Although we're not granted the day off from work or school, many people love Halloween more than any other holiday. And what's not to love? Dressing up in costumes, parties, free candy, and trying to scare the bejesus out of all your friends. This is true of Park City where we take Halloween pretty seriously. But we don't limit ghosts and the phantasmagoric stories to just October 31st. In fact, you can experience the paranormal any night of the week with the Park City Ghost Tours (though we de admit it makes a phenomenal outing at this time of the year).

Park City Ghost Tours is the joint venture of Rob and Lela Newey, retired history teachers, and Erik Hutchins, a filmmaker who also studied metaphysics, paranormal activities, ESP, and crop circles. Together, they've delved the into the most exciting and terrifying ghost stories Park City has to offer. While some of us eagerly accept these tales to be true, others are more skeptical, so we decided to venture out into the night on a tour of our own to see what truly awaits you during a Park City Ghost Tour.

What to Expect on a Park City Ghost Tour

Once upon a time not so long ago, the Park City we know and love wasn't the picturesque ski town you see today. During your ghost tour, you'll be transported to the silver mining era when, like other mining towns, Park City life was full of danger and Main Street was a cesspool of alcohol, prostitution, opium dens, and violence. 

Naturally, the tour meets after darkness has crept over the hills. On summer nights (May 1st - Oct. 31st), you can just show up at the tour's meeting point, Miner's Park (415 Main Street) at 8 p.m. But during the winter (Nov. 1st - April 30th) a 24-hour-advance reservation is required and the tour begins at 7 p.m. From there, your  guide will take you on a journey back in time where you will meet the ghosts that haunt many of Main Street's abandoned buildings.

What kind of stories you may ask? Many of them are what you would typically expect of ghost stories, but what makes the tour great is they are very serious about verifying claims of paranormal activity with historical record. That's what happens when history buffs are in charge! Here's a few tidbits about the ghosts you may encounter, without us giving away too much...

There's the drifter, who passing through Park City was arrested for public intoxication and met a painful death in the prison cells while crying up to the guards for help because he had, in fact, fallen ill. To this day, employees of the Park City Museum claim to hear his calls.

Life in Park City was difficult for women (they made up only 20 percent of the population), who basically had three choices of vocation: schoolteacher, mother, or prostitute. It's little wonder many of them met grizzly deaths and during the ghost tour you'll learn about a few, including:

The ghost of a woman who ended her life with rat poison when she was diagnosed as infertile.

Or the prostitute who was murdered because a miner grew jealous of how much money she was making while he slaved away in the mines for a lowly wage.

The Ghost Tour guides, of course, go into much greater detail, painting many of these gruesome and dark stories in the spookiest of ways. This attention to detail is truly what makes the tour worth your time and makes it enjoyable, regardless of whether or not you want to believe any of it.

Ready for Your Paranormal Adventure?

If you want to hear the full stories of these poor souls and many others, then get out there for a ghost tour! Make your reservation by calling 435.615.7673. Maybe you'll even be one of the lucky few who does run into a ghost--we just hope it's not the yellow apparition, a.k.a Park City's own death omen, who appears before disasters occurs as it did before the famous Daly West Mine explosion in 1902.