Experience an evening of ‘fantasmas’ with El Paso Ghost Tours

El Paso De Soto Hotel Basement

Looking for an evening filled with a bit of history and mystery?  El Paso Ghost Tours offers a historical and paranormal experience you may never forget!  The evening begins with a leisurely walk through the streets of El Paso, Texas with your host, Leon Baker.

Leon Baker

Baker, the owner of El Paso Ghost Tours, is an avid paranormal investigator and tech specialist along with his team of knowledgeable investigators.  Their goal is to bring guests a step closer towards the paranormal by providing an experience somewhat close to what it is like when participating on a real investigation.  They encourage guests to use their personal photo, video and audio devices, and other paranormal equipment devices on the tours. The group enjoys taking guests into places where they have personally encountered the paranormal, giving you the chance to perhaps share the same phenomena.

Tour guests meet at 7:45 P.M. in front of the haunted De Soto Hotel which was featured on a recent episode of Travel Channel’s “Ghost Adventures.”   Leon Baker greets his guests dressed as a Texas Ranger and gives a brief history of early El Paso history. Leon informed the group that he has been leading the tours almost every Friday night for the last ten years.  The man really loves his job and the passion shows!

He casually led the group down Mills Avenue filling the tour with the history of the old 1917 Post Office and the Cortez Building (1925) where LBJ and JFK met to make plans for their upcoming trip to Dallas in 1963.   Turning on Mesa Street we learned of the German spy missions of World War l, and buildings where traitors of the Mexican/US Border Wars hid away. Why, even Pancho Villa bought candies and ice cream in what was once a confectionary store. (now CVS)

It was fun to see the untouched “ghost signs” (painted ads on the old red bricks) that were once hidden behind a historic bank.  Some guests say they have seen a ghost on the fifth floor of the Caples Building on Mesa and San Antonio. Snap a photo and see if he appears to you!

El Paso ghost signs

We stopped at the site where John Wesley Hardon was shot dead in the Acme Saloon in 1893 by Constable John Selman.  It was said John Wesley Hardon—a most feared gunman, shot and killed more than 30 men. Does his spirit and those he murdered still linger in this spot?

The tour winds past the haunted Plaza Theater and towering Plaza Hotel where Conrad Hilton and Elizabeth Taylor kept a suite.  The group passed by the San Jacinto Plaza once the home of frolicking alligators in the pond from 1889 to 1965. Only a fountain statue in their likeness remains…so they say.

El Paso Plaza Theatre
El Paso Plaza Hotel

Back at the De Soto Hotel, we were led inside and down the stairs into the dark basement mostly used for storage.  Leon gather the group around and explained the De Soto hotel, built in 1905, is still the home to a few dozen living and breathing residents—and a few that aren’t!

Part of the El Paso De Soto Hotel basement

He told the group that the team, El Paso Ghost Tours, know of at least three spirits that call the De Soto Hotel their home.  One spirit is James, a gentleman who died on the premises and was not found for almost a week. Another is a playful little girl about eight or nine years old they call Sara who enjoys staying close to the female motherly visitors. It is believed (but not proven) that there was once a group of people who entered the menacing basement to do satanic rituals and every once in a while, a dark shadowy entity can be seen or felt in the doorway of the back room.

Paranormal equipment was loaned to those in need and the group of twelve guests and the paranormal team of six began a short EVP session to let the spirits know of out intentions.  Once our eyes and hearts had adjusted to being in the darkened basement, everyone moved on to the back room where voices have been heard, lights have been known to go on and off, and objects have moved on their own.  There was another EVP session, an assembly with a large ghost box, photos were snapped as we sat and monitored a Flir camera set up. All in all, the group spent over and hour experimenting with various pieces of paranormal equipment—one device at a time.  

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At the end of the night, Leon gathered the group in the adjoining room and thanked the spirits for letting us come to visit.  He bid them farewell and asked that all spirits remain in their De Soto realm and they were not to follow any of the tour guests’ home.  

You can book a tour with Old El Paso Tours at www.elpasoghostours.com or reach them by email at verifiedelpasoghosttours@gmail.com    Proceeds goes toward usage rent of the De Soto Hotel basement, research, and new equipment for the tours.

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