Downtown Pocatello walking tour offers both history and haunts
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POCATELLO – Tours for both the true believers and skeptics of Pocatello to explore the city’s reportedly haunted historic locations have already begun.
This year, Pocatello’s Haunted History Walking Tours will feature buildings in the downtown Warehouse District, with tours every Friday and Saturday throughout October. The first tour took place on Oct. 3, and Stephanie Palagi called it “the best opening night” in 18 years of running the event.
“That area of downtown is just so full of history. People are not going to be disappointed in this year’s tour,” said Palagi, who is president and CEO of Historic Downtown Pocatello.
And why was it the best opening night the long-running event has had?
“We had paranormal activity in each of the buildings,” Palagi told EastIdahoNews.com.
Every year, the Haunted History Walking Tours feature new buildings in downtown Pocatello. Tour groups accompany SPIRO Paranormal, a paranormal investigative team based in the Gate City, and walk between buildings to learn more about the history and stories of potential paranormal activity.
“It’s as much about the history as it is about the haunts,” Palagi said.
To preserve the mystery for ticket buyers, Historic Downtown Pocatello doesn’t disclose in advance which buildings will be featured. This year, there are four “substantially large” buildings on the tour, Palagi said, all located in the Warehouse District.
The Downtown Development Plan defines the Warehouse District as comprising around seven city blocks between East Bonneville Street and East Putnam Street, bordered by the railroad tracks to the west and the alleyway between South 2nd Avenue and South 3rd Avenue.
Palagi said that this year’s opening night was rife with paranormal activity, with participants reporting the feeling of being touched and one being scratched.
“Which is pretty typical paranormal activity when our investigators are in, but not necessarily happening live on our tours,” Palagi said.
In addition to this, Palagi said people captured “orbs” on camera, that paranormal investigators captured electronic voice phenomenon, and the electromagnetic devices were going off in different parts of the building.
“It was just an extraordinary opening night,” Palagi said.
There are some people who just can’t be convinced that paranormal phenomena are real. If you’re in that camp, Palagi says the tour is worth your time.
“We have skeptics that come each year, and they still have a wonderful time because they get to experience the history,” she said.
Early on, Palagi says she was a skeptic. “But definitely not any longer,” she said.
You can go to the Historic Downtown Pocatello Inc. events page to purchase a ticket for the tour, which costs $30. Once you have your tour ticket, you’ll meet your assigned group at the Avenue Event Center, 747 S. 2nd Avenue, at the assigned time.
Palagi encouraged everyone to come on a tour.
“If you love history and you love old buildings, and you love to learn about different parts of our community, come on our tour and then see how you feel about the paranormal,” Palagi said.