Urban Legends in Alberta, Canada

What’s Underneath West Edmonton Mall?

West Edmonton Mall is absolutely massive. It covers 490,000 metres, has more than 800 stores, and houses the world’s largest indoor water park and a wealth of other attractions. So it isn’t surprising that a shopping centre of such magnitude would have its fair share of mysteries attached to it.

The most common urban legend regarding the behemoth mall is what exists underneath it. Some people believe that the mall stands above a series of tunnels that connect the homes of the Ghermezian families. Others claim that the tunnels had been refortified as a bomb shelter after 9/11, while some optimists believe it’s the foundation of a future LRT station.

What’s that sound in the La Boheme hotel?

Guests at the La Boheme Bed and Breakfast hotel in Edmonton’s Highland district have complained about being woken up in the middle of the night due to eerie creaking sounds and repeated thudding. These creaking and thumping noises can certainly be explained by old, worn-down infrastructure, but that doesn’t explain the ghost that apparently appears in the closet. Nobody can explain the footless ghost that will suddenly chill the temperature of the room, but some believe a caretaker murdered his wife at the hotel many years ago and then proceeded to burn her body in the basement’s furnace.

The Curse of the Hidden Gold Mine

At the turn of the 20th century, a group of prospectors from Montana traveled to Alberta to search for gold along the North Saskatchewan River. Two members of the group traveled off on their own and allegedly found a massive haul of gold buried beneath some bedrock at the top of a mountain. The two prospectors fought over what to do with their treasure, resulting in one killing his partner as he slept. Rumour has it the Chief of the Blackfoot Tribe overheard the spat and laid a curse on the area. Many have searched for the gold rush reported by the prospectors, but have failed and fallen victim to the curse. One prospector allegedly found the mine, but was killed when the cabin he was staying at burned to the ground. To this day, the mine has never been found.

Room 873 at the Banff Springs Hotel

If you travel to Banff to stay at the Banff Springs Hotel, don’t bother requesting room 873 — it’s allegedly been sealed off after renovations and hotel management have long denied that the hotel is haunted. Legend has it long ago, a family was brutally murdered in the room, but when the police investigation was finished; the room was redecorated and opened up to guests. That didn’t last long. People staying in room 873 have reported being woken up in the middle of the night to screams, flickering lights, and the sight of bloody hand prints on the walls and mirrors of the room.

Frank Slide

The Albertan mining town, Frank, was home to one of the largest and deadliest landslides in Canadian history. In 1903, nearly 90 million tons of limestone slid down Turtle Mountain, crushing the mines, most of the community, and the railway into the town. More than 75 people were killed in the disaster and many of the bodies were never found. While the disaster is explainable, many people who have adventured up Turtle Mountain have claimed sights of paranormal activity. It’s believed that the spirits of the families of the people who were never found still wander the mountain searching for their loved ones.

Albertan Crop Circles

Crop circles are a large part of popular imagination, and with a province as wide and vast as Alberta, it isn’t surprising we’ve seen our share of massive, bizarre patterns show up on farmland. Most crop circles can be explained as the work of pranksters, or as man-made land art, but the crop circles found in Duhamel, a small hamlet outside of Camrose in the 1960s, is still unexplainable to this day. Canada’s Department of National Defence investigated the phenomena but was unable to come to a conclusion. Investigators say the rings vary in size, with the smallest one being 31 feet and nine inches in diameter. There’s also no evidence of tire marks, exhaust from a vehicle, or signs of human activity outside of the circles. It’s suggested that it must be the work of a massive aircraft.

The Sound Heard Around the World

From the United States to England, all the way to Conklin, Alberta, people have reported hearing a powerful, bizarre sound without a trace of origin. People from Colorado, Brazil, England and Malaysia have also reported a similar, powerful, deep, humming sound that appears to be coming from beneath them.

The sound in Conklin appears to come and go, as the sound begins as something mechanical, but slowly turns into what apparently sounds like a hollow scream, or loud moan. As of right now, there’s no geographical explanation for the sounds, or where they’re coming from.

The Charles Camsell Hospital

The Charles Camsell Hospital, located in the west side of Edmonton, is regarded as the scariest haunted building in the city. The hospital was originally used to treat tuberculosis patients, but as the epidemic waned, it was given a new function as a general treatment hospital. Controversy surrounding the hospital suggests that the aboriginal population was terribly mistreated by staff, and that various medical experiments were conducted on patients. It’s been abandoned since 1996 and residents of the area claim they can feel eyes watching them as they walk or drive by. Recently, a paranormal investigator led a team into the hospital, where they recorded what appears to be sounds of male and female voices coming from the fourth floor — which used to be a psych ward.