Mysteries of the Canadian Rockies [New 2024 Mystery Documentary]

there are a few natural areas in Canada more magnificent than the Rocky Mountains that succession of snowcapped ranges which run along the border of Canada's westernmost provinces Alberta and British Columbia every year tourists from all over the world flock to the mountain towns of Jasper banf and Lake Louise to hike ski or simply take in the sights of these jewels in the rugged crown of the great white North beneath its breathtaking exterior of Emerald Lake Majestic Peaks and crisp coniferous forest this Northern stretch of the America's Continental Divide Harbors Dark Secrets best shared around the Cherry glow of an evening campfire stories of ghosts strange animals lost gold and Indian curses these Timeless Tales transport us back through the Region's Rich history from the Heyday of the grand Railway hotels to a time when Crystal Waters reflected the hazy plumes of smoke stained teps in this video video we will explore some of these forgotten mysteries of Canada's Rocky [Music] Mountains the oldest stories endemic to the Canadian Rockies are the oral traditions of its first Nations who have called the region home for centuries long before fur trade explorers first ventured into the mountain passes native storytellers told tales about frightening animals that haunted the slopes lurking at top lonely Craigs in secluded valleys and within glacial lakes one monster which Native tradition says roves the Rocky Mountains is a hairy giant reminiscent of the Sasquatch of the Pacific Northwest this wild man appears in the folklore of the stonies or nakota whose traditional Homeland lies in the heart of the Canadian Rockies encompassing ban National Park these big creatures wrote Canadian politician Gran McAn appear to have been the Rocky Mountain versions of the Abominable snowmen stonies did not hide their fear of the 8 or 9 ft tall Giants muan explained that when Hunters fishermen or Berry Pickers mysteriously vanished in the mountains their disappearances were often attributed to these elusive wild men who had a pension for kidnapping both men and women another Rocky Mountain tribe with stories about Alpine Giants are the shwap an interior Salish people whose sprawling territory which stretches across British Columbia's interior Plateau extends into the Northwestern edge of the Canadian Rockies encompassing of Jasper National Park Anthropologist James Tate described the shwap Giant Legend in 1909 writing that the wild man were said to be quite numerous in shuswap country until the latter half of the 19th century they were Swift Runners and excellent Hunters whose powerful frames allowed them to easily haul black bear deer and other large game along the mountain sides contrary to the ideas of the Stony the Giants of shushop tradition rarely bothered people although they sometimes stole fish from Nets and drying racks they are of a gray complexion Tate wrote and probably on that account and also because of their tallness they are often called bleached or gray trees they are also called burned trees probably because at a great distance they all look black far from being relegated to the campfire stories of yester year Tales of mountain dwelling Giants persist in the Canadian Rockies to this very day fueled by a handful of chilling 20th century encounters which we will explore later in this piece other humanlike creatures set to haunt the Rocky Mountains are the little people diminutive dwarf-like men and women said to live in caves beneath the mountains Grant mchan touched on the Stony conception of these pratal pygmies writing not many Indians actually saw them but Hunters often discovered tiny Footprints and heard mysterious noises two stonies told of pursuing wounded big horn sheep into a mountain cave and there hearing voices of little men speaking from below plotting to make war on the surface dwellers another Exposition on the dwarf Legend appears in the writings of Sebastian chumack who reproduced an old story told by Stony Elder Jonas Dixon Dixon explained that the little people whom he called the makuya debe were associated with the West Wind and were believed to be descended from bears who were transformed into tiny people as Divine punishment for their mischievous antics the little people he said are very small persons no bigger than a badger these underground persons live deep within the Earth where it is always the spring Moon they have their own underground country they weave braided flowers and know very little sorrow their singing is like the Prairie burning and flowering one Stony man who claimed to have seen the mountain dwarves was a hunter named Hector crawler a resident of morle Alberta who spent much of the late 19th and early 20th centuries roaming the albertan Rockies in search of game crwler told his experience to Norman Luxton one of the first prominent residents of ban Alberta who earned himself the moniker Mr ban luxon told crawler's incredible story to Canadian ethnographer Marius barau who published it in his 1960 book Indian days on the western prairies a certain time when he was in the mountains LX said of crawler when alone he saw what he called the little black men describing them to me as elfish not fairy forms he described them to me as elves wearing little plug hats and cutaway coats and while he could not carry on a conversation with the elf he was sure that it was out of the ordinary to have a vision of that kind it was a rare novelty following his strange experience Hector crawler delve into the mysteries of his tribe becoming a medicine man and healer of considerable Renown he spent much of his time in seclusion hunting alone in the mountains particularly in the coutney plains west of Rocky mountainous Alberta the site of another strange event we will touch on later some Stony today firmly maintain that the little people who populate the legends of their forefathers still inhabit the Canadian Rockies and their easterly Foothills in an article published on Halloween 2021 journalist Jordan small stated that the Elusive and benevolent witches Jeth and men as his informant Daxter amus called them are still spotted from time to time in the Stony town of mle Alberta particularly near the schools every once in a while while mopping the floors of the local high school after hours custodians are said to catch glimpses of tiny people darting across the hallway before disappearing and Stony Berry Pickers have reported finding tiny ladders in the woods which disappear before they can be shown to others another monster said to lurk in Canada's Rocky Mountain Forest is a sort of giant predatory owl Illusions to this ghostly nocturnal bird appear in the traditions of the cudney the southernmost of the indigenous peoples in the Canadian Rockies Legend has it that in the midsts of prehistory copi the owl was a hulking man-eating monster that made its home in the Deep Woods drawn by the sound of crying children copi stole into native villages in the night and snatched the little ones from their beds carrying them off to his silven layer every evening as Darkness spread over the forest fearful mothers hushed their children listening with baited breath for the dreaded hoot at the edge of the fir light which told them that copi was on the prowl Kopi proved such a menace to men and animals that coyote the trickster took it upon himself to mitigate his power not knowing the location of copi Nest coyote assumed the appearance of a crying child and was duly snatched up by the Aven Predator after a long flight over the forest and across the mountains the balling impostor was deposited in a spacious Nest where more than a 100 children were held captive he wiped out his tears as his feathered abductor spread his wings and glided silently away in search of firewood as soon as a monster was out of sight coyote told his fellow prisoners that they would see their families again as long as they did exact as he told them when the giant owl returned with a load of firewood he found his captives dancing merrily around a fire to the throb of his own drum singing copi likes us copi likes us please the children seemed to be ignorant of his true intentions the yelloweyed Predator encouraged the Rivalry and soon began to take part himself joining the dancing Circle coyote waited until Kopi was thoroughly engrossed in the exercise before pushing him onto the fire the giant owl burned up and from his smoldering Embers flew regular owls from which all modern members of the species are descended incredibly there is evidence that giant man-eating owls may be more than creatures of native Legend according to Jordan Small's informs the Stony believe that a giant owl resembling the legendary copi of cutney Mythology may still haunt the Rocky mountains this ghastly shape-shifting entity is called the Batha or howler and can sometimes be heard shrieking at night in the woods Beyond cheni Lake quoting filmmaker Jared two young men a Stony native from Morley small Road it's something that a lot of people are afraid to talk about even elders and especially at night although the howler is supposed to have the ability to assume a variety of different forms it most often appears the hapless witnesses as a large owl with the head of a man and the legs of a horse it has been spotted looming in the forest canopy scanning the forest floor with glowing yellow eyes the sight of it is believed to cause temporary paralysis Legend has it that the monster is the spirit of a Stony Indian who became lost in the woods near chiniki Lake transformed into its hideous form by the Sinister power which some say pervades the area two young men claimed to have have encountered the howler himself in the early 2000s while living alone in a house near chiniki Lake one night after coming home from powow practice the filmmaker heard coyotes howling outside and opened his window to let in the wild music about 10 minutes later the coyotes abruptly stopped their yipping suddenly it just went silent the filmmaker told small I remember it being silent so I peaked out my window and it was dead silent and then I heard the screaming coming toward my house it was terrifying it was a scream that I had never heard before like the scream of an owl or something it was the most terrifying screaming I had ever heard I can't describe it so I got spooked I shut the window and I grabbed my dog and just huddled under the window and just turned all the lights off giant owls are not the only Aven monsters set to soar above the Rocky Mountains like other First Nations across the country the indigenous peoples of the Canadian Rockies believed in the existence of giant horned eagles with the ability to create thunder and lightning which made their nests in high Cliffs hunting large game and human beings although there were many names for these colossal Raptors ethnologists generally refer to them as Thunderbirds according to Jonas Dixon the Stony called these Peter natural beings moo and regarded them as powerful allies of humanity in one traditional story a Thunderbird battled a huge horned water snake near the Rocky Mountain trench not far from present day field British Columbia the powerful Blackfoot who lived in the Prairies east of the Rockies have traditional stories about Thunderbirds that lived in the high mountains who sometimes left their alpine eies to hunt bison and human beings in the Foothills the Blackfoot called this creature omakau a word which means big Golden Eagle the Blackfoot tell a story about a cre medicine man named white bear who was abducted by a Thunderbird in the winter of 1850 when he was 28 years old and lived to tell the tale at that time white Bears band was encamped south of Fort Eon Alberta an Old Hudson Bay Company post on the North Saskatchewan River hunting had been poor the previous fall and their pican stores were low with fresh meat hard to come by at that time of the winter the band was in desperate Straits in a deviation from Custom white bear and a handful of hunters wandered West into the Rocky Mountains in search of game mysteriously members of the party began to disappear one by one leaving behind no clues as to their Fates undaunted by this disturbing development the hunters decided to split up and spread spread out in order to give themselves a better chance of finding food one day while camped east of present day ban F Alberta White Bear came across a deer he brought the animal down and set to butchering it when he had finished dressing the carcass he packed the meat onto his back and headed [Music] east suddenly the hunter was surrounded by the shadow of an enormous bird before he knew what was happening White Bear found himself Rising into the air with a thrill of horror he realized that anoopa had grabbed hold of the meat he had packed and was carrying him off to its layer after a terrifying Journey over the mountains White Bear landed in an enormous Nest built a top a high cliff bones of various animals lay about him some of these were unmistakably human likely the last remains of the missing Hunters also in the nest were two baby amab for whom he knew he was intended realizing that his life depended on his Speedy Escape White Bear seized the bird's legs and jumped out of the nest with them the baby birds flapped their wings furiously slowing their descent and the hunter landed on the ground unharmed he plucked two arm-length feathers from the baby Bird's tales as souvenirs of his adventure and struck out east for the Prairies in another Blackfoot story a band of natives encamped in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains were plagued by some Swift and mysterious ious Predator which snatched up lone men and horses when no one was around to witness what became of them a White Shepherd who lived in the area offered the natives his unsolicited advice suggesting that the missing horses and their Riders had probably been taken by a strange bird he had seen he offered to kill the creature for a price the natives ignored the white man and attempted to kill the creature themselves but all who fired at it were carried off into the mountains when some of their best hunters were slain they took the shepherd up on his offer before doing battle the white man killed 30 of his sheep skinned them and made himself a thick suit of armor thus clad he sought out the Thunderbird and began shooting at it but was unable to harm it like his unfortunate predecessors he was snatched up and flown away the shepherd was transported to a huge Nest high in the mountains where a hungry fledgling awaited him escaping the talons of his abductor the man found a stick and managed to Club both Thunderbirds to death like white bear he cut off a few of the bird's arm-length tail feathers and brought them home like giant owls Alpine dwarves and Mountain wild men sightings of giant Raptors evoking the Thunderbirds of native lore have been reported in the relatively recent past in 2004 cryptozoologist Mark a Hall reproduced a story that he Unearthed in Canadian naturalist Dan macau's 1936 book animals of the Canadian Rockies in 1925 hikers reported seeing an enormous eagle near the Tower of Babel a mountain whose base lies just 5 miles south of Lake Louise and a mere 13 mies from the sight of the legendary battle between the Thunderbird and the giant water snake maaan wrote that these outdoorsmen saw an eagle flying at considerable height as it neared the tower it came much lower and they observed that the big brown bird carried an animal of considerable size in its Talons the bird subsequently dropped its prey which proved to be a mule deer fawn weighing 15 lb or nearly 7 kg double the carrying capacity of the average Golden Eagle the most powerful known Raptor in the Canadian Rockies no Exposition on the native Legends of the Canadian Rockies would be complete without a nod to Spirit Island one of Canada's most iconic landmarks this tiny picturesque aisle ground with a Coronet of spruce trees lies at the center of Molen Lake in Jasper National Park amid Pine Forest and snowcapped mountains as its name suggests this enchanting eyelet is associated with a haunting ghost story the origin of which has long been lost to history according to a popular iteration of this tale told to passengers of the Molen Lake boat cruise which reports to be a traditional Stony Legend the the island was the secret meeting place of Two starcross Lovers whose respective tribes were at War when the girl's father learned of this elicit romance he forbade her from returning to the island and kept a strict watch over her to prevent her Disobedience sick with grief the girl fell ill and died the Romeo of this Rocky Mountain tragedy unaware of these developments waited for his Juliet in the shade of the island Spruce bows and died there of a broken heart when it became clear that she would not return to him today the spirit of the young man haunts the island Waiting in Vain for his lost [Music] love another Legend set on Spirit island is a werewolf story which appears in a 1983 Stony ethnography this two-part tale revolves around a pair of Orphan brothers who were raised by wolves on Meen Lake after their mother was killed by a Raider from the Prairies one of the brothers named scraping wolf took took well to his new Lupine lifestyle while the other brother named star robe pined for human company one day the brothers were visited by a medicine man named braided Rawhide necklace who accidentally dropped four sacred blue stones in the water when Star retrieved these items from the bottom of the lake the medicine man rewarded him by giving him his daughter's hand in marriage star left the island to live with his wife named white hand in the village of braided Rawhide necklace while scraping w wolf remained behind with the Wolves eventually after praying to the Night Spirits of Molen Lake scraping wolf transformed into a wolf himself and went to live in the mountains with his Lupine Brothers the second half of the Story begins with Star Rob's return to Spirit Island and reunion with scraping wolf staro informs his brother that his wife and father were really preternatural entities which he called evil Walkers or snake people who had lured him from the island with powerful magic and after calling on the spirits of Molen Lake to transform his evil wife into a pile of brown Pebbles star stole the blue stones from braided Rawhide necklace and returned to Spirit Island when he found that scraping Wolf's Lupine transformation was permanent he used the blue stones to assume the form of a wolf himself and resolved to never abandon his brother again like the tale of the starcross lovers this Rocky Mountain epic ends in tragedy with scraping wolf being eaten by water creatures after failing to heed a prophecy the Wolves of Molen Lake blame the death on Star robe whom they confront on Spirit Island the surviving brother successfully defends himself and heads East in search of his mother's people the first white men to set foot in the Canadian Rockies were voyagers under the command of David Thompson a Welsh surveyor employed at the time by the great fur trading Syndicate of the Northwest company or NWC concerned by the success of the recent Lewis and Clark expedition in which a group of US Army volunteers successfully marched across the continent reaching the mouth of the Columbia River on the Pacific Ocean in 1805 the NWC hoped to find an efficient route to the upper Columbia so that it might establish a presence there before any American syndicates although Northwest company explorers Alexander McKenzie and Simon Fraser had already made their way west across the Great Divide by way of the Northerly Peace River the company hoped to find a quicker Passage through that great and treacherous barrier the Rocky Mountain and tasked David Thompson with its Discovery in 1806 Thompson and his crew crossed the Rocky Mountains by way of House pass an old Indian Trail East of present-- day Red Deer Alberta and established a post near what is now the town of inir British Columbia on the upper Columbia River just beyond the Rocky's Western Edge in 1811 the Northwest company learned that the Pacific Fur Company a Syndicate newly established by the wealthy German American Fur Baron John Jacob Aster was hoping to bring the fur trade to the Watershed of the Columbia River so recently opened by Lewis and Clark hoping to check the success of these new competitors the NWC tasked Thompson with reaching the mouth of the Columbia River before the historians as Pacific Fur Company agents were known necessitating another Journey west across the Rocky Mountains unfortunately for Thompson the pigan Blackfoot of the Prairies angered by the nwc's new trading relationship with their Westerly shwap enemy enemies had blockaded the House pass left with little alternative Thompson and his men set out on Snowshoe in search of an alternative southernly route through the Rockies in his various writings which several historians have since compiled and reworked into flowing narratives which masquerade is the Explorer's single definitive Journal Thompson described a strange Discovery he and his menade on January 7th 1811 just prior to the recension of the athabaska past west of present day Jasper Alberta at about 3:00 in the afternoon Thompson his four native guides and seven French Canadian voyagers under his charge came across the tracks of a large and mysterious animal which were clearly impressed in the 4 to 8 Ines of snow that covered the ground whatever made the tracks appeared to have walked South for some time before heading back into the forest according to the natives all of them expert trackers the strange Prince appeared to be about 6 hours old each track consisted of a large circular impression which Thompson called the ball of the foot crowned with four large toes tipped with short thick claws using his folding ivory ruler the Explorer determined that the tracks measured 14 in in length and 8 in in width the toes were between 3 to 4 in long and the hind part of the foot did not make a substantial imprint in the snow Thompson's native guides believed that the tracks had been made by an animal which from their description could only be a young wooly mammoth claiming that those ancient elephants could sometimes be found at the headwaters of the Athabasca River those huge herbivores they claimed stood about 18 ft high and slept standing upright leaning against large trees they suspected that their legs did not have joints but had not yet had the opportunity to verify their suspicion as none of them had managed to kill one they told the Explorer that it would be futile and dangerous to pursue the particular specimen into the for Forest as their musket balls would only succeed in wounding and angering it an incredulous Thompson proposed the tracks were actually made by an old grizzly bear whose claws had worn down a theory which he himself did not fully believe the natives simply shook their heads and tacitly expressed their desire to move on to which the Explorer reluctantly exceeded the sight of the track of that large Beast staggered me Thompson acknowledged in a later reminiscence adding that in the 30 years that ated the incident from the time in which he penned his Memoir he had often cast his mind back to that strange winter day in 1811 puzzling over the mystery of the tracks the native believe that a population of wly mammoths Abode in the Athabasca River Country in the early 19th century was attested to in the writings of Thompson's contemporary an Irishman named Ross Cox who began his career by working for the nwc's aforementioned competitor the Pacific Fur Company following the dissolution of the PFC in 1813 Cox like many of his fellow astorians was hired by the NWC and dispatched to various posts throughout the so-called Columbia district and what are now the American states of Washington Oregon and [Music] Idaho in his 1832 Memoir Cox wrote some of the upper cre a tribe who inhabit the country in the vicinity of the Athabasca River have a curious tradition with respect to animals which they stay formerly frequented the mountains they alleged that these animals were of frightful magnitude being from 2 to 300 ft in length and high in proportion that they formerly lived in the plains a great distance to the Eastward from which they were gradually driven by the Indians to the Rocky Mountains that they destroyed all smaller animals and if their agility was equal to their size would have also destroyed all the natives Etc one man asserted that his grandfather told him he saw one of those animals in a mountain pass where he was hunting and that on hearing its Roar which he compared to loud thunder the sight almost left his eyes and his heart became as small as an infants whether such an animal ever existed I shall leave to the curious and natural history to determine but if the Indian tradition have any foundation in truth it may have been the mammoth some of whose remains have been found at various times in the United States following its Discovery by David Thompson the athabaska pass became the norwester preferred route across the Rocky Mountains when the Northwest company was absorbed by its great british-backed competitor the Hudson Bay Company or HBC in 1821 the pass became part of a major Brigade route by which Furs and supplies were transferred across the continent throughout the first half of the 19th century fur trade explorers and government surveyors explored alternative passages through the Canadian Rockies in 1825 HBC agent James McMillan traversed the Yellowhead pass under the guidance of a matey Frontiersman named Pierre Boston nicknamed tet Jun or Yellowhead for his blonde hair in 1841 Sir George Simpson the governor of the Hudson's Bay Company became the first white man to cross the Rockies by way of the Simpson pass Southwest of ban Alberta led by a French cre matey guide named Lou pich also known as the wild cat around the same time mate settlers from Manitoba's Red River Valley promised HBC land in the west coast made their way across the southerly white man's pass in Canon ascus country Guided by a young Mountain cre Warrior named mascap or broken arm in the summer of 1858 members of the piser Expedition explored three new passes through the Canadian Rockies paler geologist Dr James Hector explored the vermillian pass across the B River from Castle Mountain and the kicking Horse Pass between field and Lake Louise naming the ladder after an incident in which he was kicked in the chest by a horse and knocked unconscious and naturalist Thomas Blackiston who had disagreements with Expedition leader John piser struck out on his own and independently explored the South Cy pass in what is now Waterton Lakes National Park these Expeditions LED white men into Uncharted Territory that had only felt the soft tread of Indian moccasins into one of the most mysterious sectors of the Rocky Mountains where ghosts still lingered and monsters still roamed for centuries various First Nations across the Northwestern Plains have recognized a certain Rocky Mountain Landmark as being imbued with special otherworldly power as early as 1792 agents of the Hudson Bay Company were aware of a Sinister looking Peak which the natives called The Devil's Head a sharp protrusion of black Limestone on which snow never seems to fall which looks out over the Foothills Northwest of present day Calgary Alberta this infernal Landmark serves as the guidepost marking the gateways to Twin veils riddled with similarly ghoulish names like Devil's Gap Phantom Craig Ghost Valley and dead man Hill as Explorer Walter Dwight Wilcox aptly put it with a Gap a large lake and a mountain a short distance to the north called The Devil's Head named after him his satanic Majesty seems to have a mortgage on all this region along the southern foot of the devil's head runs the ghost River a tributary of the B River this mountain Waterway owes its Eerie name to an old Stony Legend which like all good folk tales has a number of different versions according to one version of The Legend long ago the Stony of the Rocky Mountains were embroiled in a bitter Civil War which pitted band against band and brother against brother during this conflict one Stony band made camp on the Northern Shores of the ghost River pitching their TPS close together so that they might be better prepared to defend themselves in the event of a raid one night these people heard a rumbling up river which sounded like a her of Bison stampeding toward them the sounds of snorts and beating Hooves came closer and closer in an alarming Crescendo finally hurdling past them with a deafening Roar in spite of the darkness the Indians could clearly make out the hulking forms of buffalo racing along the River Bank amid the flurry of horns and wool rode a naked Indian arride a gry horse who appeared to be driving the Buffalo A Lone Eagle Feather mounted proudly in his hair determined to identify this shadowy madman one Stony Warrior leapt onto his horse and galloped after the herd the brave in Pursuit pushed his horse faster and faster said an old Stony Storyteller he wanted to see the face of the rider of the gray horse he wanted to find out who was chasing the Buffalo and why he was stampeding them in the dark of night when he finally rode up beside the gray horse the Ryder and the buffalo herd disappeared into the mids of the night along the river no one could ever catch them because they were ghosts that is why the river is called the ghost River another more popular story tells of a great battle that was fought long ago between the stonies and the Blackfoot on the banks of the ghost River this Clash took place when a band of Blackfoot made an incursion into Stony territory and a very uncharacteristic fishing trip apparently being unable to find any buffalo on the Prairie one Storyteller placed a battlefield on the East Bank of the ghost River North of its Junction with the bow where farmers and ranchers who owned property in the area have Unearthed human skulls bones and arrowheads in their fields it is said that many of the Fallen warriors were later buried in a wooded area at top what is known as Dead Man's Hill arise in the land just Northwest of ghost [Music] Lake as one stone the Elder put it ever after the battle the voices of the slain could be heard from across the river during the night nakota people were always anxious to get across the river and arrive home before nightfall this sentiment was echoed by another Storyteller a resident of the battle site who rode I myself can remember many years ago seeing Stony Indians lashing their horses to a Gallop to get across the river before Sundown if they happened to get late and the sun was setting another Spectre said to rise from his ancient Battlefield is the shade of a Blackfoot Warrior who met his end by falling off a cut bank and drowning in the ghost river ever since the Phantom of this unfortunate Brave has been seen riding Up and Down the River Bank after Sunset seated backwards on his horse with a lance in his [Music] hand 5 miles Southwest of the devil's head and 15 minutes north of ban Alberta lies a 3mi long glacial lake called Lake minow wanka like other lakes with similarly sounding names in North Dakota and Michigan Lake minow Wonka's wild sounding appalation derives from an old suan Indian term which translates to Spirit water before 1888 this body of water was generally referred to as Devil's Lake or Devil's Head Lake owing its name to the storied Mountain which overlooks it and according to a local missionary this crisp glacial Lake was once also referred to as windigo Lake the windigo or wendigo being an evil cannibalistic Spirit of and alonquin tradition like the grimly styled landmarks that surround it Lake minow wanka is shrouded in an aura of mystery befitting its Sinister name one of the oldest and best known Legends surrounding this quiet Mountain Hideway contends that the lake is home to some sort of monster according to a widely disseminated story which appeared in Canadian newspapers as early as 1924 one of the first Indians who saw this Lake did so from the summit of one of the highest mountains which surrounds it in the lake he saw an enormous fish so large that from where he stood it appeared to be as long as the lake another version of this Lake Monster Legend can be found in the BAM trading post a historic gift shop established in 1903 by Canadian Renaissance Man Norman luxon at the back of the shop is a glass case containing What appears to be the desiccated corpse of a merman a note attached to this horrific exhibit describes an old Stony story about a strange creature which lived in Lake midow wanka which was half human and half fish every once in a while the legend contends visitors to the lake can hear voices and drumming coming from beneath the water these mysterious noises ostensibly having some connection with the Lake's monstrous resident it must be mentioned that the atrocity on display at the BAM Trading Post Bears striking resemblance to the Fiji mermaid a chimera likee Abomination composed of the head and torso of a monkey swn onto the body of a fish which American showman PT Barnum exhibited in his Museum in New York City there are other native legends from the Rocky Mountains describing monstrous merid that inhabit the lakes and rivers one old Stony story tells of Two Brothers one of them good and the other bad who were introduced to a monster called waaka after being flung by a tornado in the Rocky Mountains the creature was described as having a scaly fish-like tail a beasal body covered with long black hair and a human head with horns after a series of Adventures the monster was killed by the brothers and roasted in a fire the bad brother tasted some of the creatures cooked flesh while the good brother did not the bad brother soon began to spout coarse hair horns on his head and scales on his legs eventually transforming completely into a waaka himself realizing that his personality was beginning to change change the bad brother begged his sibling to abandon him for his own safety and slipped into a rocky mountain river in the 1860s the Rocky Mountains began to be invaded by white Prospectors as part of the denum ma of the ever easterly succession of gold rushers which had characterized the previous decade back in 1858 hordes of Californian Prospectors descended upon British Columbia's Fraser Canyon drawn by news of a gold strike made at the influence of the Fraser and Thompson rivers in 1861 at the tail end of this Fraser Canyon Gold Rush news of a new Bonanza to the Northeast incited the Caribou gold rush in which thousands of British Canadian and Chinese Prospectors flocked to Fresh diggings in what is known as Caribou country in 1864 a handful of caribou Prospectors who had wandered east of the boom towns of Barkerville and Williams Lake discovered gold on stud horse creek a tributary of the coutney river in the Columbia mountains not far from the present cities of Kimberly and Cranbrook BC when the Wild Horse Creek diggings appear to be played out some Prospectors ventured further east into the Rocky Mountains there they were joined by wolfers whiskey Traders and other hard characters who traveled North from the Montana Frontier many of whom had searched for the yellow metal in the Hills outside banck who were eager to try their luck in one of the last great gold rushes of the Wild West two of the regions most most famous Prospectors responsible for what has been called the greatest mystery of the Canadian Rockies are characters cloaked in Enigma an ill faded peir known only as lemon and blackjack the former giving his name to a legendary Bonanza known as The Lost lemon mine although there are many different versions of this Legend all agree on one point that there is a wealth of lost gold hidden somewhere on the Eastern slopes of Canada's Rocky Mountains according to the best known version of this Legend sometime around 1870 a 35 member prospecting party set out from the tobacco Plains north of Eureka Montana in the Valley of the coutney river to pan the north of skatan river for gold among them was a seasoned goldseker known as Blackjack and his partner lemon after some fruitless panning on the North tatuan Blackjack and lemon decided to search for brighter prospects for protection against the Blackfoot who had no qualms about slaughtering Americans who trespassed on their territory they joined a party of southbound matey led by one Emil Len in some versions of the story these half breeds were headed for Fort standoff a whiskey post built of the Confluence of the old man in Waterton Rivers somewhere around present day n in Alberta Blackjack and lemon separated from the group and followed an old Stony pack Trail up High River and into the mountains hoping to find a mountain pass that led to the Wild Horse Creek goldfields the partners left the trail to follow a creek which proved to be the Confluence of three smaller streams they panned these Headwaters and discovered to their Delight that their beds were rich in Gold Dust after some additional investigation they stumbled upon the source a rock ledge stre with solid gold that night Blackjack and lemon got into a heated argument over whether they should Avail themselves of the gold immediately and take out as much as they could carry or return to civilization and recruit miners to help them Liberate the whole load from its terrestrial prison The Exchange became so intense that the two Prospectors nearly came to blows eventually the livid Partners decided to retire for the night Blackjack slowly nodded off while lemon Wide Awake lay fuming when he was sure that Blackjack was asleep lemon quietly slipped from his blankets crept over to his sleeping partner and split blackjack's head with an axe when he realized what he had done lemon was overwhelmed with panic resolving to abandon the camp at first light he built a huge fire and started pacing back and forth rifle in hand brooding fearfully as he did so he began to hear ghostly moans Eerie whistles and hideous Lamentations faintly superseding the crackling of the fire horrified lemon feared that he was being haunted by the spirit of his murdered partner The Uncanny whal sent him on a slow descent into borderline Insanity a state from which he would never fully recover unbeknownst to the terrified prospector the Gastly whales were issued by two young Stony Braves who tormented the unsuspecting lemon from concealment in the brush one Storyteller identified these native pranksters as William and Daniel bendo while another called them calf child and Medicine owl perhaps using the anglicized forms of their Stony names the Indians had been stalking lemon and blackjack for some time and had witnessed their discovery of the gold their argument and blackjack's subsequent murder at dawn the half craze lemon set out for the tobacco PLS or in another version of the story the St Ignatius Jesuit Mission South of Flathead Lake upon his departure the two natives took what valuables they could from the camp and headed to the Stony Village at Morley where they told their story to Chief Jacob Bearpaw wary of the implications of a gold rush on Stony land the chief swore the two Braves to secrecy after several days lemon arrived at his destination and sought out his friend a priest named father laru during his subsequent confession he showed the priest a sample of the gold Rich rock from the mine he and blackjack had discovered which Traders at Fort Benton an American Fur Company Trading Post on Montana's Missouri River would later describe as a body of solid gold with a Little Rock shut into it immediately the priest asked a mate Frontiersman named John McDougall with finding lemon's mine and giving the murdered prospector a Christian burial the mountain man found the location without much trouble and buried blackjack's remains erecting a stone K Over the grave as soon as he left for tobacco planes a group of bearspaw men who had secretly been keeping watch over the spot destroyed the K and all evidence of human activity the following spring a party of miners having heard of lemon's find convinced a remorseful prospector to lead them to the min's location try as he might however the mentally fragile prospector was unable to retrace his steps after a fruitless search the miners began to believe that lemon was deceiving them and confronted him accordingly in response lemon became violently unhinged and had to be restrained and escorted back to Tobacco Plains no longer able to function in civilized society lemon went to live on on his brother's Ranch in Texas where he remained until his death after the failed Expedition father laru took it upon himself to reclaim the mine in 1872 he outfitted a party of miners who were to be led by John McDougall the man who had buried Blackjack the party headed to Crow nest lake and waited for McDougall who was at Fort Benton at the time when he had finished his business McDougall set out to meet the party on Route he stopped at Fort Kip and indulged in the post's most Infamous commodity a dangerous rotgut pseudo whiskey frequently sold to the Indians that night McDougall drank himself to death taking the secret of the mind's location to his grave some years later the Quest for the Lost lemon mine was taken up by Lafayette French an American buffalo Hunter fur Trader and Rancher who set up shop on the Highwood river near present day High River Alberta sometime in the 1880s during his first expedition into the mountains in search of the fabled treasure French contracted some mysterious ailment and returned home grievously ill for the next 30 Years French made sporadic tracks into the mountains in Search of lemon's Lost gold despite the assistance he received from members of previous sech parties French was ultimately unsuccessful the longer he surged the more he gained the impression that some sort of curse plagued those who sought the gold or at least those who got close to finding it this disturbing notion never presented itself more starkly than in a string of instances that began near Piner Creek Alberta just east of Crowes pass and ended in High River more than 70 m to the north one cold winter day a party of Stony Indians led by William bendo one of the two Braves who had witnessed blackjack's murder took shelter on a ranch near Pinter Creek belonging to a Pioneer named William Samuel Lee French who was coincidentally visiting the Ranch at the same time gave the hungry native and his followers some of his own beef when he asked bendo about the Lost gold the Stony became uncharacteristically tight lipped and refused to disclose any information that spring French presented bendo with 25 horses and 25 cattle and promised to give them to the Stony on the condition that he bring him to the site of blackjack's murder initially bendo agreed that it was arranged that the party would head out in the morning that night the Indian was racked by superstitious Terror and at Sunrise he reneged on the bargain in the winter of 1912 futur Alberton Senator Dan Riley who was working as a carpenter at the time outfitted French for another prospecting Venture on his way to the mountains French crossed paths with bendo a second time finding the Indian on his way to Morley with a number of his friends and relatives he made bendo another generous offer and the Stony once again agreed to lead him to the Lost gold that very night bendo died suddenly and mysteriously in a fit of convulsions convinced that the Indian had brought Bad Medicine upon himself by agreeing to reveal the tribe Secrets his Kinsman loaded his body into a Red River cart and brought it back to Morley for interment the Stony Superstition regarding precious medals clearly exhibited by bendo and other members of his band is alluded to in Walter wilcox's 1900 book The Rockies of Canada in that publication the author relates A Story featuring Joe Healey an Irish born Adventurer and brother of the powerful whiskey trader John J Healey while prospecting on the Bow River in 1864 Healey induced a Stony man named Edwin to take him to a place in the mountains where there was copper ore bribing him with blankets flour and tea the other Indians shook their heads Wilcox wrote and said that the spirits would be angry and that something would surely happen to Edwin for disturb the minerals later that Autumn just prior to their scheduled Expedition Edwin suddenly fell dead beside his fire apparently succumbing to a heart attack to the elders his death was no great surprise being a natural consequence of his decision to show the white man where there was money in the Rocks similar sentiments were held by the Stony of Morley who attributed William bendo's sudden demise to pronatural forces their suspicions were confirmed when on the night that bendo's body was was returned to the Village the Dead Man's son-in-law perished in the same mysterious manner despite these ominous developments French decided to proceed with his planned Expedition and headed into the mountains alone several weeks later the treasure hunter stumbled into the famous baru Ranch in the Alberton Foothills in an obvious state of excitement fumbling for a pencil and paper he scrolled a cryptic letter to a friend at Fort Benton stating that he had found it and would explain everything when he had the opportunity after entrusting the letter to the proprietor of the establishment he rode further west deciding to spend the night in an Old Log Cabin about 2 mi from the bedingfeld ranch in High River sometime that night the cabin mysteriously caught fire French was severely burned but managed to escape with his life and crawled 2 miles in the snow to the bedingfeld ranch for Aid by the time of his arrival it was morning and the ranch hands were already in in the field exhausted and in severe pain the wounded Frontiersman crawled into the bunk house hauled himself into one of the bunks and passed out that evening after supper as the cowboy sat around playing cards in the bunk house a weak voice emanated from the bunks a little less noise Gentlemen please there is a very sick man in this bunk the startled cow hands lowered the prospector from the bed bundled him into a wagon and brought him to High River for medical attention by the time they reached their destination French was in grave condition the dying prospector requested to see Dan Riley who arrived at his bedside as soon as he heard the news I know all about the Lost lemon mine now he whispered French who wanted nothing more than to close his eyes promised to tell Riley the whole story in the morning unfortunately he never had the opportunity the prospector died that night taking the secret of his discovery to the Grave there have been many ideas put forth over the years as to the location of the lost lemon mine most stories place it somewhere in the living Stone range at the Eastern edge of the Rockies between the Highwood River and The Crows Nest pass another tale contends that the elusive load lies in a valley in Red Lodge Provincial Park West of sunre Alberta 50 Mi north of Morley where King Bearpaw the disowned grandson of Chief Jacob be PA is reputed to have spent decades searching for it and one fascinating theory developed by Steven Wright a resident of Alberta's B Valley places the hidden treasure near Mount ainab on the Alberta BC border just west of the spray Lakes wherever its location the cursed gold of lemon and blackjack adds another layer of intrigue to the Enigma that is the Canadian Rockies Canada's brief and fiery Wild West came to an end in 1874 when the government of the 7-year-old Dominion of Canada sent the Northwest Mounted Police to the Western Plains to establish British Law and Order 7 years later European navies and Chinese kolies under the leadership of William Cornelius vanan horn began construction on the Canadian Pacific Railway or CPR the great iron Thorofare that would connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific in 1884 on the recommendation of surveyor and former US Cavalry officer major AB Rogers the railroad is built through the Rocky Mountains by way of the perilous kicking Horse Pass after laying ties and rails over this divide the cpr's workforce of underpaid laborers continued building the road along the northern routes of adjacent Mount Steven creating a steep and dangerous declivity which would come to be known as the big hill before it was replaced by the spiral tunnels in 1909 this 8m horror as historian Pierre Burton put it was responsible for a series of deadly Masters one of which is connected with an eerie Rocky Mountain Mystery in July 1962 one Julie C Crawford the daughter of a senior CPR locomotive engineer named Matthew Fulton Crawford published an article about her father's strange experiences on the Canadian Pacific Railway the last of Julie stories is set in January 1904 when both her father and her easygoing Uncle John Jack Ladner were working out of the city of Rebel Stoke British columb colia on an Alpine route would stretch from that City to lagin Alberta the site of present day Lake Louise this mountain passage was both beautiful and dangerous consisting of a series of switchbacks that wound through both the Alberton Rockies and BC's Columbia range snaking through Rogers Pass and up the deadly big hill in order to Traverse this treacherous Trail locomotives required the assistance of an auxiliary engine or Pusher although The Pusher job was monotonous it paid well and so Jack lad opted to work exclusively in the auxiliary engines in order to provide his family with some extra income Matthew Crawford had spent the evening of January 21st 1904 with his in-laws in Rebel Stoke knowing that he had to work in the morning he kept his visit short when the time came for him to say good night Mrs Ladner gave him a pair of handknit wrist warmers and asked him to give them to her son jack if he managed to see him at lagen or at the station in field BC at the summit of the road all the way East the next day Julie wrote dad was glad his mother-in-law could not see the mountains as they looked in the intense cold menacing implacable the track was in fair condition for the big rotary plow had preceded the passenger train and he was right on time when he pulled into Field Station at the summit at 6:00 sure enough Jack Ladner was present at the field station at the time of Matthew's arrival and watched his train crawl into the station no sooner had the locomotive come to a stop than Jack swung into the the cab to give his brother-in-law a hearty hello after exchanging news Matthew gave Jack the wrist warmers his mother had knitted for him and showed him a new pocket watch he had purchased of which he was very proud the case isn't much he said but it's 21 jeweled the best works I could afford and guaranteed to keep perfect time after chatting for some time the two men parted ways Matthew to continue his journey to Lagan and Jack Bound for Revel Stoke with a load of heavy Freight Jack be extra careful going down the hill Matthew cautioned it's a bad night and if you've got a heavy train you may have some trouble it's slippery now and the track's getting worse all the time hold her tight thanks Matt Jack replied you're always looking out for me but I've gone down the hill in a lot of blizzards this winter I'm getting used to it besides if the train starts to run away there's always the safety switches nothing could happen once the train got in them I'll be all right but if I don't get there I'll find a way to let you know this last remark was a reference to Jack's offre repeated insistence that if he ever met a sticky end on the railroad as he strongly supposed he would he would do everything in his ghostly power to let Matthew know about it Matthew's journey to login was uneventful when his work was complete he headed to the station boarding house for a hot meal and an evening of banter and camaraderie with his fellow trainmen in the midst of the after dinner conversation Matthew eager to show off his new pocket watch drew his time piece from his pocket and showed it to the men with whom he was chatting saying casually it's not much to look at because I didn't splurge on the case but it keeps perfect rather than displaying the correct time however the watch was stopped at 7:56 while the trainman jokingly disparaged the Jeweler who had sold him the watch Matthew attempted to move the hands ahead to the correct time bizarrely they refused to budge glued resolutely to 7:56 suddenly Matthew was struck by a hideous hunch pushing back his chair he Shrugged into his coat and set out for the station ignoring the laughs and deers of his fellow trainmen as he headed into the cold halfway to the station he ran into the operator who had just searched for him at the bunk hos with a heavy heart the operator informed him that Jack's train had ran off the rails having broken through two safety switches it broke its descent by slamming headon into a huge Rock Rescuers on the scene had yet to find any sign of Jack or his firemen Matthew spent the ensuing week working on the wrecking crew searching for any sign of his missing brother-in-law on the mountain side 3 Days Later Jack's broken body was discovered beneath the Twisted Metal of the ru ruined [Music] engine his own pocket watch had stopped at 7:56 the exact same time as Matthews as at the clock on the second safety switch through which the train had broken although Jack's pocket watch and the clock on the safety switch ran perfectly well once they were rewound Matthew's watch never worked again its hands pointing obstinately to the very minute at which Jack had met his untimely demise Matthew later brought the watch to two different Jewelers who determined that there was nothing wrong with any of its components they were unable to ascertain why it had stopped in the first place and why it refused to resume its regular function Julie explained that one of her uncle's friends implored her father to leave the watch as it was and never attempt to use it again and he didn't she wrote it still is in the family its hands fixed at the hour when my uncle left this world so [Music] tragically naturally the the watch was talked about for a long time whenever two railroaders met and it was not unusual to have perfect strangers come to the house and say I worked for the CPR out of Calgary or moja or Brandon we heard that you have the watch that stopped when your brother-in-law was killed can we see it and dad would show it and tell the story again coincidence maybe but Dad said that Jack had kept his promise and had let him know the exact minute he had reached the end of his Earthly [Music] Run The Curious Case of Jack ladner's pocket watch is not the only Rocky Mountain Mystery connected with the Canadian Pacific Railway back in 1888 William Cornelius Van Horn the man who oversaw the construction of that transcontinental track was appointed president of the CPR with the dream of attracting wealthy European tourists seeking a luxury Wilderness experience Van Horn envisioned a castle in the Roys a grand Railway Hotel towering above the Confluence of the bow and spray rivers in the quaint mountain town of ban during the first year of his presidency he commissioned American architect Bruce price with the design of a worldclass establishment that would become an icon of the Canadian Rockies the ban Springs hotel since its grand opening to the public This Magnificent Scottish baronial style Palace rebuilt in 1910 from the Limestone of Mount Rundle has guests from all over the world among them Marilyn Monroe Queen Elizabeth II and Helen Keller according to a number of Legends ostensibly born from the firsthand accounts of Hotel patrons and staff some of these guests never checked out the Fairmont Bam Springs hotel is home to a number of ghostly stories all of which the hotel officially denies at least one of the Bam Springs supposed ghostly guests is set to haunt the missing room 873 on the 8th floor according to Hotel lore a man while staying with his wife and young daughter in room 873 murdered his family before committing suicide as The Story Goes the spirit of the young girl and in some versions The Spirit of her mother never left the room guests who stayed in room 873 after its reopening reported being awoken in the Night by violent shrieks and chambermaids who routinely cleaned the room would report finding bloody fingerprints in the bathroom mirror that could not be washed off off in response to the disturbing reports hotel management sealed off the room the vicinity of which is said to be haunted to this very day another of the permanent residents reported to walk the halls of the Bam Springs is the ghost of Sam mccy a beloved Scottish Bellman who before his death in the mid- late 1970s swore to posthumously return to haunt his workplace incidents involving mysterious Phantom lights elevator doors opening and closing at random and hotel guests being helped by an elderly Scottish Bellman in an Antiquated uniform have been attributed to Sam's ghost other alleged Hotel specters include a ghostly bartender who encourages inebriated patrons to go to bed and a headless man who despite his obvious handicap somehow manages to play the bag pipes of all the ghost stories associated with the Bam Springs Hotel perhaps the best known is the tale of the Phantom bride according to Legend a young couple was was married in bam sometime in the early 1930s it was arranged for their wedding banquet to be held in the Bam Springs hotel where the couple was renting the bridal Suite before the banquet commenced the newly wed bride ascended the marble staircase up to the Cascade Ballroom to join her husband who was waiting at the top as she did so her wedding gown brushed against one of the candles that lined the curved staircase and caught fire in the Panic that ensued the bride tripped over her wedding dress fell down the flight of marble stairs broke her neck and died it is said that her ghost has haunted the hotel ever since over the years various Hotel patrons and staff have reported seeing a fantasmal bride dancing alone in the Cascade Ballroom or ascending the marble staircase on which the tragic event is rumored to have taken place others have heard strange noises emanating from the bridal Suite when the room was not in use true or not the tale of the ghostly Bride of the Bam Springs hotel is surrounded in an aura of mystery and romance that has become entrenched in the folklore of Canada's Rocky [Music] Mountains 40 minutes up the icefield parkway from bam is the Hamlet of Lake Louise named after an iconic glacial Lake which lies at the foot of Mount Lefroy towering over the Lake's Northeastern end is another of the cpr's grand Railway hotels the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise built around the turn of the 20th century this luxury establishment has ghost stories of its own some of which were shared with me by a former Hotel employee named KDM like the Bam Springs The Chateau Lake Louise has an elevator that inexplicably opens and closes on its own this Rogue lift is located near the staff cafeteria at the back of the hotel in an area with Crimson carpet known as the Red Room staff lore has it that back in the 1920s or 30s when the area was open to guests a young boy fell into the open shaft while running after a rolling ball and died from his injuries around the corner from the Red Room is a corridor connected to the staff Cafeteria on which hangs a large mirror while passing by this ornament one of Katie's fellow staff members glanced at his own reflection and saw an older man standing behind him staring at him with a Sinister expression the staff member Whirled around only to find himself alone in the hallway another purportedly haunted area Is the hotel's eighth floor where one of Katie's housekeeping supervisors was kicked squarely in the behind Legend has it that this part of the Chateau Lake Louise is haunted by the ghost of a bride to be who hanged herself in a guest room closet sometime in the 1930s when she learned of her fiance's Affair another unusual incident occurred one night when a guest left the hotel for a nighttime stroll around the lake when he tried to re-enter the door he had exited the guest found himself locked outside when he peered through the window to see if anyone was in the hallway the face of an elderly woman in old-fashioned clothing suddenly appeared in front of him terrified the patron walked around to the main doors and informed the concierge of his frightening experience another interesting Source on the ghosts of the Chateau Lake Louise is an online post written by former Hotel house officer P Herman one night while doing his rounds Herman and a coworker named Robert walked the length of the Tom Wilson room a restaurant on the hotel's 7eventh floor it was very late at night he wrote dark of course but for a few nightlights Herman and Robert strolled down the middle of the dining room walking between rows of tables and chairs with their eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary when they had completed their inspection they turned around to find every chair in the dining room moved to the middle of the aisle down which they had just walked we heard nothing he wrote although there was a very noticeable chill of course we chose an alternate route through the kitchen at a very brisk Pace Herman went on to relate another incident in which he walked past a woman in old-fashioned summer clothing one cold winter night while descending the grand staircase the woman's strange choice of attire caused the house officer to turn around for a second look but by the time he craned his neck the woman had vanished similar to his experience in the Tom Wilson room the incident was accompanied by an oppressive chill which her and likened to the sensation of opening a winter window without feeling a breeze of course I made my report he wrote and it should be unfiled to this day along with several others including screams in empty rooms and other apparitions the most famous spectral resident of the Chateau Lake Louise is that of Thomas Edmunds Wilson the namesake of the aforementioned restaurant Wilson was a Frontiersman who worked as a Northwest Mounted Police Officer a packer for railroad surveyor major AB Rogers and an independent Mountain guide in the Canadian Rockies who in 1882 became the first white man to lay eyes on Lake Louise after his death in 1933 Wilson's spirit is said to have returned to the place he loved best patrons have reported seeing a spectre bearing his likeness gazing out at Lake Louise from the restaurant that bears his name and staff claimed to have in his ghostly figure striding through the kitchen at night his legs disappearing into the floor from the knees down this detail adds authenticity to sightings as the kitchen floor was purportedly a foot lower than its present height when a living Tom Wilson walked the halls of the Chateau Lake Louis tucked away in the southwestern corner of the Canadian Rockies lies Waterton Lakes National Park a hidden tourist destination which has hosted thousands of Sportsmen and outdoor adventurers since the days of its first Ranger coutney Brown on a high Windswept Hill overlooking the Park's aonomus Lakes stands the Magnificent Prince of Wales Hotel the last of the grand Railway hotels to be built on Canadian soil in the summer months this historic Swiss Chalet style Landmark houses guests from all over the world come to hike the perilous Crypt Lake Trail Cruise the Lakes by boat or simply enjoy the breathtaking scenery of the Rocky's smallest park in the Fallen winter the Prince of Wales lies desolate and abandoned its Windows dark its do is boarded up and the wind howling through gaps in its wooden exterior in this Eerie condition the hotel appears more congruous with its many ghost stories an attribute which all of Canada's Grand Railway hotels seem to share the Prince of Wales Hotel was built in 1926 at the behest of Louie W Hill president of the American company the Great Northern Railway at that time alcohol was outlawed in the United States and many thirsty Americans made pilgrimages to the great white North to indulge in their Favorite Beverages Alberta having ended its own Prohibition in 1923 Hill who had built several Grand Railway hotels in neighboring Glacier National Park Montana hoped that a similar hotel in Waterton might entice American liquor tourists to visit Southwestern Alberta utilizing his Railway and us hotels on the journey North it is somewhat ironic that Hills Waterton Hotel built for the express purpose of attracting liquor tourism is located right beside the Mormon heavy counties of Cardston and Warner the only districts in Alberta where alcohol is still [Music] outlawed named after the future short reigning King Edward VII in a vain attempt to entice him to stay there during his 1920 7 Royal tour of Canada the Prince of Wales Hotel is set to house a number of permanent residents the most frequently reported unexplained phenomenon to take place at the Prince of Wales Hotel is the inexplicable Aroma of tobacco smoke which occasionally wafts through the Royal stward dining room this Phantom smell is said to be associated with the ghost of A well-dressed top hat wearing gentleman who haunts the dining room and the basement appearing to unsuspecting guests and staff as a reflection in the windows and mirrors although some writers have attempted to connect the Spectre with a construction worker who allegedly fell from some scaffolding to his death during the hotel's construction the image of a Dapper tobacco smoker corresponds quite well with that of Captain Roden s Harrison the hotel's first manager a pipe smoker who frequently affected a Tweed suit Captain Harrison is said to have taken great pride in his work and had his staff furnish the tables in the Royal Stewart dining room with freshly picked wild flowers every morning perhaps the captain Spirit resides in the hotel to this day enjoying the occasional after dinner smoke and periodically checking in on his guests another of the Prince of Wales resident Spirits is set to haunt the lobby where Hotel staff sometimes report hearing the heavy disembodied footsteps of a man in the middle of the night one former staff member in an internet chat room confessed that he broke into the hotel in the offseason in order to spend the night there his intrusion apparently offended this invisible resident who race down the stairs from the fifth or sixth floor and across the lobby towards him effectively chasing him from the premises the most famous Phantom of the Prince of Wales Hotel is the lady in white the Spector of a young woman in a white gown set to haunt rooms 510 and 516 this feminine fantasm makes her presence known by locking Windows left open overnight running the Taps tapping on doors turning the lights on and blowing her icy breath down the necks of hapless guests some Hotel patrons have reported hearing disembodied Footsteps in the hallways or on the balconies others claimed to have been locked out of their own rooms finding that someone or something had locked the door from the inside one guest staying in room 516 even maintained that The Apparition of a young woman slipped into bed with him and his wife in the dead of night before Vanishing Into Thin Air popular Legend attributes this Phantom to the spirit of a young chambermaid named Sarah who started working at the hotel shortly after its grand opening in 1927 Sarah was in love with a member of the hotel staff when the man rejected her advances Sarah lapsed into Despair and threw herself from a window on the fourth floor her ghost remains in the hotel to this very day haunting the sight of her suicide it is likely that the legend of Sarah's ghost is based on a tragic event that took place in 197 7 a particularly dark year for the Prince of Wales Hotel on account of the death of a beloved Hotel handyman and a disruptive government inspection perhaps the most tragic event to take place that year was the suicide of a 20-year-old seasonal employee from dval Quebec who worked in the hotel's gift shop the employee named Lorraine had fallen in love with Clifford hmel the handsome and athletic manager of the Prince of Wales Hotel when hmel who was already in a relationship with the time failed to reciprocate her affections Lorraine was heartbroken on Saturday June 30th 1977 the grief stricken woman stripped naked and ran throughout the hotel before leaping to her death from the balcony on the hotel's sixth floor her broken body was discovered on the flagstone patio that overlooks the Waterton Lakes some say that ever since her Restless Spirit has roamed the halls of the Prince of Wales searching for the love denied her in [Music] life in addition to the construction of the grand Railway hotels the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885 allowed for the settlement of the western prairies and the British Colombian interior by the early 20th century outdoor adventurers from across the country were regularly heading into the Rockies to hunt fish and Mountain climb some of these Sportsmen returned from their Backcountry escapades with experiences they could not explain which seem to suggest that the old Indian legends of hairy Giants in the Rocky Mountains might have some truth to them one of the best 20th century Wildman stories to come out of the Canadian Rockies is The Testament of William row a construction worker from British Columbia who had an incredible encounter in the Autumn of 1955 when he was helping build the Yellowhead highway west of Jasper R sent his sworn affidavit to Canadian Sasquatch researcher John William green in which he outlined his experience Green in turn published Rose stories in two of his books cementing its place in the annals of classic Bigfoot literature ever since I was a small boy back in the forest of Michigan Ro began in the opening paragraph of his testimony I have studied the lives and habits of wild animals later when I supported my family in Northern Alberta by hunting and trapping I spent many hours just observing the wild things they fascinated me but the most incredible experience I ever had with a wild creature occurred near a little town called tet Jun cash British Columbia about 80 Mi west of Jasper Alberta in October 1955 I decided to climb 5 miles up Micah Mountain to an old deserted mine just for something to do I came inside of the mine about 3:00 in the afternoon after an easy climb I had just come out of a patch of low brush into a clearing when I saw what I thought was a grizzly bear in the bush on the other side I had shot a Grizzly near that spot a year before this one was about 75 yd away but I didn't want to shoot it for I had no way of getting it out so I sat down on a small rock and watched my rifle in my hands when Ro first spotted the animal it was obscured by brush giving him a clear view of its head and the top of one of its shoulders only as he watched the creature stood up on its hind legs and stroe out into a clearing shattering the Hunter's comfortable illusion my first impression was of a huge man ro road about 6 ft tall almost 3 ft wide and probably weighing somewhere near 300 lb it was covered from head to foot with dark brown silver tipped hair but as it came closer I saw by its breasts that it was a female and yet its torso was not curved like a female's its broad frame was straight from shoulder to hip its arms were much thicker than a man's arms and longer reaching almost to its knees its feet were broader proportionately than a man's about 5 in wide at the front and tapering to much thinner heels when it walked it placed the heel of its foot down first and I could see the gray brown skin or hide on the soles of its feet the creature walked over to the bush in which Ro had concealed himself and squatted down on its hunches within 20 ft of the hunter it proceeded to eat the Bush's leaves gripping them with its huge hands and pulling them towards its mouth R stated that the wild woman's lips curled flexibly around the leaves as it ate fascinated Rose studied the animal's features as it enjoyed its afternoon snack apparently oblivious to his presence the shape of the creature's head somewhat resembled a Negroes the hunter wrote its head was higher at the back than at the front the nose was Broad and flat the lips and Chin protruded farther than its nose but the hair that covered it leaving bare only the parts of its face around the mouth nose and ears made it resemble an animal as much as a human none of his hair even on the back of its head was longer than an inch and that on its face was much shorter its ears were shaped like a human's ears but its eyes were small and black like a bear's and its neck was also unhuman thicker and shorter than any man I had ever seen Ro also noted that the creatur's teeth were white and even suddenly the wild woman glanced in Rose's Direction apparently having caught his scent a look of Amazement crossed its face the hunter wrote it looked so comical at the moment I had to grin still in a Crouch position it backed up three or four steps then straightened up to its full height and started to walk rapidly back the way it had come for a moment it watched me over its shoulder as it went not exactly afraid but as though it wanted no contact with anything strange Ro considered shooting the creature as it stalked back into the bush keenly cognizant of the fact that one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the 20th century was only a triggers pull away I leveled my rifle he wrote the creature was still walking rapidly away again turning its head to look in my direction I lowered the rifle although I have called the creature it I felt now that it was a human being and I knew I would never forgive myself if I killed it just as it came to the other patch of brush row continued it threw its head back and made a peculiar noise that seemed to be half laugh and half language and which I can only describe as a sort of Winnie then it walked from the small brush into a stand of Lodgepole Pine row stepped out into the clearing hoping to catch another glimpse of the creature and was rewarded with the sight of the wild woman now standing several hundred yards away tipping her head back again to admit the same strange call she had made before having delivered her incomprehensible message the creature disappeared into the trees another series of Rocky Mountain monster sightings were made in the late 1960s and early '70s at the coutney plains south of norde Alberta where Stony Medicine Man Hector crawler had spent much of his time hunting in the late 19th century in March 1969 a cre Indian band from hoba Alberta set up camp at a place called Windy Point near the Confluence of the North tatuan in Klein Rivers no sooner had they settled in than a 62-year-old band member named Mark Yellowbird caught a glimpse of a huge dark hairy man flitting through the trees Yellowbird had heard stories of such creatures from his Stony friend the late chief walking eagle former head of the nearby Big Horn Reserve he told his friends of these things Yellowbird told reporters but he didn't mention them to anybody else because he knew he would be laughed at in the months following yellow bird's encounter cre campers would wake up in the morning to find huge Footprints skirting the edge of their Camp a few hundred yards from their tents and tepes made by at least two different creatures in June Mark yellow bird's daughter 16-year-old Edith Yellowbird saw four strange figures on the slopes above Windy Point I think they had caught something she told reporters two were bending down and the other two were just walking about nearby they were as tall as good siiz spruce trees on the mountain side on which they were standing shortly after yellow bird's experience a native laborer named Alex short neck was clearing Timber with a felling axe on the north of skatan River North of the cre camp at a sight where the big horn Dam now stands when he became aware of a huge hairy manlike creature standing about 50 yards away watching him I didn't know what to do he told reporters I just went on chopping wood it disappeared I thought it best to just go about my business on August 24th 1969 while working at a pump house just north of The Woodcutter sighting a 17-year-old cement finisher named Harley Peterson who hailed from Condor Alberta spotted a mysterious hairy human-like figure about twice or Thrice the size of an ordinary man watching him from a ridge overlooking theer it looked enormous he later told reporters its head was bent slightly forward and it looked very Hefty Harley pointed the figure out to his father and fellow contractor 46-year-old Stan Peterson soon the Father and Son were joined by three more Alberton companions 19-year-old gu laroo of Rocky Mountain House 46-year-old Floyd enan of eckville and 21-year-old Dale body of pinoa the five men stared at the creature for about half an hour and the creature stared right back ignoring their occasional shouts and waves after sitting down for about 10 minutes the huge hairy figure stood up again stared at the workmen for another 15 minutes and then walked along a ridge overlooking the North esatu and river we watched it for about 3/4 of a mile as it made its way around a ridge Harvey Peterson said it was too tall and its legs too thin for a bear said Dale body of the mysterious Woodland resident whose fellow workmen estimated his height to be between 12 and 15 ft and a bear couldn't have walked that far on its hind legs and not at that speed it looked as if it was taking 6ft strides and covered the distance in less than 2 minutes I just didn't believe it said angan of a strange experience I had heard all sorts of stories and just didn't believe them I took off my glasses and looked again but there it was I knew I was wide awake I jumped up on a tractor and waved my hat at it and yelled it didn't seem to notice angen described the creature as being dark in color having round shoulders and being covered with hair the silent veils and Misty peaks of the Canadian Rockies hold many more secrets from unsolved disappearances and obscure native Legends to strange phenomena which surround the sights of terrible disasters at this Junction of the Magnificent and the Mysterious where Nature's ancient parapets separate rugged luxury from hidden Wilds where man's shadow is seldom cast history and Legend beckon to the adventurers daring The Bold and the curious to explore the mysteries of Canada's Rocky [Music] Mountains

Channel: Hammerson Peters

Views: 538,902

Keywords: rocky mountains, rockies, canadian rockies, mysteries, mysterious, cryptozoology, cryptozoology documentary, cryptozoology documentaries, unsolved mysteries, cryptids, cryptid sightings, legends, stories, ghost stories, haunted, hauntings, banff, jasper, lake louise, canadian rocky mountains, canada, canadian, folklore, folktales, cryptid stories, documentary, cryptid encounters, cryptid horror stories, bigfoot, sasquatch, bigfoot stories, sasquatch stories, sasquatch sightings, bigfoot sightings

Id: 0jxAOAFhCGk

Length: 84min 18sec (5058 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 17 2024