HAUNTED CANADA 🍁 Ghosts, Hauntings, and True Crimes
Haunted Canada: A podcast of Canada’s most creepiest ghost stories, hauntings, true crimes and mysteries. Hosted by professional storyteller Nadine, producer of the awarding winning Edmonton Ghost Tours.
HAUNTED CANADA 🍁 Ghosts, Hauntings, and True Crimes
Episode 22 - 3 Ghost Stories from Canada 1. The Dagg Poltergeist. Shawville, Ouébec 2. The Haunted Fire Hall - Rankin Inlet, Nunavut 3. The Haunted Firkins House located in Fort Edmonton Park. Edmonton, Alberta.
Episode 22 of Haunted Canada
3 Ghost Stories from across Canada 🇨🇦
👻 The Dagg Poltergeist. Shawville, Québec
🔥 The Haunted Fire Hall - Rankin Inlet, Nunavut
🏠 The Haunted Firkins House located in Fort Edmonton Park. Edmonton, Alberta.
Support the Show:
Donate: buymeacoffee.com/hauntedcanadapodcast
Donate: Click Donate to Haunted Canada Podcast
Email: hauntedcanadapodcast@gmail.com
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hauntedcanadapodcast
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@edmontonghosttours
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@edmontonghosttours
Sound effects: Pixabay
Music by: Mountain Sound AudioJungle
Music Standard -Mystery Logo Audiojungle
References
https://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/hauntings/dagg-poltergeist/
https://arlenestaffordwilson.wordpress.com/tag/dagg-ghost/
https://sandyjoe.com/i-lived-in-a-haunted-house-fort-edmonton-firkins-house/
http://psican.org/index.php/ghosts-a-hauntings/alberta/1021-firkinhouse
https://edifyedmonton.com/urban/history/2010/the-firkins-ghost-buster/
https://www.forgottenedmonton.com/blog/the-firkins-residence
Photo Credit for Firkins House:
https://sandyjoe.com/i-lived-in-a-haunted-house-fort-edmonton-firkins-house/
🍁 Thank you to everyone for your support. I truly appreciate it! 😀
Edmonton Ghost ToursAlberta’s most popular Ghost Tour sharing the haunted and darker side of Edmonton.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Welcome to Haunted Canada. This is Nadine. If you want to support the creation of this podcast, please take the time to leave a five-star written review. Share this podcast and tell a friend. You can also support us through the link in the show notes titled Show your Support, buy Me a Coffee. If you have a ghost story, haunting or true crime that you would like for us to cover on this podcast, please email us through the website hauntedcanadacom. I'll be reading listeners' ghost stories that they send to me on this podcast. So if you have any of your own ghost stories, strange encounters or hauntings from across Canada or around the world, please email them to me so that I can share them with all the listeners. Now on with the show. Welcome to episode 22 of Haunted Canada, where we're going to delve into three more ghost stories from across Canada. First we're going to head to Quebec to talk about the ghosts and the hauntings surrounding the Dag Poltergeist. Then we're going to talk about the haunted fire hall in Rankin Inlet, nunavut, and then we're going to finish off by delving into the historic and haunted Firkin's House, located in Fort Edmonton Park in Edmonton, alberta.
Speaker 1:In the year 1889, just outside of Shawville, quebec, on the Dagg family farm there was a spooky story of an unexplained haunting and poltergeist that is still talked about to this day and is one of the most scariest poltergeist stories in all of Canada. George and Susan Dagg had three children, mary, age three, and newborn baby boy John. And then the Dagg family had also taken a young girl, 11-year-old Dinah. Dinah McLean was an orphan from Scotland and, like many children who were orphaned in the late 1800s, they were often brought back to Canada and placed with families on firms where they could help out or work on the firm or for the family, and this was the case for Dinah. Little did the family know that upon Dinah's arrival at the Dagg family home in September of 1889, an unsettling and sinister presence was awakened, unleashing a series of eerie and unexplainable occurrences that would terrorize the family. A destructive and dark entity began to haunt the Dag family. Yet what makes the haunting of the Dag family home so ominous is the intensity and variety of horrifying things that would happen in the home and that were done by unseen forces. From strange noises, tables moving chairs being mysteriously thrown across the room and the dark and foreboding sounds of a mysterious voice being heard in the night, these ghostly encounters were actually witnessed by members of the community and up to 16 neighbors signed a letter confirming that they had witnessed a poltergeist at the Dagg family farm. It seems that when Dinah became a part of the family and began living at the family home, that's when all the strange things that people refer to as a poltergeist began to happen. Strange things began to happen around the home, with family items going missing, disappearing and then reappearing a little while later. Many fires started at all places throughout the firm and there was often a sense as if there was a dark presence standing right next to you.
Speaker 1:On the morning of September 15th 1889, a young farmhand named Dean was in the kitchen when he found a five dollar bill under the kitchen table. Dean knew that this was a lot of money and that it must have belonged to his employer, mr Dagg. So Dean ran to find Mr Dagg in the burn and showed him the $5 that he had just found and told Mr Dagg that he had found the money under the kitchen table. However, mr Dagg was suspicious and suspected that young Dean was stealing. Mr Dagg went into his bedroom and checked in the dresser drawer where he kept all the family's money, and indeed, he noticed that there's a $5 bill and a $2 bill missing. Mr Dagg went and searched Dean's room and hidden beneath the sheets was the $2 bill. Dean continuously told Mr Dagg that he did not steal any money and that he had found the $5 under the kitchen table. A little while later, while Mrs Dagg was in the kitchen sweeping the floor, she opened the broom closet and found feces poop on the floor in the broom closet. This again was blamed on the farmhand, dean. When Dean was questioned about the money and the poop, he denied doing either it and said that it must have been the poltergeists that had been haunting the house and mysteriously moving items all around. However, mr Dagg did not believe Dean and they decided to take him in front of the local judge to settle the dispute.
Speaker 1:Yet while Mr Dagg and Dean were gone to town to consult with the local judge, that's when more unknown, paranormal things began to happen in the house. As Mrs Dagg was in the home sweeping the kitchen floor, she again got that odd feeling as if there was someone or something watching her. When she turned around in the kitchen, she noticed that there were multiple mounds of feces poop all over the kitchen floor. That had not been there just a few seconds earlier when she was sweeping. This, of course, all happened when Dean was away with her husband, and of course it cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Speaker 1:Yet the strange and paranormal activity only continued to increase in the coming days. Fires spontaneously erupted all around the family home, with up to eight fires occurring in one single day around the family home. With up to eight fires occurring in one single day, items such as a wash basin, butter and water jugs will go flying through the air in the home, as if being controlled by an invisible entity. The family also began to hear the sounds of a harmonica being played throughout the home. Yet when the family checked the home in every room, every nook and cranny, no harmonica was ever found.
Speaker 1:Yet the strange things continued to happen. In the evening, while Mr and Mrs Dagg were in their beds, sound asleep, they would often hear footsteps running back and forth in the attic above them. This would happen all night long, up to the point where Mr Dagg would have to get out of bed and go up to the attic to see who might be there. Maybe it was mice, maybe it was raccoons, but he had to go upstairs and check, and every time he went up to the attic it was always empty. Yet as soon as Mr Dagg got back into bed, hoping for a quiet, good night's sleep, he always was awakened again by the sounds of footsteps walking back and forth in the attic just above him.
Speaker 1:Yet it seems that most of the strangest things that happened with the poltergeist always centered around the adopted girl Dinah. When Dinah was in her bed sleeping in the nighttime, she would often be awakened when her bed would begin to violently shake back and forth. As the bed began to shake, she held onto her blankets, but she could feel that there was an unknown force pulling at her blankets and no matter how tight she held the bedsheets, the covers were always ripped from her and thrown to the floor. Dinah would tell Mr and Mrs Dagg that she would often see a strange black figure with the body of a human and the head of a cow at the foot of her bed, trying to speak to her. Dinah would tell Mr and Mrs Dagg that she would hear the mysterious black figure speaking to her, but in a language that she could not understand. The strange occurrences continued to happen and were witnessed by numerous people and were terrifying Mr and Mrs Dagg. The Daggs could not explain what was happening with their adopted daughter, dinah. All they knew is that when she came to live at their home, that's when all the dark and what they believed to be evil forces had arrived at their once peaceful home.
Speaker 1:The Daggs were very respected within their community and also very private individuals. Yet when this story got around in the community about the poltergeist and the hauntings that were happening at the family firm, it brought a lot of attention to the family, with newspapers writing stories and hundreds of people visiting the Dagg firm trying to catch a glimpse of the ghosts and the hauntings that were inflicting the family home. One local reporter, percy Woodcock from the Brockville Recorder and Times, decided to visit the Dagg firm to try to write a story about the ghosts and hauntings that were happening. Percy spent the next few days at the family firm and was very skeptical about all the tales of ghosts and of poltergeists, until one day the little girl Dinah took Percy into the burn, where she said that she had heard the ghost speaking to her. Dinah kept calling out in the barn Are you there, mister? Are you there? And to Percy's surprise, a dark and foreboding voice responded with you, came to flirt with the devil, and I will entertain you.
Speaker 1:At dusk in the woodshed, percy and Dinah ran from the barn terrified. However, the next day, mr and Mrs Dagg, the reporter Percy and numerous neighbors gathered in the woodshed to see if the dark figure would make another appearance. Just as the sun was going down and the darkness was setting upon them, the group began to hear a dark and foreboding voice once again saying your guest has arrived and I am the spirit of a farmer that died over 20 years ago. While the dark voice was speaking, items such as dishes, chairs and milk jugs began to float all around the guests. The reporter Percy Woodcock documented the entire thing and actually wrote out a statement and had all the witnesses sign it to confirm that the hauntings and the poltergeist had happened.
Speaker 1:The next day, when Dinah was on her way home from school, she said that she was visited by an angel that was floating above her on the pathway, and she said that the angel stated that he was Dinah's guardian angel. Yet as soon as the angel appeared in front of her on the pathway, it then just vanished. Dinah ran home as quickly as she could to tell her adoptive parents what had just happened to her, and this just added to the terror and the confusion that the entire family were feeling. Yet it seems that as quickly as the poltergeist came to terrorize the Dag family, it then just left After Dinah had seen the apparition of the angel that she said was her guardian angel. Dinah did not have any more encounters and a calmness settled upon the family. The Dag house does still stand to this day, and while there have been no more encounters with poltergeists at the house, it does seem that the owners still do report hearing footsteps running around the attic late at night. It's difficult to understand what actually happened to the Dagg family in 1889, from items disappearing then reappearing, hearing dark and sinister voices in the dead of night, to having someone or something violently shake Dinah's bed in the middle of the evening or something violently shake Dinah's bed in the middle of the evening. However, the one thing that is for certain is that the many strange and unexplainable things that happened at the Dagg family home, that were all well documented and witnessed by many, continue to make the Dagg family home one of the most scariest poltergeist stories in Canada.
Speaker 1:Rankin Inlet, nunavut is located on the west coast of Hudson Bay, about 300 kilometers north of Churchill and is the transportation, health services and business center of the region. Rankin Inlet combines the best of land and sea with rocky islands of sheer cliffs, which support one of the most healthiest population of peregrine falcons in the world, and several rocky rivers that offer great fishing for arctic char and grayling, and wide inland lakes that have a large amount of trout. Yet for all the beautiful scenery in Rankin Inlet, it is also known as one of Canada's most haunted locations. The fire hall in Rankin Inlet has been in the community for over 30 years and many employees at the fire hall have seen the ghostly figure of a black shadowy man that is often referred to as a fireman, and they've also seen the appearance of a little girl that is often seen wandering throughout the fire hall and the paramedic area. One fireman recounted in an interview of an experience that he had late one evening. While the fireman was on the second level, he began to hear mysterious footsteps running up the side staircase to the top floor, where he was. As soon as the fireman heard the sounds of someone running up the stairs, the fireman looked through the doorway and all they could see was a black shadowy figure. The fireman just stared at the mysterious figure when, all of a sudden, the shadowy figure just seemed to dissolve into a black cloud and vanish in front of him. The fireman was left speechless.
Speaker 1:But this is not the first time that the shadowy figure has made an appearance. On many other occasions the figure of a man dressed in a fireman's uniform has been seen sitting on the staircase, and when employees take a second glance, the man just vanishes in front of them, while over the years, many items have just disappeared from the fire station as well. These items include hats, gloves, jackets that all seem to just disappear one day, yet when people look for them the next day, they discover the items in the exact same spot where they left them. Everyone seems to blame all these missing items on the mysterious ghost that is roaming throughout the fire hall to this day. However, one of the creepiest things that I came across seems to be that one of the firemen that has witnessed the shadowy apparitions has reported seeing these ghostly figures on almost a monthly basis. Operations has reported seeing these ghostly figures on almost a monthly basis and that every time he's in the fire hall working that he still hears the sounds of footsteps going up and down the side staircase when there's nobody there.
Speaker 1:Yet it seems that some of this paranormal activity was actually caught on one of the security cameras. Many years ago, employees at the fire hall began to hear some items falling off counters and shelves onto the floor. When the staff would go downstairs to check, they noticed that the paper and the pencils that were once on the desk or on the boards were now scattered throughout the floor. As there was nobody around or in that area, nobody could understand really what was happening. When the employees looked at the security camera, they actually could see the items being thrown and pushed off the desk and from the boards by an unseen, invisible force. This left all the employees baffled as to what they were witnessing on that security camera.
Speaker 1:Over the years, many people have wondered who is the ghostly figure that is often seen wandering about the fire hall and knocking items off the desk figure that is often seen wandering about the fire hall and knocking items off the desk. Some of the firemen were actually interviewed in 2019 by ATBN News, who confirmed that they had seen the mysterious man sitting on the stairs and then just walking upstairs towards what used to be the fire chief room. Legend has it that the former fire chief that died many, many years ago that his spirit is still wandering throughout the fire hall still to this day. Yet what's even odder is that when the ghostly figure of the fireman is seen sitting on the stairs, sitting next to him is often seen the apparition of a little girl. Over the years, many employees have seen the apparition of the little girl in the Ambulance Bay area. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why the spirit of a little girl is haunting the Rankin Inlet fire hall. The staff that work there believe that maybe perhaps many years ago the little girl was transported in one of the ambulance and that her presence still remains behind at the fire hall to this day. While Rankin Inlet in Nunavut may be located far up on the west coast of Hudson Bay, it has no shortage of ghosts and hauntings surrounding the local fire hall. From the mysterious dark figure, the ghost of a former fire chief and the apparition of a little girl all contribute to making the local fire hall one of the most haunted locations in all of Canada.
Speaker 1:At Fort Edmonton Park in Edmonton, alberta, there is a famous haunted house known as the Frickin's House that currently is located on 1905 Street in the Heritage Park. Many different and unique ghost stories have been roaming throughout the house for the last 100 plus years, ghost stories from people who actually lived in the home to other ghost stories from employees and volunteers who have worked at Fort Edmonton Park and have had many of their own ghostly encounters. The Firkins house was originally owned by Dr Ashley and Blanche Firkins. Dr Firkins graduated from Northwestern University Dental School and was a well-known and respected dentist and American adventurer who moved from Chicago, illinois, to Edmonton, alberta, in 1911. The Firkins settled in Strathcona and purchased Lot no 19 of River, lot No.8 in what is now known as the Belgravia area of Edmonton that is close to the University of Alberta. The construction of their home cost $2,500 and began in late 1911 and was completed by the summer of 1912 and was built in the beautiful American craftsman's design. The Furkins family lived in the house for 11 years when, in 1923, they packed up and moved to California.
Speaker 1:Sadly, dr Furkins died on March 10, 1933 when a magnitude 6 earthquake struck California. At the time of the earthquake, dr Firkins was operating on a patient in his second floor dental office in a downtown office building in California. The building collapsed and when Dr Firkins was dug out of the rubble, sadly, he had passed away. Yet miraculously, the patient that he had been operating on survived without a scratch. After the Firkins left their home in Edmonton, it was then occupied by several other families over the years, including being the home for several different university professors, which was ideal considering that it was so close to the University of Alberta.
Speaker 1:The last family to own the home was the Carpez family, who ended up donating the historic home to Fort Edmonton Park in 1992. The Heritage Park gladly accepted the beautiful pre-war Edwardian-style home with beautiful architecture and many original fixtures, which would go perfectly on the historical 1905 street nestled in the Heritage Park, on the historical 1905 street nestled in the Heritage Park. However, when the Carpez family donated the home, they gave Fort Edmonton Park a warning that the historic home was haunted. The strange and haunting things began even when the construction crew were moving the Firkins house to Fort Edmonton Park. As the construction crew were securing the home for the move from the Belgravia neighborhood, ensuring that all the windows were locked and the fragile items were safely secured, construction workers began to notice that some of their tools would mysteriously go missing, only to reappear a few moments later on a different floor of the home. Even when the Firkin's house arrived at Fort Edmonton Park and was placed in its current location, staff noticed that when they entered the house, windows that had been locked for the move were now completely wide open, and the construction crew also found panes of glass lying on the floor perfectly intact and they were not broken. This left the construction workers shaking their heads, as they were 100% certain that all the windows were locked and everything was safely secured as they were moving the historic home.
Speaker 1:I have done numerous collaborations over the years about the haunted Firkin's house with different TV shows, including Creepy Canada and YTV, and the one thing that I am certain of is that there are many ghost stories surrounding the historic home. While many of the ghost stories that I have been told have been told to me by volunteers and employees at the Firkins house, it also seems that every couple of years that people that are volunteering or working there always seem to have some new strange experience. That just adds to the haunted mystery surrounding the home. The one thing that I've known in my almost 20 years of researching and writing about ghost stories is that, while some ghost stories remain the same. It's also very common for ghost stories to evolve and to change as the building gets older, especially as new people are entering the haunted structure at any given time, especially as new people are entering the haunted structure at any given time.
Speaker 1:I have gone to the Fort Edmond Park probably 20 times, if not more over the years, especially when my children were much smaller, and every time I went to the park I always talked to the staff in the many buildings, especially at the Firkins House, and my first question was always have you had any strange ghostly experiences while working here? And the majority of the time the costume actors or volunteers would always let out a big grin and tell me some of the strange things that had happened to them. I was told that quote doors inside the Perkins house would open and close all by themselves, and other times staff were in the house by themselves, would often hear creaky sounds as if someone was walking up and down the staircase when there was nobody else there with them. On other occasions, staff would often report seeing a young boy, a young teenage boy, wandering throughout the Firkin's house or sitting at the dining room table. People have said that when they've seen the apparition of this young boy that it appears as if he's wearing 1950s clothing but that as soon as he appears he just vanishes in front of them.
Speaker 1:While I have read many different articles online from people who have worked at Fort Edmonton Park who claim that there are no ghosts at the Firkins house or that the ghost stories that have been reported are made up or false, I disagree with this, as many of the different ghost stories that I've been told about the Firkin's house have been told to me by people who work or volunteer at the fort or inside the Firkin's house. And of course, we all know that the house was originally donated to Fort Edmonton Park and that family told Fort Edmonton Park that the house was originally donated to Fort Edmund Park and that family told Fort Edmund Park that the house was haunted. And I think now that the fort really embraces the haunted and the spooky factors within the Firkin's house, as they do a wonderful job entertaining everybody during the Halloween season, the daughters of the parents who owned the Firkin's house before it was donated had actually made their own video about the strange ghostly encounters that happened to them while they lived in the home. The two women and the mother talked about living in the home and the many spooky and haunting experiences that they witnessed firsthand. Their mother had actually seen the apparition of a young boy wearing 1950s clothing sitting at the dining room table and in that moment he just vanished in front of her. It was the former owner of the Firkins house that had a teenage son that died in the historic home in the Belgravia area of Edmonton, and it is believed that it is that young boy's spirit that is still present in the Firkins home to this day.
Speaker 1:One of the women recounted a story of when she was a little girl living inside the Firkin's house when in the middle of the night, she would often be awakened to the ghostly apparition of a man standing at the foot of her bed, and she would talk to him. When the little girl would wake up the next morning, she would always tell her mother about the strange man that came to her in her room that night before. The mom didn't want to scare the young daughter and she would just tell her that that was her guardian angel just visiting her. Another story that they recounted was when one of the daughters was just an infant, and one day, when the mother was in the kitchen, the mother began to hear over the baby monitor someone playing with the baby saying Coo-choo-coo, coo-choo-coo. Now the mother had thought that the other sibling was potentially upstairs trying to wake up her sister. So the mother left the kitchen to go upstairs. But as she walked through the dining room she noticed that the other daughter was actually sitting in the dining room. She noticed that the other daughter was actually sitting in the dining room sitting at the table. So there was no way that the other sibling could have been upstairs waking up the baby, because she would have heard her come down the stairs, as the stairs are very, very creaky. This scared the mother so much that she immediately went upstairs to check on her baby daughter. So much that she immediately went upstairs to check on her baby daughter. The mother made sure to stomp heavily as she went up each stair and as soon as she got to the top landing, the baby's sounds stopped and everything became eerily quiet. This must have been a terrifying moment for the mother. When she entered the baby's room, the only person in the room was the baby who was in her crib, and the baby began to smile at her mother.
Speaker 1:The former owner also recounted one of her own personal ghost stories. In the video with her daughters, the mother stated that one day her and her husband were getting ready to leave and as they walked out to the truck, the mother happened to look back and noticed that the master bedroom light was on. Now she knew that she had turned the light off previously. Not thinking much of it, she decided to run back upstairs to turn off the bedroom light. The mother said that as soon as she turned off the bedroom light she said it felt as if there was something or someone had jumped on her back, almost as if somebody wanted a piggyback ride. She said that this terrified her and she ran downstairs and out of the house. However, the same thing happened again the very next evening when the owner, her and her husband, were heading out again. As they were walking to the truck, she noticed that the master bedroom light was back on again, a light that she had just turned off. But she was determined not to let the house scare her. So she went back inside and walked up the stairs. She turned off the bedroom light, but once again something or someone jumped on her back, as if someone was wanting a piggyback ride. She again ran out of the house, got into the truck and her and her husband left for the evening.
Speaker 1:The owner also recounted another story around a time when they were having a community block party, so there would have been lots of people in the neighborhood coming in and out of the family home. But when the block party was over, everyone was getting ready to head to bed. That night, when her and her husband were in bed, and the two children were in their bedroom as well, one of the young daughters asked the mother for a glass of water. So of course the mother went downstairs to get the water. As the mother was going downstairs, she had to go through the living room and the dining room to get to the kitchen. But as she began to walk into the dining room she noticed a young man dressed in 1950s clothing sitting at the dining room table Now the mother. She was a bit shocked and a little annoyed, thinking that it was somebody from the block party and that they just didn't know when to leave. But as soon as she looked at the young man sitting at the table, he just vanished in front of her.
Speaker 1:The many ghostly encounters that happened to the former owners of the Firkins house have crossed over now to the historical residence at Fort Edmonton Park. With many similar reported encounters Over the years, it has been reported that many employees and guests at the Firkins house seem to see a strange young man wandering. Throughout the years, it has been reported that many employees and guests at the Firkin's house seem to see a strange young man wandering throughout the home, while others have experienced cold spots, hearing strange noises coming from upstairs when there's nobody else in the home and hearing the creaking sounds as if someone's walking up and down the staircase when there's nobody there. While the stories of ghosts, hauntings and mysterious figures have changed and evolved from the many different sources over the years, the one thing that is for certain is that the historic Firkins House at Fort Edmonton Park is a very haunted location still to this day.
Speaker 2:Thank you you.