This year our post was invited to participate as a stop along the Mesa Historical Museum’s Ghost Tour and Historical Walk on Saturday, October 27th. After some basement cleaning and preparation, along with donated time and some belongings from some of our post members we were ready for the tour. The entire event was a great success and good time for all involved to both the Mesa Historical Museum and our Post 1760.
The idea came up in conversation earlier this year when Dan Wilson was doing research on our namesake (Joseph ‘Dode’ Morris) and our building. Among the places he had visited he came to the Mesa Historical Museum to see if they could provide anything to assist him and met up with Alice Jung, Manager at the museum. During the topic of our building in conversation he had mentioned among other things the bricked up tunnel entrance in our basement. This brought much interest to Alice and she started to explain to me about their tour they run every October, how there are other buildings on the tour also with tunnel access, tunnel enthusiasts who participate, and how it would be wonderful to add our building to the tour. Dan contacted our Commander, Jack Sepulveda about the proposition and he not only approved but was excited too at the opportunity to have the public visit our post building.
Moving forward to the beginning of October all tickets for the tour were sold out. Alice predicted anywhere from 150-175 people will be visiting our basement, which looked to be correct judging from the number of people we saw gathering at the starting point for the tour at the Arizona Museum of Natural History entrance just up the street from the VFW building on MacDonald. Groups of people led by a tour guide came one after another to our basement where Jack himself gave some information about the building, our Post history, a couple ghostly happenings and answering any questions the visitors had. This transpired between 6pm to 8pm that Saturday and everyone that visited were also offered free chilled water bottles on their way out.
Much thanks for our Post 1760 members that were involved. Commander Jack Sepulveda for getting water bottles and donating his time in speaking with the tour groups. To Bob Laubinger, Bob Burns and Jack Sepulveda for providing imagery (pictures) on the walls. To Dan Fox for setting up the Buddy Poppy station, which we received $72 in donations that evening for the Veteran’s Relief Fund. And a big thanks goes to Alice Jung with the Mesa Historical Museum for not just the invitation for the tour, but also for her much appreciated assistance in our research with our Post 1760 namesake and building.
As well, Dan enjoyed my participation getting the basement ready and showcasing my own imagery too. To add that during the time Jack Sepulveda was doing his part for the tour groups, Dan was able to join one of the tour groups to view and experience what other buildings had to offer and get the perspective of the tour visitors to better assist us in next year’s tour.
Again thanks to everyone involved and we most definitely look forward to next year!
