We meet JR Pleban under the cloak of darkness, in a courtyard within earshot of spooky sounds and screams emanating from Ripley's Haunted House, located halfway down the street. Before meeting, Pleban instructs us to look for a guy in a straw hat-and only that person. Apparently, with six ghost tour operators in San Antonio, competition can be fierce and sometimes people who have booked with him end up on another operator's tour.
On this Thursday night, there are 16 of us on the Ghost Hunt walking tour, but on a Friday or Saturday night, Pleban can have as many as 120 people on his tours.
The main selling point for Alamo City Ghost Tours' Ghost Hunt is that it comes complete with sophisticated "ghost hunting" equipment for participants to use. These include thermal meters for detecting cold spots, EMF meters to measure electromagnetic fields, and dowsing rods to find energy fields. Pleban tells us a shift of a full 8 degrees Fahrenheit in just one spot on a surface can be an indication of a ghostly presence. A final piece of equipment that everyone is asked to bring is their camera. Sometimes images appear on cameras that are not seen with the naked human eye.
Pleban has been offering historical tours in San Antonio since 1996, and started this ghost hunt tour seven years ago, when his was one of only a few in the United States. He has been part of the San Antonio Ghost Hunters society for more than 20 years.
He's also convinced he saw the ghost of a dead aunt in a stairwell when he was a boy. He takes his tours very seriously. "I won't be telling you all goofball stories-everything is factual and true," Pleban says during the introduction to the tour.
He believes that San Antonio's history as a key battleground makes it a fertile hunting ground for ghosts.
"San Antonio is a city built on a town, built on a village- and it's been here since the 1700s," Pleban says. "There have been a lot of battles and a lot of death here."
Pleban notes that it is generally accepted that energy, which can be picked up by the dowsing rod, leaves the body when someone dies. "A lot of people believe ghosts are tied to a tragic death or unfinished business, but I don't believe that. Anytime someone dies, they leave energy behind."
The first stop on the tour is outside the famously haunted Menger Hotel, which is said to be occupied by as many as 20 spirits, including former U.S. president Teddy Roosevelt, who visited the hotel three times during his life. The most frequently reported ghost is Sally White, a maid who was killed at the Menger Hotel by her husband in the 1870s. Pleban says folks report that she carries stacks of towels on the third floor and sometimes appears in guests' rooms when they are sleeping and tidies their belongings on the dresser.
We also visit the San Fernando Cathedral, which is said to house the remains of Alamo defenders, and is where the outlines of faces appear to emerge in the brick work and plaster on external building walls behind tombs. The 13th and final stop is at the historic Spanish Governors Palace, where Pleban stops in front of a window to point to where a young girl was once entombed in a wall and is said to haunt the home.
Notably, while the tour was very educational about the history of San Antonio and many of its haunted spots, we did not encounter any ghosts, nor did our ghost hunting equipment detect any paranormal activity. In fact, a test Pleban performed with the dowsing rods, using tour participants as volunteers failed on two occasions. It involved a volunteer holding the L-shaped dowsing rod in a neutral position and asking it to point to a specific person. However, my test of the dowsing rod, whereby I said, "Mr. Dowsing Rod point to Krystal," worked not just once, but twice, which sold me on the power of the dowsing rod.
After an evening of fun and adventure, it was with some reluctance that we bid good-bye to our eccentric tour guide, but it wasn't without the promise of possibly meeting again. In fact, one day, Pleban might be one of the ghosts lurking the streets of San Antonio: "I'm not looking forward to dying. If I have a choice, I'd want to be left behind."
What to know if booking a Ghost Hunt:
You're unlikely to see any ghosts, and if you do, it will probably be in a photograph, such as a person on the branch of a 300year-old tree that was used for hangings.
Dress for the weather, wear comfortable shoes, and be prepared to walk two kilometres. The tour visits 13 haunted sites in the downtown core. Alamo City Ghost Hunts are $15 for adults and $10 for minors. Visit alamocityghosttours.com for more details.
Where to eat and stay:
The elegant Hotel Contessa is located along the scenic Riverwalk and is an easy 10-minute walk from where the ghost hunt begins. While this all-suite hotel does not offer ghostly encounters, the service is out of this world. We started out our evening at the hotel's restaurant, Las Rambas, enjoying dinner on the river-side outdoor patio. For more information, visit thehotelcontessa.com.
