Canada isn’t channelling its inner zeitgeist when it comes to hosting para retreats.
That was the spirit of the conversation when Black Moon Paranormal Society investigators Vanessa Fox and Crystal Pye were asked about the impetus to host a para retreat at the Bala Bay Inn in Bala, Ontario.
“I think we are behind in times. As much as we say we’re not, my opinion is that we are much further behind than some other countries,” Pye said, using the U.S. as an example. “We’re not as open as we can.”
“It’s very open and accepted in the U.K. as well,” Fox added.
After exploring locations in Texas and Pennsylvania — where paranormal retreats are common—Fox and Pye hope Canadians will similarly embrace the experience. When Pye heard that the Bala Bay Inn, a historic local haunt, had been sold to a Muskoka businessman, they saw an opportunity to fulfill a long-standing goal.
“It’s been our greatest wish to get into the Bala Bay Inn for an investigation,” Fox said.
“(But) It’s been difficult because it was purchased by the Marriott and they were using it as staff housing, so we weren’t able to get into it,” Pye added.
The Bala Bay Inn originally opened in 1910 as the Swastika Inn, built by Ephraim Browning Sutton, a cousin of the Victorian poet Robert Browning. The Suttons, from Leeds, England, immigrated to Canada, where they settled on Lake Muskoka’s west side, cleared 50 acres, built a home, and constructed the two-storey hotel. Under an agreement with the previous landowner, Thomas Burgess, the property was to remain alcohol-free.
When World War II broke out and the Nazi party adopted a reversed swastika as a symbol of hate, the Suttons renamed the hotel Sutton Manor in 1939, eventually selling it in 1943.
According to Terry Boyle’s Haunted Ontario: Ghostly Inns, Hotels, and Other Eerie Places, the inn’s hauntings date back to 1917. Lillian Sutton and her fiancé Fred Sutton were to be married when Lillian suffered a fatal stroke while doing laundry in 1916. Her body was laid in state in the ballroom, which is now referred to as the “ghost lounge.”
“(People) have reported apparitions, rappings; the common things that you hear people say,” Pye said. “When we went, we did get high EMF readings.”
The dining room is also said to be one of the inn’s most active spots, where Ephraim Sutton’s body lay in state after his death in 1917. A week before he passed, Ephraim confided in his daughter-in-law Lillian that he feared he wouldn’t see his late wife Rose again. Lillian promised to knock three times as a sign if she passed before him. Remarkably, three knocks were heard by those gathered during his wake, though no prankster was found.
Rooms 208 and 312 are among the inn’s most active, with frequent reports of shadow figures, doors opening, and even an instance where an 18-month-old child was mysteriously moved.
Black Moon Paranormal, founded in 2015 and based in Simcoe County, includes Fox, Pye, Tammy Boyd, and Jackie Counahan. They will host the two-night retreat from November 15 to 17, featuring workshops, lectures, and paranormal investigations. Special guests include The Village Mystic Sarah Foo, medium Ashley Valiant-Blackwood, Canadian Supernatural Research Society’s Katie Turner, writer Andrew Hind, veteran investigator Lynda Quirino with the Georgina Paranormal Society and Sasquatch researcher Mike Paterson.
As for the planning and the lead-up to the big weekend, Fox and Pye are nervous but psyched.
“It’s scary but exciting I find,” Fox said.
“In some ways, I think it would be amazing to have a lot of people there to experience it,” Pye added. “Then Vanessa and I were just talking today and said, even more of a small intimate group might even be more of a success.”
Guests from across Ontario have registered through social media, and additional packages for Saturday events are also available for booking on the Bala Bay Inn’s website.