The Nelson Paranormal League is celebrating the Halloween season with haunted tours of Nelson and by next year they hope to add a Rossland haunted tour as well.
The league was founded approximately 14 years ago. Its founders were intrigued by local tales of the paranormal and wanted to collect evidence of paranormal activity. They started by trying to find stories of hauntings or paranormal events in Nelson.
“What we did was we started digging in archives and finding out information, and in doing so we started to find out that this area, the Kootenays in particular, has a lot of stories — undocumented stories too,” says Chris Holland, co-founder of the Nelson Paranormal League.
The league put together a haunted tour in Nelson, which not only allowed them to share what they’d found with others but giving others a chance to share stories with them as well.
They also started investigating paranormal activity, but their early enthusiasm was checked when they received a warning.
“We caught what they call a Class A EVP (electronic voice phenomena) on one of our first ghost adventures,” says Holland.
The voice they captured on tape, which they only realized they’d captured when they went back over the recording, said only “Careful.”
The League took a break to learn more about paranormal investigation and how to go about it safely, before eventually returning to its investigations.
“In doing so, we actually came up with — and this is something that I’m going to be producing probably through the next year — is a safety manual for people that are dealing with ghosts and people that are dealing with spirits,” says Holland.
He says one of the most important things is to shower after coming into contact with something paranormal.
It was during one of the league’s tours that a group from Rossland brought it to the league’s attention that there was activity in their town.
Holland didn’t want to divulge details, as he is still investigating, but he did say that he is looking for more Rossland stories in hopes of having a tour soon.
“My goal … is that I would like to be putting together a tour in Rossland this time next year,” he says.
People can share their stories with the Nelson Paranormal League on its Facebook page or meet Holland on this year’s Nelson tours.
The Haunted Heritage Walking Tours will be held on Saturday, Oct. 21 and 28 and will start from the Railway Visitors Centre. The Spirits of Nelson Haunted Pub Tour will take place on Thursday, Oct. 26.
To get tickets or make a reservation, contact the Railway Visitor Centre in Nelson at 250-352-3433.