Don't laugh, Joy Evans said. Dead spirits living in haunted houses on the tour of the 15th annual Kit Carson Trail Ghost Walk could come out of hiding Saturday.
"If you get smacked up from behind in the head," said Evans of the Carson City Convention and Visitors Bureau, "it's one of the spirits."
But actors playing ghosts also will be in the historic west side homes Saturday morning and afternoon to talk about Carson City's history for the ghost walk with a theme this year of "Madam Zamora's Traveling Ghost Show."
Mary Bennett of Reno's Bruka Theatre will lead the actors, herself playing Madam Zamora. The theme is based on the story of a madam who has a traveling ghost show she takes around the world. She is coming to Carson City to see what ghosts in the city she could hire as new performers.
"They're quite famous throughout the ghost world," Bennett said.
The city is a good place because of its well-preserved historic district and rumors of haunted houses, she said.
"Carson City is an amazing place spiritually," she said, "and in the spirit world."
The clothes the actors get to wear, she said, and the houses they get to act in like the Bliss Mansion make the ghost walk special and amazing for the people who come every year.
"It's like, 'Yeah,'" she said.
Steve Brenneman, who lives in the Bliss Mansion with his wife, Cindy Brenneman, said he's heard stories about ghosts from people who have come through his house on tours and claims of how "supposedly" the house is built on old burial grounds.
"We haven't heard any chains rattling yet," he said.
Though the house isn't a bed and breakfast anymore, he said, the couple sees their obligation as the owners of a historic house to open it to the public.
"It really belongs to the community," said Brenneman, who also opens the house for other tours and some city meetings.
It is that Carson City community, Bennett said, that has enough imagination to make one of the best ghost walks in the country fun enough for her to bring back the dead.
"All these ghosts," she said, "they've come out that day because they know the madam is in tow."
- Contact reporter Dave Frank at dfrank@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.