New tour looks up Reno's old haunts

In high-falutin' marketing circles, it would be called "brand extension." Janice Oberding of Reno, you see, loved learning about Nevada history from the time she was a little girl.

As she grew older, she further focused her attention on Nevada's ghost stories and found a market for a string of books on the subject

"Ghosthunters Guide to Virginia City," for instance, and the soon-to-be published "Infamous Reno." From there, it was only a short step to a business in which Oberding used her knowledge to lead walking tours of Reno's haunted spots.

And this week, she introduced the latest wrinkle in the business of hanging out at old haunts bus tours of ghostly locations around town.

Stops include locations such as the site of a Donner Party campground in southeast Reno and the spot that a Galaxy Airlines flight crashed in 1985, killing 70.

The plane crash scene, Oberding says, has drawn the interest of ghost hunters who have reported high levels of unusual radio activity.

Oberding says there was nothing fancy about her decision to convert from a pedestrian operation to a bus tour.

"The walking tours have always done very well," she says.

"But the problems started when it got to be too cold."

Her partner in the businesses, who's been running bus tours of haunted Las Vegas, encouraged her to take the step into a leased bus.

While she hustled to get a schedule of Thursday, Friday and Saturday night tours launched before Halloween, Oberding says they'll continue to leave from the Eldorado three nights a week as long as someone is willing to pay $29 for a ticket.

The Eldorado handles ticket sales for Haunted Reno Tours.

The challenge to the business? "Make sure," Oberding says,"that the bus driver knows the route."