A group of paranormal investigators believe there could be spirits haunting abandoned mines in Glace Bay, N.S.
After hearing about some spooky encounters at the Cape Breton Miners Museum, Jason Murphy and his investigative team decided they wanted to check things out for themselves.
“For us, it was just to come see if there's anything here. So many men were lost in mining accidents, it was a dangerous job,” says Murphy. “We got a couple of clips, different things in the mine. We heard what sounded like children playing, people banging on pipes, you can hear different things.”
The most interesting part of the investigation came when Murphy was in the area that in known as ‘the cage’, where the museum houses the mining artifacts.
“I asked the question ‘how many men died in the No. 26 Colliery explosion in 1979’ and we got ‘10, 10, 10,’” recalls Murphy. “At that time I had no idea what it meant.”
Later that night Murphy, along with help from museum manager Mary Pat Mombourquette, came across an old newspaper clipping from the mining disaster.
“In No. 26 Colliery 12 people actually died. Ten died in the mine that night, four went to the hospital, so two died later,” says Mombourquette. “It didn't automatically come to us what the ten was about until we saw that paper and thought this was about the men who actually died in the mine explosion at that time.”
The museum held their first haunted mine tour this past October and Mombourquette says the recent ghostly encounters will add to the excitement surrounding this year’s event.
“I'm just fascinated to find out who are those people, what are their stories and that will enrich our experience here I think,” says Mombourquette.
Murphy says his group still has a lot of work to do at the museum.
“All the artifacts that are linked to the explosion, helmets that men wore that died are down there, just the energy attached to it is pretty interesting,” says Murphy.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Kyle Moore
