October tour breathes life into the old spirts of Black Mountain
Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center digs up downtown’s past with Haunted History walking tour
The Valley Echo
October 1, 2021
The eighth annual Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center Haunted History walking tour will include a stop at Black Mountain's historic depot, where guides will talk about the tragic history of the building of the Swannanoa Tunnel as part of Western North Carolina's railroad expansion in the late 19th century. Blast rock from the tunnel was used to build foundations for several downtown Black Mountain businesses. Photo courtesy of Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center
The autumn breeze won’t be the only thing bringing a chill to downtown Black Mountain, Friday, Oct. 22, and Saturday, Oct. 23, as the Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center Haunted History walking tour returns for its eighth year.
The annual museum fundraiser, which features guided two-hour tours led by some of the Valley’s famous spirits, will teach visitors about the humorous, haunting and harrowing history on the town’s most storied streets.
The Haunted History tour highlights local tragedies and triumphs through tales told by ghostly museum volunteers and historians, who will bring the spirits of Black Mountain’s past to life with authentic costumes and stops at notable locations in town.
Tours this year will dive into the long history of the area and the ways that floods, fires, tourism, trains and even pandemics have shaped the community. Groups will depart from the museum every half-hour, as guides lead visitors to several locations, where they will be greeted by historians who recount a mixture of tragic, and sometimes surprising facts about the people, places and events that influenced the present day.
Tour stops will include the Inn Around the Corner, an early 20th-century home that used to serve as a boarding house and is now reported to have a resident ghost; Sassafras, a former livery stable and site of a significant fire that burned much of downtown in 1912 and the McKoy Building, the current home to The Junction that served as an emergency hospital for victims of the Spanish Flu in 1920.
The Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center Haunted History walking tour, Oct. 22 and 23, will include a stop at bookstore Sassafras, formerly a livery stable and motor company, which suffered damage from a major downtown fire in 1912. Photo courtesy of Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center
The tours serve as a significant annual fundraiser for the nonprofit museum, and are made possible with the assistance of a large team of volunteers, and coordination by museum staff and board members.
“These tours are a staple for the museum, and our volunteers always bring a lot of enthusiasm and creative ideas every year,” said SVM Executive Director, LeAnne Johnson. “The tours help visitors and locals realize how much history they are walking through every day, even if they’re just visiting a bookstore or admiring our local depot. So many stories lie just below the surface.”
Attendees can register for the tours at swannanoavalleymuseum.org/event, or by calling the museum at 828-669-9566.
Tickets are $25 for museum members and $30 for non-members. Some fees apply when paying online. The museum can also accept checks in person.