In Canada, it’s darker at this time of year. There are fewer waking hours and dusk and darkness are often inhabited by unexplained events and ghostly phenomena. We are not a superstitious people, not susceptable to assumptions of supernatural causation. But facts are facts, and we are a curious bunch. So every year at about this time we venture out, often by candlelight, in search of the truth that awaits us in the cold darkness…

The Haunted Stirling Mansion, home of Fright Night

European settlement in Nova Scotia dates back to the seventeenth century. In Canadian time, that’s a lot of history. @AuthenticCoast  and @travelbyterry have been tweeting me about an interesting Nova Scotia haunt. The DesBarres Manor Inn was built in 1837 in the seaside village of Guysborough on Nova Scotia’s eastern shore for Supreme Court Justice, W.F. DesBarres. Justice Debarres was the grandson of J.W.F. Desbarres, a military man and mapmaker who accompanied Major-General James Wolfe at the great battle on the Plains of Abraham. It is rumoured that Wolfe gave DesBarres his pocket watch at the moment of his death, and that it hung in the Manor for many years. Spooky!

Surrounding the Plains of Abraham is Québec City. As night falls, Ghost Tours of Québec guide visitors through the cobble stone streets and ancient buildings of the old city, regaling them with tales of murders, executions, mysterious sightings, tragedies and hauntings.

Mon Dieu! Tours are in English and French.

In Ontario (known before confederation as Upper Canada), Fort George is regarded by many as the most haunted place in Canada. It was headquarters for the British military in Niagara during the War of 1812, and the scene of much blood, death and suffering. Many soldiers and civilians alike are still buried on the grounds of the fort. Some people say that distant cries can still be heard there.

If you dare to set foot in the fort on a weekend in October, check out the Friends of Fort George Halloween ghost tour. This two-hour guided candlelit walking tour is conducted by Ghost Tours of Niagara.

In the Canadian Badlands of southeastern Alberta, ghost tours and other paranormal events are wafting through the mist. The Haunted Atlas Coal Mine has BIG BOO and LITTLE BOO tours into the darkest corners of the abandoned coal mine. The Medalta Ghost Hunt is a nocturnal tour through a 100 year old pottery factory led by the Medicine Hat Paranormal Investigation team. And in the normally peaceful village of Stirling, Alberta, the Haunted Stirling Mansion is one of the best-produced haunted houses I have seen anywhere in Canada.

On Twitter, the Stanley Park Hallowe’en Ghost Train is known as @Ghost_TrainYVR. This year’s theme is Circus of Disaster. @Ghost_TrainYVR has been tweeting little teasers about this year’s event. Example: “The 1st circus in Ancient Rome was called the ‘Circus Maximus’ & more than 200-thousand people came to watch the show” Here’s a review of this year’s ghost train from the Georgia Straight, a popular Vancouver area media outlet.

If you know of a ghost tour or spooky Canadian factoid, please share it with us in the comments below.

Buried loot at the Haunted Stirling Mansion

Halloween is big business in Canada. Just ask Statistics Canada. Every year, it releases Halloween stats that include the latest demographics on trick or treaters, the number of Canadian farms with pumpkin patches, the amount of money Canadians spend on Halloween candy and even a list of places in Canada that may give you the creeps.

Based on recent travels across the country, we came up with our own list of creepy places:

All Hallows Eve at Kings Landing Historical Settlement

Bone-chilling tales including a famous cold case…

“Lizzie Borden took an axe, Gave her mother 40 whacks, When she saw what she had done, She gave her father 41″  Lizzie was later acquitted of the 1892 double-ax murder which over a century later remains unsolved. Expect this kind of bone chilling tale and more as the “dead” gather October 29 and 30 to celebrate the ancient ritual of All Hallows Eve at Kings Landing Historical Settlement near Fredericton, New Brunswick. A mysterious soul and a headless horseman will greet you at the Kings Landing gate and escort you down a lonely gravel road to the King’s Head Inn. There you’ll join others for dnner and a night of murder and mayhem.

Haunted Stirling Mansion, Stirling, Alberta

Canada’s best haunted house:

Last June on a road trip near Lethbridge, Alberta, we stumbled across what we think is THE best haunted house in Canada. It was broad daylight when the owner gave us a tour of the Haunted Stirling Mansion. It didn’t matter. I still  jumped out of my skin when I saw a strange “dude” peeking out from a door slightly ajar. The set design in this place is so well done, my imagination ran wild. Fright Nights run October 28-31.

Haunted Atlas Coal Mine near Drumheller, Alberta

The Atlas Coal Mine:

With all the miner news of late we couldn’t resist including the Haunted Atlas Coal Mine.  It stands next to the ghost town of East Coulee, south of Drumheller, in the Canadian Badlands of Alberta. The mine’s grey-timbered tipple is creepy enough in daylight let alone at night when Hallowe’en guests are invited to explore it armed with only a flashlight. A former bathhouse has big meat hooks attached to ropes on pulleys hanging from the ceiling. Miners once used these to hang their street clothes on, above the coal dust. The Drumheller Paranormal Group thinks this national historic site is haunted. You can judge for yourself. Special Big Boo and Little Boo tours are offered October 30.

Canada’s coolest post-halloween event

Best post-Halloween event:

The Pumpkin Parade in west end Toronto’s Sorauren Park is a feast for the eyes. Every year hundreds of families bring their carved pumpkins to the park at dusk the day after Halloween. The pumpkins are then lit along a path that runs the perimeter of the park.

One of the highlights of our visit to the Canadian Badlands (http://canadianbadlands.com) in southeastern Alberta was touring the Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site.(http://www.atlascoalmine.ab.ca)  It’s managed by an amazing storyteller. In the space of an hour or so, she brought to life a wild and woolley era of Canadian history. One hundred and thirty nine coal mines once operated in the Drumheller area of the Canadian Badlands. Coal was what oil is today and Drumheller was the Fort McMurray of the 1920s.

Tipple at the Atlas Coal Mine, in the Canadian Badlands, East Coulee, Alberta

The place was BOOMING. Every language of Europe could be heard on the streets back then – Polish, Ukranian, Italian, German and more. Each mine had its own language too, with Polish spoken in one, Ukrainian in another and so on. Labour strife and the communist movement was strong and according to Linda a lot of in-fighting went on. Conservative mining companies faced off against labour groups and miners fought other miners. Fist fights broke out constantly. The wild west mentality was alive and well. One bar owner got so fed up with all the barroom brawls that he eventually drew a line down the middle of his establishment and told his competing customers to stay on their respective sides.

During Prohibition, secret tunnels and escape routes were built all over Drumheller. Bars occupied every street corner. Weekly paycheques were cashed at the bars and hotels or at brothels like Fanny’s, Mary’s and Pretty Alice’s. The brothels are long gone but some of the bars and hotels still operate. Places like the LongBranch Saloon in Drumheller and the Rosedeer Hotel in Wayne, a ghost town. (http://www.coalking.ca/people/ghost_wayne.html) Built in 1913, the Rosedeer Hotel was nicknamed “Bucket of Blood” in the coal mining era. Apparently some real brass knuckle stuff went on in its rooms upstairs. It’s all very genteel now and a great spot to stop for a beer and some Alberta beef. Drumheller’s tunnels are still around too but you won’t find them in the tourism guides.

If you’re in the Canadian Badlands around Hallowe’en, check out Haunted Atlas Coal Mine. It’s got to rank as one of the best Halloween events in Canada. The mine’s grey-timbered tipple, the only left in North America is creepy enough in daylight let alone at night. Hallowe’en is when you get to explore it on your own, armed with only a flashlight.

Bath House at the Atlas Coal Mine

The mine’s former bathhouse is just as creepy. Big meat hooks attached to ropes on pulleys hang from the bathhouse ceiling. Coal miners once used these to hang their street clothes on, high above the coal dust.

Check out the Google Map here.