By Marty Roney
In Wilcox County, it's known as "The Billie Hole," where in antebellum times a female slave jumped into a wooded pool because she didn't want to be sold.
The pool got its name after her death. Stories abound that on nights of the full moon, Billie can be seen to rise up out of the hole wearing a long white dress.
"One night a man saw her as he was walking through the woods," said Linda Vice of the Southwest Alabama Regional Tourism and Film Office. "When he got to a neighbor's house, all out of breath, he was all cut up. He had run through four strands of barbed wire to get away from her. Now you might not believe in ghosts, but that poor man saw something that scared him so badly he ran through a barbed wire fence to get away."
It's that history of things that may or may not go bump in the night that Alabama's Black Belt region is looking to cash in on.
The tourism and film office is working to establish a ghost trail stretching through the 18 or so counties that make a swath through the middle of the state, starting this summer. Named for its rich black prairie soil, the Black Belt was where King Cotton ruled before and after the Civil War.
"The Black Belt is rich in the history and culture of the Scots-Irish settlers and the African-Americans who toiled as slaves," Vice said. "Both cultures valued storytelling as a way to preserve their history, and both cultures understood the concept of second sight and a spirit world. So we have plenty of stories of ghosts and 'haints' to choose from for our trail."
The Black Belt is among the most economically depressed areas of the state, and tourism is big business in Alabama. In 2008 it generated an economic impact of $9.6 billion, according to Edith Parten, communications director for the Alabama Tourism Department. Last year, there were about 22 million people who visited the state, she said.
While there are no national statistics on the subject, paranormal tourism is becoming increasingly popular and communities across the country are taking advantage of haunting pieces of folklore and legend to bring in business.
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Mansfield, Ohio, a city of about 50,000, has been at it for nearly a decade at the Ohio State Reformatory. The 19th-century prison is closed now, but its castlelike walls and imposing stone construction hearken back to another time. The prison should look familiar to movie buffs -- it's where "The Shawshank Redemption" was filmed.
Lee Tasseff, president of the Mansfield-Richland County Conventions and Visitors Bureau, estimates that the tours bring in 1,600 to 1,700 visitors a season.
"They have had to add more tours through the years because the demand is so high," he said. "We have had visitors from 25 states and Canada come to Mansfield to take part in the tours and walks. We estimate that since the tours started, they have brought in about 17,000 visitors. Some of those people may just drive over for a day and then go home.
"But many of them will spend a night in the city, buy gas and eat in our restaurants. So the tours have been very good for our tourism industry."
Other communities travel the specter trail as well:
Richmond, Va.: Demand from visitors was so high this year another tour was added to the May through October Haunts of Richmond schedule. The company began the ghost tour in 2004, said Sandi Bergman, who started the company with her husband, Scott. Aside from being a historic city, Richmond is the hometown of Edgar Allan Poe, so stories of the spirit world abound.
Cape Fear area of North Carolina: The city of Wilmington has nightly ghost walks that travel through the 275-year-old alleys and streets of the port city. This year two additional routes were added to the ghost walks. The ghost walk started with eight or nine stories and through the years expanded to 24 stories, with four more now in the works, said Connie Nelson, communications and public relations director for the Wilmington/Cape Fear Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Long Beach Island, N.J.: Lantern-lit ghost walking tours will return this summer to the Town of Beach Haven, said Maggie M. O'Neill, who started the tours as a way to inform visitors of the town's history. The tours began last year. In Princeton, N.J., The Princeton Tour Co. began ghost tours in July 2008, said Adam Perle, vice president of the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce. Guides dress in period costumes to lead the tours. There is also a Friendly Ghost Flashlight Tour for children in pre-kindergarten through second grade.
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Houston: Discover Houston Tours added cemetery tours this spring, held each Sunday, said Lindsey Brown, director of marketing and public relations for the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau. The company began ghost walk tours in 1999 that are held each October. In 2007 the Broomstick Tours were added, where participants ride a bus to take in the haunted sites instead of walking. Stops include the Jeff Davis Hospital and Crematorium and the Battleship Texas State Historic Site.
So what's the attraction of having the bejabbers scared out of us? For most people it's just natural, said Dr. Allen K. Hess, a psychology professor at Auburn Montgomery.
"If life were all vanilla it wouldn't taste good," he said. "Whether its boredom or curiosity, seeking arousal is part of being human. We are attracted to the unknown and a certain element of danger. We are after the thrill being scared provides.
"In the case of a ghost walk or ghost trail that attraction is safe because it is controlled. We know that we are going to be safe when the tour is over."
The Black Belt trail is planned to be a self-guided driving affair. The ghost stories also will be told on video that will be posted on a Web site. The trail is set to open this summer with stories from Dallas, Perry and Wilcox counties. The effort is gathering stories from each of the counties in the region, which will be added to the tour as work is completed.
The stops include the St. James Hotel on Selma's Water Avenue. Overlooking the muddy waters of the Alabama River, the building's history dates back to 1837. Steamboats tied up near the hotel to offload supplies and load up cotton bales to carry down river to Mobile.
Passers-by often report seeing a white orb floating around the window of Room 301. The room and other parts of the hotel are said to be haunted by the outlaw Jesse James. He and his brother, Frank, visited relatives in the area after the Civil War.
"Jesse stayed in that room several times because it offered good views of the streets around the hotel. He was watching out for the law," said William Ezell, manager of the hotel. "His brother stayed in a separate room in the hotel, so there was always a chance of one of them getting away."
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An oil portrait of a woman named Lucinda hangs in the foyer of the hotel. Local legend has it that she was Jesse James' paramour. Guests report seeing her ghostly image in the halls and seeing the specter of a man believed to be Jesse James sitting at a table in the drinking room. James wore spurs on his boots, and staff at the hotel have reported hearing jingling footsteps walking down empty halls.
It's not only the sounds of footsteps that seem to have other-worldly origins. James befriended a dog when he was in Selma, and late at night guests have reported hearing a barking dog in the courtyard, but when they look no animal is there.
Why James might haunt the Selma hotel is unknown. He was gunned down several states away. But Southerners don't let anything as trivial as logic stand in the way of a good tale.
"There have been investigations at the hotel that have shown paranormal activity," said Candace Johnson of the Selma-Dallas County Centre for Commerce. "We may never know why Jesse James is attached to the St. James."
His legend, and the ghost trail, is good for business, Ezell said.
"Anyone traveling the ghost trail is welcome to spend a few nights here," he said. Ezell admits to never seeing any ghost-related activity at the business in his two years as manager. "Anything that brings visitors to the area is good for the economy."
In the Black Belt, it's common for people to be accepting, even welcoming, of spirits seen as benevolent. That's the case with Charles and Jenny Holmes of Marion, a Perry County town about 30 miles northwest of Selma.
In 1978, the Holmeses moved an antebellum home about four miles down the road to their farm. They renovated the home, and in 1980 they moved in. This year, they opened a bed and breakfast in the home. Jenny Holmes said she has seen a mistlike form, wearing a white gown, several times in the front hall.
"I guess when we moved the house, she decided to come along," she said. "I've never felt any fear or have doubted what I had seen. We have three sons, grown and moved away now. Of course my husband and boys wondered about me when I first told them what I had seen. But my oldest son has seen her, too, so we just accept her."
After being in the house for several years, Holmes met a friend in town, whose mother had lived in the home in the early 1900s. The man asked if she had seen the ghost yet.
"I asked him 'What ghost?' and he said his mama had always seen a lady in a white gown near the front hall and kitchen," she said. "She's welcome here. As far as I know she has never done anything aggressive, not to my knowledge."
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