O is for Ominous Places

On the weekend, a group of us gathered and, after watching what was supposed to be a scary movie, went out Ghost Hunting.

Yes, I said Ghost Hunting, now move along.

Our first stop, somewhere around 11:30 or so, was the infamous Blue Ghost Tunnel. As we walked (and walked and walked) along the gravel path to the tunnel itself, we passed a young couple who were just leaving. They reported that there was "mojo going tonight" and that there was another couple in the tunnel already. On we went, though the now-largely-closed-up-though-not-too-effectively-since-there's-a-door-in-it opening and into the darkness beyond.

The tunnel is beautifully long, dark, and damp and some ways along, we met the lovely folk who were sitting there in the dark waiting for ghosts. They told us that earlier the metal gate on the door banged open and shut a few times without explanation.

During our time there, a trio of young folk (man, I'm getting old) arrived. They said they could hear footsteps coming up the tunnel, so I went out in the dark to investigate. (Oh yes, I'm a brave soul, folks.)

I walked a short ways up the tunnel and waited, hearing the footsteppian sounds, then proceeding up a bit further and listening some more. I realized that the sound was a bit behind me, so I came a short distance back towards the group. Finally, in the dark, I came to a place where the footfallyesque sounds were directly in front of me.

"This is where the footsteps are coming fom," I called out to the triad of strangers and they came with their flashlights. The sound was coming from one particular leak in the wall, falling perfectly to sound like footsteps! "Is this the sound you were hearing?" and they admitted that it was.

Of course, one of the guys didn't like me debunking his footsteps in front of his girlfriend. "Yeah, but it's strange how they sounded like they were getting closer," to which I responded, well, you're in a tunnel. Your ears will play tricks on you." His buddy was in complete agreement that, this time, the footsteps were easily explained away, but he still wasn't wanting any of it. "Yeah, well, who's to say if that was making the sound or not." (I wanted to say, "Um ... it's right there. I'm watching it drip and make the exact sound you were talking about in perfect timing..." but I didn't.)

Then things suddenly got weird.

"Jerome?" The voice came out of the shadows. It was the girl member of the trio. It was a friend-of-mine's daughter! Ha! I'm sure she was THRILLED to find a friend of her mom's out in the middle of the night in a supposedly haunted tunnel.

(For an alternative report on the tunnel, click here.)

A while later, we moved on (more teenagers arrived in the meantime) to the Screaming Tunnel. This tunnel, being quite short and well-lit by comparison was a bit anticlimactic, but hey, we were out being silly. Although they (the great, vague, illusive "they") say that if you strike a match at night in the tunnel, you'll hear screams and the match will blow out, nothing much happened when we did just that. Alas and alack...

From there, we went to visit Butler's Burial Grounds in Niagara-on-the-Lake. If you click on this link, you can see what it used to look like, thought the whole entrance to the tomb has now been covered with earth, and only the top of the crypt still shows above ground. The headstones atop the hill are still there.

Finally, we went for a brief visit at Fort George, though, being three in the morning, we couldn't exactly wander about the buildings inside. We did, however, chat with a friendly (and likely bored-out-of-his-tree) nighttime security guard.

In truth, although our evening was not exactly packed with paranormal experiences, it was a rather fun evening wandering about in the middle of the night with friends. Really, who wouldn't like to creep along dimly-lit and damp places in the wee hours of the morning?