Local author offers supernatural tours

El Paso has a very large population of spooks and phantoms, local author Ken Hudnall said.

"El Paso, historically is the most haunted city in the country," Hudnall said.

He's the author of 14 books about haunted places around the country and hosts his own radio show about mysteries and ghosts on KHRO 1650 AM.

Hudnall has lived in El Paso for 16 years and said the amount of ghostly activity in El Paso inspired him to write three books on the subject.

"I started researching and when I hit over 500 haunted locations, that was more than any other city I could find," Hudnall said. "So, I wrote a book about the most haunted locations in town and I wrote a second and a third book and people said, 'why don't you show us these places,' and so I started doing ghost tours."

Since August of last year, Hudnall has been conducting ghost tours at the Camino Real Hotel and Concordia Cemetery. Concordia, he said, is the most intense of the two sites and guests often leave in the middle of the tour because they are too afraid to continue. Both tours begin with dinner.

"The first time I did the Concordia tour, I had a video camera there. They opened up the cage around John Wesley Harding's gravesite and right after that, the audio track on our video camera picked up somebody wearing spurs, walking along with the camera man," Hudnall said.

Hudnall uses simple research methods. He usually begins by collecting anecdotal ghost stories and then conducts archival research to obtain factual information.

"I use the library often because they've got really large files on the history of the area," he said.

Hudnall said his interest in the supernatural sprang from his natural curiosity and his own childhood experiences.

"I've always been interested in mysteries, especially supernatural mysteries. I grew up in a house built in 1815, so I was always seeing and hearing movement and catching glimpses of figures out of the corner of my eye and that just fascinated me," he said. "I wanted to know the why."

Through his research, Hudnall said he has been able to pinpoint the locations with the most supernatural activity. Most of them are located in Downtown El Paso, such as the Camino Real Hotel, Plaza Theatre, Chase Bank building, Cortez building, Acme Saloon and the Union Fashion building. The most haunted location, he said, is El Paso High School.

Hudnall wrote more than 40 pages on the haunting of El Paso High in his first book. He said ghosts of two young girls are seen from time to time roaming the halls of the first and fourth floors.

"At El Paso High, there was a cheerleader that committed suicide in 1949. She walks the top floor and she's been seen by many of the night janitorial staff. There's also a girl in a blue chiffon prom dress who has been seen on the first floor," Hudnall said.

Hudnall said there also exists a negative presence in El Paso High's catacombs.

"It followed me for an hour and a half when I was exploring the building," Hudnall said. "In fact, they've had police dogs chased out of the building. They will not send a single officer in. All the school buildings have alarms that are monitored in a central facility by the airport and, whenever there is an alarm set off, they send an officer. But to El Paso High, they will send an officer and a dog or two officers. There are officers that, even during the day, wouldn't set foot in that building."

Tickets for Ken Hudnall's ghost tours can be purchased by phone at 880-4376 or 219-4210, or online at www.kenhudnall.com. Tickets for the ghost tours are $25 for the Concordia tour, which includes dinner at the L & J Café. Children's tickets are $15 or $6 for children 5 years old and younger. The Camino Real tour, which includes dinner at Azulejos, costs $30 for adults, $20 for children aged 6 to 12 and $12 for children 5 and younger. For more information, e-mail ken@kenhudnall.com. Hudnall's radio show is broadcast nightly from 6 to 8 p.m. on KHRO 1650 AM.

Miguel De Santiago may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.