We love Alberta – but that doesn’t mean it can’t be scary.
Well, we’ve found a few stories involving staircases, abandoned coalmines and some of your favourite bars that used to be funeral homes.
Our main objective today is to freak you out.
If you plan on hitting your local haunts tonight (pun intended), here are a few to watch out for.
The Calgary Stampede
While you might feel like you’ve been haunted by the ghosts of Bud Lite Lime and Shania Twain every July, there are actually rumours of a real ghost lurking in the Stampede Grandstand.
According to urban cowboy myth, a worker was killed when he fell into wet concrete during construction of the Grandstand.
We thought this was something that only happened in mobster movies, but we were wrong.
People who work on site have heard footsteps in the building after hours, found faucets being turned on and off, and complained about someone leaving the lights on.
Hopefully it’s not one of the Young Canadians playing tricks.
Inglewood
Of course Inglewood is haunted. Its Calgary’s oldest neighbourhood and has been around since the 1800s. There are all sorts of sordid details here involving shootings, suicides and lost souls who still haunt the buildings like the Deane House and the Hose and Hound bar.
Even weirder, the Hose and Hound, which was once a fire hall, is said to have the ghost of a monkey, a pet of the fire chief.
If see you him, he answers to the name Barney.
The Rose and Crown
Just to up the strange factor, here’s a bit of trivia: Did you know the Rose and Crown pub used to be a funeral home?
It’s get weirder. According to many local sources, the family who ran the funeral home still lives there (in the afterlife, so to say).
Next time you stop there for pints keep an eye out for what appears to be a married couple and a young child that still occupy the room.
Banff Springs Hotel
Everyone associates the Banff Springs with leisure and relaxation, but there’s something to consider before getting all cozy in your bathrobe.
Apparently this is one of the most haunted places in Canada, and while its probably not as terrifying as scenes from the Shining, there are definitely a few things that will creep you out about this Fairmont hotel.
For starters, room 873 has been permanently sealed off due to a family being brutally murdered there some years ago. While the room remained open for some time, hotel guests who stayed in room 873 after the incident soon started complaining about being awoken by blood curdling screams and finding bloody finger prints in the night.
Seems like a sure-fire way to get upgraded to the executive sweet in a hurry. After hearing enough of these horrid accounts, the room was closed for good.
But somehow this next story is even worse…
Apparently wedding dresses and candles don’t go well together; during a wedding at the turn of the century, a bride descending the staircase caught her dress on fire and fell to her death.
There are many accounts of guests who have encountered this same bride roaming the hallways and dancing in the banquet rooms.
This sounds way worse than dealing with a bridezilla.
Wayne, Alberta
The badlands. A ghost town. And a bar called The Last Chance Saloon. Don’t you feel like you’re being set up for a scary story?
Nowadays, the Rosedeer Hotel is best known as a spot for bikers, tourists and cyclists to stop for a burger. Apparently the parties in the Last Chance Saloon can be a pretty good time. However, there have been many stories told about the haunted third floor that’s been closed off to guests because it’s so spooky.
Stay for the buffalo burger, but if you don’t like things that go bump in the night, maybe look for alternative places to stay.
We wouldn’t judge you.
Atlas Coal Mine
We could probably go on and on about all the haunted places in Alberta, but this one stands out as being one of the worst.
In the early 1900s the coal industry was booming in and around Drum Heller – but life was apparently less than great.
As if mining coal isn’t bad enough, the worker camps were said to be a dirty and horrid place of tent shacks, whiskey, bar brawls, loose women, and gambling.
In other words, ‘mining the black’ wasn’t a sexy career choice.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that alcohol, dynamite, guns and disgruntled workers is a deadly equation, and numerous people died here as a result.
There are plenty of stories of women running through the field screaming, unseen guests occupying the Atlas washhouse, and the ghost of Pretty Alice the ‘lady for hire’ that occupied the bedroom above the equipment room.
If that doesn’t give you goosebumps, then nothing will.
Happy Halloween.
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