The Ghosts Of St. Augustine

The Halloween season is a good time to visit St. Augustine, not only because it is America’s oldest city but because it is one of its eeriest. Wherever you wander in the historic district you’ll see signs offering spectral experiences. The Ghost & Gravestones Tour (904-826-3663) invites you to join “a trolley of the doomed.” The Ghostly Experience Walking Tour (904-461-1009) provides “a saunter with the spirits from dusk to darkness.” The Ghosts of the Matanzas cruise (904-471-3220) takes you sailing through “dark, haunted waters” aboard a 72-foot schooner.

St. Augustine has every reason to be full of ghosts, for its history is drenched in blood. For more than a century, it was ravaged by Spain’s most ferocious enemy, the British, first in an attack by Sir Francis Drake in 1586, then in a 1668 onslaught by English buccaneer John Davis. Thirty-four years later, British forces invaded the city, destroying many of its buildings. St. Augustine was further decimated by an outbreak of yellow fever in 1821 and two major fires in 1887 and 1914.

Read the entire article in the September 2003 issue