Every weekend, community members gather in different areas in the Triangle region to explore local history through walking tours. The tours cover a variety of topics including true crime, churches, African American history, ghost stories and local LGBTQ+ communities.
Andrew Nason, the historian that founded Triangle Walking Tours, curates these events. He started the organization after working at various museums, deciding later to pursue his passion for curated tours full-time.
Nason said he curates each tour by uncovering stories that give more context about the towns over various time periods. Among the Chapel Hill specific tours is a true crime tour focused on the UNC and surrounding communities.
“Chapel Hill has a fascinating history where parts of it can be exposed through a sort of study of the area's crimes,” Nason said. “What people are afraid of, what’s happening at a given time, the major defining themes of a period.”
The true crime walk begins at a local restaurant and bar, winding through several more locations on Franklin Street before concluding the tour on campus inside of the Coker Arboretum. The tour recounts incidents from student attacks to fatal arguments.
One story that Nason highlights is of a man who moved to Chapel Hill as an economic refugee during the Great Depression.
“His story represents kind of a tragic end of clashes of personalities that could be met when new people would move to this town who didn't necessarily see eye to eye,” Nason said.
Nason also said he designed the tour with focuses on themes on justice and crime in order to avoid sensationalism. He said he wants participants to leave the tour reflecting on what justice means and how to react when justice is not found.
“I really like people taking away the fact that sometimes our systems that we rely on and that we have so much faith in can fall short,” he said.
