Thrills and chills show
Bus tours designed to captivate with Port Aransas lore

Treat yourself to a chilling tour with suspenseful tales of Port Aransas in years gone by on the History 's Mysteries bus tour excursions set for Saturday, Oct. 27, said John Fucik, one of the moderators. Leslie Willey Jr. and Marcy Mathews Ward Thomas also will tell tales.

The three Halloween tours will include local lore on ghosts, hauntings and stories of the supernatural. Each will last about an-hour-and-a-half. The bus will make several stops, but riders will not disembark.

The tours are a partnership between the Port Aransas Preservation and Historical Association (PAPHA) and the City of Port Aransas Parks and Recreation Department.

Register for tours by calling Rachael King at the Parks Department at 749-4158.

The earliest trip, set for 4:30 p.m., will be less scary and is meant for the younger set. The 6 and 8 p.m. trips will be more "adult content scary", said Fucik, PAPHA president.

The cost is $1 for children and $3 for adults, with proceeds going to the PAPHA building fund.

The bus can hold 50 people per trip, and buses will depart from the Ellis Memorial Library parking lot. Riders should be there 10 minutes before departure time for boarding.

Some tales of wraiths, mysterious lights and unaccounted-for-happenings are fairly well known, having been recorded in several books by area authors.

Other tales have been handed down only verbally in family stories or shared over midnight campfires.

As might be expected when treading on the edges of the occult, quite a few seafaring and fishing superstitions were observed to insure good luck or to avoid bad luck.

One of the stories to be told on the trips involves a custom that goes way back to a Karankawa Indian practice that required a brave to undertake some daring and dangerous task to prove his bravery to the Indian maiden he chose for a bride. If he met with misfortune and died in the attempt, the young maid had to follow her brave to the happy hunting ground, which in that culture was the sea. With just her loincloth, a bowl of water and an ear of corn, she was set aboard a boat and launched into the sea.

Take the tour to learn how the spirit world transformed the special markings on her face into a lasting symbol.