Since the beginning of October amateur ghost hunters have been scouring some of Cape Girardeau's most haunted locations as part of "The Haunting of Cape Girardeau" scavenger hunt.

Stephanie Lynch, the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau director of public relations and marketing, said the event is not only to promote the upcoming Ghost Storytelling event but to create a sense of excitement around town.

"It is placing a lot of attention on the fall season and building on the rumors of some of the hauntings in Cape Girardeau," she said. "As far as building community spirit, it doesn't get any better than this."

Lynch said players can download a game sheet from several websites that will instruct hunters to solve clues at 15 Cape Girardeau locations that have been called haunted.

As the clues are solved, participants will receive a letter to place on the game sheet. All of the letters will create a URL that hunters can enter into a web browser to find the final location. A small prize will be offered to people who correctly complete the game sheet and bring it to the Ghost Storytelling event Friday.

Lynch said the scavenger hunt is a great event because it is free and allows people to work at their own pace. Even though the scavenger hunt has been going on since Oct. 1, there is still time to get involved.

"Technically, you could do it all year if you wanted to," she said.

When planning the scavenger hunt, Lynch said, organizers tried to stay as faithful to local lore as possible. She said one of the interns who helped plan the event even reported a ghostly encounter while researching clues and taking photographs at Old Lorimier Cemetery.

Lynch said while this is the first year of the scavenger hunt, it could become an annual event.

Game sheets are available at www.visitcape.com, capestorytelling.com, and the bureau's Facebook and Twitter pages.

cbartholomew@semissourian.com

243-8600