You need a crash course in the history of San Antonio
All the locations we visit, on the standard tour, and the extended tour, offer an insight into the history and character of River City, from the earliest days as a Spanish mission, through the upheaval of the Spanish Independence War, to the Civil War and today’s modern growth every period has its ghosts and they are a wonderful way to bring the past alive, and much more memorable than a bus tour or a museum.
Let the fascinating local guides bring the personality of San Antonio to life for you tonight.
You want an activity the whole family can enjoy
Ghost tours can be overwhelmingly scary. We try to balance the grim truth and educational insight into how things were at various stages of San Antonio’s Development. For example, the extended tour visits the charming and atmospheric stop at La Villita, Spanish for Little Village, your ghost tour will pass by the front yard where a Doctor boiled the heads of dead Comanche warriors, to study their skulls, he claimed, but will you believe his reason after hearing the whole story?
Even though the story is quite ghastly, we deliver tours that are for the whole family, are completely accessible, the guides of River City Ghosts are all consummate professionals who will entertain with true stories from the past.
You are a Non-Believer, testing the waters of the supernatural
Some of the ghost stories require a big leap; others are just obviously true. We never try and change your mind, but all the stories are well researched, and the settings are straight out of the history books.
We rely on first-hand accounts that were plausible and don’t include the more farfetched tales. If you are the suggestible kind, you might prefer to believe that ghosts are a figment of the beholders’ imagination. And if you are at all religious, then the concept of purgatory, resurrection, and visitation by spirits is not a very big leap at all. Whatever your point of view, we offer a lot more than the prospect of looking for a white apparition to present itself. You’ll hear tales of human struggle, adversity, and misery, that at the worst, will make you grateful for your lot.
Have you heard of the multiple suicides that have happened at the Tower Life Building? Starting with one of the brothers who built the tower, after things got really bad in the Depression of 1929, Jim Smith, the CEO of the very successful company, could see no way out and dramatically flung himself from the roof of the tower.
He seemed to have started something; there have been several confirmed attempts since then, the most recent one in 2016. It’s for you to decide if it’s just a copycat way to take your own life, or if the building is cursed and feeds on negative thoughts. Join the tour to hear the full story, it has several more facts that might provide overwhelming evidence of supernatural activity.
In San Antonio and Don't Know What to Do.
There is lots to do in San Antonio; you could walk around in the hot midday sun or visit one of the many museums and deep dive into the Alamo’s fascinating history. If you want to get a broad insight into the city, you could take a bus tour and see everything from behind glass. They all have their advantages, but only River City Ghosts gets you up close and personal to the sites, in the cool evening light, and brings history to life with the memorable tales of real people who lived and died in San Antonio.
River City Ghosts provider a different perspective on the vibrant and beautiful city of San Antonio; we take you to the safe and tranquil setting of the River Walk. Still, we tell you all about its less than respectable past. As late as the 1950s, the San Antonio Old City River Walk was a seedy area with high crime and a large homeless population. The scene of many murders, the River Walk, was only recently cleaned up into today’s charming attraction.
You’re on a tight schedule
Visiting San Antonio for just the weekend? Only one or two days to see everything? Are your mornings and afternoons filled with other things? Then an evening tour with River City Ghosts might be just the thing to help you cross off a wide variety of downtown locations and get an entertaining tour of the city. As well as the entertaining and downright spooky ghosts’ stories, we also weave in a lot of local history and bring the dramatic story of San Antonio to life with animated and knowledgeable local guides.
Get an insider look at the San Antonio culture
We’ve all heard of the Alamo; we were taught about the basic outline of events at school. Taking the River City Ghost Tour will not only bring you to the actual site of the battle, but we’ll tell you stories no school child has ever heard.
For example, the Alamo today would not exist if it were not for the intervention of people from beyond the grave. When the Mexican army surrendered to General Sam Houston and his troops at the battle of San Jacinto, the word was quickly sent to burn the Mexican occupied Alamo and retreat south. The soldiers at the Alamo that received the order went back to burn the buildings but quickly returned, with no smoke in the sky. They reported they had been stopped by six spectral figures wielding swords of pure flame. Astonished, their commanding officer also went to burn down the Alamo, but returned too, with a pale face and a look of astonishment in his eyes. ‘El Diablo!” he concurred, and the army retreated, leaving the Alamo intact.
Be a tourist in your own backyard
Are you a resident of San Antonio? We would lay money that you have not heard all the ghost stories we tell on the River City Ghosts tour of your fair city. Maybe you heard only some of the stories or got a slightly different version.
Being a tourist in your own town is a great way to break out of the normal routine of life, support some local businesses, and try something new. All tours start and end at the corner of Crockett Street and North St Mary’s Street, we will doubtlessly visit some locations you may have driven past, but do you know their history? Are you familiar with the stories of the haunting of the Empire theatre? Can you tell people why they might have their arm grabbed by a shabbily dressed man asking for twenty-five cents?
Imagine the rich and spooky tales you will be able to relate to the next out-of-town visitors you welcome to beautiful San Antonio if you have the memorable and entertaining stories from River City Ghosts under your belt.
