Centuries ago, people spent October 31st trying to scare spirits away. Tonight, this tour seeks them out. Spend All Hallow's Eve in Macomb, Illinois, retracing the town's long-ago history, and maybe even running into some of those who made it.

By Berit Thorkelson

Hauntings

(ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006)

The candelabra are lit, and ominous organ music from The Phantom of the Opera fills the room. A figure in a hooded cape slips in, holding a lantern. The music fades to silence, and the man eyes his audience, issuing a warning before the historical walking tour. "Tonight you are going on a real ghost hunt. A journey into the darker side of Macomb's history. Those of you who aren't scared yet-you will be."

The crowd of more than 50 at tonight's Macomb Haunted Dead Walk is typical. All of them-travelers, Western Illinois University students and local residents 80 miles northwest of Springfield in this college town of about 19,000-listen intently to cape-clad Garret Moffett. He's been known around town as The Ghost Guy since beginning Macomb's Haunted History Tours in 2002, and although this 40-year-old local history expert works days as a gift shop clerk, he takes his night job seriously. So does the state of Illinois. In 2004, Garret's ghost walk won the Illinois Main Street Award for historical development, topping 55 competing tours. Last year, he moved to Springfield to lead Lincoln's Ghost Walk and manage the Macomb tours from afar.

Though he makes no promises, Garret believes each of his Macomb tours is likely to encounter something supernatural. He can tell you about the woman who suddenly felt a stinging sensation on her face, only to discover an unexplained handprint across her cheek, and he can show you where former customers felt the grip of an icy child's hand on theirs. So the curious come to Macomb, gathering these days at the steps of the courthouse at 8 p.m. each weekend night from mid-September through early November, ready to see something for themselves.

Tour stops change each year, with past highlights including a bed and breakfast, bars and the town square courthouse. Tonight's destinations hold as many insights into town history as they do hiding holes for ghosts. The extra-active Episcopal church is said to harbor friendly spirits of a past congregation that lingers for eternity out of love for the place, and county cemeteries like Oakwood reel with Civil War ghosts.

When the tour begins, Garret leads the group downtown, into the dark and drizzling night, his cape billowing. Garret tells of phantom footsteps in gloomy spaces and the grisly murder of half the police force in 1936, a three-minute gun battle in an alley where one cop supposedly still walks his beat.

A few people hold walkie-talkie-size electromagnetic field meters and divining rods that cross and switch directions, picking up mysterious currents. When the meters beep, people grab their digital cameras and snap, amazed when they check the screen and see they've captured crisp white orbs invisible to the eye. Skeptics attribute the phenomenon to dust particles; Garret says some photos reveal true spirits.

There's one staple on Garret's ever-changing itinerary: the final stop at the 1872 Chandler Opera House, home to the most active and most negative spirit, according to Garret. Many customers have "met" Andrew Hainline, the Prohibition-era state's attorney who not only failed to capture his bootlegging archenemy, but took up drinking to deal with the embarrassment. Garret says Hainline roams the opera house, drunk and angry, and he's been known to slap and pinch people. His presence sometimes makes guests feel ill. Still, visitors follow Garret to Hainline's old second-floor office.

The place is a wreck. There's plaster debris from the ceiling and walls, exposed building innards and a musty smell. Garret herds the group into a room and instructs everyone to press their backs against its walls. He asks for volunteers to enter another room where Hainline usually lurks and touch the wall. More than a dozen disappear one by one into the dark; the rest wait silently. When the volunteers return, some report voices. Others have chills. Still others get dizzy and sweat. A few say they felt nothing at all.

Andy Cockerill, a senior at WIU, took the tour on a friend's advice. "I was pretty skeptical of this at first, but after going into that last room . . . the noises I heard and the things I think I saw . . . it was a little eerie," Andy says. Many of the group members turn into repeat customers to learn more history, or just get spooked. If Garret has his way, they get both.

The Macomb Haunted Dead Walk takes place on Fridays and Saturdays from September 23 to November 12. Participants should be at least 13. No reservations needed. Walking tour $12 (309/836-5577; www.hauntedmacomb.com).

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