TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — At the lively downtown Tucson bar Jo-Jo's Restaurant, drinks aren't the only spirits you could encounter. As the sun goes down, a whole new crowd comes out — one that's been there for centuries.
"They have a couple different cowboys that haunt here, they have a little girl—who I adore—and they have a sergeant named Frank and an old lady they call Rosa," said paranormal investigator Becky Gydesen.
Gydesen has seen these spirits firsthand during her investigations.
"Out of the corner of my eye, clear as day, I saw a little girl ducked down behind this like she wanted to jump up and scare me," Gydesen said.
In her over a decade of investigations, she's also heard them, catching what may be the same little girl singing through an EVP or Electronic Voice Phenomena device. Others on her tours have smelled them, mainly one cowboy ghost who's known to be protective of women.
"Anytime there's a group of women here and he just feels like he needs to protect you, you'll smell cigars," Gydesen said.
One visitor felt the cowboy follow them out of the restaurant.
"There was nobody around. It was a weekday, so it wasn't like it was crowded, there was a lot of people around, and we could smell cigars," Gydesen said.
Host Stefini Nanez says this place — once part of the Presidio San Agustin — holds spirits from several centuries.
"People think 'oh, someone died here, that's why it's haunted.' That's not always the case. Sometimes spirits are attached to a place because they got devastating news or maybe they never heard from their loved one again," Nanez said.
Those spirits and their stories could teach something to the living.
"I've had a lot of locals who have been born and raised here who don't even know how Tucson started. So, it helps educate the public," Nanez said.
The ghost tours may even inspire some to take a deeper dive into the history of the Old Pueblo.
To see more of Tucson's haunted history, Gydesen she hosts hyper-local tours of downtown's most haunted locations.
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Alex Dowd is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9, where her work combines her two favorite hobbies: talking to new people and learning about the community around her. Her goal is to eventually meet every single person in Tucson. Share your story ideas with Alex via email, alex.dowd@kgun9.com, or connecting on Instagram or X.
