If Christmas can appear before Halloween is dead and buried, then Halloween can certainly bleed into Christmas territory.
Gina Armstrong of Maple Ridge and Victoria Vancek of Pitt Meadows, the mavens behind Haunted History BC and ghost walk tour guides, are eager to keep the spirit of fall alive on November 8. The two sisters will host Creepy Campfire Stories at the Albion Community Centre, sharing tales they’ve collected for their Evenings & Avenues — Hauntings in the Outskirts book series.
This event came about because the Albion Community Centre reached out to them.
“That one is cool because they started this for the first time,” Vancek said. “They had been tracking us and noticed that we’ve been doing walks around Pitt Meadows.”
The duo has been engaging audiences in more immersive experiences, opening them up to conversations about death without fear or trepidation.
“I think that element of history opens up everybody to discussions around death, which, as you know, North American culture isn’t great about,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong and Vancek started their ghost walks in 2023, guiding groups through the Lower Mainland, mostly covering cemeteries and historical landmarks in the Fraser Valley. Their most recent walk, Phantoms of the Fraser, begins at Haney House in Maple Ridge and continues west to St. Andrew’s Heritage Church Hall, following the railway tracks to the Billy Miner Ale House. The watering hole is named after the Gentleman Bandit, a.k.a. the Grey Fox, who is credited with coining the phrase “Hands up!” Many of the historical tidbits shared on their ghost walks are mined from their books.
“We’re taking information from our books and sharing it along the way,” said Vancek, 54. “Gina and I also talk about alien sightings, Sasquatch sightings, and other mysterious locations, like Pitt Lake.”
The sisters recognized a gap in ghost walk offerings in Pitt Meadows, even though their backgrounds aren’t historical—Victoria studied biology, and Gina studied music.
“Vancouver has a lot of ghost walks. Victoria has a lot. Fort Langley is known for that,” Vancek added. “But there was nothing in our local community. So when Pitt Meadows Museum reached out, and now Maple Ridge too, we have four different walks that we’re doing.”
In addition to the ghost walks, they offer cemetery tours in Maple Ridge, Whonnock, and Riverview in Coquitlam.
The sisters have also embraced the role of investigators, exploring locations across British Columbia such as Beacon Hill Park, Fort Langley National Historic Site, Pendray Inn, Stave, and Trethewey House.
“We started with no equipment at all—we weren’t into ghost hunting,” said Armstrong, 55. “Now we do a lot of private ghost hunts where we rent a place, and we always make sure to bring 16 to 20 people with us.”
“We just love what we do,” Vancek added. “We get people from all walks of life, all ages and backgrounds.”
Other upcoming events include Museum After Dark at the Pitt Meadows Museum on October 26 and Tales from the Shadows at the Hastings Mill Museum on October 27.