Salt Spring Island Archives
| Accession Number | |||
| Date | October 2019 | ||
| Media | digital recording | Audio | mp3 √ |
| duration | 63 min. |
405_SSHS-Shannon-Sinn_Historical-Talk_Oct-2019.mp3
otter.ai
17.02.2024
no
Outline
Speaker 1 0:00
Providing Renaissance renowned adult services and others startups before. And they've been invited members of this community to come talk and explain their services. So you have the IPOs. And these medical services that are founded in salt spray. And so if you're interested in that it's at Fulton Hall. Innovation, the art of the old man pensioners, old age pensioners. So Saltspring seniors then searched well as for coffee tea is provided. Okay, today, not much as this our treasures, okay, so we don't have a Treasurer's Report. And the Secretary is only here so we don't have the Secretary's report. So we can just start our program. So I'd like to welcome Shannon here to the Historical Society. And it's all free. And I'll turn it over to you. Go ahead and do your thing. Maybe that can delete this.
Speaker 2 1:01
For you, again, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on traditional Coast Salish, and chalky First Nations territory. And because my book is about background as a, as a collection, I would also like to extend that to all coastal nations mature nations. So I'm here today to talk about The Haunting of Vancouver Island. Because it's a little bit blurry the text underneath. Almost all of these images are either images that are in the book itself, or that I've taken and when they're not at all, I'll explain what the image is. This back screen image, the white is obviously just a dead space. But the mascot that's a bull, the mask if anybody knows who GoGet is Canadian genius First Nations Carver, and that is a ghost mask. So he's called walking from other day. So just a bit about me. I'm originally from Saskatchewan. I'm predominantly European background, but I'm less than 10% First Nations as well. I first came home to the actual ground in the mid 1990s. And I've mostly been either living on Vancouver Island or in Vancouver since that other than my military service, I partially was deployed in Edmonton and met overseas. I am that a veteran. But before the military, I was a loss prevention manager. And what that is, is I work for different retailers arresting people committing criminal offenses. So predominantly, in that when I was the loss prevention manager at the Bay downtown in Vancouver, that would be predominantly theft or shoplifting, but also include fraud, like credit card fraud, or any sort of fraudulent returns, as well as because that stores of cash to to SkyTrain stations to moles and has 20 some assets, including the vertexes. We would also arrest people for drug offenses or anything like that. Technically, we were civilians were citizens making a CITIZENS ARREST. So we would write crown when they're called Crown Counsel reports, and is basically writing a story about what happened. And that will be presented to the court. And while you're writing this out, you're always your own devil's advocate, because you have to look for holes in your story, to make sure that you're not making a mistake, because you can actually be personally sued if you do make a mistake in that case. So what I've done writing about this subject is I've tried to do the same thing. I've approached it as a skeptical subject as a skeptical believer, meaning that I've had my experiences. So I believe, but I'm also very skeptical about everything. And I'm also looking constantly at the sources and going as deep as I can into the sources. So if it's a more recent type of haunting, I will talk to witnesses where possible, if it's old accounts of all the newspapers or research the history if somebody says that there was a murder, for example, something like that.
Speaker 2 4:25
So the stories are from Vancouver Island primarily, but it does include some of islands from the Salish Sea, and Vancouver does get mentioned more than once as well. It focuses primarily on the island and start self and works its way north. And I did want to include the three first nations groups that I've already acknowledged throughout the text, not as a separate section of myth or legend, but as actual communities that Have contemporary ghost stories as well. So what I'm going to do today is I'm going to talk a little bit between each small section that I'm going to read. And each section I find readings, there's a couple of minutes long, so it's not very long. And then hopefully, we'll have enough time at the end for questions, if anybody hasn't. So this map here shows the Coast Salish territories, as you can see, and like again, the writing is a little bit blurry. But you can kind of see where Saltspring Island is there as well. So with the First Nation stories, there's one chapter in here from a Howzit, which is just north of to feel that is tricked, actually transcribed. It's not my own interpretations of his words is he's a friend of mine from the military chief James Swann, that's where we met. And he allowed me to interview him. So his words are exactly intact, because there's so many layers to his story. And as he's describing some of the stories that have been handed to him, and the thing I wanted to do is start the first chapter after the introduction is some of you've probably heard about the story already. It's the chapter is called The spirit of the wolf. It's about the wolf. stickier that it's on his calls to hear and which the for I'm not really sure why but I guess like kind of the mainstream media and stuff has been called takia, which is hog noon. Coast Salish. It's not like a song he's called Coleman. According to the Times columnist the wolf had mysteriously shown up on the island shortly before songhees Chief Robert Sam passed away following a stroke. Conservation Officers had intended to trap and relocate the animal on the Provincial Park side of discovery Island. This was the only area in the chapter of islands that was not reserved land, stickier with more debate. The songhees had not been consulted about the plan, insisted that the wolf be left alone. They issued statements saying that stickies arrival was directly connected to Chief Robert SAS passing Lamy, he had a kinship with wolves. So view from discovery out of Victoria just so you can kind of get a general feel for what how close it is to the city. That's that. Jarrell Alexander is the photographer that took that image and she allowed me to use it in the book and that's a picture of sticky at the songhees booth resonated with me an island hopping walk in the vicinity of Victoria was unprecedented, and by all accounts Chief Robert sound was a great man. In 2007, the Queen's story songs tourism manager Mark Salter said there are songhees members who find solace in the fact that he's returned in the spirit of the wolf to protect the island that the wolf is significant. First Nations on Vancouver Island have many legends about wolves. In the time of myth, wolves like all animals had transformative powers, allowing them to shape shift from a human to an animal and back again. The Coast Salish the court, Bucky Walken and Michelle not all stories of wolves abducting humans and bringing them to the land of the wolves. Franz Boas recorded several of these in the late 19th century, which he published in Indian myths and legends from the North Pacific Coast of America. The abducted person was always treated well in this other realm, but would eventually be sent back to the human world with supernatural abilities. After a certain period of time. It was called hockey walk tale. This occurred after the man began to grow hair on his back where his wife had often held him in her brace. He returned to the human world with a name the wolves had given him, meaning that he had become a part of their family or path, if you will. The wolf is associated with spirits of the dead particularly, boys share the Comox Coast Salish story about a man who searched for the land of wolves after they adopted his daughter, to find them to get to pass through a lake where the dead dwelt and ask for directions, brochures and a children's story about wolves that has an even more direct connection to the land of the dead. And this is a quote thereupon, the wolves took him off the box and placed him beside the chief. Then the wolves dragged in a dead person. They wrapped the corpse and a moleskin laid it down by the fire and began singing, keeping time by beating on their sides and their hunches that the dead person rolls and staggered around, but the longer they sang the shirt instead. And finally he ran just like a wolf. One of the wolves gave him his cake, and another one taught him to run. Then the chief said to him, now you see what becomes in the dead, we make wolves. So this edge doesn't belong to me. We, we artists, co Salish artist name is Danny waterworth. And this is from Hills gallery, I took it just because it shows the wolf image as well as the human underneath. So the reason I started with this story is I wanted to book the collection to start with, kind of before colonial history. And to this kind of represents that a little bit. It starts in nature, it starts with the first nation story. And then we get into Victoria, which obviously is a heavily populated area. And there's more stories in in Victoria than any other place in the island. There's several stories from the novel as well, because it focuses on the more populated areas and other areas throughout the province or throughout the island. Story is basically most iconic stories from that area from each area. So the next story I want to talk about a bit is its story that it takes place in the old cemetery, Pioneer Street Cemetery, the corner Street Cemetery. And this here is a model that's in the Museum of the Royal BC Museum that I just took an image of so that people can see what fort materia fort Victoria originally looked like. And I found Victoria, especially but several other places as well. A lot of inaccuracies as far as how the stories are being told. So as long as as far as how stories are being told, like when you've got to have tourism and stuff, they've been really twisted, a lot of the stories of made scarier and such. So there's the Pioneer cemetery on corner Street. And I'm just going to read a couple of minutes here from this chapter. And then I'll talk about why I felt that this was more problematic. The second spirit center white Pioneer Park was recognized immediately as he was first seen at his former home near the graveyard Street. This keeps cutting Okay, I just use a hammer. Yep.
Speaker 2 12:59
That's really, that's just clipped to my developers after I don't want to take it off right now. Or ran it through my shirt. So now I wonder turn it off. All right. You can tell we've done this a couple of times. The Second Street Center hot Pioneer Park was recognized immediately it seems first seeing at his former home near the graveyard on Mears Street. Richard H. Johnson had often challenged politicians, military leaders and the people of Victoria like his spirit would have easily been recognizable as seen as an African descent. He had also been captain of the Victorian volunteer rifles, and a well known proponent proponent of risk quality. Mr. Diaz, who the British colonists identified as the purchaser of the house claimed he saw what appeared to be a crackling fire that aren't and sent off unexplained sparks across the room, dia said. He then saw an apparition used to be Johnson, the look on the spirits face can be a great sadness. A young female servant gave the most frightening account of all she said that she had seen a black man's face hovering outside of her window. The scary girl managed to throw a blanket over the windowpane with the face pass through the material unabated and continue to stare at her as she shivered on her bed and fear. The story spread like wildfire. Two days later, the British homeless tried to dismiss the original account by saying it was just a case of mistaken identity, that it was an African civil man holding a latrine outside of the window.
Unknown Speaker 14:35
It's tricky and
Speaker 2 14:39
clearly they were not enjoying the attention and wanted to recap their accounts. Few people bought their sudden change of heart whoever has it's easy to see the ship for what it was. Instead, like many other goals, stories to tell began to take on a life of its own. And it's at a time when crime was rapid to Victoria Johnson had already been robbed at least once in that moment, such as debt would be covered in the paper and he wouldn't arouse suspicion, suggesting Johnson took his life because the all black Victoria rifle pioneer corps he served with descended in 1865 last marriage as well. And there's there's an image of the core. Johnson has been a captain in the VRC composed entirely of freed African American men in 1861. That unit has often been publicly treated poorly by some of Victoria's Saudi citizens. Records indicate that Johnson was a brilliant man with a light hearted spirit. This letter to the editor of the British colonists, following the racial disgrace of his men is ascending legendary to some civil rights historians. So to his impeccable dress and filled with his troops, as is the speech he gave to governors James Douglas and Arthur Kennedy. In the face of the same racial discrimination. The story is well told by Peggy Cartwright and black pioneers and gold rushes. Like the rest of his name, Johnson had lived through much harder times as a slave. He was an intelligent, articulate natural leader who always lead by example, the British call us never mentioned a suicide. The Christ Church on Pandora street performed the funeral rites to vote hesitation. The final hole in the Suicide Story is the fact that Johnson didn't die until 1875 years Apple rifles are recorded as descending after those good waiters say that Johnson killed himself in the house. There's another contradiction as well. The former captain wasn't even living in the house when he died, but passed away in a rural location the Chilson of southern Victoria be that isn't a recent story say the Johnsons apparition appeared to the new occupants of his former home, while simultaneously drying his thumb across his throat, reenacting or attempting to communicate the cause of his untimely death. It was even said that Johnson repeated the same gesture when he appeared to people in the graveyard in December of 2003, an episode of Creepy Canada air that propelled acquire Street Cemetery story to a whole new level, at least three people on three separate occasions, the narrator claimed, had seen the ghost of Adelaide, Gordon Griffin, who's another spirit supposedly in that Gregor and Richard soap and water Johnson together at the same time, what was even more spectacular was the fact that they'd appear Jim full daylight, Johnson and area concluded always ran to start over. So just to let people know that he killed himself. Meanwhile, Adelaide would suddenly appear to stare intently at the same people until they fled in fear. Truthfully, both of the operations only appeared at night, Adelaide was never said to have interacted with anyone, and Johnson may have only been seen for the year so far in his death. While the evolution of a ghost story can tell us a lot about the nature of these types of tales, it detracts from the original account, and in the case of Johnson can defame the character of a person who might otherwise have been remembered for living, living an exemplary life. So that's an example of kind of like some of the harm that can be done with when people are trying to make stories more scary for tourism or whatever. And he's like, the more that I was able to research and look into, into the matter, he's such a fascinating person, he should be, in my opinion, remembered a better than that.
Speaker 2 18:21
Practice, discipline. So many of the stories in the book are white colonial type stories that you would expect, like stories of settlers and stuff. But these are both examples of non white stories and I want to touch upon another one that's in Victoria as well. And that's the there's a story called of fantastic ally. And there's may 2 1899, there is a murder of a young woman named Yael calm. And she is said to be 16 to 19 years old and killed by a nanny, and he won. And several of the newspapers called him like a Chinese Jack the Ripper is quite a brutal murder. She was a prostitute forced prostitute this slave. And this happened at 71 fiskardo Street which I'll talk a bit more about in a second.
Speaker 2 19:40
So most Chinese sellers were male capitalizing on the destitution in China, slave traders brought beautiful girls or even babies supports like San Francisco and Victoria's prostitutes. In an article on the American history USA website, historian Dan Bryan said that the first waves of women sold for as much as $1,000 Each a British Congress article from 89 191 says that one woman was sold in Victoria for $1,330. It is 1873 book I look California SketchUp life in the Golden State criminal Evans claims Chinese prostitute lived a life and this is a quote 1000 times more hopeless and terrible than the Negro slavery of Louisiana or Cuba at the Victoria Chinatown website says that by eating at a Presbyterian supported charity was set up in Victoria to help Chinese and Japanese women leave the sex industry and escape their Slater's the white neighborhoods weren't any better. Victoria was zoned for its brothels at the time. A journal entry from Eunice Harrison and early judge his wife said there are red light districts in BC with liberal red monitors hanging from the gates. Elaborate brothels cater to the wealthy white when men wishing to pay less to venture down Chapman Street. Some would even wander into the woods to attend neighborhoods at Chinatown. But British Columbia said that the murdered woman the outcome was one of the most beautiful Chinese women in Victoria, her owner, a woman a Aggie had brought her to the city three years earlier from San Francisco, likely for prostitution. When the Americans wouldn't let the girl back into the country because of the Exclusion Act she became the property of the brothel at 71 Fisgard Street. No one knew her exact age, but she's estimated to have been between 16 and 19 years old. The outcomes job like old Chinese slave girls just to sit at a window and solicit passers by. There was a wicker like swinging over the window
Speaker 2 21:39
a hole large enough for her to put her head through allowed me to see what her face look like when she stuck her head. She was also encouraged to try to verbally solicit them. If they liked what they saw, the men would then go out the door and pay the gross owners. Generally speaking, if a woman like Yelp comm was not aggressive enough and attracting clients, she would be beaten her star. So stop there and explain what's going on in this image. This is an image I found this postcard. It's 80 ad, pretty close to the time of the murder. It's from San Francisco. And this was full color. This is the same image that I found available as well. But it's much more money. And I saw what I like about her as you can see the lock on it, that she's clearly a cage. And the ones that are described in Victoria, like I said, they were sticking their heads out of the window. And men would come in, look at their faces or whatever. And so this story is quite horrible. This is this isn't my injustice tourism Victoria's image. It might be a little bit hard. We, if you can see where it says Chinatown. It was one block below that kind of by the P where the parking were 71 Fishguard is. The next block over and one block down is where there's a thing that says Fantana alley and pointed upwards and almost all the way down by the bay center. To the left, it says Langley street where Langley and Yates I can offer his songs that were lightweight and Yates needs. That's where he was captured. Two days later, the gunman killed her. So he did it. The murder didn't happen in Fantana alley. It's to me, it seems kind of quite a coincidence that it's one of the only alleys left from from Chinatown from that era. And he just happens to supposedly be haunting. And all these other alleys that were here at the time, because I found old fire maps, they're all gone. And those aren't the alleys that he is supposed to be haunting. So to run even down that alley, as he was trying to escape was such an indirect route. It's totally unlikely. So reason I'm telling you all this if you don't know if you've made you've been on these ghost walks or not in Victoria, but they say that these they call him first of all, they don't even use his real name. They call him Cha they've changed his name, he altered her name somewhat. They say that they were in love, and that he got jealous and killed her and they also call her sang song girl they kind of romanticize this prostitution thing seven, like how brutal it actually was. So that's just an example again of like, where things have been kind of twisted for tourism or ghost stories, or kind of jumping a bit ahead of myself here but the next chapter is like the this is the largest ghost story from your region that I focused on and that was the story of the name of the chapter is called cannibals. spirits and nonsuit ala like I said, there's several other chapters in the Victorian area that are very, I guess more what you'd expect, like settler type stories, the white stories, but this is super fascinating was is fascinating to me because it's also an urban legend. And it's a contemporary First Nations ghost story as well as like a more historical story tied to these spirits that jitsu halen was supposed to have had relationships with in order to have his powers as a great warrior. So I'll just need something quick here
Speaker 2 25:52
so what my primary sources for this was a book that was compiled by Chris Arnett. And it's it's called two horses half buried in sand. And it's there's a woman named girl crier that in the 1930s, interviewed a whole bunch of elders. And along had some really interesting things to say back then, that he also used another book. He also published another book or this book, he actually was less than editor and more wrote the whole thing culture, the coasts that I mentioned. In the beginning of this, it's two paragraphs is very Ornette center of the coast recounts the incident that led to him being killed. There was a woman living on Connecticut island named cymulate, who is very true warrior named Shaun Tom. So he loved wanted her so in 1854, he went to the island in order to transfer through song and dance. Seeing him come in the villagers had to avoid as powerful magic can possibly plug your ears as well. When say melee didn't come out to comedians who Halo became confused and went into her house to find her Sydney Lane hidden behind the door. As he entered she grabbed him from behind and screamed for help. Shank Tom came running to her a grab designs and cut off suit Phillips head Eldred Rosalie sellers and to hostess have very good sad said that the people of Penelope pal kit kept the body and sent the head back to the quamotion. Other versions claim that Zealand's head was created by Katie up and down the coast by Chef Tom said everyone would know that the fear chief was finally then they had said the body back but cactus had conducted rituals over it to make sure you would never rise from the dead, as keeping heads from slaying enemies is customary is more likely the Connecticut character's head. So there aren't any images of of chiefs to him. This is a totem that's in the darkened library. And it's by MasterCard resign internally. And it's interesting the circuit there because there's so many the stories about his power that I don't want to say power animal because that's not really correct. The spirit that he had his relationship with with often take the form of was the snake or serpent. And some of the elder accounts said that he kept the serpent that lived in his hair, he had his hair kind of like kept up and sticks and branches and such. So it's pretty interesting if you're interested in non human type suits. I'll get into that a little a little bit more in the chapter.
Speaker 2 28:38
So when it comes to the contemporary ghost story of the screen, you have a couple of paragraphs about this as well. Even with the crossing place, there's a cross at the top of Mount Saint Hill. The cannibal sheep is believed to hike the mountain to this day. In online forums, people often claim to feel watched or inexplicably frightened walking along the trails. Kids on the mountainside are also believed to be inhabited by spirit. On my link library blog post titled locations on Vancouver Island one commenter said that she and her family living near the base of the mountain could hear cold drums and a native rhythm cell. They had also seen and heard many things that they couldn't explain. They're free to leave your home or open their windows at night. She also said that they took pictures inside their home that contained orbs or balls of light. There are claims people have seen Shih Tzu notes apparition that goes live investigated or second half strangely. Suhail has never said that manifest as a headless ghost. I found this detailed interesting, especially because his body and head were separated after death. On undeniable forum no longer in existence, a woman claiming to be Suhaila is great great granddaughter said that his apparitions can seem both on a mountain itself and walking down to him and rode past the graveyard at St. Ann's Catholic Church. The cemetery contains mostly first names and discussions in wasn't built until 50 years after Xeons. Yeah, so it was a strange place for him to be. Others have also claimed that zoo halen haunts this area. The legend advisor to humans ghost is looking for flesh, or possibly couch and Christian spirits to consume. The man who inspired so much fear during his life continues to frighten people and death. So, there's when researching these types of stories, it's like anything that contains long European type, things like graveyard, it's sort of scary people from other cultures. Like, it's really important to just be aware, it took a long time to shatter to go into my sources as deep as possible, because there's this kind of this mainstream idea that non Christians and we don't even a lot of times, we don't even recognize it. But that non Christian types of beliefs are more superstition, and more accompanied with like, the devil or whatever. And you see this like, really harshly, like perfect examples of voodoo, and how it's portrayed and like horror movies and, and such. But same thing with First Nations. Like, how many stories have you heard that, then immediately, the trope is that the haunted places on top of the First Nations burial ground, and that's like, you see the news that poltergeists and like all different types of TV shows and stuff as well. And it's like, this idea, again, that, you know, maybe like the standard type spirits don't have in and other type, other cultures don't rate. But there's also a flipside that I kind of see all as maybe a positive too, is that maybe it's also our collective guilt for the watch organization has done as well. So that's another way to take to kind of look at it. So there's also the headless woman on Mount sicker, and most of you would know, at least Moxie Corona, because that's where you turn off the main highway. And there you can see Saltspring Island, not to Vietnam, and then up towards the top, they're not sicker. And so the idea, I don't think just for time purposes, I don't think I'm gonna read anything from this from but what I am going to just kind of talk for a couple seconds about. So this townsite at the top of Mount Sychar. widmore top site is making 100 dimensional seven. And a tidy town site, which is kind of like a competitive town site more or less attached was 1901 to 1909. It has the old hotel of images in 1925, this image is in the book. So it was after the town had kind of stopped running. At its peak, there were 70 homes, there was a theater there cemetery. It was like a regular a regular place. And, but just because of the I guess the lack of resources really become so much more extensive, that they closed down for a lot of years ago, when they started mining it again, it was a time that it was easy for people to just drive there for work and not they didn't have to liberate on site. So the headless woman of mouth seeker is interesting, because then I found like actual ghost reports, like people making claims and like one of them was a newspaper, got a book for the lady Smith Chronicles. And it was very long ago. And it's one of those areas that the teenagers and early Smith area, especially to this day, like how you know who drying up that rope, and they'll be looking for this woman. And sometimes she said to her with her head, and somehow she said to appeared without your head. So I find that interesting. And this is a image we use for the book. It's just a stock image. What I find interesting about this idea of how to do this, like I call myself a skeptical believer, like I said, like Heather's apparition to me there's a lot of apparitions you read a book that have no feet there's sometimes you see see it from the waist down there's an account from Victoria they Oh, just saw the waist down others waist up. And then if you think about the transparency of some of them, apparently, and others are like look just like a real complete person. To me. I wonder if it has something more to do with our ability to see what is there that has to do with actual some broken spirit that's missing a body part like your head or feet? Because like, you know, like there's the horse was the Headless Horseman and like the Saudis are all over the world have had this operations. So I definitely wants to talk about it. very contemporary story. And this is I'm sure some of you probably might have met around university or Palestina, where it was there, or at least you know where it is. This is an aerial view, courtesy of EIU of the campus. And a lot of people didn't know i just finished, I went back to school part time was so my degree for writing. And when I was there doing this, the research for this book, I found out that the theater was supposed to be haunted. And what I thought was so interesting about that is that the it was only built the it was only built in the 70s. And there's never another building there. The death, like the person that they believe it is to die on campus. He died in Washington in a car accident, but he used to be a professor. And they think that he's the one that's haunting the place. But theaters all over Vancouver Island all over the world are said to be haunted. So I thought it's a good place to look. Also suit body, like people would come and have an experience and then graduate, there's the front of the theater. And there's, there's the interior of the theater, people will help you have an experienced graduate medical, many people would come have experienced graduate, they'd have one or two big experiences or incidents a year. And a story never really evolved over time. So it's interesting, I could talk to their chair and talk to some of the witnesses and things as they said, their own experiences. And another thing I like about this, like it was almost like a secret on campus. Like other departments didn't even really go. And it's not a place that they want any tourism. They don't want any people coming and checking it out. They don't want investigators they don't, they've got nothing to benefit. So just those different things together made it to me like a really interesting story to focus on to look into a little bit more.
Speaker 2 37:07
So there's this is new territory is more dark there. And then you can kind of from the first map and then this map, you can kind of get the idea of where the cobalt blue territories. And so as I got more and more north, I was like there's less communities, there's less ghost stories and such, like even Campbell River has surprisingly few ghost stories, but I focused on the haunting of the Harry Baden on Quadra Island, because it's like, that's their huge story and area. But what I did the last two chapters second last chapter is called Wild people of the woods. And so this is a zoom call image of Sinequan, which is a coffee mug story. This is a 1858 house post that's in it's from the hunt family, but it's in the Royal BC Museum. And that's the cannibal woman that works in the forest is said to abduct children to eat them, but also look out for good luck. And some people say is the Sasquatch. So I kind of in this chapter I talk about contemporary Sasquatch type stuff and then talk about what spirit type lore which is like this inequality book was book nice type stories, because the stories are actually the traditional stories are actually more of spirits. They're not this undiscovered kind of ape that Sasquatch type researchers promote. And then the last chapter is called Sea serpents and shapeshifters which is so I talked about like the serpents realm supposedly seen around the island as well as contemporary sightings and then lakes and such as well my time back into like when I pointed out like the snake behind zoo Halo, and some of the other serpents that pop up and some of the lore as well. So this image is from 1630 from Massachusetts to newspaper image and it's quite dense paragraph represents what people will longtime say the BBC besides the hair or main often described as head there are several other physical characteristics repeatedly reported. The head itself has been described as camel Lake, giraffe Lake, horse lake or Moose Lake is sometimes said to have what looks like whiskers on the side of its mouth, or bumps resembling horns. It's a real creature. This could indicate a difference in the sexes or a seasonal change. It's often said to have a hump plate appearance as it swims. The serpent also has large sharp teeth, giving it a frightening aspect. While serpents are often monstrous in size individuals who claim to see serpent smaller than a meter, three feet in length, with the same visual details this And of course indicated juvenile. Interestingly the Arctic Pacific First Nations often depicts the sea serpent as having a horse white head and some kind of long hair in its head, and teachings of the tides by David Ellis and Luke swarm, James's grandfather, James Swan, who is the Chief that that is the transcribed chapter. But that's Madhouse at sea serpent dance mask is described as having strips of bread, dyed cedar bark to represent hair growing from the serpent's head. These specific details are what connects modern science to First Nations legends.
Speaker 2 40:45
Then, I talked a bit about some of those sightings that are seen on land, which is in France forces at 95 the myths and legends from the North Pacific Coast of America there's a Komatsu wholesaler story of a serpent crawling through the forests, and teachings of the tides Mr. swatches uncle story the sea serpent scraping the bark off the spruce tree has climbed up before it grew wings and flew. There also contemporary reports as well, including one from the blonde and bazefield Sherry kappa Soros survivors from the deep fermenting anyone deciding took place on John's island near the city of Sydney and the great Victoria area. Phyllis Marsh claimed to have found one less than a meter two feet long, which she described as a baby dinosaur. She claims she's picked it up to six and threw it into the water, though the reasons for this are never stated.
Unknown Speaker 41:40
Yeah, I'll just stop there. I feel like we've taken quite a bit of time here. And I'll just kind of
Speaker 2 41:48
talk about like the conclusion. So the conclusion I kind of wrap up the deferred Oh, you know what? I just want to say that the carver here master carver was Tim Cole and apprentices Willard Galio. Gordon dig totius Watts and Samuel Albany and this is the it's turned off site, but this is the totem pole that spy. See. It's right outside of Port Alberni, Setia, shisha, a gas station for stations, gas stations, and it's on your radio, just you know. So it's kind of on the back if you're interested in looking at it. And this is a sanitary detail from other May. I took that picture a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 42:44
To me the lesser both stories are the most believable cliches might exist because they represent elements in many hauntings. But non conforming details might hold more answers, especially because they are outside of what we might expect someone to make up. Why would a worker at Craig Rockcastle only be able to see a woman seated on the stairs? Why would the headless woman of Mount sicker sometimes be seen with her head? Why would they ever ghosts wear different clothes during the day that might? Why would the house at which have no face? I believe it is details such as these that the mystery of ghosts will one day be solved. When this happens? We might be surprised to discover that the giants who roam our forest and the sea serpents who lurk in our waters are more closely related to ghosts than we had imagined. In the introduction I spoke about the idea of the tulpa. By its very nature, this entity would require more established or defined story to exist. People start to believe in something specific and that manifests Coover ancestors who believed that shapeshifters and blood drinkers have been more intelligent and honest than we usually give them credit for. During the summer of 2015, a young woman in New Juliet told me another strange tale with the concept of Topo might be able to explain their story she said if teenagers seeing a black eyed child on a bicycle and walking path that stretches from the village to the junction, I was surprised for several reasons. First of all, there have been Cougar Wolf and bear encounters in the area. And yet teenagers are still more afraid of a supernatural child when they were of animals most city people would fear. Second, the urban legend of black eyed children can only be traced back to the late 1990s. They have supposedly been reported all over the world since the child is usually small and sometimes barefoot. They will hitchhiker will approach an adult or older child to ask for help. What makes them distinct is that your eyes are completely black with no way that the black eyed child will try to get invited into the home or car of the witness. The legend suggests that something bad will happen to the victim but it is never clear exactly what interestingly, the stories resemble pre Christian tales from all over the world. But what could they be an overactive collective imagination, a Tulpa like apparition that we have essentially created or an entity with its own agenda that appears how and when chooses to. So I just shared a photo now because they're black guys. And so this, this is a mask I own. I found the carver's Edmund Neil. And that's a ghost mask. And I like it because it's kind of he's a, quote, broken wall kind of challenge therapist. And it represents kind of some of the images that you see in certain places of ghosts in their art. So those stories in the haunting of Vancouver Island are kind of the folklore but it's also an investigation, I want to look deeper into, like, what the stories are all about. And it's kind of represents like a collective, collective story of that ground because it does talk about the settling of the island. As I start from fourth grade, it's not perfectly linear, because I mean, the locations don't necessarily line up with the history isn't going up. But I'm able to, to kind of let people know who maybe are from here don't know, a lot of the local history what, how that came to be in some collection. So I'd like to thank Saltspring Historical Society for having me here today. And all of you, of course, for coming here, especially the moods such a beautiful day. But if anybody has any questions, I'm more than happy to answer them. Otherwise, I also have some books, if anybody wants to purchase.
Unknown Speaker 46:40
Does anybody have any questions?
Speaker 3 46:44
I have a question about headless leading. Because I don't know how to started but I guess I learned there about the town up there. Making trails in the train, the train actually went up there. And there was a challenge there, that's not there anymore. And also a spaceship came there and took off that area and disappeared. And also, I met a lady had a beautiful new SUV and it was painted for the Sasquatch all over, it seemed like a quite normal rational person, and convinced me that she had actually seen the Sasquatch that's supposed to be around monster.
Speaker 2 47:29
Oh, well, this story of Taylor that you're talking about? I've heard many people say that. It is safer. But it was actually
Speaker 4 47:40
come this way that you're interacting with the speaker behind your head.
Speaker 2 47:43
Think I've heard people say that it's not secret. But other people like there's a short documentary. So with that, actually, I'm gonna propose the end. So the idea with him. There was a long period of time where people said that he potentially was adopted because he he was the carbon inventor and super smart guy. And he invented all these things that he led with his vehicle and was never seen again. But they've since found small pieces of his vehicle. And I believe that he blew himself up and he had a lot of mental health stuff going on. So there's different theories, whether that was a suicide or whether he was actually trying to like find a way to fly space, whatever. Yeah, but that area does have some interesting stories. Probably. I mean, like I said, there's even it's kind of weird you go through you can't find the townsite it's because it's been a clear cut because LogMeIn issue took it down. And they couldn't even find like even knowing where it's posted when you find a brick. But there's like a full sanitary there. Okay. I guess people must be somewhere. But like, it's just it's kind of strange. It's like it's this bustling community. And it's just gone. Was it really treacherous. The carts that used to go to Croft, a lot of people apparently perished. Trying to get that word exists. We'll see quite a trek. Anybody else have any questions? I have to have
Unknown Speaker 49:31
supposedly Martin family, but not really. He actually appeared throughout the time I just wasn't clear.
Speaker 2 49:38
Oh, oh, yeah. So just to clarify, I didn't even know. Like a lot of times the story of stories, those stories that I don't know if there's ever a basis for anything. historical basis, I couldn't find anything in newspapers. The person was Never in that area. So what they tell people on tours now is that when he's fleeing from killing her, he ran down content alley and shutting people out of the way. So when they're on tour, they tell people, maybe some of my shuggie That's pretty good to get the whole like thing to tell people I guess that night in an alley. But like, first of all, I mean, I kind of like set especially to skip skip Park receptacle side of things like, Okay, why would if this is ghost? Why would it be her ghosts? Why is it the murderer but there is like a murder of ghosts. But he was hanged in very young New Castle Island. And this cannot repeat anybody who's ever spent time on an island for years that story. So it's taught wouldn't be a first for a ghost, but it just it's pretty much up to me. He they also say that he hanged himself like a couple days later. And he was he was tried. And he's given a day to be executed. And he's tried to make it. And then he was supposed to be executed July 10. And then it was on like, on June 10. So it's over a month after the murder. So everything's just really sensationalized. And like I said, like, there's kind of like this loss already kind of aspect, which is like, it's, it's really horrible. What was happening to those women, especially
Unknown Speaker 51:31
her,
Speaker 2 51:31
I mean, how more helpless can you be to just have your head? You know, like, that's horrible. And somebody came and attacked her. So I don't think it's, to me, it's not really cool to like, try to spin this as like some sort of love sort of thing. Is that
Speaker 4 51:54
I was just wondering how many other ghost stories you invest? investigated. There was one. Okay. Call flicks. Were supposed to supposed to be there. The other one? They the house? Is definitely heritage.
Speaker 2 52:16
So the ego ghosts is a color. There's a chapter on her. And I did investigate that. And yeah, I mean, especially the series in Victoria, pretty much all of them have some aspect that's made up, just because it's the city so heavy into the tourism. But it doesn't mean that there isn't like a lot of times that make you go back into the historical, sightseeing or whatever. Most of the times, there was an actual sighting or report that ended up in the newspaper or whatever. And then it was just like, they took it and they kind of went with it. For houses I tried to avoid because I don't want anybody's home to be stigma stigmatized or people to be driving to people's neighborhoods, because it has people that have been that have been harassed. Because of that. I did talk about the fall helps in Victoria. Because it's a historical haunting, it's no longer simply haunting. And I did talk with them in a house in the manual, which is the things on the boiler for Red Bull. But that one, of course, nobody lives. Everything else is like public. They're all public places that a person could go to visit. Maybe we'll just wrap up there for anybody who wants to pick up a book is here or asking personal questions or somebody says I'm happy to do that as well. Thanks again
Speaker 1 53:52
very much very interesting and lots of thought that or we'd have to think about a lot of the paths and most insulting we'll have to find the skeleton. So thank you very much. Our next meeting will be in November, the first week of November. And that will be our last meeting before Christmas. So thank you all for coming. Appreciate it.
Unknown Speaker 54:37
This is my first time I didn't even know about Historical Society. I've been here for 40 years because I just haven't been living
Unknown Speaker 54:52
like what happens Do you meet?
Speaker 1 54:53
We will we have coverage? We have meetings seven times Okay second Wednesday of the month when we run the archives
Unknown Speaker 55:12
like the history for that so we have meetings like to do either wonderful outside yeah well I got I think yeah yeah we just faded out
Unknown Speaker 55:34
we can
Speaker 1 55:37
show don't we do a town or Christmas County Historical deadly mount Solferino to be totally right we're here we have a website a brochure
Speaker 4 56:00
I mean I don't know whether she'll call you or not and I just thought it'd be a heads up anyway No she didn't
Unknown Speaker 56:11
get my message about several
Unknown Speaker 56:13
yeah
Unknown Speaker 56:16
we're gonna be taking pictures for the most
Unknown Speaker 56:23
part right in that present oh I'm sorry Of course they want they want people at tables
Speaker 1 56:34
we have a lot of people going areas one she representing foundation she represents University
Speaker 1 56:56
set the foundation for free. People want to go and talk about your organization's in small table
Unknown Speaker 57:06
oh I sort of saw that
Unknown Speaker 57:19
yeah right
Unknown Speaker 57:28
community group is talking to each other and start to share resources between each other
Speaker 5 57:34
after that look at that portable mic. Well, the there's part of the clip that's missing number one little alligator part is missing. We'll have to talk to that well
Speaker 1 57:54
this is the one thing we've had no trouble let's begin there right yeah, well
Speaker 5 57:58
the only problem we have with that other one was just the battery was dead. Yeah, and that's not a big deal. Well, it's
Unknown Speaker 58:04
hard to do what he was trying to do read
Speaker 5 58:05
Oh yeah, no, no, I agree and I I'm suspecting that maybe use a broken wire there's an intermittent wire up at this end but I didn't realize that it was just cleaner hang in there normally some form oh yeah there's a tie clip yeah that's that's part of it and that's missing No, he said he that's yeah, I didn't realize that he had not yet penned up the whole thing called curious for.
Unknown Speaker 58:56
Also back cover in
Speaker 6 59:08
the swimming pool
Unknown Speaker 59:28
just my age
Unknown Speaker 59:49
right you ready for this? I already logged in
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yeah but he told
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me five miles
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StrikeForce over
Speaker 7 1:00:49
here there's a couple of cars that
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sponsors and big chain change
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my experience
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I have tried the best way to end up being
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right
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all
