation and possibly even a funeral home. With such a morbid history, it was surprising to see the building still in use, housing the offices of Hunt Realty.
If by some chance I did end up seeing a ghost in Lewiston, odds were she’d be dressed in a long flowing white dress, the town’s No. 1 reoccurring supernatural vision. Even though the little girl ghost image is the top sighting in North America, due to the warlike history of the region, Winfield surmised this could have much to do with why more visions of pallid women are reported here than anywhere else.
Perhaps it was the story of a pasty woman carrying a parasol and strolling back and forth in the second floor Hunt building window, or the accounts of papers being rustled and the sound of footsteps walking around. Or maybe it was the combination of the setting sun mixed with the fact we were standing no more than 30 yards away from where dead bodies were once carted back and forth.
Whatever it was, it was a nice feeling when we started walking again.
As our pack moved through the streets, dodging cars and taking second looks at deepening shadows of the rising moon, there were still no observable signs of paranormal activity.
As we walked the hilly inclines of pavement, Winfield continued to narrate stories peppered with historical fact and a dose of the supernatural.
Discussing tales of earthwork mounds with floating orbs of light, church extensions built over graveyards, little boy ghost sightings by houses that were once part of the Underground Railroad, and the infamous “power corner,” featuring ghost sightings on all four corners from the War of 1812, the walk was chock-full of accounts and descriptions sure to make your imagination run wild.
As the night wound down in front of the Frontier House, a former McDonald’s restaurant and hotel that once housed the likes of Gov. DeWitt Clinton, Edward, Prince of Wales, Jenny Lind, Charles Dickens and Mark Twain, I was still without a paranormal sighting. But while I didn’t get the X-File I was looking for, I did learn one truth — there is a lot more to Lewiston than first meets the eye.
Studying paranormal activity since 1993, Winfield started the first ghost walks 12 years ago in East Aurora, and has done other walks done in Buffalo for 11 years. The tours since then have expanded into several other towns around Western New York.
“Our partnership with the Lewiston Council on the Arts has been awesome,” he said. “Lewiston gets it.”
The tours, which are presented by the Lewiston Council on the Arts, are offered, rain or shine, at 7 p.m. Fridays until the end of October. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children 12 and under. There is a similar walk at 7 p.m. Saturday nights, when actors representing historical figures take walkers into the Marble Orchard Cemetery.
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