Red Cloak Haunted History Tours, which has hosted walking tours exploring the “other side” of five Midcoast towns for the past 7 years, is opening a new option for their guests: Red Cloak Cemetery Tours.

The new Red Cloak Cemetery Tours premiered in Wiscasset on September 4 and will continue three days a week through September and October.

Wiscasset is the first town in which a Red Cloak Cemetery Tour will be offered. The tours are also under development in Newcastle, Boothbay Harbor, Camden and Bath.

A portion of the proceeds from each Red Cloak Cemetery Tour in Wiscasset will benefit the Lincoln County Historical Association. “These are the folks who work so hard to keep our local history alive,” Red Cloak Haunted History Tours Director Sally Lobkowicz said. “They deserve our support.”

Red Cloak Cemetery Tours will contribute $1 for each person on the tour, with that contribution included in the tour fee of $12 for adults and $7 for children. “It’s a great way for the public to enjoy an entertaining and educational tour, while supporting the Lincoln County Historical Association,” Lobkowicz said.

All tours will be held during daylight hours in the early evening.

Each tour will focus on the stories of those interred at the cemeteries, their history and the symbolism of their tombstones. Tour guides will give a general history of cemeteries, graveyards and funeral practices.

Different from the regular Red Cloak Haunted History Tours, Red Cloak Cemetery Tours will not have much of a focus on ghosts and hauntings, though one or two ghost stories will be included, Lobkowicz said. However, the trademark Lady in the Red Cloak, dressed in period clothes and carrying a brass lantern, will still lead the walking tours.

“We’ve had a great response from both locals and visitors to the Red Cloak Haunted History Tours, with even long-time residents often exclaiming how little they knew about local history,” Lobkowicz said.

“We’re hoping we can now really personalize our local history with Red Cloak Cemetery Tours by telling the stories of people who played a role in making that history, no matter how small their contribution.”

The tours will also include discussion on the meaning of symbols on the headstones.

“I really appreciate the symbolism of the markings on the stones and the heartfelt epitaphs sometimes biblical sometimes written by loving family members,” Lobkowicz said.

“You realize in a graveyard that there is so much to life; much of which is told by death in these often weather-worn memorials and the stories etched in their stone faces.”

For more information or reservations, contact the Lady in the Red Cloak at 380-3806.