Tag: Canada

North America’s Haunted Hotels

Post author By Michael Kleen
Post date March 2, 2021
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From the smallest bed & breakfast to luxurious five-star resorts, nearly every hotel is believed to have an uninvited guest or two.

With their storied history, famous guests, and romantic atmosphere, hotels attract quite a number of legends and ghostly tales. From the smallest bed & breakfast to luxurious five-star resorts, nearly all of them are believed to have an uninvited guest or two. The following are just a few of the more interesting I have stayed at over the years. Have you ever spent the night in a haunted hotel? Leave your story in the comments below!

Copper Queen

Rising above the colorful tapestry of tightly clustered homes and businesses blanketing the Mule Mountains in southeastern Arizona, the Copper Queen Hotel stands as a gilded monument. For over 100 years, it has served as a social anchor for the former mining town of old Bisbee. I first stayed at the Copper Queen Hotel in 2009 while visiting friends from Phoenix. I heard rumors it was haunted, but it wasn’t until I returned a few years later that I discover just how much. In the interim, the hotel had published its logbook of ghostly encounters from 2000 to 2008, and the book contains many interesting gems.

Tags Arizona, Canada, ghostlore, lodging, Louisiana, South Dakota

Photography

Brian’s Record Option

Record stores are making a comeback, and I love their often eclectic, battered appearance like old comic book shops or collectable stores. This one is in Kingston, Ontario, Canada at 381 Princess Street. It’s owned by Brian Lipsin, who is interesting enough to get himself in Vice Magazine.

Tags Canada, Saint Lawrence Seaway, sign

Photography

The Way of all Flesh

An angelic granite monument to Edouard Masson (1896-1974), his wife Germaine Smith (1898-1944), and their children in Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, at 4601 Côte-des-Neiges Road in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Edouard and Germaine married in 1929. Edouard, a carpenter’s son, was a lawyer and member of the Legislative Council of Quebec for the Union Nationale Party from 1953 to 1967.

Tags Canada, cemetery

Mysterious America

A Ghostly Prisoner Strolls the Parapets at Fort Henry National Historic Site

Post author By Michael Kleen
Post date September 29, 2020
No Comments on A Ghostly Prisoner Strolls the Parapets at Fort Henry National Historic Site

Built for a war with the U.S. that never came, this nineteenth century Canadian fortress held prisoners hanged for rebellion. Do their restless ghosts still walk these grounds?

Built between 1832 and 1836, Fort Henry’s stone walls were completed just in time for the Rebellions of 1837–1838, which sought to overthrow the Canadian colonial government in favor of a republic. Nils von Schoultz, who led rebel forces at the Battle of the Windmill, was executed there. Today, his ghost is among many that visitors claim to encounter in the twilight hours. Paranormal-themed tours and an annual haunted house have capitalized on these strange tales and helped make this Canada’s most famous haunt.

The War of 1812 left relations between the United States and Great Britain at an all-time low. Raids along the Saint Lawrence River were common during the war, and Kingston, Ontario in what was then Upper Canada was seen as potentially vulnerable. The British eyed Point Henry as an ideal place for what became known as the “Citadel of Upper Canada”.

Early in the war, British Canadians erected a blockhouse and artillery battery on Point Henry to help defend Kingston and its naval dockyards. They continued fortifying it throughout the war, calling it Fort Henry after Henry Hamilton, one-time Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Quebec and Governor of Bermuda.

Tags Canada, fort, ghostlore, museum, Saint Lawrence Seaway

Photography

Mors Pax Aeterna

Elegant monument to Canadian shoe manufacturer Oscar Dufresne (1875-1936) and his wife, Alexandrine Pelletier (?-1935) in Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, at 4601 Côte-des-Neiges Road in Montreal, Quebec. Oscar was the older brother of Marius Dufresne, an engineer, architect, and entrepreneur. Oscar went on to become the majority shareholder of Slater Shoe, and a noted philanthropist and patron of the arts.

Alexandrine tragically died suddenly in 1935 on a trip to Florida, and Oscar followed in 1936, just weeks prior to his adopted daughter’s wedding. The inscription on their monument, “Mors pax aeterna”, is a Latin phrase meaning “Death, eternal peace”. Apparently the original design for the sleeping woman was so risqué it had to be changed because the cemetery authorities refused to allow it.

Tags Canada, cemetery

Mysterious America

Canadian History Lingers at Bellevue House

Post author By Michael Kleen
Post date August 25, 2020
1 Comment on Canadian History Lingers at Bellevue House

Once home to Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, some visitors to Bellevue House report encountering unexplained sights and sounds.

Though Sir. John A. Macdonald and his family lived here less than two years, their presence has come to define this 180-year-old Italianate villa, while brief glimpses of an ethereal woman and her child fuel speculation that tragic deaths have left a lasting stain on this Canadian National Landmark.

A wealthy merchant named Charles Hales built the unusually-shaped green and white home at 35 Centre Street in Kingston, Ontario in 1840. The house has two wings extending out from a single tower, with seven levels throughout its three floors. It was located in what was then Kingston’s picturesque outskirts. Because of its eccentric architectural features, local residents dubbed the house ‘Tea Caddy Castle’, ‘Muscovado Cottage’, ‘Pekoe Pagoda’, and ‘Molasses Hall’.

Sir. John Alexander Macdonald (1815-1891) was a Scottish immigrant to British Canada who determinedly rose to become a prominent lawyer and legislator. He went on to help establish Canada as a nation and became its first prime minister in 1867. He met his cousin, Isabella Clark, during a trip to Britain in 1842, and after she traveled to Kingston to visit her sister, the two were married in September 1843. Isabella fell ill just two years later, and never fully recovered.