If something goes bump in the night, chances are the Thunder Bay Paranormal Society is on the case.
The team, made up of seven members, works to debunk paranormal activities that is believed to happen throughout the city. This includes ghost sightings, weird noises, and unexplained occurrences such as doors closing on their own.
First established in 2009, the society investigates private homes as well as tourist attractions, like the Pioneer Village.
The group’s spokesman, Tyler Gingras, says they try to debunk the unexplained myths and legends that circulate around town but are mostly around to give people some peace of mind.
“If there are things troubling them that kind of bumps in the night type things, we try to go over there and we’ll have a little bit of an investigation and see if it is paranormal,” Gingras says.
“We try to debunk most of the stuff. People are skeptics like us. We go in with a bunch of equipment and we try to ease their minds. Most of the time we’re surprised that we do get things that we can’t explain.”
The group members don’t always agree with the results of their investigations. Sometimes they butt heads and the true believers have to take on the skeptics.
Gingras says he’s a believer in the paranormal and that there’s another plane of existence when someone passes on.
“Others in our group are skeptics but personally, I believe that there is something out there that can’t be explained but we try our best to do so,” he says.
“We do butt heads a lot because it’s hard to sit down and take the facts in. Some of us are skeptics and others do believe.
“So when we do hear noises or anything out of the ordinary over our evidence we have the skeptics over there going oh it can be something else but then you have us going look it can be this but it can’t be that and it has to be this. We do butt heads, but at the end of it we all come to an agreement. We all do agree as a group that there may be something here or it could be just the wind or something else.”
While some things can be explained with common sense, other times it’s difficult to make a solid conclusion, he says.
“For instance, if a door is opening on its own….it’s a possibility that someone is walking down the hallway of the house and the frame shifts. The door could open on its own that way,” he says
“Sometimes people say they see lights on the walls so we look to see if it's lights from cars driving by the windows or from reflections.”
The group also takes on local legends, such as the alleged ghost at Trowbridge Falls campground.
According to the group, Trowbridge Falls is said to be one of the most haunted places in the city.
Reports have circulated about ghostly apparitions since the park first opened in the 1960s.
Some even speculate that the ghost sightings are relative to the number people who have drowned in the area’s popular swimming spots.
The area was even featured in the paranormal show Creepy Canada.
Gingras says so far they haven’t found that Thunder Bay is a good spot for paranormal activity.
“Contrary to all the stories, we haven’t had a chance to investigate most of the things that we hear in Thunder Bay but with all our chances of going into residence and big commercial buildings, yeah Thunder Bay has paranormal activity,” he says.
“There’s something going on here in Thunder Bay. We’ve never been disappointed yet. We’re waiting and hoping more people can come and give us a chance to explore more of Thunder Bay for them. We are pretty convinced that there’s more going on here.”
Cyndy Calder has lived in her Fort William home for the past five years. She said she believes the house is haunted.
Once, after she put her second son to sleep, she went down to the basement to check on her eldest son who was playing alone in the basement. When she walked downstairs, she overheard a conversation her son was having.
She says she first thought it was an imaginary friend.
“I ask him who he was talking to and he would look at me and turn back and look at me again and he would say ‘nobody now mom’ so I didn’t think really too much about it,” Calder says.
“Our friend from Manitouwadge sometimes stays with us and he’s had some strange stuff happen to him like being touched on the back. My brother has seen shadows downstairs. My youngest boy has been telling me that there’s an old man that puts him to sleep at night.”
Calder, who works security at the OLG Casino, told her coworkers about the strange incidents. Two of them were part of the Paranormal Society and she asked if they could investigate. They have visited the home about three times now.
She says they’ve grown used to the strange sightings and the spirits don’t do anything to harm them. If that were to ever to change though, she says they would try to rid themselves of the spirits.
But Calder says she’s never been scared.
“My mom has always been into that kind of stuff so maybe it’s something that I’ve grown up with knowing that there’s something beyond life,” she says.
