Old Town Albuquerque Historic District · San Felipe de Neri Church (Spanish colonial parish) · Route 66 / Old Town Plaza
US Ghost Adventures, a multi-city ghost-tour chain, operates its Albuquerque program under the local consumer brand 'Duke City Ghosts,' with the specific tour marketed as the Albuquerque Desert Shadows Rising Ghost Tour. Tours meet nightly in front of The Candy Lady, 424 San Felipe St NW, in historic Old Town Albuquerque, and cover about a mile of the district's Spanish-colonial-era streets on foot over roughly an hour.
The route covers Old Town Plaza, built in 1793; the Church Street Cafe, occupying a home built in 1706 and long inhabited by the Ruiz family; San Felipe de Neri Church, Old Town's historic parish church; the Covered Wagon, a former saloon turned souvenir shop; the Bottger Mansion, a former Old Town lodging with ties to Prohibition-era organized crime; the Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a small chapel built in 1975; and the High Noon Restaurant & Saloon, a building dating to the 1700s with a history as a gambling parlor and brothel.
Sources
- https://usghostadventures.com/albuquerque-ghost-tour/
- https://www.viator.com/tours/Albuquerque/Albuquerque-Ghosts/d28131-424073P1
ApparitionsUnexplained SoundsObjects Moved
According to US Ghost Adventures' own tour material, Old Town Plaza is home to the legend of the 'Hatchet Lady,' described by the operator as the vengeful spirit of a jilted bride said to appear in a bloodied white dress. At the Church Street Cafe, the operator attributes reported activity — flying objects, missing tools, flickering lights — to Sara Ruiz, a member of the family that occupied the home for over two centuries. The Bottger Mansion's reported hauntings are tied by the operator to founder Charles Bottger and to the building's history hosting figures including gangster George 'Machine Gun Kelly' Barnes.
At High Noon Restaurant & Saloon, the operator describes at least five deaths and a nearby hanging tied to the building's history as a gambling parlor and brothel, with reported activity investigated by the Travel Channel program 'The Dead Files.' The Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe is tied by the operator to the 2018 death of its builder, Sister Giotto, alongside a separate reported presence the operator calls the 'Lady in Black.' The Covered Wagon, a former saloon, is tied by the operator to a sex worker named Scarlett the operator says was murdered by a colleague.
All of this is the tour operator's own marketing material, not documented history independently verified for this listing; it is included here as a description of what the tour covers, not as an endorsement of any specific claim.
