Phantom Journey: Ghosts of Zoar

As you step over the threshold of the Zoar Hotel, you notice a shift in the air: It hangs heavy with history.

From 1819 to 1898, the village of Zoar was home to a communal society of pacifists and German separatists who fled religious persecution. After the society disbanded, preservation efforts began — freezing the village’s appearance in time.

Though restored on the exterior, the hotel, built in 1833, is largely untouched on the inside and almost never opened to the public. There is one exception: Zoar’s ghost tours.

“It has that old-time feel to it, and it just lends itself so well to all these ghost stories,” says site director Tammi Shrum of Zoar.

Held by lantern light on select dates from Oct. 10 to Nov. 1, the tours take guests into several haunted buildings in Zoar. Each is home to a ghost story, told by a storyteller or first-person character.

“Every year, we have different stories. We have different paranormal investigators that are doing live investigations during the tour, and they’re sharing their feedback,” Shrum says.

The hotel is said to be haunted by two Zoar residents, including Alexander Gunn, the first outsider to purchase property in Zoar.

In 2020, when Zoar was conducting virtual ghost tours, Shrum had a brush with Gunn. While investigators broadcast their use of a spirit box — which uses radio waves to create white noise that can be manipulated by spirits — over a video feed, she instructed them to ask Gunn’s ghost about the Three Leaf Clover Club, which he had formed. In her message, she misspelled the club’s name, typing “Tree Leaf.”

“The spirit box returned back and said, Three,” recalls Shrum.

The Magazine, which served as the village’s storehouse, is another hot spot for spiritual activity — so much so that tour guides have reported hearing distinct footsteps in the absence of people.

Even private residences, including storyteller Libby Moffat’s Main Street house in Zoar, could be a part of the tour.

“We started working on the house, and I started smelling cigar smoke anytime I was doing changes. And I had seen pictures of one of the occupants that had lived there before, it was Jake Sturm, and he had a big cigar,” says Moffat. “I got to the point where I’d turn around and I’d go, Well, Jake, what do you think? You like that? And the smell would go away.”

Learn more by buying tickets to a tour — or to a package that also includes a ghost tour dinner. Held at the haunted Canal Tavern of Zoar, the dinner features themed menu items such as goulash and witch’s purse.

In the crisp fall air, surrounded by flickering light and historic buildings, even non-believers may find themselves watching the shadows.

“Certain things you can explain off, and then there’s other things that are like, OK, that was really weird,” says Shrum. “It’s hard not to believe once you start working here.”

198 Main St., Zoar, 330-874-3011, historiczoarvillage.com