A Halloween adventure filled with historical frights is back at the Territorial Prison once again. Ghost Tours of Laramie City is a unique event in the Gem City that has been featured in magazines across the country, including being listed as a Must See Haunted Attraction in America in Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, says event founder Lynette Nelson.

What makes this event special to Laramie is the historic nature of the haunted tour. In many Halloween event, people end up being chased by a chainsaw wielding mad man, dodging zombies, or getting a good scare when a ghost or ghoul jumps out at them, but not Ghost Tours of Laramie City.

This tour tells ghost stories, and not the kind you typically find around a campfire. All stories told in Ghost Tours are true and documented. Tales are told of Laramie’s earliest and often most troubled residents. Stories of crime, tragedy and death (sometimes mysterious ones) are told and even reenacted on the tour.

This year features five tour nights on October 18, 24, 25, 30, and 31. Each night has tours starting every half hour starting at 7:00 p.m. with the last tour starting at 9:30 p.m. for a total of six tours per night. A maximum of 30 people are allowed in each tour. At this time, all days still have spots available, although some times are filled up already.

Tours are different from year to year, so if you have been on a tour before you may be delighted to hear some new stories.

“Every year it’s different. We don’t do the same thing every year, but there’s a couple of mainstays—there’s a couple of stories that we do tell every year because they’re our bread and butter, they’re our big ones—and then all the other stories we mix up and tell different stories,” says Nelson.

The tour starts and ends at the Wyoming Territorial Prison. Beginning at the Visitor’s Center, the tour leads to the Horse Barn Theater for spooky tales and reenactments. The tour then leads to a Hayride in Historic Downtown Laramie where tour goers will learn about Laramie’s dark past. Of course, no tour is complete without a tour of the Territorial Prison itself. After dark the prison takes a life of its own, with lights out and stories to tell.

This year marks the 146th anniversary of the infamous gunfight of the “Bucket of Blood” in downtown Laramie. This event involved a group of vigilantes gathering along First Street and attempting to clean up the town. The plan was to hang the worst of the town and banish the others. Things did not go as planned for the vigilantes, though, and the result made Laramie and Wyoming history. Tour goers will get to learn all about what went wrong that night during the hayride downtown.

Many people reenacting the events come for WyoTech. In fact, Nelson says without volunteers from the school it would be difficult to host the event each year.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for people 12 years of age or younger. To reserve your tickets call 760-8835.

More From Laramie Live