May 2002 - A Cold Night at Fort George

Who could pass up an opportunity of spending five late-night, dark hours in Fort George in Niagara-on-the-Lake with unprecedented access to buildings such as the officer's quarters and whatnot with a small team of some of the best-of-the-best from the Ontario GHRS and ParaResearchers mixed with our good friend, Kyle Upton? Well, it would have been perfect but as usual with us and forts, it was cold. I'm beginning to think that the weather gods are watching us and casting chilly temperatures when they here about us going to a place such as this. (Two degrees centigrade in May???)

Anne, Tere, Lynda, Jennifer, Darren, Michael and myself were present on behalf of the GHRS, Sue was working with Ashley, the white witch of Niagara and a friend named Sonja for the ParaResearchers group, Kyle Upton and Steven were on hand from Fort George and the resident ghost tours and finally, a relative of Jennifer's and myself, Elizabeth, was on hand as well to assist.

The night started out for us all with a brief trip to Fort Mississauga in Niagara-on-the-Lake for a brief look around and briefing. We also finally got two of the "resident ghostly legends" about the fort from Ashley with the story of a Native Warrior who sadly lost his head at the fort and a soldier who still might walk the earthworks.

After this, we made our way to Fort George to wait for Kyle to finish his tours while I chatted with Mark and Sonja (also of the Fort George ghost tours).

We entered the fort armed with our usual assortment of toys such as the new night-vision cam corder, EMF detector, thermometre, three cassette recorders, MANY flashlights, several cameras, (thanks to Michael) a Night-Vision Monocular with listening device, our parabolic listening device and of course several copies of Kyle's first book and notes.

For the most part though, people's own feelings and senses made up the lion's share of what we actually used.

We did deploy two tape recorders in the officer's quarters accompanied by the night-vision cam-corder and we also deployed another tape recorder in "Barracks B" in the fort. So far, we have finished going over SOME of the data collected in the officers quarters but we ran into a snag and some of our data is... well... tainted.

Sad but true, lately, Fort George has been the victim of many late-night attacks by vandals and while we were there, Sue and I (outside "Barracks B") were indulging in a cigarette alone and comparing notes about what we'd seen and heard, both mentioned the VERY solid looking person(s) we had seen running from Brock's Bastion towards the far side bastion where I had my first "ghostly" sighting at the fort. Although on a "ghost jaunt" if you will, we both decided that it was more than likely the one thing that we feared more than anything the "dead" have to offer... it was the LIVING! We fetched Steve who indeed ended up chasing several younger folks away from the fort BUT at least two had gotten inside and were unfortunately well cloaked in the very dense darkness that does envelope the whole area. In simpler terms, they were inside on the grounds, we could occasionally hear them, they even (at one point) lit a cigarette but managed to evade us... until Darren came to the fore. He managed to track them down and frighten them from the grounds but this took some time and as we have no idea of how long they were inside and what they managed (or did not manage) to do, we cannot really state that any audio data collected is uncorrupted.

Editors Note: These vandals had recently kicked all the spokes from the wagon wheel's of the cannons of the fort and this night had "kicked in" the two pop machines sited at the visitor's centre. Luckily though, through the adept skills of observation of your's truly and Sue, they were chased from the scene. Although the group of young folks managed to evade police, one of them had dropped a bag containing ID and I'm sure they will all be spoken to by the local authorities about their antics.

We still have things to go through (audio tapes mostly and some still photographs) but in all honesty, it was a cold and quiet night at the fort (aside from the living invaders). Overall, I'm sorry to report that the ghosts of the fort really didn't make an appearance to us this night BUT we will be going back. (Thanks Kyle and the Friends of Fort George!)

We cannot thank Kyle enough who as always was most gracious and very helpful and praise must go out to Steve of Fort George and Darren of the GHRS for there "Teen Chasing Abilities" this past night. I also must thank Anne, Tere, Lynda and Ashley for food and drink for the troops and Jennifer for assisting as the secondary lead on this venture. Michael get's FULL marks for being VERY well prepared and without whose enormous floodlight/flashlight, the scaring off of said teens would not have been possible in many ways. Thanks also to Elizabeth for helping out Jennifer with her tasks and Sonja for assisting Sue and Ashley. Thanks also very much to Steve for NOT stacking the chairs in the officer's quarters in a pyramid to "freak" us "out". (Bet you forgot the tape recorders and video was on, didn't you?)

As pictures are developed and sounds gone through, counted or discounted and whatnot, we will be adding to this report. This is a preliminary job at best to let you know that the GHRS team was working this past long weekend and there's more to come... actually, this Summer, we will be offering our members (all of them) something very good when it comes to Niagara-on-the-Lake so "stay tuned" as you will. Additions to this page will be listed on the What's New page as they come in.

Click Here to return to the Niagara Reports page.