Here are some spooky ‘haunted’ places in Saskatoon you can visit

Saskatoon has its share of ghost stories and haunted buildings, including the E.A. Davies Building on the Sask. Polytech campus.

As the story goes, a woman in a long dress appears to some people in the building.

“Reportedly dressed in clothing similar to what women wore in the 1930s, the ‘woman in white’ often appears in hallways (and occasionally the auditorium) and is not known to cause trouble, usually ignoring people who try to talk to her,” according to the school’s website.

Saskatoon Public Library (SPL) archivists note there was a story in the Star Phoenix years ago about former commissionaire Warren Wood’s interaction with the woman in white..

“She’s a younger woman, in her 20s or 30s,” Wood told the reporter. He said he attempted to talk to her but she did not respond.

“She starts walking away. She turns left where it is a solid wall. She walks right through.”

There are also other spooky happenings at the school including typewriter noises in empty spaces, faint conversations when no one is in the building, and a young man in a dark suit wandering the hallways.

According to SPL archivists, people have reported hearing sounds of a party, voices and laughter when there is no one else in the building.

Other allegedly haunted places in Saskatoon include:

BESSBOROUGH HOTEL

With its castle-like appearance, the city’s downtown Bessborough Hotel is ripe for ghost stories.

“In an empty stairwell, people have reported hearing the laughter of children,” SPL archivists said. “On the third floor, you might encounter a small and rather tired looking woman. Her hair is a mess. Her clothes torn. If you’re quiet and stay out of her way, she won’t acknowledge you. But if you make too much noise, or if you try and communicate with her, she runs up to you and screams and disappears.”

City of Saskatoon archivist, Jeff O’Brien, said he heard a ghost story from a woman who once worked a late shift at the hotel.

“She's sitting by herself on the steps leading up to the ballroom and feeling very tired and very, you know, sore, from standing all night and all those things. And a quiet voice from behind her said, ‘Is every Is everything okay, ma'am?’ And she looked and saw a pair of legs in men's trousers, on the step just behind her. And then she turned around, and there was no one there.”

O’Brien said he didn’t know if he believed in ghost, but the stories are compelling.

UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN

Stories of a spirit dwelling in the Archaeology Building at the U of S have haunted the facility for years, although Braden Hursh debunked the tale in 2016.

The story was that a body found in 2006 was that of a woman who was murdered, stuffed in a gunnysack and dumped into an unused well.

Hursh says the murder is one of the oldest unsolved mysteries in Saskatchewan.

“According to campus myth, forensic work on the lady was performed in the basement of the Archaeology Building and her spirit remains there to this day. Students in the building often speak of lights turning on and off and the sound of footsteps echoing through the basement,” he stated on the university’s website.

Hursh spoke to Ernie Walker, who was part of the investigation at the time.

“He personally conducted all of the forensic work on the remains of the unidentified woman at an off-campus hospital.”

WESTERN DEVELOPMENT MUSEUM

Manager of the Saskatoon branch of the Western Development Museum, Jason Wall, said there have been several ghost stories floating around the Museum.

Many report seeing a woman in red.

“One night our catering staff were finishing up a function and were going through the till and reconciling, and from the till you can look through the cafe onto Boomtown Street. They're going about their business and then one of the employees looked over and said she saw a Victorian-Age woman in a red dress peering in from the street that was totally black. Nobody should have been on the street at that time, let alone in period costume.”

He said ghost stories about the museum don’t disturb him.

“When I'm at the museum I'm here to get things done. I've got a job to do, and I've got duties that require my attention,” he said.

“I used to joke that the Headless Horseman could be looking over my shoulder while I'm, you know, processing paperwork, and I wouldn't know it because I'm preoccupied with what I need to get done.”

Having eclectic stories about the museum is a feature, not a flaw, Wall explained.

“I think it adds a lot of character to a place when you can share stories like that. Whether or not they're, you know, scientifically true or factual or anything like that. To me, that's irrelevant. It adds to the color of a building.”

He said anyone who wanted to look for ghosts at the museum could participate in the Spooky Stroll between Oct. 27 and 31st.

IS YOUR HOME HAUNTED?

In time for Halloween, the Saskatoon Public Library invites residents to share their own ghost stories.

“We're going to have a bunch of people go into the local history room. And we're all just going to share ghost stories from our, from our own neighborhoods and houses and communities, and then kind of do some background research into who actually used to live in those houses,” Stevie Horn, special collections librarian at Frances Morrison told CTV News.

“Part of a good ghost story is that the history actually matches up with what the ghosts are purported to have been doing. So it's nice to be able to do the historical research on the one hand, and then also research what the stories are.”

The event will be held on October 20 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.