Halloween and Tales of Canadian Ghosts

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Topic spans: 1957 - 1994

Halloween and Tales of Canadian Ghosts

It was the Irish pagan festival of Samhain, a night when the dead and the living edged near one another, whence came Halloween. On the night of Nov. 1, and with the dying crops, souls returned to walk the earth. Spooked pagans bolted their doors and extinguished the cooking fires that attracted witches. A rap on the door came from villagers dressed as dead relatives: "Trick or treat?" Best give the souls a treat lest they do something rotten. Canadians have kept the ancient belief in souls haunting the living alive, telling frightening ghost tales for the past 50 years, and not just on Halloween.

Jack-o-lanterns image by Jake Krohn, used under under Flicker Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

4 television clips

9 radio clips

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Gibraltar Point lighthouse ghost

Broadcast Date: Aug. 3, 1958

On a dark January night in 1815, a band of thirsty soldiers set off from Fort York garrison to Toronto Island. The troop in search of booze called on J. P. Radan Muller, Gibraltar Point lighthouse keeper and bootlegger of American whiskey. When the soldiers asked for seconds from his keg, Muller refused, and a violent fight erupted. That was the last time Muller was ever seen — in the flesh.

Some say Muller's ghost haunts the island to this very day, his spectre drifting across the sand at night. In 1958, the last keeper of the lighthouse recounts the ghastly tales.

Gibraltar Point lighthouse ghost

• DeeDee Dodds (seen in this clip) was the last keeper of the lighthouse. She was in charge for three years before it closed in 1958. In the early 1960s, the City of Toronto renovated the lighthouse, which stands today as an historic building.

• Before it closed, the Gibraltar Point lighthouse was Toronto's oldest landmark used for its original purpose. Its exact opening date was never recorded. In 1808, The Upper Canada Gazette said Lieutenant Governor Francis Gore visited the island to choose a spot for the structure.

• The lighthouse was one of the first built in the Great Lakes. The original hexagonal tower stood 16 metres, topped with a wooden cage for housing the lantern. In 1832, the lighthouse was raised 3.6 metres.

• The lantern originally burned whale oil, substituted for coal oil in 1863. It used 4,086 litres a year. A revolving light replaced the lamp in 1878.

• The first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada John Graves Simcoe named the peninsula Gibraltar Point because he thought the island could be fortified as strong as the Rock of Gibraltar.

Gibraltar Point lighthouse ghost

Medium: Television

Program: CBC Newsmagazine

Broadcast Date: Aug. 3, 1958

Guest(s): DeeDee Dodds, John Durnan

Reporter: Allan Couples

Duration: 6:33

Last updated:
Aug. 17, 2009

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