With less than a thousand students at Oxford, most of whom go home or to Atlanta on weekends, fun can be hard to find on a boring Saturday night.
My friend, Emily, and I decided to go to Covington for dinner last Saturday and heard about a ghost tour that was starting soon that night. We chose to skip dinner and to spend two hours chasing ghosts instead.
The second we walked into the art studio where the ghost tour began, we were told to download “ghost hunting tools,” an app that apparently uses measurements to tell you what the ghosts are trying to say. We were also told about multiple paranormal events that occurred in their art studio and had to pay $25 to continue with the show.
Our first stop was at the Covington Firehouse, where we were told to never divide the group while walking because of bad luck and told of a sighting where a father and daughter heard knocking and screaming from inside of the building when they knew it was completely empty.
Our next stop was at a church, that had been used as a jail and spot for hangings, and were told of two other ghost sightings. On our way to the next stopping point, we were told of multiple paranormal activity sightings in shops and shown videos of owners talking about what they saw. We were also using our phones to “talk to the ghosts” and one said “Jada” which was our tour guides’ daughter’s name, yes, our tour guides were a couple. We took a break so that they could call her and see if she was okay, and turns out she had just gotten sick!
We then moved on to an old funeral home and learned about the tour guides’ theory: the next door brothel let certain men kill the young women for money and would dump the bodies into the funeral home’s incinerators. Meanwhile, Emily’s middle name “Skye” appeared on her phone. Farfetched theory or coincidence…do ghosts really exists?
Our final stop was at the Covington Cemetery, where we paid our respects to a woman’s mother and talked to confederate soldiers. We were lead to a first grave by a woman on the tour who felt “warm temperatures and feelings” coming from there and to a tombstone shaped like a chair by ghosts who kept sending us the word “chair” on our phones.
At the end of the tour, on our way back to the square, our tour guide lost her teeth (they looked like they flew out of her mouth) and we spent 10 minutes trying to find them without any luck.
Overall, going on a ghost tour was a super fun idea for an adventurous Saturday night and I have great memories from it. It allows you to get to know Covington’s geography and history while having fun with friends. You can plan a night out in Covington with dinner, Scoops, and the ghost tour when there’s nothing to do on campus (basically every weekend). Whether you’re a firm believer or non-believer, the tour is fun and the guides are very funny so you’ll always be sure to have a good time. However, it did cost $25 per person, making it costly to go as a big group for us, broke students, and lasted about 2 hours, so don’t go if you’re not willing to get back to Oxford past 11pm.
P.S.: A tip for the tour is to come with your phone completely charged! I started the tour with 54% battery and my phone died 20 minutes before the tour ended.