Ever hear the tale of Two Toed Tom? Have you visited the Orman House in Apalachicola or the Pensacola Lighthouse? How about the haunted town of Monticello?
Believe it or not, Northwest Florida is absolutely teeming with spirits, monsters, and strange events. Some of the most haunted houses and swamps in Florida lie between Pensacola and Tallahassee, and ghost tours and tales can be found here year round. Paranormal societies in Pensacola and the Tallahassee area provide information on where to find ghosts and haunted houses, and Pensacola also hosts the annual Para Con, a sci-fi and paranormal convention.
Since it is October, and the time for all things spooky, I thought I'd reprint an article I wrote in 2010 for the online magazine Suite101. Here are 13 ghost stories and spooky tales of the region along with where to find them.
Swamps, Forests and other Haunted Places
1. From the swamps that border Florida and Alabama comes the
tale of Two Toed Tom, a monstrous alligator that terrorized the region in the
1920s. Said to be between 18 and 24 feet long, the gator’s red eyes shone
through the forests at night as it stalked farm animals and humans, leaving a
footprint that showed only two toes on its left foot. Tom was never tracked
down and some believe he still lives in the Choctawhatchee Bay...
