Copyright to Walking Tour Content

I'm involved with a non-profit organization that regularly gives "walking ghost tours" every October. In 1998, before I was involved with the non-profit, they approached a local historian and asked him to develop a tour for them. To my knowledge there was nothing contractual. He conducted some research and gave the tour. The next year they had him back for two tours ... then three tours. It has been an annual tradition, typically with three October tours. The historian was paid by the non-profit to give the tours.  

This year, he is not available, though I heard that he will be giving the same tour for another organization.  

Regardless, the non-profit that I'm involved with wants to continue the annual tours as they have become a fundraiser for the organization and local residents expect us to give the tour every year.  

My question - can we legally use the same content as the previous tours?  

I think I know the answer, but wanted everyone's opinion. There was apparently a lawsuit in 2000-2001 by the author of several books on Gettysburg ghosts. He sued another tour operator for using his stories. The court, in a summary judgment, found that the other tour operator had not violated his copyrights because the "tales" are word-of-mouth, not an original creation. He of course maintained the copyrights to his books, but not the "stories" themselves as they were derivative works.  

Most of the stories on the proposed tour are well-known, anyway. In some cases a reporter went on a previous tour and featured a few of the stories in an article. In other cases, people went on the tour, learned a new story, and told their friends. And some are just long-standing legends.  

So can the non-profit proceed without fear of copyright infringement?  

Also, I had personally collected stories over the years before ever going on the ghost tour. I've been compiling some of these stories into an e-book that I wanted to post, for free, online. In one instance there is a legend of a local spirit that has been "haunting" the town for centuries. It has been written about many times over the years. But, the historian, on a tour, mentioned that he spoke with someone who "ran over" the spirit one night (in that they were driving, thought they saw something, and ran into it but of course nothing happened). Would that story be able to be re-told - verbally and/or on paper? The historian didn't write it, only relayed the story in front of an audience.  

This is supposed to be all in fun (and fundraising for the non-profit), but we don't want to get anyone mad or in trouble.  

Thanks for your insight!  

• Scott