Strange Music -- A Taber Ghost Story

This story was found in a collection of folklore about Alberta. The author, Maxine Sutherland, was reported to have been from Taber. Very other little information was provided in the collection on either the author or the location of the story. The introduction to the story says that this helps to explain the strange music that is sometimes heard in a section of the prairie. Let me know if you've ever heard the music... And, if you're not from southern Alberta, trust me, yes, the wind can drive you crazy.


Three days ago their child had died. They buried it in the dry earth bed of the wind-twisted morning glory vine. Since then the wind had blown without stop, mounting the madness in the brain of Mary Howes. There had always been that sound of wind. Wind that broke and spoiled the efforts of his years and took all John Howes had ever owned or hoped to own.

He looked now, to the rifle above the door and then to Mary by the cradle. The hot, dry wind blowing through the broken window, steamed her hair and clothes and wrapped her in its sound. His last possession had been claimed.

For Mary never had submitted to the wind. Each year she planted morning glories in the dry earth bed and hope in the heart of John. When both the morning glories and the hope had wilted in the wind she squared his shoulders with her faith in the harvest that would come. She always said the harvest was a sure promise of God.

John had always known the wind was stronger than himself. Now it seemed to be stronger than the promise of God or stronger than the faith of Mary. All that had been his strength was gone. A wind blast shook the house and crashed the rifle to the floor.

All the light of sanity was gone from the face of Mary. Leaning to the cradle she commenced the wild lullaby against the wind’s sound. Soon she would find the child was gone. The frantic search would come again. Her fists would beat upon him and her wild accusations join with the wind sounds in his ear.

Over and over, in the last three days she had done these things. He could not bear it once again. He must end her madness. From his ears he must shut out forever that which was the sound of wind.

Her lullaby was closing now, In her mad hope and joy she bent above the cradle, searching for the child. It must be now, before she knew despair again. It must be now.

He took the rifle in his hands. How hard it was to hold it steady. There was just the short sharp sound, and Mary lay beside the cradle. The one bloom of the wind-twisted morning glory bloom vine was in her hands. He took the rifle up again ---

They found them both, beyond the madness and the wind.

In the year which followed the promise of a harvest was fulfilled. The rain came, and dormant seeds in John’s fields grew up among the weeds, while in the dry-earth bed, the morning glory vine arose and filled the dark window-gap with bloom.

Some say that in the summer dawn a music floats across the prairie, the figure of a man walks from the wheat field to the window where the morning glories bloom; a woman with a child in arms goes out to meet him, singing. And as the music rolls and fills the plains the figures walk together to the sun.

Things to Do, Stories to Find

In between handing out candy tonight, I put together a list of some of the places I still need to research in southern Alberta. These are places where I've heard rumours and stories or have had little pieces of information provided but not much. Or I've just had people say "is it true there's a ghost in such and such?" but they have no details or information. So these are on my to-do list for the next few months.

Please email or contact me if you have anything you wish to add to these places.

Basement of 54 (??)
FLVT (??)
Champion Hotel (??)
old Carol's Care on 8th Street (dishes being broken)
Sandman Inn (crying child reported)
Owl Acoustic Lounge (??)
old Fire Hall No 1 (??)
Cecil Hotel in Fort Macleod (??)
Youth Treatment Centre (??)

Ghosts May not Sleep but Ghost Story Hunting Takes a Break, Sometimes

Someone asked me the other day if I picked up any new stories at all in the last while (maybe because I haven't been posting on the BLOG as regularly as I once did). I could only smile and say "well, only about 10 just this past week." While I haven't had much time of late to share stories, I have certainly had the opportunity to collect them.

One told to me in September was about the old Schweitzer Bakery building on London Road in Lethbridge. Two of the staff were working when one noted that a man walked past here and to the back of the building. She wasn't too worried because she knew another staff was back there and would redirect the man. The other person heard the man, went to speak to him but there was no one there (even though there was no other exit out of the room).

Just this past week I had another story told to me of a place along the Enchant Highway between Enchant and Vauxhall. Years ago, when I was in High School, I had heard some weird whisperings about this place. But this time I was told the complete story.

The house on the property had burned down years ago but there was a garage left. Two men, Bill and Clifford, were working on a car in the garage. They had a light on above the car which suddenly went off. When they went to check, they saw the light had been unplugged from the wall (though there was no one else around). They plugged it back in and returned to work -- only to have the light once again unplugged! After this occurred several times the two men decided that they had to get out of there.

They went outside and saw in the yard a woman completely dressed in white carrying two suitcases. As they watched, she floated upwards and disappeared. Considering that one of the rumours of the property was that the husband had murdered his wife and hidden the body they of course quickly left after that.

I was also told of a Daycare in Lethbridge that I should check into. A hotel. A restaurant. And quite a number of other buildings. The hunt for ghost stories of southern Alberta continues.

Haunted Houses in Lethbridge

Fall is one of my favourite times of year. School is back in. There's a crispness in the air. And Halloween is just around the corner. And this is the PERFECT time of year to collect stories and the long shadows of fall get people talking and thinking of ghost stories. Unfortunately it also means that I'm so busy tracking down stories that I haven't spent enough time lately sharing them with you. But here's a few of the new stories and new leads I'm trying to track down.

I've picked up stories related to three more houses in Lethbridge. Two are on the southside and one is on the northside. The northside stories were told to me by a young girl who used to live in a house on 20th Street North. She experienced some of the commonly reported things -- the TV would turn on and off by itself and there would be strange shadows and silhouettes. But this house had much more than that going on. One night the young girl (and she doesn't remember why) chose to sleep on the floor. She was looking under the bed at the time and for no reason, her brother's truck started to roll across the floor under the bed towards her. And she often experienced strange voices singing in the bathroom -- enough voices that it would sound like a choir!

On the southside, strangely enough, one of the places I've found stories on is on 20th Street South. The family who used to live in that house said that they often came home from trips to find all of the doors unlocked and the windows open and no one in the house and no signs that anyone had entered the house. And the cat, which had been safely locked in the house when they left, was regularly found sitting on the front step, slightly miffed to be outside in the cold.

The other southside house is on 13th Street South. Still waiting to get more details on this house but the story I've heard so far is that an apparition of a woman has appeared in the mirror. Can't wait to find out more...

Now if only I could get to Medicine Hat for that tour I've been promised of all of its haunted places. Then I'll have much more to share.

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...

Talking to the other side?

I had a chance this past week to speak to a medium who was incredibly helpful with my research. She is hesitant about talking to anyone and has asked me to use a pseudonym when referring to her so I'll call her Edith.

What I enjoyed about Edith's stories was how random were the messages she received and which she passed on to living relatives. In one case someone presented her the image of standing in a kitchen and making Nestle Quik cocoa. She found out from talking to his mother that this man (who died as an adult) had as a child made himself a glass every day when he got home from school. On another instant the person told her he was all right but that he missed the noodles. Edith later found out from his wife that noodles were his favourite home-made meal. And in a third instance the person showed her three raised vegetable beds which, sure enough, existed in the backyard of his home.

Another thing for me to think about and more stories for me to add in my continuing research into the haunted history (and folklore) of southern Alberta. And, don't forget, keep sending me your stories. The collection gets longer and better every week.

Haunted Picture Butte

If you drive through Picture Butte you will probably notice the old hospital building standing there -- empty and run-down. But is it really empty? Or do the strange sounds that staff heard when the place was a hospital still pervade the hallways and rooms? Have all of the patients actually left the building?

I have had the opportunity to talk with several of the people who worked as staff and they have graciously provided several stories. Two staff were working the night shift. Late in the night and after all patients were in bed, as they were sitting at the nurses' station they both heard shuffling feet walking down the hallway. They looked at each other and realized that they were both hearing it. Each tried to convince the other to get up and check on the noise. Finally, they went and had a look. The hallway was empty. They checked all of the patients' rooms to make certain no one had got up in the middle of the night. Everyone was sleeping. When I asked past staff to describe if they had any experiences the person who told me this story above remembered it as clearly as if it had happened yesterday.

Other staff who worked there mentioned also hearing footsteps but said that sometimes it was not just a person walking but that you could clearly hear the sound of a walker going down the hallway. But the hallway was always empty...

Any other ghosts at Picture Butte? Well, you'll just have to wait and see. Or, if you have stories to share, you'll have to get in touch with me so your stories can be told.

Would you want to live in a haunted house?

I'm curious. Would you want to live in a haunted house?

Considering some of the things people have told me about some of their houses, I must admit, I would want to move. What about you? Would you stay? Or, more importantly, have you stayed? Do you have stories of a haunted house in southern Alberta? Or a house with unexplained and weird happenings? If you do, please share.

The following is from a report I was given about a house south-east of Lethbridge. This haunting seemed to affect the women of the house much more than it ever did the men who lived there.

The first reports of noises and strange footsteps came when a new bride came to the house as a newlywed. Her first night in the house she heard footsteps upstairs, walking the full length of the house, shuffling around the upstairs and coming to a stop at the top of the stairs that lead down into the kitchen. Over the years she was not the only one to hear the steps as visitors to the home also heard the ghostly walker.

The strangest occurrence came years later. The family was painting the downstairs and so were sleeping upstairs on this occasion. The baby's crib was left in the upstairs hallway. In the middle of the night, the baby started to cry. Before the parents could react and get out to the child, they heard the footsteps walk down the hall and stop by the crib. And then very quietly they heard a gentle voice say "shush, be quiet." The baby calmed and returned to sleep. But everyone else in the house had a very restless night, indeed!

Why are schools so often reported as haunted?

First, Happy Friday the 13th!

Many of our local schools have ghost stories associated with them. And one of my friends asked me why. Why are there so many ghost stories from schools?

I think it's partly to do with all of the emotions and activities that take place in schools. I think it also has a lot to do with the fact that schools are full of kids and kids can create some great stories.

Let me explain. Galbraith School is said to be haunted.

Well, a few weeks ago I had a group of young people in the museum and one burst out that there was a ghost at Galbraith School. I replied that, yes, I had heard that but no one could ever provide me with background as to who the ghost was supposed to be.

He told me the first principal of the school had gone crazy, murdered his family and then killed himself -- and that he now haunts the school.

At that point, I had to laugh. I told him the first principal had been killed in action during the First World War and that none of that was true.

He looked at me quietly and then said, well, then it was the second principal. I said, no, the second principal was a woman and only was principal for 6 months before she moved to Ontario. And, before he could say anything, I said and no, it's not the 3rd principal either. The 3rd principal was also a woman and was principal for 20 years before she, too, moved to Ontario.

I felt a little guilty bursting his bubble (but I really can't allow people to misrepresent history) and I really had to chuckle how incredibly detailed, fabulous and spooky his story was -- even if none of it was true.

Ghost Stories -- many leads to track down

Just the past weekend I heard 6 more ghost stories from across southern Alberta -- one in Picture Butte, one near Taber, two around Vauxhall, one in Brooks, and one in Rolling Hills. Added to the one I heard last month from the Enchant/Lomond area, this makes for a lot of fun research in the next while. Now I have to follow up with these people and get them to email me the details.

One site is a hospital. No surprise there -- people report the elevator working when there was no one around, hearing a walker move up and down the hallway after everyone had gone to bed, strange footsteps. There's always a lot of strange occurrences reported in hospitals.

But what rather surprised me is that two of the ghost stories (one in Rolling Hills and one in Vauxhall) were about garages. In the Rolling Hills case, it appears that the owner of the garage (who died on the property) was not willing to leave and he remained to protect the garage. Strange occurrences happened such as a fire that started and stopped repeatedly and with no explanation. People hearing someone walking through the snow but with no one ever appearing and no footprints in the snow. The other garage, from Vauxhall, is supposed to have a woman ghost. Haven't heard yet any explanation for why she's supposed to be there.

Had a couple of ghost stories associated with houses. And one building that's now a day care. That should be an interesting one to track down.

So many great stories to follow up on. And, as always, if you have a great story to pass along, don't hesitate to contact me.

Mommy, can I please go play?

This story was told to me 3rd hand and I hope to follow it back to its source and find the rest of the details.

A little boy was down in Indian Battle Park (the park down by the river in Lethbridge) with his family. He asked to be allowed to go and play with the other kids he saw playing in the park. But his Mom wouldn't let him. Because, while the son could see the kids, his Mom couldn't! Are there ghost kids playing down by the river?

This is the 1st time I've heard a story of ghost kids in Indian Battle Park (though there are lots of reports of other types of ghosts). Very curious to follow up more on this.

A Sister of Mercy

I spent some time tonight speaking with someone who used to work at St. Michael's Hospital. We talked about the ghost that was said to be present there. According to the stories a nun, commonly just called "Sister," was said to have roamed the halls of St. Michael's. She took care of people -- would sit by them and comfort them. She would make staff aware when medication was out of date. She would draw the attention of staff to problems and concerns.

The person with whom I spoke to tonight never saw anything herself but said she worked with several nurses who firmly believed in Sister's presence. And has promised to give me a contact number for one of them. I'll let you know if I hear anything new.

I have often wondered if Sister stayed with the property through the expansion. Of all the ghost stories in Lethbridge she's one that I always found most comforting. Someone who was so devoted to ensuring that people were taken care of when they were most vulnerable. I hope she's still there protecting those who need her.

If you work at St. Michael's (or used to work at St. Michael's) and have stories to tell, I would love to hear them.

Ghost Along the Coulees

I was told this evening of a few ghost stories in the river valley along the west side of the Oldman River just near the High Level Bridge here in Lethbridge. I know a lot of runners love to go along that area but, because of all of my research, I can only think of all of the people who have died in that area. Either from coulees collapsing or falls in the river or related to the bridge.

Tonight I was told a ghost story by someone who runs in that area and she said that a phantom runner has joined her along that spot. Has anyone else experienced anything in that area? Certainly ghost stories related to the river valley shouldn't come as a surprise.

Oh, the things I've heard

I haven't posted for the last while as I've been busy delivering ghost stories at various places and life itself has just kept me busy.

One of my favourite times of year is when I get to go and talk ghost stories to groups from around the area. Because not only do I get to share ghost stories, but I get to hear a lot of ghost stories I hadn't heard of before as well as new stories for older haunted places.

I really have to do more now regarding the old Hamilton Junior High (which of course was once LCI but is now Allan Watson and the school board office). Every time I hear a new ghost story from that place it just gets creepier and creepier. While in a lot of places the ghosts are more about sounds and smells, at this place several people have reported full apparitions. And not just for a few seconds but have interacted with the apparition for minutes at a time. And the really neat thing is that it ranges from young kids to adults and everyone in between.

If you went to school there or have taught there or just know of strange occurrences, please don't hesitate to pass them along.

Ghost Stories of Old

I went through the old newspapers looking for ghost stories. Partly to see how long some ghost stories have been around. But also to see if there were stories that we have since stopped telling.

The 1923 Lethbridge Herald has 2 ghost stories related to the North West Mounted Police. One, that takes place at the Big Bend detachment north east of Wateron, has a horse and rider coming up to the house in the middle of the night. When the rider knocks on the door, the Mounties bid him to enter but no one does. After having the noctural visitor knock three times on the door, the Mounties go out and look for him. They find no sign of a horse or a rider. They also find no tracks of man or beast in the freshly fallen, pristine snow.

The other takes place at the Standoff Detachment. The sergeant there invited a friend out to the detachment for Easter. In the evening after supper the men went outside to smoke. They noted a light and fire in an empty building. As they investigated the light and fire abruptly vanished. And the stove in the house was stone cold and covered in years of dust.

There was also a 1962 story of a ghost in Fleetwood School. According to the article kids at the school reported a Blue Ghost, a mysterious blue light that appeared and glimmered at the top of the building. The story went like wildfire through the student population. Some kids even claimed that 2 children were in hospital because of the ghost. A Herald reporter and photographer went and investigated and found that on a full moon, when the moon was just in the right place, the Blue Ghost appeared. But they realized that when they took a photograph of it, it was simply the moon creating the ghost (at least on that night). Was it always just the moon or did Fleetwood school really have a ghost? If you were a child in Lethbridge during the 1960s do you remember hearing about the Fleetwood ghost? If you have a story, please don't hesitate to share it.

Is Highway 36 haunted?

It's funny what triggers a memory. I was out tonight waiting for a tour to arrive and for some reason I got thinking of hitchhiking ghosts. And then I remembered a story I was once told (unfortunately I don't remember who told me so I don't have all of the details) of a hitchhiking ghost that is seen and picked up along highway 36 between Vauxhall and Brooks near the Oasis.

Does anyone know more about this ghost?

Nicholas Sheran Ghost?

I hadn't thought of this ghost story for a very long time until someone asked me about it today. We were talking today about the death of Nicholas Sheran, who drowned in the Oldman River in 1882. His body was never recovered. Someone asked if there was a ghost story with him. The story I've heard is that there are reports of a grey ghost, dripping wet, seen walking through Indian Battle Park. I can only assume that the ghost is meant to be Nicholas Sheran (especially the dripping wet).

I don't have many details about this story. Has anyone seen it? Is it only at a certain time of the month such as a full moon? Or is it one for foggy days?

Why does Lethbridge have so many ghost stories?

What is it about Lethbridge? I can think of at least 17 places that have ghost stories attached to them. Hmmm. Maybe it's the wind.

One place I recently heard of related to a ghost story was the old Isolation Hospital on 7th Avenue South. Someone reported seeing a woman dressed as a nurse and said she could feel herself back in time. Anyone else have any stories about that place?

I've also heard rumours of ghost stories for the college. But only that they think it's haunted. I've never had a really good story for that place. So if you have a good college story, don't hesitate to share.

Looking for Ghosts of southern Alberta

Well, not quite.

Actually I'm looking for ghost stories from southern Alberta. I've decided it's time to finally write them down in one place. I have collected a lot over the years but I know there's a lot more out there. And I hope to write them into a type of book that you can sit around a camp fire and enjoy a bit of a scare (whether or not you're a believer).

If you have a ghost story that you're willing to share, please let me know.