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BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – Spooky season is upon us and with it comes stories of hauntings, ghosts and ghouls.
Local psychic and paranormal investigator Charles (Chuck) Crooks has a Halloween treat for spirit enthusiasts. Through the month of October, Bellingham Ghost Tours will have educational recountings of interactions with the afterlife.
Crooks moved to Bellingham in 2009 and started officially looking into the paranormal in 2010. From an early age, he experienced ghostly encounters and has collected numerous electronic ghost phenomenons (EVP) over the years. He now uses his personal experience and knowledge to provide spiritual education.
Chuckanut Bay Distillery asked Crooks to bring his Ghost Tour to downtown Bellingham because of spirit activity within their own establishment. The distillery is the first business since a JCPenney department store left the building in 1988. Staff have reported unexplainable happenings in the distillery’s speak-easy and basement, as well as sounds of footsteps on upper floors during renovations.
The 21 and over downtown Bellingham tour both begins and ends at Chuckanut Bay Distillery where participants get to hang out and have a drink to conclude their paranormal walk through.
Another stop on the tour is Hotel Leo, previously known as the Hotel Byron, which was first established in 1899. Leopold F. Schmidt purchased the hotel in 1910, and the building went through significant renovations throughout the 1900s. The original towers no longer stand, but the building remains a historic part of downtown Bellingham.
The basement, first floor and second floor are known to have the most paranormal activity. Crooks shares various photos of the hotel on the ghost tour as well as more of the lavish paranormal encounters that he has heard in the building.
“Unfortunately, some stories that come out of places tend to be a little bit embellished sometimes,” Crooks said. “That’s why it’s really important to interview different people. You want as many stories as possible so you can take from the most common ones and say this is what I really believe in.”
One of Crooks favorite stops featured on the downtown Bellingham Ghost Tours is Mount Baker Theater due to the variety of ghost stories that it has. Other-worldly interactions at the theater have been told by its staff and theatergoers for ages.
The area was previously occupied by homes, which were torn down to build the theater in 1927. Bowler hat Jeffrey, handsy Judy and a ghostly panther (Crooks’ favorite) are a few of the paranormal beings he dives into.
Prepare for goosebumps when Crooks plays a series of hair-raising EVPs featuring audible sounds, voices and words from his personal experiences with paranormal activity.
If you leave a Fairhaven or Downtown Ghost Tour wanting more, Crooks is offering an in-person ghost hunting experience to wrap up the fall season in November.
The experience will entail a four-hour hunt from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. at an undisclosed location on Whidbey Island. Individuals will explore as a group and break off into smaller portions throughout the night, using various methods to investigate paranormal activity. Those who sign up will be given full details on the event’s precise location.
To sign up for tours in Fairhaven and Bellingham and the ghost hunting experience on Whidbey Island visit bellinghamghosttours.com/tickets.