If you are looking for a place to relax this Halloween, there is no better place in Timmins to capture the spirit of the day than the Airport Hotel in South Porcupine, says Elva Evans, who has owned the hotel since 1989.
"From the day I bought the hotel back in 1989, I have felt the presence of ghosties," Elva said in a telephone interview with TimminsToday.com. "But they are friendly protective ghosts."
When Elva purchased the hotel from the previous owner, a Mr. Moskal, she immediately sensed she was not alone.
"This is a large old building with a lot of rooms," she said. "But I have never felt frightened or alone and I have been running the hotel by myself all these 27 years."
Elva is not alone in sensing the presence of the ghost, reputed to Mr. Moskal, who died a couple of years after the hotel, was sold.
"I think Mr. Moskal really loved this place," Elva explained. "This is the place he wanted to spend his eternity."
Staff and guests, have over the years, also heard the odd noise at night according to Elva.
"One night one of my staff was loading supplies into the large walk in fridge and she told me she felt as if someone was bumping into her shoulder as she swerved to pick up the cases of beer and stack them."
"Another time one of my staff heard this knocking sound of someone trying get in after being locked outside," she said. "The building has these old wooden door handles and it sounded like they were banging against the door."
Another sign that the place has a ghost living at the hotel was the night the smoke filled bar was suddenly cleared of its smoke in one fell swoop.
"In the old days of course you could smoke in the Shady Lady and one night quite a bit of smoke was hanging about the pool table," explained Elva. "All of a sudden the side door opened, and it was as if some vortex just sucked all the smoke out of the bar."
Elva Evans does not use the word haunted to describe the presence of Mr. Moskal's ghost.
"No not all," Elva said. "It's more like the ghost lives here and is part of the surroundings - there is no haunting or anything like that - it's like he really enjoys being here and wants to be part of the crowd."
But if you want to feel the chills of Halloween with a true live horror story, perhaps the spot for you is a little further south along Highway 11. Make a left on to Highway 66 through Swastika and into Kirkland Lake.
There, on the outskirts of Kirkland Lake is the Sir Harry Oakes Museum — his former mansion — built by one of the richest men in Canada at the times in the 1920s and 30s.
Sir Harry Oakes built his fortune with his highly profitable Lake Shore Gold Mine in Kirkland Lake.
But after he built up his wealth in Kirkland Lake, Sir Harry Oaks left first for Niagara Falls, where he built a mansion overlooking the world famous falls, which today serves as a welcoming centre for tourists.
Later Sir Harry moved to the Bahamas where he was the island’s richest man. He had moved to the Bahamas from Canada to protect his wealth the Bahamas being a tax haven for the very wealthy.
On 8 July 1943, Sir Harry’s body was found in his bed where he had died from blows to his head made with a spiked instrument. His body was then drenched in gasoline and the feathers from his pillow scattered over his body while the bed was set ablaze.
A desperate call about Sir Harry’s murder was made to the governor of the Bahamas – who was the disgraced former king of England, Edward VIII, who was now the Duke of Windsor, after giving up the throne to marry a nefarious American divorcee named Wallace Simpson. The Duke and Duchess were admirers of Adolph Hitler and he was assigned to be the Governor of the Bahamas to keep him at a distance from Germany during World War 2.
Oakes’ son-in-law, Alfred de Marigny, was subsequently charged with the crime, but later acquitted during the trial as he had an airtight alibi and it looked like someone was trying to frame him.
To this day the crime has never been solved and the murderer never brought to justice.
Although the murder took place thousands of kilometres to the south of Kirkland Lake, a walk through Harry Oakes’ former mansion now the Sir Harry Oakes Museum still sends shivers down your spine.
