Downtown Wylie will be the place for visitors and residents to take a ghostly tour through history this weekend.

Hosted by the Wylie Historical Society, Smith Public Library and Parks and Recreation, Haunts & History is back for its second year. The ghost of local hero Marshall Howrey leads the tour through downtown, keeping order among the undead and sharing stories of unexplained happenings. The event is funny, informative, and spooky.

There is also Ghostly Gossip, a brand-new show, led by the ghosts of two former telephone operators who worked in Wylie in the early 1900s. The characters are based on real people.  

“The best part of a telephone operator’s job in the old days was listening in on all the telephone conversations,” Brown House Guest Services Specialist Tracy Lawson said. “But now that they are among the undead, they can hear everything.”

Haunts & History and Ghostly Gossip Tour take place on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 6 and 7 at the Brown House Visitor Center, located at 301 N Ballard Ave. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at wyliehistoricalsociety.org. Haunts & History slots are available at 7 p.m. and 8:15 both days. Ghostly Gossip slots are available at 7:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. on both days.

Over in Sachse, a collaboration between the Sachse Historical Society and the cemetery board, Celebration of Souls is an event that includes arts and crafts for children, education about Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and a hayride through a graveyard with representations of some of the city’s historical figures. 

These ghostly characters include the city’s founder, William Sachse, and a World War II soldier, said Diana Smith of the Sachse Historical Society.

“It’s done in very good taste,” Smith said. “Our ghosts are really talking about history.”

The event takes place Oct. 7 at the Sachse Historical Society Museum, located at 3033 Sixth St. There are four different time slots to choose from—6 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 7 p.m., and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the event or, to save your spot, buy ahead at sachsehistoricalsociety.com.