Interesting conversations come about whenever someone asks “Have you visited any places you could feel were haunted?” Or, “Have you ever seen a ghost or spirit, or felt its presence?”
In a newspaper article “Forget beach resorts. Haunted tourism is alive and thriving” in the The Globe & Mail (October 30, 2023), journalist Samantha Edwards wrote about Celina Myers, known to millions as CelinaSpookyBoo on YouTube and Tiktok. She quotes Myers, “If there’s a ghost here, does that mean I’m going to see Grandmother again? Does that mean they still exist somewhere for me?” adding that Myers believes it is human nature to wonder what happens after death.
Ghost Tourism has grown in popularity since the late 20th century as people seek paranormal experiences at haunted locales: ghost tours/walks; creepy mansions; museum ships; hotels; or old empty institutional buildings. Today, Ghost Tourism is a big worldwide business, especially booming in the Halloween month of October. Here’s a snapshot view of some of those ghostly sites that I’ve visited on my travels.
Years ago, I toured the Conciergerie on the banks of the River Seine in the middle of Paris, France. One of the city’s most popular tourist attractions, its history goes back to the 13th century, however its fame comes from the days of the Reign of Terror 1793-94 when more than 2,280 people were condemned to death there, including Queen Marie Antoinette. The entrance’s Hall of Guards has beautiful medieval architecture, but the deeper I went inside, the more I felt a dark suffocating heaviness and profound sadness, particularly by the actual courtyard where the women prisoners washed their clothes in the fountain and Marie Antoinette’s cell. The “Ghosts, Mysteries and Legends” night walking tour of Paris features the Conciergerie.
In downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the 37-room Pabst Mansion is considered one of city’s top five haunted places and is included on the city’s ghost tours. Built in 1892 as a three-storey retirement home for beer baron Captain Frederick Pabst and his wife Marie, it has been open to the public since 1978. Since then, volunteers have collected many stories about paranormal occurrences and ghost appearances. On my tour of the mansion, I did feel a woman’s strong presence in the pink-and-white parlor. Later, the mansion’s executive director took me aside and quietly said they believe that Mrs. Pabst’s spirit often ‘visits’ her parlor.
In Winnipeg, Manitoba, the castle-like Fort Garry Hotel has been named one of Canada’s most haunted places, particularly Room 202. Personally, I didn’t encounter anything strange during my stay on the fourth floor a couple of years ago. However, I did spend a few hours with one of the owners when she got super-spooked. Just before our meet-up for coffee, she had an encounter with a male ghost sitting beside her while she was taking a nap in her hotel room. Once she calmed down, she told me about the hotel’s ghost stories, some going back decades. Fort Garry Hotel is a favourite stop on Winnipeg ghost tours.
Some ghost sites I’ve visited on my travels have included Edinburgh Castle in England; Chateau de Versailles in Paris; Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta; Delta Bessborough in Saskatoon; Tower of London in Scotland; Haapsalu Castle with its resident White Lady ghost in Haapsalu, Estonia; Empress Hotel in Victoria, BC; and York, England which in 2002 was named the most haunted city in Europe by the International Ghost Research Foundation.
My favourite haunted site is Canada’s Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia and operated by Parks Canada. Built in 1713, and once home to more than 4,000 French residents, the reconstructed site is surrounded by massive fortification walls with official town gates and is North America’s largest reconstructed fortified town. There’s also plenty of ghost stories (the Haunted Tunnel was featured on TV’s Creepy Canada). Our personal guide was a Park’s senior officer who told us of his personal experience with a merchant spirit at the Fortress, and later sent me a fascinating audio file from an archaeological exploration at the site. And what was on the tape? A spirit male voice saying “Lieutenant – Let’s move back and strike them up the river.” Apparently, various voices from the Spirit world have been recorded at Louisbourg.
Just recently I looked at my digital pictures from Louisbourg — and surprisingly, there is one mysterious unexplained smudged image at one of the tables in the restaurant. Hmm…a passing spirit?
In Thunder Bay, the list of haunted places now includes Trowbridge Falls; Prince Arthur Hotel (whiff of cigar smoke on 2nd floor); Alexander Henry museum ship and site (who is the presence in the Annis Lee wheelhouse?); unoccupied Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital; Centennial Park; and the area around McVicar’s Creek to name a few. In Duluth, spooky sites include William A. Irvin museum ship; Glensheen Mansion; abandoned Nopeming Sanatorium; Enger Tower; Duluth Depot; and Greenwood Cemetery.
Connecting with the Spirit world – hokey pokey or real? Well, decades ago in a conversation with a United Church minister in Thunder Bay about the possibility of conversing with departed souls and seeing spirits or hearing their voices, he said, “Don’t ever discount the possibility.”
