Crowsnest Pass

I had an incredible 90 minute phone call today with a woman from the Crowsnest Pass who was able to provide a great many stories of places in the Pass that have strange occurrences associated with them. I knew there had to be stories from the Pass -- any place where the Frank Slide occurred and the worst underground coal mine disaster in Canadian history is sure to be a place of restless spirits.

And it didn't disappoint. Sitting here in a well lit room in Lethbridge simply being told the stories, I had goosebumps and the hair rising on the back of my neck!

Bellevue Mine does tours around Halloween each year and the person I spoke with assists with those. She said that, waiting in the dark mine for tours, she has heard the chirping of canaries. There are certainly no canaries in the mine today but in years past they would have been taken down as an early warning sign for carbon monoxide poisoning. Do ghost birds continue to keep the mine safe?

On another evening, again sitting in there in the full, overwhelming darkness of the mine, she heard the entrance door open and heard the quiet mumbling of voices. She expected any minute to see the lanterns as the tour approached. But none appeared. But the voices stayed. And then she realized. It was a school group they were expecting and rather than hearing the bright, light voices of children, the voices she heard were the low rumbling of adult men. For minutes she could hear the voices but no one approached her and there was no sign of the tour. Then, she heard again the door opening and wondered what had happened that the tour was leaving. Almost immediately she heard children's voices and soon saw lights appearing -- the tour had just arrived!

Between tours she and others were in the hut warming up and she asked why the tour had started and then went out and re-started. Everyone turned and looked at her like she was crazy and she was promptly told that had happened. And even though there were others in the mine she was the only one who heard the door open and the men's voices. And they realized what time it was -- back in the days when the mine had been operational it would be have been lunch time and the men were coming into the mine and back to work!

These are certainly not the only stories she told me. I'm still processing the one of the haunted house where they claim to have caught on tape the voice of a teenage boy mimicing howls to the family dog as he teased and hassled the dog. The same teenage boy appeared as a full apparition in a mirror and liked to play with the lights. But that one will have to wait for another time...