The southernmost city in the United States is known for its party scene, its colorful culture, and, of course, its ghosts. Key West, once named the Bone Cay by the Spaniards, is one of the top four most haunted cities in the U.S., for good reason.

And Nixie, a guide for some of the island’s most ghostly attractions, is about to tell you all about it. Of course, Nixie has had her own encounters with the island’s deceased residents. Because if you die on this island, apparently you stay on the island. Forever. Grab yourself a slice of frozen, chocolate-dipped key lime pie on a stick and get ready to be scared, today, on Homespun Haints.

Get this episode on YouTube:

Or listen to this episode right here:

About the Guest: Nixie Buettner, Key West Ghost Tour Guide

Becky met Nixie on the Ghosts and Gravestones tour in Key West, Florida. The ghost tour guide originally hails from Austin, TX, where she was constantly spotting orbs. She used to be a skeptic of the paranormal, until she started to work at the haunted Shipwreck Museum, where she caught a spirit called Daddy Long Legs on video.

Becky loved the trolley tour she took with Nixie earlier in 2024. If you’re in Key West looking for a great ghost tour, check out the Ghosts and Gravestones, and ask for her specifically using the stage name “Daphne” . Besides being a ghost tour guide, Nixie is also an artist and entrepreneur. Check out Nixie’s artwork on Instagram @saga_of_eggs.

Becky and Diana’s Recipe for Lazy Haint Spray

Gaaranteed to at least temporarily remove lazy haints out from under your sofa. Feel free to make your own from the following recipe, so that your home also smells fresh and unhainted!

Lazy Haint Spritz Spray Recipe:

• 8 tsp filtered water
• 2 tsp of rubbing alcohol, witch hazel in alcohol, or bathtub gin.
• 10 drops of lemon essential oil
• 10 drops of sage essential oil
• 10 drops of rosemary essential oil

Add all ingredients to a glass spritz bottle or a very well cleaned out old empty Windex bottle.

Make it a cute label so you don’t get it confused with your Spirit Summoning Spray. That would be a hot mess.

Is the Key West Shipwreck Museum Haunted?

In today’s episode, Nixie tells us her first-hand account of this haunted stop on her Key West ghost tour. Wreckers, or individuals who would dive down to Salvage materials from shipwrecks, were once a major part of the island’s economy.

Interestingly, the basement of the museum is now a theater, used to be a morgue. An underground, below sea level morgue. Eew.

The Cursed Silver Bar

Nixie saw the same full-body apparition walk by the supposedly cursed silver bar at the Key West Shipwreck Museum at least twice. They actually caught a spirit called Daddy Long Legs on video.

The bar has a complex and sordid reputation on the island. Becky wouldn’t even touch the silver bar. Nixie HAS TO touch the bar for her job, so she tells herself, “it’s only dangerous when wet.”

The museum credits the bar with being associated with 6 distinct shipwrecks. Causation aside, what are the odds that all 6 ships that attempted to transport this bar of silver over the water ended up at the bottom of the sea? The only way the bar eventually made it safely to shore was to drag it underwater all the way to land.

Where other people die, we profit! -not the island’s official slogan

How to Safely Take Photos of Robert the Doll Without Getting Cursed

Nixie tells us that, if you want to take a picture Robert the Doll, you must follow three rules, or else you may be cursed.

Robert’s Rules of Disorder

• Politely greet Robert the Doll,
• Respectfully ask permission to take his photo,
• Politely say goodbye to Robert. A “thank you” wouldn’t hurt, either.

This whole practice might seem like hyped-up superstition, as most tourists blithely ignore all posted signage to do as they please. Surely the hundreds of tourists who visit the museum every year and take Robert the Doll’s photograph without following all three rules aren’t all cursed, are they?

Well, it would seem that yes, they are. People who don’t follow the rules while taking aphotograph of Robert the Doll end up regretting it later, when the bad luck starts. So many people, in fact, that the museum receives over 1000 apology letters annually. A staff member apparently has to read the apology letter to Robert the Doll aloud to invoke his forgiveness. Then, the staff posts the letters on a wall right next to him. We’re not sure if this is primarily for the doll’s ego, or to serve as a warning to tourists of the future.

The Real Life Corpse Bride Who is NOT Resting in Key West Cemetery

In the Early 1900’s, a young woman on the brink of death went for an xray. The xray tech, Carl Tanzler, saw her, and immediately recognized her as the woman he’d been literally dreaming about. For the rest of her short life, he begged for her hand in marriage, even though both of them were already married. Countless times, Elena turned him down….remember that, it’ll be important later.

Because tuberculosis was basically a death sentence at the time, nobody was shocked when the sick young woman passed away…but at least one person was thrilled with the development. Tanzler (the xray tech, going by Count von Cosel) had more money than Elena’s family, so he built a mausoleum in Key West Cemetery for Elena’s final resting place. Or, semi-final resting place, at least. The “count” visited the mausoleum as often as he could, until one night, he heard her voice, singing a familiar melody. Tanzler saw this as Elena asking him to release her spirit.

Taking the ghostly request way too literally, Tanzler committed what he believed to be the ultimate act of love: graverobbing. Talk about a grand gesture. That’s right—he got over her resisting his advances in life, and decided that he would free her spirit from it’s earthly prison by bringing her corpse home with him to be his bride. Because dead girls can’t say “no”.

There’s much more to this creepy true crime story. Listen to today’s interview with Key West ghost tour guide Nixie for the most sensational details. Or, you can read the official biography of Count von Cosel, for more historical context. For the inner workings of his mind, you can even read Tanzler’s own diary of his misadventures with Elena.

Will you join us for our next book club meetup?

Our next meetup (on Zoom) will be the second Monday in November. All you need to do to be in the Homespun Haints book club is join our Patreon (at any level, including free), read the book of the month, show up at the Zoom from the link on Patreon, and contribute to the conversation without being an asshole. Most of our books are an off-the-beaten-path horror by women or minority authors. Right now we’re all reading Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas. Won’t you join us, for a spooky day?

The post How To Take Photos of Robert the Doll Without Being Cursed appeared first on Homespun Haints.

Episode Summary: Three true short ghost stories

Sometimes it’s the little things that are the most scary. Those little incidents—the little unexplained happenings that pop out of nowhere—can be the scariest of all. Today, we share three short stories from three different guests, including one from our co-host, Becky.

AI-generated transcript of this episode available upon request.

Ghost Story No. 1

Our guest D lives in the Pecos Triangle (which encompasses the Pecos National Historical Park), where unexplained things have happened to him ever since he moved in.

Apparently, however, the events he experiences are just par for the course for those who dare to live within this strange region of paranormal activity in New Mexico. Strange disappearances, UFO sightings, and, of course, ghostly activity, are all common occurrences in this bit of wilderness in the Southwest U.S.

D references a video about the Pecos Triangle which you can watch below:

D’s experiences in Pecos aren’t the only strange supernatural events in his life. He also had an incident within a haunted house while he was studying photography in school.

Ghost Story No. 2

Ken Sledge of Sledgehammer Horror is not afraid of scary movies. In fact, his entire channel is devoted to horror, especially horror cinematography. However, when Ken was a teenager, he had an experience that could have come right out of a ’90s horror flick–except it was real. Ken retells his horrifying foray into a dilapidated haunted house and how the events of that evening terrify him to this day.

Ken also lets us know his very first horror film: House from 1985. And we have to agree, it’s a damn fine first horror movie for any kid to watch.

Ghost Story No. 3

We recently heard Becky tell of her visit to her family’s land in Lakeland, Florida, and the ghosts she and her family saw there. However, that story wasn’t the whole story. Another story recently emerged about a haunted clock that now, too, resides on the family property.

Be sure to listen to the entire episode to hear all three scary true short ghost stories. Until next time, have a spooky day!

The post An Unholy Trinity of Ghosts appeared first on Homespun Haints.

Episode Summary: A Haunted Florida Woman and her Ancestral Land

Ancestral ties run deep in the land that housed our predecessors. Blood mixes with soil, soul mixes with the air, and our lifeforce breathes into the green growth spurting out from the ground.

But what if we have to share our ancestral land with creatures from another dimension? How can we coexist with such entities? And how do we physically look to one another?

These are the questions our co-host Becky (a haunted Florida woman herself, in a way) had to face when recently visiting her family in Lakeland, Florida. Becky’s ancestors first dug a well in this sun-hardened soil in 1922. But it seems something that’s been on the land far longer than Becky’s family is still hanging around, causing mischief.

AI-generated transcript of this episode available upon request.

Episode Show Notes about the haunted Florida woman’s ancestral home

The original home standing in Lakeland inspired this podcast’s very first artwork. Becky knew the home was haunted long before the podcast began, so naturally the house built in 1922 and home to generations of her family seemed a fitting image for the first Homespun Haints website.

Even though Becky’s aunt and uncle knocked down the original house and built a new one on top of its original foundation, ghosts still lurk around the old walls. Becky, her aunt, her cousin, and her cousin’s children have all seen strange entities flitting around the walls. Perhaps all the antique dolls and other antiques around the house have something to do with it.

At one point, Becky brought out her SLS meter and took a look at the antique dolls.

Or, perhaps, the land is just haunted. By more than just ghosts.

Whatever the case, we want you to make your own opinions after you listen to Becky tell her story on the episode below. Until next time, have a spooky day!

The post The Lakeland Elemental appeared first on Homespun Haints.

Episode Summary

In this episode, our cohost Becky shares a story about returning to the family homestead after the death of her grandfather. This story is sad, funny, painful, and of course, tinged with the paranormal.

AI-generated transcript of this episode available upon request.

Episode Show Notes About The House of Octagons

What is the Octagon House?

We’ve brought up Becky’s grandparents’ octagon-shaped house a few times before. See episodes like You Know An Urban Legend Is From Florida If It Involves Beer Disappearing at Night, The One Who Still Waits For Her, and The Secrets of Octagons and Ghosts. While the Octagon House is a smorgasbord of spare parts cobbled together into a vaguely house-shaped, partially indoor/partially open-air maze of spiral staircases in the middle of nowhere, it still manages to shares some striking similarities with the sprawling urban Winchester Mystery House. Especially now that it’s builder and longtime resident has passed on. Sadly, because of some intrafamily drama surrounding the Octagon House, Becky will probably never get to finally break the rules and go in the attic to find Grandma’s misplaced darkroom. But let’s be real, she probably wouldn’t have anyway. It is a rule, after all.

Does the veil thin when we are at death’s door?

Grandma isn’t Becky’s only relative to see deceased loved ones near the end of her own life. There seem to be so many stories of people seeing dead loved ones just moments before they go. Is this a universal phenomenon? Are the dying really able to perceive the presence of the dead? Or is this just a failing meat computer’s last memory lightshow before shutting down; a version of “my life flashed before my eyes” where the beholder is not the main character? How can we ever know for sure?

Sasquatch Sounds + Stank = Skunk Ape?

Becky’s cousin Patrick heard voices giggling in those woods behind the Octagon House. Now Becky and her cousin Reagan have heard strange whooping sounds at dusk. Reagan grew up in that house, and she’s never heard that noise before. Could these be the voices of cryptids? After all, such things have been sighted nearby…at least according to the internet.

Those Florida cryptid sightings, however, were potentially something else. When the locals tell tales of a mysterious hairy manlike beast, they refer to him as a “skunk ape.” This creature, apparently told of in centuries-old lore by indigenous people who traversed the Everglades area, is similar to Big Foot of the Pacific Northwest. There are three main differences, apart from climate preference, that differentiate the skunk ape of the Florida wetlands from a sasquatch. The skunk ape is purportedly about half the size of a sasquatch, tends to be a redhead, and smells extremely foul. This last trait is a feature often noted by human witnesses who have gotten within a few feet of a skunk ape. Its odor has been described as a mixture of skunk spray and wet dog. But ask yourself honestly, if you split your outdoorsy time between a cool, misty pine forest and a dank, sweaty swamp, wouldn’t you pack more deodorant for the later trip?

The Entomology Etymology of What Bit Becky’s Butt

Not just everyone’s new favorite tongue-twister, this phrase may turn out to have actual medical significance. While rummaging through the remains of the Octagon House, Becky stood in a spiderweb in short shorts. Later that same day, her backside erupted in what she’s affectionately termed “PoxAss™.” Becky was slightly concerned that chiggers may have laid eggs under her delicate booty skin. This is actually a common point of confusion.

Chiggers, the common name for the itty bitty red biting larvae of Trombiculidae mites, sounds very similar to another insect. Jiggers (Tunga penetrans), a type of sub-Saharan sand fleas, can lay their eggs under your skin. There is plenty of sand in Florida, so one might expect to encounter sand fleas there. Which one indeed might, BUT the type of sand fleas that live in Florida are actually a species of Ceratopogonidae gnat, that are also called sandflies, no-see-ums, or biting midges; they don’t burrow into the skin, although they do bite. Strangely, in Florida, the term sand fleas also applies to a small crab (Emerita talpoida) sometimes used for fishing bait. Becky also had one of those bite her butt once while she swam in the Atlantic off the Florida coast.

What do you think about the strange unseen creatures, both large and tiny, haunting the House of Octagons?

Have you had a relative see deceased loved ones from their own death bed? Would you live out in the Everglades in a house without windows or central A/C, as long as you had a nice sturdy chain link fence for protection? Do you think sasquatch can shape-shift into a tiny gnat and lay eggs under your buttskin? Overall, this must have been a spooky day!

The post The House of Octagons appeared first on Homespun Haints.

Let me preface by saying this is not your ordinary ghost tour. It’s also not a paranormal investigation, but rather a hybrid of the two. This is also not the tour you go on if you’re looking for a history lesson about St. Augustine’s most famous landmarks. However, if you want to do something spooky, see parts of St. Augustine you might not know about, and get shuttled to each location in a comfortable van, this tour is your cup of tea.

GhoSt Augustine information:

• Website: ghostaugustine.com
• Tours offered: walking tours, shuttled tours, haunted pub crawls, and paranormal investigations
• Price: $15–$79 depending on the experience. Private tours also available

Everdark Express Stop No. 1

Our tour began promptly at 8:45pm. So yes, nighttime. The guide began by taking us to a “lost” African American cemetery, which is actually two cemeteries that have merged into one: The Pinehurst and San Sebastian Cemeteries.

Upon arrival, our guide gave each of us a K2 meter to use. One by one, we wandered through the broken headstones and overgrown grass. The location itself did not frighten me—I spend quite a lot of evenings in haunted cemeteries. I did, however, love hearing about the history of the cemetery and how some of the tombstones were made using the barest of materials.

The history you usually don’t hear about

So yes, while I began this St. Augustine ghost tour review by saying this is not a tour for history, well, it kind of is actually. Some headstone makers had poured cement into a mold to create the marker. Other graves bore broken tar letters on their surfaces. Often, an inexpensive grave would bear an upgrade—a marble inlay that a loving relative had added years after burial. To me, this is fascinating. And our guide seemed to think so, too. He led us from one grave to the next, pointing out his favorites and telling us how people made each tombstone with whatever they had on hand.

At one point, my SLS app picked up a figure in the distance, and some other people on the tour reported flashing meters, but in general the cemetery seemed at peace. I felt a warmth and comfort that I don’t sense in other haunted cemeteries. If it weren’t for all the mosquitoes (don’t be like me—wear repellent!) it would actually be a nice place to picnic.

Everdark Express Stop No. 2

Next, our guide took us to a haunted house. You’d think this would be some creepy old Victorian home or something similar. But no, this house looked like someone built it in the 1940s. Very plain, and very Florida.

Despite its appearance, this house holds plenty of ghosts according to our guide. Once inside, we divided ourselves us into smaller groups between the home’s three most haunted rooms.

I chose to be in the front room. Not because of the ghosts there, but because it looked like a place where you’d hold a séance (and you know how much I love séances)!

In total darkness, we sat and spoke to the spirits in the room. My daughter was such a trooper! She asked some pretty cool questions and the meters lit up from time to time. Our room, otherwise, remained rather uneventful. But, a woman in another room reported afterward that something had touched her hair. Was I jealous? Of course.

Final stop in this St. Augustine ghost tour review

Lastly, we went to the park next to the St. Augustine lighthouse.

If you’re not familiar with the St. Augustine Lighthouse, check out the article we wrote on this place after interviewing Dr. Kristy Sumner, a paranormal investigator who has spent time in this very haunted location.

The St. Augustine Lighthouse runs its own nightly paranormal investigation, so we couldn’t go inside. But that’s okay—there’s plenty of activity surrounding the grounds at night.

Our guide took us to a public playground next to the lighthouse. Here, the ghosts of three children who perished during the lighthouse’s construction like to play. While there, my daughter placed her K2 meter on the swing and began asking questions. I watched her with pride. Then, I felt a small, invisible hand wrap itself around my wrist and play with the beads on my bracelets. The sensation wasn’t scary; in fact, it was somewhat comforting. No breeze stirred the air, and a glance at my hand ensured no bugs caused the sensation. I smiled, thinking of the small child that likely was fiddling with my jewelry.

Final thoughts

All told, this was a great tour! Yes, it was a little different. It wasn’t quite an investigation, but we did get to interact with the ghosts and use ghost hunting equipment (you can also bring your own if you want). It wasn’t presented as a history tour, but we learned much history of an off-the-beaten-path nature. If you want a spooky St. Augustine experience that’s different from the rest, but you’re not ready to plunge into a 2-hour single location investigation, this is the goldilocks tour for you.

Listen to our interview with Florida paranormal investigator Kristy Sumner:

The post The Everdark Express at GhoSt Augustine appeared first on Homespun Haints.

I used to think so, too, until I started hearing first-hand accounts of ghosts following my friends home. It’s a rather frightening prospect, isn’t it? Read on to see if any of these stories we’ve collected make you shiver!

If you believe these stories, you’ll believe ghosts can follow you home, too

D.C. O’Rourke’s miniature poltergeist

On February 1, 2021, we interviewed acclaimed storyteller and paranormal investigator D.C. O’Rourke of Hauntingly Yours: A Podcast for the Paranormal. D.C. told us a spooky story about a child ghost who followed him home from an abandoned building that had served as a school for troubled boys. He knew he wasn’t imagining things when his Mom called him one day at work, saying she had just seen the ghost kill his pet bunny!

Listen to this episode right here:

Frantz, the Ghost Whisperer

The next story we heard came from my personal friend, Frantz. I’ve known him for years—he’s a down-to-earth Atlanta guy who happens to have “The Gift.” And if you don’t know what that is, I encourage you to watch the 2000 Cate Blanchett movie The Gift—after all, it’s a damn good movie on its own.

Frantz went on the ever-popular and terrifying Roswell Ghost Tour, which, by the way, happens to walk right by my haunted office building. While on the tour, he started talking to a young woman that he thought was on the tour. Turns out, this particular woman had died 150 years ago. Frantz was a little shaken, but brushed the experience off—these sorts of things happened to him. However, when he woke up the next morning, the ghost woman was sitting in his living room. Apparently, she was so excited he could see her that she wanted to be friends. If you want to know what happened next, listen to the full spooky podcast episode.

Brittany, keeping it in the family

Want to hear a family ghost story that suggests ghosts can follow you home? As a child, my cousin Brittany had a very strange encounter with a girl in a white dress. Brittany was in bed in her attic bedroom when she saw a strange light approaching her from the stairway below. As the light grew closer, Brittany realized the light came from a small, glowing girl in a white dress and bonnet. My cousin closed her eyes tightly, hoping the apparition would go away, but it continued to stare at her and circle around her for hours.

The next weekend, Brittany stayed with her other parent in a house on the other side of town. And around midnight, she saw a light approaching the room she was staying in from the hallway outside. Rounding the corner, the light appeared in her room, and it was the same little girl! If you want to know how she got rid of the ghost, you’ll have to listen to the full ghost story on our podcast.

Why would ghosts follow you home?

We’ve heard all sorts of explanations as to why ghosts can follow you home. Perhaps, as in Frantz’ case, the ghost is lonely and wants a friend. This is one reason to avoid abandoned places if you tend to pick up ghosts! Or maybe the ghost is someone close to you and they are trying to look out for you. Finally, it could be ghosts aren’t following you home at all—you’re just noticing ghosts everywhere you go, making it look like they’re following you when they’re really just going about their ghostly business.

If it’s part of a ghost’s metaphysical nature to be attached to something, that thing doesn’t necessarily have to be a location. We also have heard stories of haunted paintings, haunted dolls, even haunted balloons. If it’s part of a ghost’s metaphysical nature to be attached to something, that thing doesn’t necessarily have to be a location. Brittany, for instance, made her husband dispose of a haunted antique sword after the sword’s victim kept taunting her in her sleep. For me personally, I’ve been seeing a lot of activity ever since I brought my family’s ancient china cabinet into my house.

There are so many speculations and theories, but the bottom line is we may never know the answer—at least while we’re still alive. So, in the meantime, watch your back and be wary when you wander into a haunted space. Because, yes, ghosts can follow you home.

Photo by Šimom Caban on Unsplash

The post Can ghosts follow you home? appeared first on Homespun Haints.

If you choose to listen to this episode, be forewarned: this episode may not be suitable for everyone. These real Christmas ghost stories that we are about to share contain stories of death, dying, childhood trauma, and giraffe urine.

Listen right here:

Or, watch this episode on YouTube:

Why are ghost stories such a big part of Christmas?

Because it’s the spookiest time of year! At least in the Northern Hemisphere, where the nights are at their longest. Winter is here. Days are short. Nights are long and dark. People gather together by the fire for warmth. Is it any wonder that this is a prime time for oral storytelling, especially ghost storytelling?

But, we can thank the Victorians for really making Christmas ghost stories, even real Christmas ghost stories, a time-honored tradition.

During the Industrial Revolution, people moved en masse to the cities. In these unfamiliar environments, Christmas became the commercial enterprise we know it as today.

More people purchasing things also meant more people looking for things to read. Serials and periodicals of the day took advantage by churning out stories as quickly as they could. Ghost stories have always been an easy sell. They’ve got the shock value of good entertainment, and they work well in a short story format.

Victorian printers capitalized on this format to deliver spooky stories to city dwellers already caught up in a buying frenzy. And those individuals in turn began to share their stories to family members during the dark nights of holiday celebrations.

Are ghosts more prevalent in Florida?

Our first story we share in this episode takes place in Florida. And, well, we seem to have a lot of true ghost stories that take place in Florida.

One explanation for Florida’s penchant for hauntings comes from just how strange the state is. For some reason, weirdness and hauntings go hand in hand. You could say all that energy from a diverse population causes a breeding ground for ghosts.

Secondly, Florida is mostly surrounded by water. In fact, a good portion of the state sits right at sea level. And marshlands, lakes, rivers, and swamps pervade most of the state. Many paranormal investigators will tell you that water charges and amplifies ghostly activity.

For Becky and Diana, however, Florida is one of the many places they have called home. And maybe the combined energy of our hosts living in this state helped open a few more portals. We shall never know for sure.

Call it what you will—Florida is haunted AF.

Some of our haunted Florida episodes:

• Sidetable Man Don’t Eat Me!
• It Came Up the Drain!
• Ghosts on Camera
• They Have Their Hooks In You
• You Know An Urban Legend Is From Florida If It Involves Beer Disappearing at Night
• The One Who Still Waits For Her
• The House of Octagons

We hope you enjoyed these spooky real Christmas ghost stories we’ve shared with you today! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a spooky good night!

The post Butt-Dialed from the Afterlife: A Christmas Ghost Story appeared first on Homespun Haints.

Places to see in St. Augustine before you visit the lighthouse

St. Augustine, Florida, is a very old city by American standards. First settled in 1565 by a Spanish admiral, the city is the oldest European settlement in the lower 48 that’s still inhabited. As you can imagine, this city is full of ghosts.

If you happen to be driving down (or up) the west coast of Florida, I highly urge you to stop in this storied city for at least a few hours. Popular places to visit include Castillo de San Marco—an ancient, 17th-century Spanish fort (yes, it’s haunted) that rivals the even older Castillo San Felipe del Morro in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in beauty and size. 

You will also want to wander down the pedestrian streets of the old town center (look for Orange Street or St. George Street on a map to get as close as possible with your vehicle), just past the original Old Gate. On these streets you can check out the old jail, small museums dedicated to Florida history, some boutique-type shops, restaurants, the country’s oldest continuously operating bar, and, of course, plenty of places to book a ghost tour of the city. Definitely book a ghost tour if you plan to stay through the evening. They’re all good and you will probably—at the very least—catch an orb on camera!

Also, before you venture down to the lighthouse, be sure you check out the first permanent Ripley’s Believe it or Not, right here in St. Augustine. This was the first place I ever saw an iron maiden in person—it still gives me shivers to this day.

Now, time for a relaxing climb up the haunted St. Augustine Lighthouse 

Ha! It’s not relaxing at all! Prepare yourself for a workout. The trek to the top of the St. Augustine Lighthouse is 219 steps, and you need to be at least 44” tall to climb. 

The good news is that if you’re claustrophobic like me, you won’t be in trouble. The iron grate steps and open, thin metal rails create a pleasing, open feel to the interior of the lighthouse, even for people like me. After all, I may not be afraid of ghosts, but I am afraid of tight spaces.

Once you get to the top of the lighthouse, you’ll be rewarded for your effortful climb. You’ll step out onto the bright red exterior deck to a view of green fields and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. Even on hot, sticky, summer days, the blasting wind at the top will cool you off. Don’t worry about your hair at this point—that’s a lost cause. 

Tickets for self-guided tours for adults are $14.95 and $12.95 for kids (remember the 44 inch rule). But, if you’re so inclined, there are guided ghost tours! Sadly, I’ve never taken one of these ghost tours. I’ve never been able to find anyone who would do it with me! Hopefully, that will change in the future. That’s okay, though, because I’ve been to this lighthouse many times during the day and I have much to report on it.

So, what makes the St. Augustine Lighthouse so haunted?

Built in 1874, the St. Augustine lighthouse has seen plenty of life, death, and everything in between. The lighthouse has not been the scene of as much trauma as some other areas surrounding the city. However, the ghosts of the lighthouse have a more personal attachment to their final resting place.

The lighthouse keepers that still keep the lighthouse

The lighthouse keeper Peter Rasmussen, whose tenure at the lighthouse lasted from 1901 until 1924, still lights up cigars from time to time in the keeper’s quarters. Visit the quarters at any time and you may smell the distinctive cigar smoke smell.

Also, the ghost of lighthouse keeper Joseph Andreu still wanders around the top of the lighthouse. He fell to his death from some shoddy scaffolding here in 1859. Some say they can still hear his screams of agony and fear.

The three girls that met a tragic fate

Eliza and Mary Pittee were the daughters of the contractor hired to oversee construction of the current lighthouse. In 1873, the two girls, along with their sister Carrie and another friend had taken to riding the railway supply cart that would transport supplies from the dock to the building site. One day, however, the cart tipped over, and all four girls fell into the water. Carrie was the only one who didn’t drown. The two sisters’ bodies were pulled from the water and buried, but the body of their friend was never recovered.

And so, the three girls still play in the lighthouse. People will sometimes see girls dressed in Victorian clothes in and among the lighthouse; usually, these visitors assume the girls are living, breathing visitors to the lighthouse who are playing dress-up. People will also often hear the girls’ giggling around the grounds and the lighthouse playground, and will turn on music boxes in the lighthouse’s gift shop.

A tour guide in St. Augustine once told me a story of a visitor who got back into his tour bus after visiting the lighthouse. According to him, the woman raved about her experience in the lighthouse, and could not stop talking about how considerate it was that hidden intercom speakers had been put on all the landings of the lighthouse’s spiral staircase. The woman exclaimed that every time she considered giving up, as she climbed those 219 stairs, a little girl’s voice came out from those speakers, telling her she could do it, encouraging her on to the top. The tour guide said he wasn’t sure if he should tell the woman that there were no intercom speakers within the lighthouse, nor was a little girl employed by the staff to encourage people through their fatigue.

Paranormal Investigations at the St. Augustine Lighthouse

Our guest in Episode 34, Dr. Kristy Sumner, led a paranormal investigation to the St. Augustine Lighthouse in 2018. You can watch the full episode here (yes, she did get to talk to the little girls’ ghosts). You can also check out our interview with Kristy here.

Probably the most terrifying episode of Ghost Hunters that I ever saw was in the St. Augustine Lighthouse, from Season 1. You should watch it. They caught a ghost on camera. In fact, they had such a good time at the lighthouse that the TAPS team returned for at least two more investigations.

Now it’s your turn!

Convinced you need to visit the very haunted St. Augustine Lighthouse now? After all, you can explore some history, experience some ghosts, and get a great workout all in one stop. What’s not to love?

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