The St. Augustine Lighthouse

It was a cold December night when we arrived at the St. Augustine Lighthouse. This night, we would be taking a tour of one of the most reportedly haunted lighthouses in the United States. We had seen many TV shows, depicting possible paranormal evidence. Everything from EVPs (electronic voice phenomenon), shadow people and even full-body apparitions have been shown and reported at this monumental place.

My wife and I had never thought in a million years that we would be standing at the foot of this massive lighthouse. You see four years earlier while visiting St. Augustine, I had seen this very lighthouse from afar. However back then I was not able to get into the tower, and from that point on I had vowed to return to St. Augustine and investigate that tower for myself. Now we were looking up in awe, about to do exactly what I had wanted to do all those years ago.

We were a bit early arriving at the lighthouse for the tour, so we walked around the gift shop admiring all of the amazing histories they had on the walls and the ancient-looking cannon that they had on display in a room right off the gift shop entryway.

The tour was being conducted by a group called “Dark of the Moon.” Their claim was it was “St. Augustine’s only ghost tour at the Lighthouse.” I believe this to be true because I looked for any tour that would get us into that lighthouse and this tour has been the only one able to offer just that. I had found this tour several months earlier while planning our vacation. I had known at that time one of our stops on that vacation had to be St. Augustine because of its rich history and just amazing charm the city had when last I’d visited.

The tour got started about 8 PM. We were met by a lady with what I perceived to be the back entrance to the gift shop on a patio, which was adjacent to a footpath leading right up to the lighthouse tower, at which time the tour guide handed us all a single glow stick that was attached to a string. We were all meant to wear these around our neck. From there we were led down the footpath right to the front entrance of the tower. Our tour guide told us about the rules of the tour and what not to expect. At this point, our larger group was divided into two smaller groups. My group met with our new tour guide at the top of the light-keeper's home.

We were ushered into a dark room with several rows of wooden benches and were asked to sit. Our new guide told us multiple stories about the many documented deaths on the property, and several stories of alleged paranormal activities that have been experienced in the lighthouse and the surrounding grounds. One that stuck out to me was the story of a Girl Scout group that had been sitting in the very room we were in and had their glow sticks messed with by the spirits of three little girls that had perished in an accident when the lighthouse was being built. Our guide demonstrated how the glow sticks had been swinging around the Girl Scouts necks and the spontaneous manner in which the glow sticks would “pop” off the strings that had been holding them.

After this, we were led on to the balcony of the light-keeper’s house, and here our tour guide proceeded to tell us the history of the lighthouse and the reason for its strange location. The lighthouse sat miles away from the nearest body of water. She also told us the story of supposed apparitions seen wandering about the lighthouse grounds. Leaving the balcony, back down the stairs we went until we reached another room on the first floor of the home. In this room was a staircase oddly positioned in the middle of the room. Our tour guide stood next to these stairs and started to talk about all the former lighthouse keepers, mentioning how the lighthouse eventually came to be a museum in its present incarnation. She told us yet more stories of phantom footprints on the wood floors on the first floor and multiple other incidents of reported paranormal activity.

Turning back to the stairs in the middle of the room, she told us about the home's basement and how Florida was not known for such things. Down a spiral staircase, we descended into what seemed to be the darkest basement I had ever been in. In this new room was a platform of sorts that was so contorted and badly shaped, you could hardly stand on it. Our guide told us about an even darker part of the very room we stood in. People had reported seeing shadow figures dart in and out of that area, but from my perspective it was way too dark to perceive anything in the corner she was talking about. She then asked for two volunteers and I immediately said I would volunteer and another woman from our group followed suit. Our guide led into another room, then down a narrow, short hallway, where we ended up in another area of the basement. She then asked us to sit in two wooden chairs in the corner of the room and that she would be right back with the rest of the group.

It felt like ten minutes had passed and we heard nothing from the confines of this room when suddenly I felt what I can only describe as something touching my legs. As I was starting to tell the woman seated next to me, she said that she had felt what she described as a tingling on her head down to her feet. Oddly enough, it almost seemed to happen at the same time. About a minute later the group appeared with our guide in this room. She started telling the group about an entity that had been reported in this room, that “would touch people’s legs and stroke, women’s hair.” This, according to her, was especially true of guests who sat in the chairs I and the other woman had sat. On hearing this report we both told her our experiences backing up her claim. I know no one had been in the room with us and nothing had been “set up” to give us that experience since I quickly looked around me and the area after I had been “touched.” Exhilarated by this experience, I was ready to take on the tower.

Moments later we went up some stairs and out of the basement and onto the footpath where we had originally started that night’s tour. We walked back up to the door of the lighthouse up a short flight of stairs when immediately, I saw the KII meter my wife was holding started to flash green. It was a very quick flash, however in the dark it was remarkably noticeable, yet my wife had not seen this happen. Just minutes after another group member's KII lit up and then a third KII went off, that one being held by yet a third member of our group. We had scarcely stepped into the tower when all three of these KII meters, my wife’s included, started to flash identically.

Realizing what was happening, I stopped my wife and the other two people holding the other KII meters and beckoned our tour guide to see what was happening. I started to ask questions, as did others in our group. I wanted to confirm we were getting contact from a possible entity, so I asked if what we were talking to could stop all three KIIs from flashing. Moments later the KIIs did just that with this we continued to ask several more questions, one of which was to make a noise in the tower for us as possible confirmation. As if on cue we heard a noise coming from somewhere in the tower. As a secondary confirmation I asked for a second noise, and immediately a new noise was heard from up above.

The whole interaction was about five minutes, yet the entire time only the three KII meters ever went off; also, all three interacted in the same manner as if all three had been connected. The encounter only lasted about five minutes, however, we have no explanation of what occurred that night. That was the most exciting possible paranormal activity I have ever had the privilege of witnessing. If you ever have a chance to make it to St. Augustine, you must look up the Dark of the Moon ghost tour and you may as well have your paranormal encounter.

In closing, our experience was just that, an experience to add to the multitude that the St. Augustine Lighthouse has had in its long and glorious history. My wife and I tell our account for posterity. You have to decide ultimately what you believe. We do have a short video of this encounter for anyone to see. It can be seen on our Facebook page. Thank you all for coming along as we go Haunting Across America. Until next time, keep looking to the other side!

Video of the tower interaction