A historic walking tour isn’t just dates and buildings, it’s about bringing the past alive.

Ashley Royer, creative director of the Imperial Calcasieu Museum, plans to do just that by uncovering hidden details in familiar places, making history relatable and exciting for visitors, and focusing on forgotten figures.

“Creating this tour was kind of like a grass fire,” Royer said. “We started hearing that people wanted to see walking tours here in Lake Charles and it became a thing. The paranormal group started it first with a haunted walking tour and then a bunch of us began formulating how we could put one together, too, and we all got our boats in gear and began working towards this.”

Royer said all of their plans will culminate in Saturday’s historic downtown walking tour. By spring, the museum hopes to offer a lakefront tour.

“Saturday’s tour will focus a lot on early pioneer Lake Charles and imaging what it used to be leading up to the 1910 fire and how that affected the growth of this city and how it flourished after that,” Royer said. “It’s not a terribly long walk. We’ll go from Historic City Hall down to Muller’s and we’ll talk about some of the endearing tales that people have shared with us over the years. It’s very nostalgic.”

She said the tour will be about an hour — possibly an hour and a half depending on questions and engagement.

Tour groups will meet on the first floor of Historic City Hall at 3 p.m. Saturday. The fee to attend is $20 and attendees are encouraged to make their reservation online at www.imperialcalcasieumuseum.org, though there will be a QR scan on site for tickets the day of the event.

“We’re doing the tour a little later in the day because it’s been so cold in the morning,” Royer said.

Participants will get a small break partway through the tour so they can explore downtown businesses and flea markets and peruse the gallery exhibits inside Historic City Hall.

“Truly, this is a way to introduce guests to downtown Lake Charles and get them to be involved in what we have to offer here,” Royer said.

The tour will be offered again at 3 p.m. Jan. 31.