iN VIDEO: Exploring ghostlore in the Thompson-Okanagan

There are numerous ghosts said to haunt buildings in the Thompson-Okanagan region, each attached to different periods in local history and often linked to traumatic events.

As fictional characters caught between life and death, ghosts have intrigued humans for centuries and are spooky subjects of literature, movies and books. But ghost stories are not only great for a thrilling fright around a campfire, they are part of folklore passed down through the generations and shaped by the communities around them.

They tell us about the people who relate to them.

When folklore involves ghosts, it is often referred to as “ghostlore.”

One of Vernon’s most well-known ghost stories is of a little girl named Lonnie Mohr who died in 1894 at the age of seven. The story sheds a light on the risks of dental care prior to the 1900s.

According to the Museum and Archives of Vernon, she was born in a township in Ontario in 1886, the second youngest of five children. The Mohr family moved into a home on the corner of Pleasant Valley Road and 32 Avenue in Vernon in 1893, one year before tragedy struck.

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Lonnie had a toothache and shortly after the tooth was extracted, she developed septicemia and died. The child’s body was first buried in the old Pioneer Park Cemetery, then later exhumed and buried at the Pleasant Valley Cemetery during which time the body was examined and it was discovered her jaw had been fractured by the dentist during the tooth extraction. The broken bone led to the blood poisoning that killed her.

“Local legend suggests that Lonnie’s ghost continues to inhabit the Mohr home,” the archive reads. “The residence was eventually occupied by a business — a dental office, in fact. Staff at the Pleasant Valley Dental (now in a new location on 27 Street) reported dental chairs swivelling on their own and other unexplained occurrences.”

The Vernon Towne Theatre originally opened as a dance hall in 1929 and became a cinema in 1938. It is called one of the most haunted buildings in Canada, according to Haunted Canada.

The theatre is said to be home to a ghost named Floyd, who was a projectionist. The dates he worked there are not clear, nor the date he died, however, local lore suggests Floyd was likely one of the first projectionists at the theatre.

It was a dangerous job as the film was treated with flammable cellulose nitrate and lit with a flame between two carbon rods. Floyd’s job would have been to use a hand crank to move the film closer or further away to get a clear picture.

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According to rumours passed down by local residents, Floyd was having an affair with a married woman. She ended the affair and shortly after was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in the venue. Two weeks later, Floyd hung himself from a spike over the stairwell.

He’s one reason the theatre is believed to be a hotbed for ghosts and spirits, and there are rumours employees have seen fresh footprints in a mopped floor, and other paranormal activity.

A fascinating story of a phantom on Highway 1 is written by Robert C. Belyk in his book Ghosts II: More True Stories from British Columbia.

This story begins in the spring 1975 when a John and Janice Bradley travelled from Vancouver to visit relatives in Kamloops. They started driving after supper, reaching Hope just before midnight and heading up the Fraser Canyon with plans to stop for the night at Spences Bridge.

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All the motels were dark so they continued on to Cache Creek. According to the story, there was almost no traffic on the road, and approaching the turn off to Ashcroft, Janice noticed abandoned shacks on the side of the road.

“Suddenly their high beams illuminated the back of a woman walking along the edge of the highway,” Belyk’s story reads. “As they drew closer, John and Janice could see she was short, with black hair cut bluntly above her shoulders. Janice estimated that she was less than five feet tall, which combined with her straight, black hair, made it seem likely that she was of Asian descent.”

The woman’s clothing was out of the ordinary, and she was walking with quick, short steps with her arms swinging back and forth. The pair slowed down to offer help to the woman, who jerked her head toward them with a strange movement.

“The face, which was as white as porcelain, lacked eyebrows, but was defined by a mouth twisted into a vicious snarl, and eyes so electrifying that Janice was later unable to find words to describe their appearance,” the story reads. “The pupils were incredibly large and darker than anything she had ever seen. Both John and Janice were sure that whatever it was they were looking at was not human.”

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The couple sped away and followed up with police in Ashcroft the next day but there no accident had been reported on that section of highway. The clothing the woman was wearing was consistent with what Chinese women wore a century prior, and the story sheds light on a time when Ashcroft had a small but active Chinese population.

Ghostly folklore is a living archive that comes out of real historical events and eras, buildings and people. Often embody the existential anxiety surrounding death, the afterlife and the unknown, and is closely linked to the communities where they develop.