By Karon Warren
Fall in the North Georgia Mountains means a visit to Dahlonega, where you’ll find plenty of autumn-themed entertainment. I love walking around the square, taking in the colorful fall foliage, popping into shops and grabbing sweet treats like a caramel-dipped apple. But there’s another way to experience fall in this charming town: a walking tour.
With Dahlonega Walking Tours, you can choose from a historic tour or choose one of the many ghost tours that combine history with a bit of ghoulish fun. These tours dig into the people who lived in Dahlonega, so you’ll walk along the same streets and see where they lived and worked. “We’re interweaving a lot of history because, to me, history and hauntings are hand in hand,” said Penny Sharp, owner of Dahlonega Walking Tours. “You can’t really have one without the other, and it’s very interesting.”
Tour highlights include the historic courthouse (now the Dahlonega Gold Museum State Historic Site), several historic homes and Mount Hope Cemetery. “We have a permit to go into Mount Hope Cemetery after dark, so it’s sort of a capstone of our tour,” Sharp said. “Because it is an active cemetery, we’re very respectful of being in the cemetery, and we only tell real ghost stories in the cemetery that are documented in books and by people.”
If a cemetery seems a bit daunting for you, you can opt for the Grapes and Ghosts Wine Tours or the Boos and Brews Pub Crawl that include stops at Dahlonega’s various tasting rooms, pubs and taverns. During the tour, you can sample a glass of wine or craft beer as you hear haunted tales of former (or current?) Dahlonega residents. “This being wine country, the wine tour is one of my favorites,” Sharp said. “It’s very relaxed and a lot of fun.” These tours also are great for those with limited mobility because you have the opportunity to sit a spell at each stop.
This fall, Sharp also is introducing a children’s ghost tour of the square that focuses on “sweet little ghost stories,” as she puts it. “What I love about it is that we’re teaching children history in a fun way,” she said. “We’re also taking in a lot of the buildings on the square that we don’t normally have time to do because of our other tours. So it’s an opportunity to tell some of the sweeter, smaller stories.”
Sharing those stories is exactly what Sharp loves about her business. “Our job is to make you love [Dahlonega] even more and realize what an amazing history–and not just Georgia history, but American history–Dahlonega has.”
Ready for a tour? Tours start on Main Street at Dahlonega Walking Tours, and range between one and 2.5 hours. The full tour calendar is available at dahlonegawalkingtours.com, where you can book your spot.