Ghostly visitors haunt annual walk

People will be able to walk through historic Carson City next week with some pretty freaky companions -- ghosts.

The idea for the Ghost Walk first appeared when officials from the Convention and Visitors Bureau began work on building the Kit Carson Trail.

As their research progressed, they heard several stories of the dead who lingered behind in homes and historic sites.

"Why not take advantage of all of the ghost stories we're getting?" thought Candy Duncan, executive director of the bureau.

And the Ghost Walk began.

The 11th annual walk will begin Oct. 25 with a re-enactment of founder Abe Curry's funeral procession, said to be the largest ever in Carson City.

The historic Victorian homes along the Kit Carson Trail will host ghosts and other famous characters from Carson City's past.

Along with one of the West's largest districts of 1800s Victorian-style homes, many of the original ghosts remain, according to local historians and ghost enthusiasts.

There will be two separate ghost tours, each lasting two hours. They will run every half hour between 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.

One path focuses on the Carson City pioneer and founder Curry, and the second tour takes visitors into the life of William Ormsby, who was killed in the Paiute Indian War in the 1860s.

Tours will begin and end at the Nevada State Museum, with parking behind the museum on Curry Street. Activities in the courtyard will include a pancake breakfast, music, psychic readings and book signings by authors Arlene Jenkins, "Haunted Homes," and Janice Oberding, "Haunted Nevada."

On Abe Curry's tour, walkers will meet the ghosts of Curry, his family, friends and partners along with hearing ghost stories by Billy the Pony Express Rider and Lucky Bill.

The Ormsby tour will also feature the Curry funeral procession and will meet up with the ghost of Ormsby returning from Pyramid Lake with a few of his volunteers. Other ghosts include his grieving widow Margaret, Paiute Indian Sara Winnemucca and other figures from the late 1800s.

The blue stripe on the sidewalks of historic Carson marks the location of the Kit Carson Trail. Members of a Carson City leadership class cleaned and repainted the lines on Saturday.