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.

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!