One of Canada’s longest-running ghost tours is celebrating 30 years. Ghost Tours of Fort George, founded by Kyle Upton and the Friends of Fort George, started in the summer of 1994. It’s one of the three remaining tours that started during the mid-1990s, which include Victoria Walking Tours, started by […]
Author: Brian Baker
Folklore is littered with chimeras — all the more reason to dissect the fiction
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a chimera as an imaginary monster compounded of incongruous parts. It seems the perfect term to use when discussing the strange creatures our ancestors first bore witness to when they were exploring the world. Imagine the first time an explorer crossed paths with a tapir, capybara, […]
Review: The Whisper on the Night Wind is the cryptozoology book we all need
Getting lost in a book is like getting lost in a dense forest. You never know when and where you’re going to get out. That’s part of the allure of writer-explorer Adam Shoalts’ 2021 book, The Whisper on the Night Wind, as he brings readers along for a good, old-fashioned […]
Peter Usborne influenced generations with The World of the Unknown books
The World of the Unknown: Ghosts is a book that sends an electrical current of energy through all of those involved in the paranormal. It connects us all. Its cousins, two further books on Monsters and UFOs published by Usborne Books, kept those with vivid imaginations hyperactive. All three of The World of the Unknown books […]
Is the paranormal seen as a liability in Canada? Investigators share their thoughts
Like an underground river, there is a large current of paranormal interest that runs just beneath the surface of Canada. Ghost stories are shared around campfires as a rite of passage. People travel to historic locations to uncover the past, and maybe to cross paths with a spirit or two. […]
Giant squids are a tale as old as time in Newfoundland
Newfoundland is swimming in mariner folklore, but no other story about a run-in with Architeuthis dux captivates audiences more than the Squires-Picot sighting on Oct. 26, 1873. Two fishermen and a boy were fishing in the tickle near Bell Island, just a few miles north of St. John’s, when they […]
Kitchener writer Travis Watson compiles Canadian Sasquatch sightings in new book
Trepidation was stalking Travis Watson like a wild animal when he was writing Sasquatch Canada: Beyond British Columbia. Much like the eight-foot-tall suspected primate of Canadian folklore, his consternation loomed over him, giving him complicated feelings, as the subject of Bigfoot is one that heightens division. “There’s just an awful […]
Royal Ontario Museum has many attachments, both former and current staff share
With so much history under one roof, it’s hard not to believe there aren’t a few attachments to the artifacts inside. Every autumn, the Royal Ontario Museum takes its members on a tour of the building, sharing spooky tales, but for ROMKids Manager and Camp Director Kiron Mukherjee, the experiences […]
Brampton writer puts a spotlight on lesser-known cryptids of Asia, Oceania in book
Carol Scott’s idea for her book The Cryptids of Asia and Oceania had been simmering on the creative burner since high school. The Brampton-based writer started the first draft of her book in 2015. Its publication came to fruition in September 2022, allowing her passion for digging deeper into cryptozoological […]
10,000 dreams interpreted, but not one explanation for why I dreamt about the paranormal
Our dreams are a fascinating reflection of who we are. They change as we grow as people, often dissolving our anxieties, interactions and thoughts into one big thick stew of images that are often challenging to interpret. Carl Jung once wrote in his collection of essays, Civilization in Transition, “The […]