The west side of CobbÕs Hill Cemetery, a prominent stop on the Haunted and History Tour and the Ghost Hunters Tour.
When the autumn winds howl and the rising harvest moon casts an eerie glow over Cape Cod Bay's Great Marsh, what could be better than visiting the sites of real ghost stories along Barnstable Village's "haunted mile"? The Cape and Islands Paranormal Research Society (CAIPRS) runs nightly walking tours from April 16 through mid-November along historic Route 6A, bringing visitors to locations where 400 years of history have been made and numerous ghostly encounters have been reported.
"Barnstable is the most actively haunted town on Cape Cod," says CAIPRS founder Derek Bartlett. Route 6A is ground zero for ghosts, with 89 reportedly haunted buildings located between Sandwich and Provincetown. Bartlett attributes the high concentration of hauntings to the area's long history connected to the sea, rife with turbulent political conflict, shipwrecks, pirates, and people coming and going. The old buildings haven't changed much, either, and it seems that some characters from the past simply don't want to leave.
Bartlett, who calls himself a "skeptical believer" in paranormal activity, says that CAIPRS explores the intersection between folklore, reality, science, and history. The group gathers evidence by recording electronic voice phenomena (EVP), analyzing night-shot photography, measuring variations in electromagnetic fields, and using other modern technology.
The Haunted & History Walking Tour is one of the most popular of CAIPRS' offerings, running nightly (except Mondays and Fridays) at 7 p.m. The tour, which meets at Barnstable's Sturgis Library, makes at least eight stops to reputedly haunted sites. But the paranormal is only a piece of the tour: along the way, Bartlett points out other historic landmarks like the Cape's first savings bank, built in 1860, and the 17th-century home of the area's first resident gravestone carver.
The first haunted location appears before the walk commences. Built in 1644 for Reverend John Lothrop, Sturgis Library--the oldest building in the country that houses a public library--is believed to have a ghost lurking among the shelves. Witnesses have said a figure alternately appears and vanishes throughout the library. In another recent encounter, a mother overheard her six-year-old daughter speaking at length with someone in a new section of the library. When she turned to admonish the girl for talking to strangers, she found no trace of "this nice man" her daughter said she was talking to.
Click Image to enlarge
Mysterious happenings have bedeviled the inhabitants and staff at The Barnstable Restaurant and Tavern, a short walk east on 6A and the next haunted stop on the tour. Originally built in 1799 as the Barnstable Inn, the present-day restaurant and office complex has had its share of mischief, perpetrated by a little girl with brown hair who looks to be from the turn of the 20th century, often seen playing around the tables and opening file cabinets. Bartlett surmises that the apparition may have moved in with restaurant items donated from the notoriously haunted Barnstable House. "Items can be possessed by spirits," he says.
Moving on, our group stepped gingerly around Cobb's Hill Cemetery, a spooky locale with tombstones dating as far back as 1715. Here, one of the participants from our tour reported the evening's first alleged ghost sighting: Michael Pimentel, from Dighton, Massachusetts, says he saw a vaporous figure near a stand of trees. "The best way to describe it is to picture your shadow getting darker and then lighter," Pimentel says. "It was shifting. I said to myself, 'I must be imagining this,' but my wife confirmed it."
Visitors on CAIPRS' Ghost Hunters Tour, which runs Monday and Friday evenings, spend an extra hour in the cemetery, taking voice recordings and other sensory measurements. Bartlett says that Cobb's Hill has the second-largest number of paranormal sightings in a cemetery on Cape Cod--he recalls seeing a dark and shadowy figure that appears periodically on the far hillside. Tour-goers have also made an audio recording of the voice of a young girl in the Davis family burial plot. Whether or not you find a ghost here, Cobb's Hill Cemetery provides a direct connection to old Cape Cod, with Crockers, Davis', Bacons, and Sturgises in abundance.
After walking through the history-rich Old Jail and hearing about the strange occurrences in the Crocker Tavern House and Barnstable General Store, our group gathered outside Barnstable Superior Courthouse. Beyond tales of the supernatural--CAIPRS has investigated the building three times after receiving reports of paranormal sightings--Bartlett presents an engaging overview of the history that played out behind its walls.
The tour strolls to its finale at the Barnstable House, alternatively known as "The House of 11 Ghosts." "I've had whole tour groups run away because of what they've seen through the house's windows," Bartlett says. The elegant 1716 edifice was once home to Dr. Samuel Savage. The Barnstable House, Bartlett says, is the most actively haunted building on Cape Cod. And while our group didn't encounter ghosts, we heard a faint sound that resembled a woman's voice. Perhaps it was the wind or a bird calling from the marsh, but it could have been the effect of an intriguing evening of lively ghost stories and an exciting glimpse into local history.
CAIPRS offers an assortment of paranormal-theme tours. For more information, visit www.caiprs.com or call 508-771-2725.
Susan Spencer is a freelance writer who lives in Whitinsville and Brewster.
