Ghostly image caught in photo at Barkerville and other spooky stories

It’s fall and thoughts turn to the changing seasons, the blustering wind playing with the leaves bringing cooler temperatures as a reminder that winter will soon be here.

But first there’s a spooky, thrill-filled season that invites fans of Halloween a glimpse into other-worldly quandries like mind-bending images evoking questions left mostly unanswered.

Just ask Don Fitzpatrick who went on his annual family trip to Barkerville in 2021 and came back with something undeniably mysterious.

“I was just taking some photos as I hadn’t been there for a while,” Fitzpatrick recalled. “When I looked into a room I didn’t see anything other than the boots and the bed and the display so when I got home I looked through the photos and I said ‘Well, this is really weird. What is this?’”

When he zoomed in on the photo there was more than what first met his eye.

“I saw what looks like an imprint on the bed of somebody sitting there and then legs going down into the boots and I thought ‘Wow! This is weird.’ So I contacted Barkerville and they said everything in that room is from or is as close to the actual time period. So it’s possible that it was the ghost of somebody who wore those boots or was in that room or something. So that’s very interesting.”

So is he a believer?

“You kind of have to be when you see that photo,” Fitzpatrick said. “You have no choice because that photo is very compelling. How can I deny that?”

This isn’t the first time Fitzpatrick had a close encounter of the creep-factor kind.

Years ago he worked at Shooter’s Restaurant, the downtown location that was once home to the famous Vienna Schnitzel House, 611 Brunswick St., that burned down on Oct. 10, 2021.

“When I was working there it was late night and I was cleaning up, finishing up my shift and I went down to the basement,” Fitzpatrick recalled that fateful night.

“I heard a noise and I looked and there was a person – a man – standing in the hallway. And I thought ‘This guy isn’t supposed to be here - what the heck?’ I was supposed to be the only one here so I started walking towards him and he just disappeared. So I thought ‘OK, I just saw a ghost.’ I talked to other people and they said it’s not the first time that people have seen something in that building. It was rumoured that the building had been used for Satanic worship back in the day and there was an actual Pentagram still painted on the floor of one of the basement rooms. Very creepy. They had tried to paint over this Pentagram many times and it just kept coming through the paint. So weird.”

Happy Halloween!

If you have a local ghost story to share, reach out by emailing [email protected].