Perhaps you've felt a chilling breeze, yet seen none of the leaves rustling in the nearby trees. You've felt the hairs on the back of your neck stand up at one time or maybe you thought you heard faint choir music, but it faded away quickly enough to make you wonder if it was just your imagination.

Venture into the French Quarter for a haunted history tour, and you could experience those sensations again.

The Vieux Carre has the highest concentration of spiritual activity in the United States, says Katherine Smith, co-owner of Haunted History Tours in New Orleans. At its birth, the company entertained visitors with local ghost legends as they explored the French sector. But as the tour grew in popularity, Smith sought evidence to support the stories.

“I started going into the archives, researching the history of the buildings, making sure that we had that information correct, and then eventually started working my way into getting paranormal equipment and actually going in and doing paranormal investigations on the properties to verify the hauntings,” Smith says. Led by dramatic, costumed guides, tourists now visit the sites of these hauntings.

“We've had a lot of people experience things on the tour. We've had many, many people have things show up on photographs, we've had people suddenly get sick in a particular location. We've had over 25 people faint on the ghost tour,” Smith says. “But the oddest thing is that they all faint at the same location.”

Those taking the tour, however, are not the only ones subject to doings of the 18th- and 19th-century inhabitants of the French Quarter.

“The strangest thing that's ever happened was probably what happened to one of our tour guides,” said Smith. “He actually encountered an apparition in Pirate's Alley after the tour. A man who looked like he was carrying a stick or a sword above his head literally ran right past him. And as he did, the tour guide could see the light from the cathedral shining through the apparition. The apparition disappeared a few steps down, but he could still hear the footsteps running.”

To visit the city's ghostly past, seek out Rev. Zombie's Voodoo Shop to catch one of the 2 or 8 p.m. daily tours. Cost is $15. For more information, call 888/644-6787 or visit www.hauntedhistorytours.com.

For information on related tours, contact the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau at 504/566-5011 or visit www.neworleanscvb.com.