Starting in late September and continuing until Oct. 28, Deering Estate will host their annual Historic Ghost Tours every Tuesday and Thursday from 7:30 p.m to 9:30 p.m.

Each tour shares stories of historic events, along with insights and records of paranormal activity experienced by visitors and staff. The tour takes place along the same paths that indigenous people and Charles Deering walked.

Deering Estate advises attendees to dress comfortably, wear closed-toed shoes and bring a flashlight and mosquito repellent. Tour guides welcome personal equipment used to detect paranormal activity, such as cameras, dowsing rods, pendulums and electromagnetic field meters.

Tickets cost $40 per person for ages nine and up, but space is very limited due to high demand. Tickets for several days have already sold out; however, tickets are still available for Thursday, Oct. 7, Tuesday, Oct. 12, Thursday, Oct. 14 and Tuesday, Oct. 26.

To purchase tickets, individuals must register online through Park Link, an online registration and payment system for all programs, classes and events. Upon arrival, check-in can be found at the Main Gate. Guides suggest that individuals arrive 15 minutes prior to tour start time since the tours begin immediately. 

The Deering Estate property preserves and documents Miami in the 1920s and the estate of Charles Deering — a Chicago industrialist, early preservationist, environmentalist and philanthropist —who settled along the coast in South Dade. Deering Estate now serves as a museum for tourists and local residents.

The Estate consists of the Stone House and Richmond Cottage, with sites showcasing fossils dating back 50,000 to 100,000 years ago as well as remains of extinct animals such as some species of sloths, mammoths, peccaries, saber-toothed cats and dire wolves.

From the Paleo time period through the 1920s, Paleo Indians, Tequestas, Seminoles, Afro-Bahamians and Anglo-Americans have all, at different times, lived on the land. Now, visitors can visit native habitats and tour the Tequesta midden, the Cutler Burial Mound and walk ancient Tequesta trails.

Due to the success of the tours, Deering Estate has already announced that the annual Ghost Tours will return for September and October 2022.