Keith Johnson, left, and his twin brother Carl appear to be casting an aura as they walk around the machine shop at the Wilkinson Mill in downtown Pawtucket Wednesday.   Times photo/Butch Adams

By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

With a mill history dating back to the 19th century, it is likely that there have been more than a few incidents that could cause things to go bump in the night.

That’s what the folks at Slater Mill are betting on with their new Paranormal Pawtucket Ghost Tours.
Billed as “A Walk into the Night,” the ghost tours will be held Fridays beginning at 7 p.m. from Sept. 19 through Oct. 31. Admission is $15. The tours will begin on the Slater Mill site at 67 Roosevelt Ave.
Carl and Keith Johnson, twin brothers and history buffs who work as interpreters at the Slater Mill site, will be leading the ghost tours as well.
In addition to being experts on Slater Mill and the Blackstone Valley area, both are also serious students of the paranormal. Carl and Keith were both featured on the Sci-Fi channel’s popular “Ghost Hunters” TV show during its first two seasons.
In fact, an episode of “Ghost Hunters” that was filmed at Slater Mill will air on Wednesday, Sept. 10, at 8 p.m. on the Sci-Fi Channel.
In addition, Keith and his wife are the founders of a group called New England Anomalies Research, which delves into the area of inhuman spirits and alleged demonic hauntings.
In their jobs as Slater Mill guides, the Johnson brothers take visitors through Slater Mill and the adjacent Wilkinson Mill and Sylvanus Brown House, weaving historical facts and lore about the area’s long, rich past in the textiles trade.
On the ghost tours, they will do much of the same thing, although this time, the topics will include unusual or unexplained events that have been documented or are alleged to have occurred at the mill site or in the surrounding downtown area.
“Basically, it’s a history lesson, but filled with anecdotes about unexplained happenings or elements of the unexplained,” said Carl Johnson. “We’re not saying that it’s ‘haunted Pawtucket’ and showing you the ghostly. Our guests will have to make up their own minds,” he added.
Keith Johnson added, “It’s history that is augmented with unexplained sidelines. We’re saying, ‘This is what happened here, and it falls outside of the normal. Therefore, the paranormal,” he said.
The ghost tours will begin at the Slater Mill site and follow a trail that heads down Roosevelt Avenue and up Exchange Street, past Tolman High School and the old Pawtucket Armory building. Participants will then follow Broadway, looping down by the Manning-Heffern Funeral Home and Pawtucket Congregational Church, then back across the Blackstone River to the Slater Mill park.
While the Johnsons say there are no written accounts of anyone actually dying in either the Slater or Wilkinson mills, they note that such records were not kept prior to the 1890s. Knowing that the mills’ long history includes the well documented use of child labor, combined with the heavy and complicated machinery, the brothers say it is likely there were industrial accidents therein.
The brothers, both of whom have had occasion to spend time alone in the mill buildings, say they can personally account for some unexplainable and unusual — if not downright frightening — occurrences. Carl relays an experience in 2007 when he was leading a fifth-grade class through Slater Mill and both he and a young boy heard a scream from an unoccupied part of the building. “I heard it, and then a boy at the back of the group said, “What was that scream?” noted Carl.
Carl also said he was overseeing a catered dinner on the mill’s second floor when one of the caterers claimed that someone came up from behind her and pushed her tray of food over. When she turned around, no one was there.
Both Carl and Keith say that other mill personnel have reported hearing things that sounded like whispers and muffled voices, and that there have been several instances where the mill’s motion detector alarms have been set off in areas that have supposedly been empty. “And it wasn’t attributed to birds or animals,” Carl said.
Another tour guide leading a group of students through the Sylvanus Brown House reported hearing footsteps in three unused bedrooms on the third floor. “She went up there to check and there was nothing there,” Carl said.
When the TAPS team from the Ghost Hunters show came to the mill site, they brought their usual assortment of equipment that measures and records things like audio and electro-magnetic fields. However, the Johnsons and the rest of the Slater Mill staff were sworn to secrecy about what, if anything, was revealed.
“You put everything together, and I think there have been some occurrences that definitely fit the description of paranormal,” said Keith. “I think the building has absorbed memories.”
The Ghost Tours are not recommended for anyone under 13. Reservations are suggested. For more information, call (401) 725-8638.