Key West’s Ghosts And Gravestones Tour, A Scarily Fun Time For The Entire Family

I grew up in Trinidad where there’s no shortage of ghost stories and scary folklore. We have stories of shape shifting old women who shed their skin and turn into fireballs, of small people brought in from the forests of South America that will bring you wealth if kept happy, and spirits of children with no faces and feet turned backwards that would lead real kids into the forests to disappear.

Listening to all of these stories was entertainment whenever my cousins and I got together. So now whenever I hear about ghost stories I instantly perk up. I think I passed my fondness for these stories on to my kids because they love going on ghost tours and listening to tales of the supernatural, yet they won’t sit and watch a horror movie with me, go figure.

All aboard the Trolley Of The Doomed

Anyway, a few weeks ago we were in Key West and while going through our Key West Vacation Pass, I noticed that there were tickets for the very popular Ghosts And Gravestones Tour.  Key West has a reputation of being one of the most haunted cities in America so we called up and made reservations.

As we boarded the Trolley Of The Doomed our Ghost Host greeted us by bellowing “You’re doomed!”. I would’ve preferred a nice “Hello”, but considering what we were about to do I guess it was appropriate. We started off by driving through the streets of the historic Old Town section of Key West. The aptly named Old Town is the most historic part of Key West, and therefore is filled with rich history and chilling stories. As we drove, our host pointed out buildings and told us tales of, murder and revenge, and also about the ghosts that still roam the halls.

Our guide at the East Martello Fort

Our first stop brought us to the East Martello Fort where we were welcomed by our guide. The fort was built in 1862 and was used during the Civil War. After that it was used for many different purposes including a Navy and Army training facility during World War II. After the war the fort was abandoned until it was reopened in the 1950’s to house an art and history museum. There are many stories of hauntings in the fort, but the creepiest story was about Robert The Doll.

According to the legend, Robert’s story began early in the twentieth century with the Otto family who had hired a maid to care for their young son, Eugene. The young boy was very fond of the maid but the family fired her around 1906. It was rumored that the maid used to practice voodoo and before she left she made a doll for Eugene who named it Robert. Soon after she left, the family started noticing strange things happening around the house and every time Eugene was asked about it he always replied “Robert did it”.

Eventually Robert was banished to the attic but people would always report hearing voices of children and laughter coming from the attic. Eugene inherited the house when his parents died and was reunited with the “possessed” doll. Even though Eugene was an adult he was always seen with Robert even though his wife, Annette, loathed the doll. Annette finally convinced her husband to send Robert back to the attic. When Eugene died, Annette, moved out of the house but left Robert behind. It’s said that the new family who bought the house had a daughter who was sure that Robert was trying to kill her.

Robert The Doll

The family donated Robert to the Fort East Martello museum where Robert is kept up to today enclosed in a glass case. People often flood the museum to hear the story of Robert and take photos of this haunted doll but before you do so you must ask his permission.  Tragedy usually befalls the person who didn’t ask permission yet took his photo. I don’t know if this is true but I wasn’t brave enough to risk it so I asked permission and thanked him afterwards.

East Martello Fort Museum

After meeting Robert and having the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, we hopped back onto the trolley and headed over to our final stop of the night, the Key West Shipwreck Treasures Museum.  While we were driving to the museum our host told us about the story of Count Karl Von Cosel.  Originally from Germany, Von Cosel had developed an obsession for a very ill young woman named Elena. After her death he removed her body from her tomb and lived with the corpse for a number of years before he was discovered.

At the museum we were given ghost-meters and allowed to explore a bit while our host told us about the ghost that roams the museum.

The entire tour is only about 90 minutes but it was fun and informative and we got to see quite a bit of the island. It might be a little frightening for kids under 10 but I’m pretty sure that families with teens would love it, I know mine did. I would also recommend going on a night tour, the darkness helps to add another level of ‘spookiness’.

Ghosts And Gravestones Contact Information:
Website: https://www.ghostsandgravestones.com/key-west
Phone: 305-294-4678
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hauntedtour
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keywestghosttours/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GhostsandGravestones/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/HistoricTours

Disclaimer: I was provided with three Key West Vacation Passes by The Florida Keys And Key West Tourism. These passes provided me with free tickets to this tour. Although the cost of the tour was covered, all opinions expressed above are my own.