When you think about scary places, what comes to mind?
For me, it's haunted mansions on stormy nights, ghostly woods, scary cemeteries, things like that.
None of which sounds particularly like Arizona. The scariest thing about the Valley, you might think, is the temperatures in summer. (To be fair, they really have been terrifying.) It's a little too sunny for vampires.
And yet there are plenty of ghosts haunting Arizona. No one is going to confuse it with Salem, Massachusetts, but there are more than you might think. Which leads us to the question we're asking in this week's episode of Valley 101, a podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com: Is Arizona a haunted place?
"It is very haunted, believe it or not," said Debe Branning.
Arizona may not seem all that spooky, but it really can be
She ought
to know. Branning is a bona fide ghost hunter. She's also the director of the MVD Ghostchasers, which is a pretty cool story in itself (and one you can hear in this week's episode). She's got a lot to say about all of the famous ghosts and haunted places Arizona is home to.
Eddie Fontanez, a reporter for The Arizona Republic with a fondness for all things spooky and Halloween-y, also weighs in during the episode. He's carved out a nice little niche for himself, writing about something scary every October. Which doesn't mean he's ever seen a ghost. He hasn't. Though he's eager to.
"I'm waiting, still, to have my own ghost experience," he said. "I want to. I want to see one, or hear one, or be haunted. Hasn't happened yet."
Despite the careful-what-you-wish-for nature of that attitude, I think he speaks for a lot of us. As long as they're on TV or in movies or novels, ghosts are fun! Sort of! Your mileage may vary, of course. But one thing that is fun is this episode. It's a perfect Halloween treat.
Listen to the episode
The best way to listen is to subscribe to Valley 101 in your favorite podcast app, but you can also stream the full episode below.
Note: Valley 101 is intended to be heard, but we offer an AI transcript of the episode script. There may be slight deviations from the podcast audio.
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Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Subscribe to the weekly Watchlist newsletter.
This episode was produced by Amanda Luberto and Tori Weiss. You can reach Amanda at amanda.luberto@arizonarepublic.com or follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @amandaluberto. Reach Tori at tkweiss@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Is Arizona haunted? Why ghost hunters say yes, 'very haunted'
