Flagstaff is not the first place most people think of when they hear the word "haunted." It should be. This is a town built on Route 66 heritage, frontier history, and over a century of stories that the buildings hold whether anyone asks for them or not. At 7,000 feet, the air is thinner. The history is denser.
The seven locations on this tour were not chosen at random. Each one is grounded in the published archival research of historian Susan Johnson, who spent years in the court records, newspaper archives, and first-person accounts that make up the real story of downtown Flagstaff. These are not scripts someone found on the internet. They are the product of primary source work, published in three books with The History Press.
The connection between history and hauntings is not a marketing gimmick. The haunting IS the history. The unexplained reports that come out of these buildings are inseparable from the events that happened inside them. You cannot understand one without the other.
Other tours tell you ghost stories. We take you to the buildings where the history happened and let them tell you themselves. See the full walking route to plan your evening.
The Historian Behind the Stories
Susan Johnson spent years in the archives before a single tour was ever given. Her research methodology is built on primary sources: court records, Arizona Daily Sun newspaper archives, first-person accounts from people connected to the events, and materials from the Arizona Historical Society.
The result is a body of work that treats Flagstaff's haunted history with the same rigor you would expect from any serious historical research. The difference is that the subjects of this research happen to include things that are difficult to explain. Learn more at susanjohnson.org.
Published Research
The stories on this tour come from years of primary source research, published in three books with The History Press:
- 1.Haunted Flagstaff
- 2.Wicked Flagstaff
- 3.A third title with The History Press