People will be taking steps in shadowy places during a tour to uncover Okotoks’ ghoulish haunted past.
On Oct. 28 and Oct. 30 The Heritage House Museum and Archives is conducting special Ghost Walk Tours in advance of Halloween looming arrival Monday.
“I think it’ll be really interesting, there will be a lot of stories of the darker side of Okotoks’ history,” said Kathy Coutts of the Heritage House Museum. “There will be some ghost stories and some things just about mysterious deaths.”
Coutts’ fellow tour guide will be Karen Peters of the Okotoks and District Historical Society who is well versed with many aspects of the town’s colourful past.
“One of the stops we will be making is right across from the train station,” Peters said. “The old Alberta Hotel used to be there. It was one of the wilder hotels because that’s where a lot of single men went to drink. We know of four men who died in the hotel or it’s livery stable. If you stand there at night I’m sure you could feel these gentleman still because they had a good time there, but unfortunately they died from excessive drinking, falling down stairs, or passing away sleeping next to other people in the livery stable.”
Peters revealed another person to expire at the old Alberta Hotel was a Chinese cook everybody called Jim even though it wasn’t his real name. Apparently, he was buried in Okotoks but his bones were not dug up and sent back overseas to his home village within seven years as called for at the time by Chinese tradition.
“Jim is still somewhere roaming Okotoks,” Peters explained of the consequences of not relocating the cook’s remains. “He is still roaming that area looking for his spirit home.”
Tales of the untimely passing of die-hard partiers and a restless cook’s spirit are not all Peters and Coutts will have in store for their ghost walkers on Saturday. They will be stopping at about five different locations in Olde Towne Okotoks during the 45-minute walking tours and will recount chilling stories at each one.
“There’s a lady, we will call her Catherine,” Peters said conjuring forth another tale. “She was found by her husband, I think it was in 1928, fully clothed on her bed dead with a rag dipped in chloroform stuffed in her mouth. They (the authorities) never could decide, because they didn’t have our forensic science back then, if she killed herself or if someone did it to her.”
Peters said the woman died in a home on of the oldest roads in town, McRae Street, and she left behind a special needs child who was institutionalized after her passing. Apparently, the husband left town shortly after his wife’s body was found with the circumstances of her death never properly determined. Peters said she feels it’s not hard to imagine Catherine’s spirit is lingering on unable to rest because justice was never served in regards to her demise.
While the Ghost Walk Tours are intended to provide some pre-Halloween thrills and entertainment, they will be rich in actual historical information as well.
“I’ve got several stories and they are all based on true people and true facts,” Peters said.
To putting everyone in the proper “things-that-go bump-in-the-night” spirit the tours will begin shortly after sunset at 6:30 p.m. They will depart every half hour from the Heritage House Museum and Archives with the last tour slated to begin at 8 p.m.
“We are keeping it fairly light,” Coutts said of the type of ghostly material to be covered on the walks. “Although we are putting an age minimum of 13 on it.”
Not wanting to put potentially nightmare-inducing imagery in the minds of younger children is the reason for the age restriction.
There is a $5 plus GST charge for the Oct. 28 and Oct. 30 Ghost Walk Tours and you must pre-register by calling 403-938-3204.
