Every October, Old Sacramento’s streets become a stage for spooky stories of the city’s past.
The Sacramento History Museum’s annual Ghost Tour is part history lesson and part theater. It sold out weeks in advance this year.
Actors guide visitors through real Sacramento tragedies that happened between 1850 and 1950. The stories are pulled from the museum’s archives and played entirely by locals. This year’s theme was ‘Two Sides to Every Story,’ which invited visitors to decide for themselves what really happened and who, if anyone, was guilty. The act featured stories from steamboat explosions to unsolved murders.
One of the first people visitors meet is Lisa Praxel. Praxel plays Professor Hieronymus Bock, the guide leading each group through the night. She has volunteered with the museum for nearly two decades and helped write this year’s script. Between scenes, she keeps the crowd moving and the mood light.
“Every scene that you’re going to see tonight is true stories that happened here in Sacramento, between 1850 and 1950,” Praxel said. “That’s what makes it the best … is that you’re actually seeing what really happened here.”
From there, groups follow Praxel in and around the museum in the dark, guided by ghost chaperones. The first stop re-creates the 1850 Squatters’ Riot in Sacramento, in what is now considered Downtown Sacramento. This is one of Sacrmaneto’s earliest and bloodiest disputes over land rights.
Actors in this scene face off as the sound of gunfire echoes through the crowd. Sacramento Sheriff McKinney tells settlers to drop their weapons. An actor playing a man named James Allen refuses. Moments later, both men are shot.
An actor performs a scene from the 1850 Squatters’ Riot during the Sacramento History Museum’s Ghost Tour on Friday, Oct. 11, 2025.Tony Rodriguez
Praxel, as the professor, after the scene comes forward and asks the crowd to decide who was right, the sheriff clearing the land, or the settler defending it. The audience then makes their decision on small paper slips before following her to the next act.
The tour moves on to other stories of mystery, from a deadly hotel fire to the drowning of a Sacramento schoolteacher whose students once left roses on her grave each Christmas.
Tracy Smith, who came with her family to the tour, said her favorite scene was one where a wife poisons her husband—a real Sacramento murder case.
“It was fun,” Smith said. “I love the jump scares, but it’s not too scary. You can bring older kids and your family.”
Smith said she liked that the stories mixed dark history with humor, and the cast kept things moving without feeling like a typical haunted house.
Praxel said balance is what keeps people coming back every year. The ghost tour is different each year, with new stories, new scripts, and new ghosts.
Even though the tickets are already sold out this season, the museum will bring the tour back next spooky season.
Two volunteers dressed as ghosts stand outside the Sacramento History Museum during the Ghost Tour on Friday, Oct. 11, 2025.Tony Rodriguez
The tour’s cast includes more than a dozen volunteers, from seasoned performers to first-timers. One of them is Sam, a guide dressed as a Sacramento ghost named Rosaliee. Sam, a guide on the tour, jokes that her job is not to let anyone stray too far behind.
“I make sure no one gets left behind,” she said. “Or else the undertaker might get greedy. There’s always one more room in the coffin.”
Laura Benson came with her friend Jason Rico and said the two of them discovered the tour through a newsletter about Downtown Sacramento and decided to check it out.
“I loved the acting,” Benson said. “It made it feel more real. I like the interactive component of us having to vote on what happened.”
Rico said what stood out to him was how the audience got to decide on how each story ended.
“We got to vote on what we thought really happened,” Rico said. “It’s fun because history isn’t always that clear. You can start to see how stories change depending on who’s telling them.”
Follow us for more stories like this
CapRadio provides a trusted source of news because of you. As a nonprofit organization, donations from people like you sustain the journalism that allows us to discover stories that are important to our audience. If you believe in what we do and support our mission, please donate today.