History’s priests, history’s magicians: exploring the contentious relationship between authorized heritage and ghost tourism in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

ABSTRACT

I explore the contentious relationship between ghost tourism and authorized heritage in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania through the classical distinction between magic and religion. Durkheim argues the magic cannot sustain a social universe; it must operate within the bounds the religion creates. Similarly, I show the ghost tourism in Gettysburg reflects the version of the past that authorized heritage constructs. Although actors in the ghost-tourism industry recognize the legitimacy of authorized heritage, they see also ghost stories as a more reliable tool for knowing the past, and teaching it to visitors, than authorized heritage has at their disposal. Thus, they mirror Weber’s magicians, whose relationship with the supernatural is based on rationalize formulae. Data for this project were collected over a three-day trip to Gettysburg in August 2017.

KEYWORDS:

• Battlefield
• dark tourism
• historic site
• folklore
• national parks
• the past

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Christine Bucior recently received her Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. Her dissertation analyzed ghost-storytelling as a means of constructing the past.

Notes

1 All names of persons and ghost-tour companies are pseudonyms.

2 Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower lived in Gettysburg twice. First, they lived there as newlyweds during World War I, when Dwight was stationed at Camp Colt. Second, they settled in Gettysburg after World War II.

3 The Brick Inn sells a book of stories about the various ghosts that are said to haunt it.

4 Orbs are balls of light that are said to be visible manifestations of ghosts.

5 The three others were about the ghost of a friendly carriage-maker who occupies the Gettysburg Ghost Company’s headquarters (from Charles), about a boy who died around 1900 and now haunts the Brick Inn (from Kyle), and about an old man who never realized his grave – along with the rest of the cemetery in which he was buried – had been moved in the 1850s (from Charles).

6 Colonel John Reynolds was the highest-ranking Union officer to die at the battle of Gettysburg.

7 Brigadier General Lewis Armistead, a Confederate officer who was mortally wounded during Pickett’s Charge.

8 General James Kemper, a Confederate officer who was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, but survived.

9 On the back wall of the Gettysburg Ghost Company headquarters are photographs of allegedly spectral entities taken in Gettysburg and on the GNMP grounds.