Tour company draws on ghost lore to illuminate Billings' 'dark side'

Linda Halstead-Acharya

Oct. 25, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- She's more of an aura than an apparition. But she's linked to odd, inexplicable phenomena in Room 226 at the Dude Rancher Lodge.

Described by some as a "presence from another world," the Dude Rancher knows her as the spirit of Annabelle Goen, one of the original owners.

Annabelle is credited with mysteriously opening locked doors, unplugging power cords and switching the television on and off. She's also one of the specters described -- and sometimes "sensed" -- during one of the guided ghost tours organized by the Billings business Montana Fun Adventures Tours.

"The staff share stories about Annabelle," said Renee Christiansen, who owns the tour company with her husband, Lee. She tells of maids who have felt the hair rise up on the back of their necks when they perceive her presence. "They just feel she's a friendly ghost who wants to keep an eye on her property and staff."

For the ghost tours, Montana Fun Adventures Tours partners with Karen Stevens, a Billings research librarian, paranormal and author of the book "Haunted Montana." Together they lead more than 30 ghost tours during the ghoulish month of October. The tour company also guides the curious into local graveyards for Sunday afternoon cemetery tours.

At this time of year the focus is on the Magic City's "dark side." But the Billings-based company offers a wide range of options that span the seasons and just about every interest, including jeep tours, microbrewery tours, tours of the Big Horn Battlefield and even a visit to the Mountain View Hutterite colony. They've also partnered on package deals for white-water rafting and horseback riding.

"Generally, if someone has an idea, we can put it together for them," Christiansen said.

Prices start at $20 a person for the ghost tour and top out at several hundred dollars per person for guided tours of Yellowstone National Park. According to Christiansen, the company is the only one of its kind in the area.

"We're a tour business that brings people to Montana," Lee said. "We don't send people away."

Clientele are split about 50-50 between in-state and out-of-state, Christiansen says. Different tours, however, appeal to the two different groups. Jeep and four-wheeler tours are especially popular with tourists from Australia and England, while Montanans are more likely to sign on for the cemetery tour, the chocolate tour and the Christmas light tour.

Tours can also be customized for conferences or groups with special interests. Some tours, like the ghost tours, max out at 13 people, the capacity of their Fun Adventure Express bus. But the Christiansens have access to a larger bus for bigger groups and they even offer tours for as few as two.

"We don't go for the masses," Christiansen said. "We dedicate to the smaller groups. That way, we have the ability to find out their interests and focus on them."

Brian White of Seattle can attest to that personalized treatment. As editor of Montanawithkids.com, he and his family -- including three young children -- have participated in two of the Christiansens' tours.

Though White hasn't experienced one of their ghost tours, he's been told they're the authority in Montana. "I've heard that as far away as Havre," he said.

Christiansen, who now serves double duty as the president of the Custer Country tourism region, launched Montana Fun Adventure Tours in 1996. Starting part time, she listed her first offering as a tour of historic downtown Billings. She soon branched out with tours of the Big Horn Battlefield and Pompey's Pillar. Within two years, she had quit her job with School District 2 and turned her tour business into a full-time occupation. Lee joined her full time after retiring a few years ago.

The couple runs their business lean -- surviving the aftermath of 9/11, when half of all tour and travel companies dissolved -- but they don't hesitate to enlist the expertise of locals like Stevens.

"What we are is a kind of broker," Christiansen said. "We find people with the talents that we need."

Most of the Christiansens' varied tours are flavored with a historical perspective. Christiansen, who worked several years as a volunteer at the Western Heritage Center, spends hours in research. Over the years, she's assembled an exhaustive library of her own.

"It's a passion," she said. "It's a matter of connecting, of being able to tell the story."

That fascination is evident in their Custer's Last Stand Re-enactment Package, just as it is in their holiday tour that brings back the nostalgia of Christmases past.

The ghost tours, too, are a twist on Billings' history. Besides stops at "haunted" locations, they touch on the city's opium dens of the 1920s, the murder of a policeman, and Billings' only known lynching, which took place in 1891.

Ghost tours are now considered the most popular type of tour in the country, Christiansen said. More than a decade ago, when she scheduled her first three ghost tours, they sold out in a matter of hours.

In Billings, the original ghost tours visited the Western Heritage Center, with its reported sightings of a ghostly woman dressed in early 20th century garb and an elderly gentleman phantom seated in an armchair in front of the basement fireplace.

"Twelve years ago, that was the only place that would open up to let us tell about their ghosts," she said. "Now, it's to the point where if a downtown business doesn't have a ghost, they're disappointed."

The 90-minute tours take place in the dark of the late evening. Guests typically visit two "ghost" sites, where Stevens elaborates on the resident spirits. She's also been known to offer tips for maximizing one's chances of encountering the "other world."

The tours are updated each year, as new hauntings are discovered, Christiansen added.

The cemetery tours, scheduled during the light of day, are more historical than ghoulish. As participants walk amid the carved headstones of Mount View Cemetery, they learn how clues of the past are etched into each. Guests also learn tidbits about notable characters buried there and how to decode the mystery of their own ancestries.

Christiansen herself was struck by the mystery of two unique monuments marking grave sites at Mount View Cemetery. They tower above the others, she said, and exhibit such smooth and graceful lines that they stand apart. Her research took her to the Museum of the Beartooths in Columbus, where she learned that skilled Italian artisans had arrived in that community in the late 1800s. From the sandstone quarried there, they carved not only tombstones but ornamental facades and even the lion heads standing guard at the Art Institute of Chicago.

"Such distinctive headstones and monuments are things of the past," Christiansen lamented. "But the early-day resting places of those who have gone before are an eclectic display of art, culture and history that enriches and enlightens guests on our tours."

Newstex ID: KRTB-0032-39140592