A Haunting Stroll in Scottsdale

Imagine my surprise when US Ghost Adventures sent me an email and asked me to review one of their tours. A quick visit to their website revealed choices across the nation … including half a dozen in the Phoenix area! I hesitated. My blog is neither commercial nor sponsored in any way, so this would be different. Or would it? I accepted their offer of two free tickets contingent on the understanding that my blog/review would be honest, no matter what.

We chose the tour of Scottsdale and scheduled it after my three grandchildren arrived for a summer visit. Having the opinion of two teens and a eight-year-old would be a more well-rounded experience. In a nutshell … this tour had its highs and lows.

As (bad) luck would have it, we chose the hottest day of the year for our Scottsdale tour. Luckily, by the 8 p.m. start time the temps had dipped from their record high of 116 ℉ to a still-sweat-inducing 100 ℉. As suggested by U.S. Ghost Adventures, we had comfortable walking shoes and water. Thank goodness for good advice! 

As a history buff, I love learning cool facts and information about the places I visit. When it comes to that, we were all pleasantly surprised. We walked in and around the Scottsdale Civic Center and Old Town, learning about the founder of the town — retired Army Chaplain Windfield Scott — and its several ghosts. We learned that one of the town’s early merchants still haunts an old town saloon, and that the ghosts of two local laborers killed by a local postman still greet morning workers near the Civic Center. We heard about the grizzly death of actor Bob Crane, bludgeoned to death in his Scottsdale apartment. His murder remains unsolved to this day. 

The evening walk around town exposed us to areas in the town we didn’t know existed, such as the Performing Arts Center and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. These are places we plan on revisiting during cooler weather. 

On the downside, the tour didn’t quite live up to its hype. We weren’t really expecting to see ghosts, but the stories told by our guide — while informative — didn’t really come to life. A good ghost story requires a bit of drama that was lacking on this tour. Furthermore, a lot of the terms used were over the head of our eight-year-old granddaughter, so this isn’t the best trip for kids. The teenagers found the tour interesting, but a bit boring.

It didn’t help that it was so hot. The guide walked too fast for us, having to pause regularly so we could catch up. The one-hour tour took closer to an hour-and-a-half over city sidewalks. We had hoped to see inside some of the haunted locations, but it was entirely outside. 

Finally, location matters. For all its interesting history, Scottsdale has grown modern and fast. The olive trees planted by Winfield Scott that were the scene of one murder still exist, but his house doesn’t — replaced by a modern City Hall. The old school where a suffering city leader took his own life in front of his wife on Christmas day is still there, but now serves as a community design studio. Would we do it again? Sure, but more likely in a single place where the stories would be more directly relevant. And inside … in air conditioning.

There’s a whole world out there waiting to be explored. Don’t be scared to see it after dark. 

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