The musical spirit of St. John’s Cathedral
“A curious story relating to a church has to do with the musical spirit of St. John’s Cathedral in Winnipeg. One morning in 1953, during an 8:00 a.m. service, the Rev. H.J. Skynner was reading an epistle from the pulpit. There were about a dozen people in the congregation, including the Rev. J.O. Anderson, then Dean of Rupertsland. Suddenly, the organ sounded. A series of notes, one at a time, played for about fifteen minutes. The notes all sounded in clear tones on the flute register of the instrument. No one sat at the organ, which was in plain view. Although it was very windy that morning, nothing had ever happened on any other windy morning, and there seemed no reason for the rudimentary serenade. Organ experts were called in to explain the incident, but were baffled. The strange story of the invisible organist was never explained.”
Unnatural History: True Manitoba Mysteries by Chris Rutkowski
George: the ghost of the Manitoba Theatre Centre
“Sometimes, poltergeist activities seem more akin to the story of the resident ghost of a particular building. This is the case with “George,” the ghost of the Manitoba Theatre Centre. George is supposed to be the spirit of the crippled son of a resident caretaker of the Dominion Theatre. It once occupied the spot where the Westin Hotel stands now, replacing the old MTC. George apparently had wanted to become an actor, but had died young. Since then, he is said to make his presence known by various methods, usually by mischievous pranks such as knocking books off the shelves of sets during rehearsal. He’s even been heard “giggling” over his pranks. However, local historians have not been able to find any record of anyone matching George’s description associated with the old MTC building.
In March 1967, an employee of the old MTC box office was checking some files when the caretaker ran into her office, insisting she accompany him into the theatre to see something fantastic. She went into the theatre and was surprised to see the reclining chairs moving back one by one, as if someone was flipping them as he walked down the rows. Another employee came during the spectacle, and verified that the seats were “jumping up and down”! They concluded that George was the culprit, and accepted the strange sight as another one of his tricks.
In the new MTC building, George seems to have settled right in. He has been deemed responsible for a calculating machine happily clicking away to an unseen hand. But, all things considered, George is always described as a friendly and helpful ghost. Once, an employee was asked to find two specific receipts out of a large pile of papers, a seemingly arduous task. Asking out loud for George’s help, she was rewarded by a breeze which blew the papers into the air, and two sheets landed by themselves in a wastebasket. They were the two required receipts, and (need I say it), there was no noticeable way for the breeze to have entered the room.
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Manitoba
Virden Haunting
“Virden is a town in southwestern Manitoba. Oil was first discovered in 1951, and Virden has since come to be known as the “Oil Capital of Manitoba”
The witness writes:
“When I was a child we lived in a house that was just over 100 years old. I experienced a few things while living there. My closet door handle would jiggle but would not open, my bedroom door would swing open on its own. The basement lights would flicker and electronics would turn on on their own. The most powerful experience I had was seeing the figure of an old woman. I was playing on the floor and she came into my room. She just paused beside me, I said hello to her and she smiled and turned from me going back out of the room.
I later found out that the one of the principals of the elementary school down the street had lived and died in that house. I believe this was her, and that she was just checking up on me to see what kind of mischief I was up to that day.”
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A Family Dog Says Good-Bye
We received this report in May 2014, but the experience described occurred a few years past. This type of experience with a family pet is actually not uncommon at all and for many as this experient describes provides a comfort at an otherwise sad time.
“Hope you don’t think this is silly. My dog , Louis, was hit by a car right in front of my house. One or two days later, I was standing in my living room, looking at the marks he left in the fresh snow as he started to dash across the street after another dog. I was feeling bereft and very sad. Then, and I swear this was palpable, I could feel Louis in the room with me, just about chest height. I put my arms out, and it was like he leapt right into them. I could feel his weight on my chest and on my arms. The sensation lasted about three or four seconds, then was gone. I was left feeling very much at peace. I “knew” he’d come to say goodbye. I’m a retired English professor, rational, very sane, not given to flights of imagination. I have also never experienced anything like this before or since.”
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The Historic Marlborough Hotel
The Marlborough Hotel opened its doors on November 14, 1914. It was originally named The Olympia, and described as “The Miniature Hotel Deluxe of Canada”, it was located, as it is today, at the very centre of Winnipeg. Over the next decade the hotel was expanded and in the now nine-storey structure was purchased by a group of Winnipeg businessmen and the hotel was re-christened The Marlborough, after England’s great 18th century military leader, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough.
As with many old and majestic structures the Marlborough has a few ghost stories attached to it. In September 2013 we received the following first hand account.
“We had just arrived at the Marlborough hotel in Winnipeg. Our room was on the 4th floor room XXX. I was just making myself comfortable and relaxing on the bed. When I could hear a piano playing. It sounded like classical music was playing from somewhere in the hotel. I asked if anyone with me if they could hear it but they said no. I heard it for a few minutes and then it went away. I found on one website that claimed an older woman would play a grand piano on the 5th floor and staff would use to go up to listen to her play. The lady lived on the 4th level. The piano has since been removed from the hotel.”
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Seven Oaks House Museum
One of the oldest surviving log residences in Manitoba, built between 1851 and 1853 by John Inkster we received the following report from a former staff member about a possible haunting that occurred at the museum.
“I worked at Seven Oaks Museum for 3 summers as a tour guide. During that time myself and co-workers would experience many types of phenomena. We would hear someone walking up and down the stairs to the second floor even though we were all in the hall. We would also hear taps being turned on and dinner ware being moved around. Occasionally we would hear someone walking or running along the porch even if no one was around. I have also seen the grandmother clock wind itself and the door open by itself from a locked position. I have also witnessed a sewing machine being “used” and multiple blinds being pulled back open after they were closed. Often toys in the child’s room would be strewn about after we had arranged them a certain way or blocks knocked over. The Inkster family owned the house in the late 1800’s- early 1900’s so I think someone from the family could be responsible for the events. Also the battle of seven oaks took place on the grounds and could be a cause of the phenomena as well.”
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Flying Dust Reserve
The witness writes:
“I live in northern Manitoba now but this happened to my family when i was a kid. We lived in a two story house on the Flying Dust reserve where footsteps were heard and faucets were turned on. I awoke one morning to footsteps pacing in front of a window which was in the room above mine. This room was used as a play/hobby room. It was a Saturday morning and both my parents and sister were still asleep. My mother had the experience of hearing footsteps running down the stairs and a hand push her out of the way as she was cleaning in the front porch. She says she could hear the footsteps running out of the house and down the gravel road. Another incident she had was with her brother where they heard someone moving around upstairs. It was the middle of the afternoon on a weekday and my uncle asked her if one of the kids was home , which we weren’t. She says they went upstairs together to check and as they got to the top landing they could hear footsteps walking by in front of them but no one was visible. I personally used to see shadows ducking out of sight when I spotted them out of the corner of my eye. I heard my named called on one occasion as well. Not sure who/what is was but it was not frightening to those involved.”
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Strange Sighting In A Field
The witness writes:
“I was walking across a very long field along a narrow pathway that leads to a parking lot. I could see across the whole field except where a small island of thin trees partly cut my view to the left. As I was walking, I never saw anyone onto the field. Then shortly after I passed the set of trees, literally in a blink of an eye, two teenagers appeared about 20 feet ahead of me, going in the same direction as mine. In the corner of my eyes, I never saw or heard them approach me. So, I was stunned.
It felt as if the scene of them took over my whole consciousness.This appearance occurred around 3 o’clock in the afternoon. I go through that field all the time. It is dead quiet in that area. I can easily see or hear someone from at least 150 feet, especially when they converge toward me, as this was the case with these two teenagers. How come I couldn’t see them just steps away from me?
Perhaps they came from behind the thin trees. But this was the fall season, and most leaves were on the ground. So, I easily saw through the trees. Also they were about 90 feet from the trees when I first saw them. So, I would have had at least 24 seconds available to see them coming from there. Also I should have heard their footsteps cracking the dead leaves or their feet shuffling through the tall grass. Impossible to miss such noises! Even after they appeared to me, their footsteps made no noise at all! They never turned their heads to look at me, and never acknowledged my presence. Nevertheless I could see them talking, but I never heard any voices!
They were dressed in identical black pants and identical black jackets. Black is a colour that stands out so easily against the green field. It is simply impossible to miss this, especially that there were two of them! About 30 seconds after their appearance, I saw them skip over a 2-feet tall guardrail that leads to an empty parking lot. I then saw them proceeding straight ahead onto the parking lot. Right then, I looked away for a couple of seconds, and then I looked back at them. They had vanished!
The entire parking lot was empty. There was no place to hide. Where did they go?!!!
With the help of my son, we tried to recreate the events to see if it is at all possible that I might simply have been absent-minded and missed seeing them coming toward me then disappear 30 seconds later. My son and I tried different scenarios, and I could always very easily see and hear him. I don’t know what to think of this appearance. I think that they were teenagers because at one point, I saw the side of the face of one of them–he looked young. They were not dressed in the fashion of today at all. As they appeared to me, it felt like they were from another period of time. I felt that they didn’t fit the current space-time. They had short hair. Finally they appeared to me as three-dimensional entities.
In order to verify my ability to view things at a distance, I performed the following experiment when I came back from work, a 15-minute walk. I would walk and looking down 6 feet directly in front of me. Because I never looked up, I never had a way of knowing when someone would come into my view. Therefore the psychological factor of “knowing” was eliminated. As soon as my eyes saw something moving, I would look up, take a note of where that person was, and walked right where I saw that person thereby estimating the distance. I performed this experiment many days. I concluded that I had no trouble *at all* seeing something moving 150 feet around me, even when I was looking down just 6 feet in front. I performed an extensive geometric analysis of the field and paths that the “ghosts” might have followed.
I concluded that–if they were real living people–they would have come from behind the trees, and they would have come out of the trees and into the *totally* empty field 90 to 100 feet ahead of me, at about 35 degrees from my left. Based on the experiment just described, they should then have appeared to me almost right away. Yet, they appeared to me much later and just 20 feet in front of me. I cannot conceive the notion that I would have failed seeing them converging toward me. Some people told me that I was simply absent-minded, that my mind was distracted from something. I understand that if I were walking on a sidewalk next to a busy and noisy road, I would possibly miss seeing someone. But I was in a totally quiet, and empty field. There was nothing to distract me from.”
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Winnipeg Private Home
The witness writes:
“In Spring 2009 I was sleeping on the couch in the living room, with my body facing the back of the couch. I heard footsteps (very clear/real) come down the stairs, into the livingroom. The person stopped behind me, maybe 5 feet? and looked at me. I pretended to be asleep because I didnt want to have to make polite conversation with anyone, I was cranky and wasn’t close with either of the two other people in the house. The footsteps carried on and exited through the back of the house (kitchen). 10-15 minuets later the only other two people in the house came down. When I asked them who was there they went white. Apparently things of this nature had been happening. They swore no one else was in the house and they just woke up. The doors were all locked and windows frozen shut. If it counts for anything the presence felt male, and human. And a little confused.The house was apparently built in 1917(approx? Not confirmed). On Morley street.”
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Selkirk Haunted House
“We moved into the house in late September 1999 and the day we moved in we found what looked like a child’s footprints going up the wall towards ceiling.
The house was two story, and the second story was a loft style room where we would hear someone call out my husband’s name. But it was after we did some work upstairs to open up an old closet that things really started happening. My husband heard a woman calling him at night and I felt a man around me, but just in the upstairs. One night “he” sat on bed, and I felt it thinking it was my husband. I rolled over and nothing was there but the bed still felt like he was there. Another night as I was getting ready for bed I saw woman climb the stairs and go past me into our bedroom and into the old closet that we had gotten rid of. My husband at the time said he saw the same thing.
We had two cats that would stare up at the upstairs and watch an invisible spirit come downstairs and around corner. My husband had a collection of hotwheels cars that were always being moved around.
We had a large group of friends that wouldn’t stay at our place after dark. One guy after staying over night on our couch left the next day and never came back. We have since moved. We only stayed there for 1 year as it was condemned, and then sold and remodeled”
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“I have noticed the presence since I moved into the in Winnipeg house 2 years ago. The first experience was shortly after moving in. I was out in the garage with a friend hanging out when I noticed a dark shadow near the garage door. The friend I was with at the time also told me he felt very cold and nervous. He described it “like being in a room with someone who dislikes you.”
We had a guest stay at our house during the Christmas break this past year. Late one evening my boyfriend and I were watching a movie in our room when I saw the dark figure standing in front of our bedroom closet. For the first time I was able to see more detailed facial features. It appeared to be female and not very happy. Our guest was in the room adjacent to ours and was sleeping. The next moring our guest reported a psycial encounter with a spirit durring the night. He was sleeping on his stomach and woke suddenly feeling like someone was sitting on his back holding him down. We had never told him about the spirit prior to his report.
Only a few nights ago we had a different house guest over. Durring his stay I was unable to sleep. I had a feeling the spirit was unhappy and moving around the house a lot. I got up to use the washroom durring the night. When leaving the washroom a heard a voice telling me to turn around. I called out to my boyfriend to ask him what he wanted but he didn’t respond. He was sleeping. I went to the guest room to check up on our house guest and found him watching a movie. I asked and he hadn’t said anything.
I feel the spirit is protective of those who live in this house. The most activity definitely happens when we have guests stay at our place. There have been many more other encounters.”
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The Spirit Of A Grandfather Returns
We received the following report in August 2010. The witness is from the Winnipeg area of Manitoba, and his experience is both powerful, and moving. These types of events can have a profound impact on those who experience them, and serve as a reminder that love survives bodily death.
“I was about 4 or 5 when this happened. My grandfather on my moms side passed away, I didn’t realize this till after this experience happened. But I was sitting outside my grandmas place and seen my grandfather walking down the road. Nobody else was outside but me when this happened. He came up to me and asked me how I was doing, and told him I was good smiling. He said I wasn’t going to be seeing him for a long time after this visit and said goodbye. He then asked where my grandmother was, who was inside doing dishes. He smiled at me and walked inside. When I walked in, he was gone. I asked my grandmother where my grandfather was, and she started crying. I asked what was wrong and she told me he died at the hospital the day before. I told my parents this when they came to pick me up from there. They were puzzled. Every now and then I can feel his presence like he is watching me and guiding me .Something I cant quite explain the feeling in-depth. All I can say is that me and him were close and I remember when we always used to sit in his blue van. I still remember all the times we had, me and him. It was a powerful experience I will never forget.”
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One of readers writes:
“It is rumored that the top floor of the building at 363 Broadway Ave is haunted by an employee that passed away there. I have worked in the building and you can hear water running from the men’s washroom when there’s no one there. I have felt as if there is someone behind me, and when I look and there is no one there. You can hear doors closing and opening when no one is at the door. And some have reported hearing banging when there’s nothing there, as well as papers rattling with no wind or anything to explain it. ”
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The historic Masonic Temple in Winnipeg is 100+ years of age, and recently began undergoing a facelift, and some modernization. Aside from being a Masonic Temple it was at one time a Mother Tucker’s Restaurant, and it was during it’s time as an eatery that rumours of a haunting were rampant.
A CBC broadcast dated Aug. 28, 1979 revealed the following:
“Employees at a Winnipeg restaurant converted from an old Masonic Temple believe the place is haunted. Some refuse to be in the building alone because lights flicker on and off and objects move by themselves. But the ghost doesn’t seem to mean any harm. In fact, when wait staff return to work in the morning, it’s as though he’s had a party in the restaurant overnight. Salt and pepper shakers have been moved and napkins used. One manager who has heard footsteps in the attic says, “It really only leaves you one conclusion, that there is some type of spirit in the building.”
Plans for the building include the addition of luxury loft-style condos. It will be interesting to see if this will generate new reports of ghosts, and hauntings at this heritage site. . Updated April 2013: We were contacted in 2013 in regards to events at Mother Tucker’s some real and yet others a confessed hoax. Please note we have shortened full names into initials only. Our thanks to the experient and former employee K.M. for sharing their story with us.
“Here goes. It’s a long story and I am not much of a typist, but I will make a start!
When I first started working at Mother Tucker’s, the restaurant had been opened as such for a few months. It had previously been a club or bar, I think. The manager was D.C and the asst. mgr. was M. H. They, and others, told me of the strange happenings as MT’s was about to open: Chef’s jackets and aprons piled on the floor in the morning, table settings disturbed and ketchup packets from the previous evening’s take-out opened and sprayed across the tables.
By the time I arrived the tales of MT’s hauntings were firmly established, but not really foremost in the minds of the employees. I was hired a a hostess and then took the role of cashier. One night I mentioned the car lights reflecting through the window and another employee agreed that she also saw them and found it funny that they did not appear regularly. The asst. mgr pointed out to me that there were actually no windows on the main floor, so no source for the lights. I witnessed green and red lights floating around the main dining room many, many times.
These other incidents follow in no particular order, I am just recording them as I remember them. Gee, I wish I had kept a journal!
As hostess, I would lock the door behind the last customers as they left and then go into the ladies room off the front foyer to change from my maxi skirt to jeans. I would always give each tap over the sinks a quick tightening because sometimes they would drip. On a number of occasions I would go into the stall to change and hear all the taps turn on full blast. After a while I would just tell the ghost that I didn’t need such an obvious clue as to it’s presence and the phenomena never recurred.
One evening I was at the manager’s apartment with a couple of other employees when he got a call from the police. The motion alarm had sounded. D. C and I went over and found a policeman standing next to his car with his German Sheppard. He told us the dog would not go near the building and while he was shining his light over the side of the building a window opened and shut on its own. Don and I explained that was just the ghost and entered the building to check everything was okay and reset the alarm.
On another occasion a few of us were locking up quite late. We were just putting cash in the upstairs safe when D.C came bounding up the stairs. He had gone down to use the washroom when he saw a man in an old fashioned suit standing in the middle of the room. D.C spoke to the man and the man vanished.
One night as the asst. mgr and I were leaving by the front door, I turned to see a white presence hovering next to the hostess stand.
The spirit(s) loved to play with our telephones. On many occasions, the sound would be distorted. Once I was present when MTS came to fix the phone and the repairman asked me outright if the place had a ghost. The wiring had been jumbled in the phone box. He fixed it and sealed the box. When he had to return 2 days later, I saw him break the seal and reveal the wiring jumbled again.
One of the bus boys (B.P) was the son of a mortician and was raised around funeral homes. He was the last person that you would think would get spooked. However, one night he came flying down the stairs and ran up to me white as a sheet. He was sitting in the staff area at the rear of the second floor and heard distinct footsteps across the third floor above him.
Now comes the fun part and the beginning of the hoax:
There were two access staircases – one at the front of the building and one at the back. Both doors were locked and only D.C and the asst. mgr had keys. For safety reasons that third floor was off limits to everyone. Well, talk about a carrot! One Sunday afternoon a few of us got together and liberated D.C’s keys. Then we made our way up to the third floor. There was lots of old junk…some papers and photos. Nothing of any interest. There was also a stage and some bits and pieces of props, including a coffin and a gauntlet. I can’t remember, but I think I picked up a program for a production of Hamlet. Now, the coffin was obviously just a stage prop, but after all this was a haunted masonic temple and here were a couple of very impressionable people. That night there were footsteps again, but they continues to and down the back set of stairs. No one would go to get clean linen or supplies from the second floor storage room and everyone insisted on taking breaks with others rather than go upstairs alone. To put a stop to the nonsense, the asst. mgr opened the door to the back stairs and there, lying in the undisturbed dust, was the gauntlet we had seen earlier on the stage!
At the time there was a cook there. His name was P.G…. (I can’t remember his last name). We decided to go to the Winnipeg Public Library and search old records of the Masonic Temple. What we found wasn’t very exciting – just some newspaper accounts of the building of the temple and its opening. The only thing mildly interesting was a story about some man who made it his mission to erect a Masonic Temple in Winnipeg. A few hours and as many beers later and P.G and I had concocted a great story about how this guy died before the temple was opened and was secretly buried somewhere in the building. We went back to work and spread the story “in absolute secrecy”. Of course, it spread like wildfire and the VP of Mother Tuckers cut short his weekend at the cottage to come home and find out what was going on. To say the shit hit the fan is putting it mildly. However, he never knew where that story originated because we all closed ranks pretty quickly.
So. Was (is?) the building haunted. Yes. Absolutely. Was it scary for employees? Almost never. I often worked by myself cashing out at the cashier’s desk after everyone had left and the only other person in the building was the asst. mgr or D.C (the manager) up in the second floor office. I often felt the presence standing nearby and spoke to it. Usually I just mentioned that it was creepy and I would prefer if it did not manifest.
Some of the employees at that time were interested in the paranormal, but this was the 70’s and .there wasn’t really anywhere to go to talk about it. We did try to have a seance one night, but there was too much beer and it quickly became an all night party! That’s all I can remember now, close to 40 years later.
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“The place in question is on Evanson Street, now a WRHA office that I worked overnights in, and formerly a hospital. Footsteps would be heard, taps could be heard being turned on and the sound of water running in a bathroom – when you would enter, the noise would stop, the sink was dry, the tap off. Once I heard footsteps, then the sound of someone who had kicked what sounded like an old metal trashcan that tipped and was rolling on the floor. When I went into the hall, nothing was there. My coworkers that also worked overnights also experienced similar happenings. One night I left the office and searched the entire building – could find nothing or no one else present. Another time, Security called me at 4 am, saying they’d rec’d a call from the Elevator phone call that went dead. Thinking my co-worker that I took over from at midnight might be stuck in the elevator, I went and looked – no one present and the telephone was covered in dust – hadn’t been touched in ages.”
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The Fort Garry Hotel was built by Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1913. The 12-story, castle-like hotel, named for nearby Upper Fort Garry, was modeled after the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa. The hotel is noteworthy for it’s ballroom and concert hall on the seventh floor.
Throughout the hotel’s history, there have been many alleged sightings of ghosts on it’s grounds.
Guests have reported of apparitions by their beds, strange sounds and even the feeling of someone crawling into their beds.
The ghost of a woman who apparently committed suicide is said to haunt room 202. She has been seen, floating above the foot of the bed. This same woman is also believed to haunt the lounge, where she is said to be seen crying.
We received the following in September 2009:
Good Afternoon,
I was looking at your web-site after I read about your organization after the woman in Toronto fell to her death the other day looking for ghosts.
I thought I would share my experiences from the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg……I use to work there.
When I first started there and heard the “ghost stories” I laughed and thought anyone who would believe in ghost must be crazy. Well, after working there for 6 years I am a believer.
For a number of years I worked at the Front Desk at the hotel. Through the years the number of stories, strange complaints or upset guests that I checked in or out and dealt with would amaze you.
One occasion I had an airline attendant check out early in the morning almost hysterical. She said she woke up and there was an elderly man dress in old fashion style clothing with a black bowler hat and handlebar moustache, he had been standing at the foot of her bed watching her sleep. On a number of occasions I had upset woman tell me they woke up to the sensation of someone stroking their cheek while they slept, other times to their bedside lamp being turned on and off.
Guests calling down with noise complains about the room next to them…of course the room wasn’t occupied. Coming back to the room after being away to find the room window left open….in Winnipeg in the winter…trust me no housekeeper would do this.
As for myself…where do I begin?? The bellman and I working one night and heared a crash of dishes…not one or two….but dozens and dozens…crash, crash crash….no broken dish to be found and us being the only two to hear it.
Working at a desk and the adding machine starting to add up zero’s on the tape all by itself, 3-4 times…and when my co-worker walked by and I told her and she laughed an said, “ooohhh maybe it’s a ghost” haha..the machine goes crazy and keeps adding until I jump under the desk to unplug it!
But the one that will always stick with me is this.
For about 1 year I was the evening duty manager. Part of my job was to walk every floor of the hotel 2-3 times a night ensuring cleanliness and order.
I could walk the floors night after night day after day with no problem. Then every so often I would have the distinct sensation that A. I was being followed or B. I was being watched.
Sometimes this feeling lasted seconds other times it felt like I was being followed for a few floors.
I never felt scared but the hairs on my arms and back of the neck would stand up and I’d feel a chill.
It could be months before it happened again…and other times a few times in a week.
For whatever the reason I always felt it was a man….and that I wouldn’t be harmed….if anything he was curious or even amused by what I was doing……..don’t ask me why I felt this way. I just did.
One of the owners had gone to bed one night, and felt someone get into bed with them, when she rolled over no one was there.
I have many more stories that I could tell you about, but will stop here.
I will say this. I still work in the hotel industry and in the 4 other hotels I’ve worked in, I’ve never felt a thing.
It is interesting to note that most, if not all, of the hotels built by Grand Trunk Pacific Railway are allegedly haunted.
Have you experienced anything unusual at the Fort Garry Hotel or elsewhere in Manitoba? Can you add any further information to this report? If so please do contact us at admin@psican.org Your privacy will be protected, and confidentiality is assured. We received the following in August 2011:
“Attending a conference for work. Happened around 9-10pm, late May 2008, on a Monday, after a day of travelling from Toronto to Winnipeg, and settled into my room at the Fort Garry, I had dinner (no alcohol), then retired for the evening. I was in bed by around 9pm. Blinds drawn, room completely dark so I could sleep. I slept curled on my left side. About an hour later I was awaken as I sensed light even though my eyes were closed. When I opened them, I saw pin point pulses of bright white light travelling a few feet below the ceiling towards the ceiling. This lasted for about 5 seconds and disappeared. Freaked my out. Could not sleep the rest of the night. I was staying in a room on the third floor, so one floor up and about 2 rooms down from where the infamous room 202 is located. I did not know that was the haunted room until after this happened. I have never in my life seen anything paranormal. Ever. Until this. I only reported this now because I found this website. I have not done a study on this. But it seemed like energy travelling through real space. It just wasn’t plugged in anywhere. Mind boggling. It was more like energy and not a ‘ghost’.”
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Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba
The Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba is located in Brandon. In 2000, the AGSM was moved to the vacated Eatons building attached to the Town Centre Mall. Reports of ghosts and hauntings include footsteps overheard by night cleaners, and upon investigation they were found to be alone in the building, and eerie feelings experienced by some staffers, and visitors. Could these strange happenings be related to the time when the building was still owned by Eatons?
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Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba
The Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba is located in Brandon. In 2000, the AGSM was moved to the vacated Eatons building attached to the Town Centre Mall. Reports of ghosts and hauntings include footsteps overheard by night cleaners, and upon investigation they were found to be alone in the building, and eerie feelings experienced by some staffers, and visitors. Could these strange happenings be related to the time when the building was still owned by Eatons?
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“We live in a 50 + year old house in Selkirk, Manitoba and we believe that this house (along with many others in the area) is haunted by something that I can only describe as something not pleasant. There have been grey and black figures walking through the house (witnessed by both tenants), objects moving, objects hidden and the kitchen and porch are both areas of “dread” to us.
This house has also been negative to us in other ways. Bad luck and bad things have plagued us since we took residence. Tempers flare more easily, visitors get an uncomfortable sense when they are here, and living in a small town it’s difficult to find someone to talk to about this situation.
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Winnipeg Private Residence
“I/my daughter have had at least 4 experiences(two each) within this home/ yard. We no longer live there, but the property is still occupied by family. My daughter has seen a “real” little boy with blonde hair and a long red tee-shirt with bare feet. A few months later she reported to me a ‘lady with a white dress’ was floating several feet above the ground through our 50-60 ft yard away from the house. “and then she just disappeared, mom!!” My daughter was 8-9 at the time. I have experienced a basketball sized ‘ball of pink, feathery,fluffy, self-illuminated light’ which I watched shoot up from out of my view at the end of the bed. I was sitting in bed watching t.v. with my newborn asleep next to me. The light shot up on an angle rather quickly about 7 ft in the air and then proceeded to float down VERY slowly and gently (like a fluffy down feather) until it was out of my sight again. I wasn’t afraid, it was very peaceful. I think it may have been the spirit of my baby I had lost 18 mths before. Needless to say I looked all over the floor, etc, and there was nothing to be found! My other exp. was similar but SCARY.I woke in the night to a dark house and from my bedroom I could see reflections of brightly colored lights dancing on the hallway wall. I specifically saw red and green, they looked almost as though they were reflections from a snow plough or something from outside kitchen window. I felt a sense of apprehension but decided to ‘sneak up’ on the kitchen to find the source in action, as I thought of the other three weird exp’s that previously happened. I quietly approached the kitchen and then quickly ‘jumped’ around the corner only to find everything stop INSTANTLY. I saw nothing, all lights were gone, kitchen was dark. I checked for sources when I put the lights on and I couldn’t find ANY, even the blinds were closed! I have also had two other experiences at different locations . One was sweet,very sad and left me with physical proof that my lost pet had just died (3 parallel light scratches on my forehead where she placed her paw when saying “goodbye”). Another that was by far my most terrifying . It was mid-afternoon and my sister and I had come home from school to an empty house, when we walked into the kitchen laughing, a chair slid VERY rapidly across about 5-6 ft of floor directly at me. I placed my hands out and stopped the chair from hitting me. my sis and I proceeded to leave the house immediately as we were both traumatized as we saw it together!!! We later agreed that we both felt as though we had been interrupting ‘somethings’ space/peace with our raucous laughter and it wanted us to LEAVE!”
The University of Manitoba
In Canada possesses a collection of eerie photographs donated by the heir of Dr. Thomas Glendenning Hamilton, a Winnipeg physician, former schoolboard chairman, member of the provincial legislature and an investigator of all things paranormal, from telekinetics to ectoplasm.
STEVE RAMSEY, CALGARY -ALBERTA- CANADA