Since it’s coming up on Halloween soon, I thought it would be fun to explore of the interesting legends around some of our haunted spots.

The Canadian prairies, like pretty much everywhere in the world, have bleak moments in their history. Most hauntings are associated with murders, suicides and other unpleasant deaths. There are quite a few interesting locations that contain the history of these events and create a mystique, legends that people whisper of sightings, photos, voices, etc. Haunted or not, they are certainly something to talk about.

I haven’t personally been to many on the lists that offer up a plethora of haunted spots in the prairies. Of those most popularly listed I’ve only been to Frank Slide, Firkin’s House at Fort Edmonton and I’ve been directly outside of Pembina Hall at the U of A and the Strathcona Museum and Archives. Nothing in particular happened at any of them and the only one I remember hearing haunting stories associated with was the Museum. This came about because they had apparently museum-at-nightstopped have Girl Guide sleepovers at the museum since the ghost liked to separate groups of children and would lock them in random rooms. Now I kind of wish we’d gotten in there before the sleepovers stopped and I’d have some really cool stories to share, but alas.

Frank slide has all the makings of a perfect haunting spot. In 1903 the side of frank_slide_rocksTurtle Mountain slipped free and buried a section of the town in the middle of the night. Reports are not entirely clear how many died, but the numbers hover around 90 in under two minutes. In many ghost stories sudden death results in unfinished business so I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some ghosts kicking around that area.

People I’ve talked to who work/worked at Fort Edmonton will tell you that firkins_house1Firkin’s House isn’t haunted and they’re not sure why anyone thinks that it is. I once asked if any of the buildings were haunted, in the opinion of the park staff and was referred to the round barn on Henderson Farm. That building round-barnunfortunately doesn’t have any access for visitors since it’s in with the horses and behind a fence, but I was intrigued nonetheless.

Pembina Hall at the U of A seems like a pretty
logical spot for a haunting since it was used at one time as a hospital during the Spanish flu epidemic. It is one of the original pembina-hallbuildings at the university and served as a dormitory for students much of the time since its construction. Reports of ghosts here include a nurse and soldier that died during the epidemic, but strangely enough the female nurse has never been seen by any female student (at least according to what I’ve read), only men have reported her appearance.

More haunting fun will follow as we progress through October.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Erin

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/we-see-dead-people-10-spooky-edmonton-haunts-in-which-you-might-find-some-halloween-spirit

   http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/10/20/haunted-places-canadian-prairies_n_4132292.html

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