“I’m not a ghost hunter,” Mason Winfield insists. “I get called that a lot. But I don’t go chasing ghosts. I study the places that get a lot of ghost stories, and there are some very interesting patterns involved.”
Whatever it is Winfield does, it must interest others. The East Aurora ghost walks Winfield started in 1996 have become Haunted History Ghost Walks, Inc., a company with two staffers, twenty colleagues, nine tours, a lecture series and a recently-published book [Haunted Rochester (2008), The History Press].
If you’re trying to understand Winfield’s approach, substitute the word ‘history’ for that of ‘ghost’. “When people come on one of my tours, their expectations should be that they’re going to learn something. And have a good time. It’s a walking tour of places that are the subject of unusual stories. We retell these stories, with interest.”
Winfield has never seen a ghost on one of his tours. “That’s not the point,” he says. “I laugh at people who say they can call a ghost up.” He adds, though, that every year someone on one of his tours claims to have had some kind of sighting. “I never see anything, though. I’m concentrating on leading the tour.”
A former English professor with a background in Classical culture and English literature, Winfield is well suited to be the purveyor of historic folklore. His scripted and well-honed tours are deeply researched and highly entertaining. A typical 90-minute ghost walk is essentially a crash course in local history and architecture (heavy on the preservation side), with tantalizing lore thrown in for good measure.
The regular ghost walk season is June through October. On the Niagara Frontier Winfield’s company offers tours of Allentown, Buffalo’s Theater District, East Aurora, Lewiston, Orchard Park, and Williamsville. “We also get a lot of privates,” Winfield says. “People just call us, and we usually work something out.”
The walks have no limit on size. Winfield says, “We take what we get.” The most popular tours are in East Aurora, Lewiston, and Saratoga Springs, though Allentown and the Theatre District are very popular.
Most of Winfield’s walks end where they begin and cover about a mile. Winfield can’t lead all the tours, and he relies upon a staff of talented colleagues. “We get together and plan things as a company,” says Winfield. Each walk is scripted into a mini book, with countless factoids that become part of the tour. “The more the guides do a tour, the more they fine tune it.”
Each of Winfield’s ghost walks is an entertaining historical tour, mixing ghost stories with a lively wit. It’s unique, though, in the way it analyzes the reports of psychic experience. “We apply the logic and terminology of parapsychology,” Winfield says, “along with the scientific study of psychic phenomena and experience. We aren’t parapsychologists, and we don’t claim to be. We don’t like people calling themselves parapsychologists unless they are. Someone who takes pictures at haunted houses and calls himself a parapsychologist… That’s the dogcatcher claiming to be a veterinarian.”
Of the landmarks on his tours, Winfield says, “We don’t go inside buildings. A ten-stop tour would take all night.”
He adds, “We like public sites. We don’t break stories about privately owned homes…at least if it isn’t something you could have read in the paper. We don’t tell things about the dead that could hurt their descendants. We know a lot that we keep to ourselves.”
As for the buildings themselves…Winfield is an ardent preservationist, culturally, historically and architecturally. “The more people know, the more they’ll preserve. We need to have some sort of code for new buildings in historic areas. We need to keep the quality buildings we have and value green space as a community resource. The developers have the energy, the money and the lawyers. Citizens and government need to step in.”
Winfield cites success stories; booming communities like Charleston, SC, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, and Saratoga Springs, NY. “All those communities have had their low points,” he says, “but they kept their architectural cores. If a village keeps its core, it can come back. That’s one thing we have to realize on the Niagara.”
Another aspect of preservation is oral history—the record of people’s thoughts and experiences – to which Winfield and company are equally devoted. “Psychic and paranormal folklore is everywhere,” he said. “People who don’t believe in the subjects may think it’s useless. But it’s connected to things we do consider valuable. Psychic folklore ought to be just as important as cultural preservation of any other sort: slave poetry, Underground Railroad tradition…We shouldn’t let psychic folklore fall between the cracks.”
Though Winfield will not admit to seeing a single ghost on any one of his tours, he concedes to having a few psychic experiences in his life. He brings it up only when asked. “Spontaneous psychic phenomena are all but impossible to study. You can’t call it up when you want to. Science would believe in it if it was that easy.”
One new event, The Haunted Pub Crawl, has been an instant success. “It’s basically a ghost walk with a lot more socializing. We go in haunted inns and pubs.” Winfield notes, “About halfway through, people stop listening to my ghost stories.”
With the sponsorship of Labatt USA, the 2008 regular schedule of Mason Winfield’s Haunted Pub Crawls starts in June, offering six Crawls of East Aurora, four of Saratoga Springs, three of Allentown, one of Lewiston, and a single “Curtain Up!” Crawl of Buffalo’s Theater District.
The author or editor of six books about the supernatural history of Western New York— including the local legend, Shadows of the Western Door (1997) – Winfield is an organizational member of the newly founded society Spirit Way Project. “This is a small, devoted group of teachers, authors, mystics and researchers dedicated to preserving the psychic and spiritual heritage of the Niagara Frontier and Western New York. Winfield promises, “More to come. We haven’t even got our web page up yet.”
Winfield, who also gives dozens of lectures during the course of the typical year, has offices on the Roycroft Campus in East Aurora. Of his original outfit, Haunted History Ghost Walks, he says, “The breadth of our interest seems to be another of the keys to our success.”
Come and see (or not) for yourself. The regular schedule of Haunted History Ghost Walks kicks off in June and runs until the end of October. Ghost walks of Allentown, Buffalo’s Theater District, East Aurora, Lewiston, Orchard Park and Williamsville are set to begin. More information can be had at MasonWinfield.com or by calling 716.655.6663.
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