By Blake Deshazo | The Selma Times-Journal

The gates to Old Cahawba are closed to visitors when the sun goes down, but the park is still very much alive at night.

“There’s just a feel that you get,” said site director Linda Derry about being in the park at night. ”The staff has all had things happen to us that we can’t explain.”

On Oct. 7 and Oct. 22 park visitors will get to experience some of the ghost town’s most haunted locations during the tenth annual Haunted History Tours.

“It’s a rare opportunity,” Derry said. “It’s really the only two nights you can be down here at night.”

The tour will take visitors to a haunted cemetery that started in the 1850s and the Barker family slave quarters, where a paranormal investigation will take place throughout the night.

“It’s not like going to a haunted house,” Derry said. “We don’t set up things, and we don’t dress up. We guarantee if you see something down here, it’s real.”

There are five tours each night starting at 7 p.m. with the last one headed to the haunts at 9 p.m.

“We have what we call the ghost wagon … and you’re going down that road and the owls are hooting, the coyotes are howling, the moonlight is coming through the trees and the mist is coming off the ground,” Derry said.

Each year a paranormal team investigates the old slave quarters, but this year a new team, Alabama Paranormal Research, will be hunting for ghosts and using what they call trigger items to help encounter ghosts.

“One of our ghosts down here, we know from historical research that her father composed something called the Cahawba Polka,” Derry said. “It was for a wedding present. We’re going to have a recording of it that we’re going to set out there at her gravesite and see what happens.”

Landon Nichols, destination and marketing coordinator for the Selma and Dallas County Chamber of Commerce, said tickets are being booked quickly.

“We have over 50 people already registered. Spots are selling out quick, and this is a limited capacity tour,” Nichols said.

“Each tour only holds about 28 folks, so we really want to encourage folks to get out there and get their tickets earlier, or they may miss out on this special opportunity.”

Tickets must be bought in advance and can be purchased online for $20.

“The easiest way to do it is to navigate to your Facebook page and find your way over to Selma’s Haunted History Tour,” Nichols said. “Once you get there, there is a link that says ‘Book Now.’ If you press that link, it will take you to our Eventbrite page. Right there you can buy a ticket online in the comfort of your own home.”

Visitors are asked to arrive 20 minutes ahead of their tour, and each one will last approximately 90 minutes.