HAMLET — While much of Hamlet’s history will be on display at this weekend’s Seaboard Festival, one local group highlighted the darker side of Hamlet’s history during a ghost walk last Saturday.
Peed Dee Region Paranormal provided a bit of history and entertainment for participants of last Friday’s Ghost Walk, with the tour highlighting some of Hamlet’s spiritually active areas.
“It helps the community. It brings people in. We’ve had people come all the way from Hickory, North Carolina, and that’s a pretty good drive to get here. It helps Rockingham. It helps Hamlet. It’s just a fun thing that we love doing. We had people buy tickets for both nights It’s the unknown. That’s what brings us all to it. Maybe you have something happen when you’re little, when you’re smaller, and you don’t know. You’re just trying to get answers. Some of us have been trying to get answers for 30 years, and we’ll keep trying,” said Robert Humphries with Pee Dee Paranormal Investigations.
This year’s Ghost Walk was part of a two-night event. As part of the walk, participants weaved their way through downtown Hamlet, learning about the ghost stories and urban legends from multiple locations along the main drag. From a little girl who allegedly haunts the Hamlet Train Depot to a fiendish primate allegedly stalking the halls of Hamlet Opera House, Tour Guide Scott Tomestic had plenty of tales for those in attendance. However, both Tomestic and Humphries agree the most haunted place in Hamlet is the second floor of the old Birmingham Drug Store.
“In a tragic turn of fate Eli. A. Lackey (the building owner) and two of his brothers all died within three days of each other during the influenza pandemic of 1918. This must have been a tremendous blow to the Lacky family, but he certainly left his mark on the city of Hamlet. There is some reason to believe Mr. Lacky is still with us. He had an office on the second floor of the building, which PDRP once had the opportunity to investigate. During a spirit box session, when we asked any spirit present to tell us their name, a voice responded with the name Elijah. Of course, Eli is short for Elijah, but we can’t be certain E.A. Lackey ever went by this name. Was this just an odd coincidence or was Mr. Lackey saying hello to us?” Said Tomestic, who added multiple pieces of equipment used by PDRP picked up signs of a presence within the build.
Entering its eighth year, the Pee Dee Paranormal Investigations team originally began hosting tours in Rockingham. After multiple investigations in downtown Hamlet, they decided to move the tour a bit further east and now switch tour Hamlet during even-numbered years and Rockingham during odd-numbered years.
“We saw a lot of different teams doing things like this for their community, and we decided, you want, let’s give this a try in Rockingham. [Scott Tomestic] arranged it all for us and put it together. He did the history. He got together with John Hutchinson (Rockingham mayor) and they got the historic facts and got all of the information we needed and put together this tour. We come together and help run the table,” Humphries said.
Following the tour, Pee Dee Paranormal opened the train depot to allow tour participants a chance to have his or her own ghostly encounter. Armed with EMF Readers, digital recorder and motion activated devices, participants attempted to conjure a few spirits last Saturday.
“It’s just something we love to do. We go all over the country to investigate some places. We’ve been in Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Georgia, we go anywhere, but we also do house calls if someone thinks something is going on in their home, and they need any kind of help. For instance, a client called and she heard rining in her house. We got there, and it wasn’t a spirit. It was an electrical issue. We got an electrician out there who solved it. Everybody is happy. It’s just helping the community. That’s all we’re doing,” Humphries said.
To set up a paranormal investigation, or just to check in on what the Pee Dee Paranormal team is up to, check them out of Facebook.
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