South Florida might not have the reputation of Salem, Mass., but we hold our own in the world of the supernatural.

Perhaps it's all that water and limestone. As any Ghost Hunters viewer can reveal, one theory of ghost hunting is that water and limestone are conduits for paranormal activity. South Florida certainly has an abundance of both.

As such, Halloween is hardly a bore here. Let's look at some places to go haunting on the witching day.

ARCH CREEK

Speaking of limestone and water, Arch Creek Park, a nature preserve named for its natural limestone bridge, has been a hotbed of activity since the late 1800s, says naturalist Eric King.

The preserve, once grounds for the Tequesta Indians, has had ``reports of paranormal activity, people seeing apparitions, people feeling they've been grabbed or touched,'' said King, who conducts ghost tours there.

The latter could describe any trip to the supermarket. But in March, the Coconut Grove-based League of Paranormal Investigators took the claims seriously enough to conduct an investigation of the grounds. The team captured several voices on EVP electronic recorders -- devices that can pick up frequencies the human ear misses.

On one, a faint male voice says what appears to be ``saw'' or ``sawgrass.''

Psychics enjoyed a brief tte-a`-tte with a female spirit in the back end of the trail near a large dead tree. Still other LPI psychics felt native spirits among the trees while most investigators had the sensation of being watched -- with unexplained dizziness or nausea.

Brave?

Arch Creek Park, 1855 NE 135th St., North Miami, holds its final Ghost Tour at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The cost is $6, and reservations are required. Call 305-944-6111 or 305-948-2891.

BILTMORE HOTEL

The landmark Coral Gables hotel has been a temporary oasis to presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Bill Clinton, movie stars and sports figures. When you have an 85-yard pool at your disposal, it's no wonder swimmer-turned-Tarzan Johnny Weismuller once taught swimming there.

No word on whether Tarzan

had to contend with the ghosts that haunt the Biltmore, but it would have made for a good flick.

Legend has it a woman dressed in white (aren't they always?) has appeared before several guests. Lights turn on and off, doors open and guests have called the front desk over the years to report having seen this misty woman in their rooms. The story is that she was a maid who jumped out of the tower's window to save her child.

Another famed spirit who checked out but never left is Thomas ``Fatty'' Walsh, a gangster who ran an illegal casino for the mob and muckety-mucks who could afford the prices. For one, the price was too steep. Fatty was felled in a hail of bullets from another gangster's gun. Fatty is said to mess with the elevator that once ran to his 13th floor.

The hotel offers free tours of the hotel Sundays at 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. Meet in the main lobby at the concierge desk at the Biltmore, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables. Tour guides often speak of the otherworldly guests who remain. Keep your eyes and ears open.

Information: 305-445-8066.

DEERING ESTATE

Meet Eusebio and Katharine, a valet and maid. They are used to sneaking around the Deering Estate at Cutler in Palmetto Bay.

They've had to. Theirs is a forbidden romance. So they sneak furtive kisses around corners lest the mistress of the house, Marion Deering, catches on. She frowns on such displays from the help, you see.

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