Writer: Andrew Hind
After the release of Haunted Ontario Lakes in 2015, I thought I was done chronicling the region’s creepy side. I really did. I was wrong.
In the years after, new ghost stories came to my attention, emerging like restless dead crawling forth from moldering graves. I dutifully filed each one away, but they haunted me. Eventually, I decided I could deny them no longer. And so, I pulled some of the best from the crumbling vault where I store my research notes to create a new and exciting book that I titled Muskoka’s Most Haunted.
Muskoka’s Most Haunted details the history and haunts associated with a dozen spectrally active locations. Some, such as Inn at the Falls and the Gravenhurst Opera House, are exceedingly well-known for their ghost stories. Others, including the former Grandview Inn and Windermere House, were less so.
I knew that I wanted to highlight one of the buildings at Muskoka Heritage Place, the recreated pioneer village said to have a sizable spectral populace. Each of the nearly two dozen buildings preserved in the park has a spirit all its own, the product of the successes and failures, happiness and heartache of the men and women who lived and worked within them. It shouldn’t be surprising, therefore, if spectral energy might lurk in the cracks between well-worn floorboards in some buildings, seeping out on occasion to startle staff and guests alike.
But which building to choose? The blacksmith continues to pound metal into shape even in death. A shadowy man is said to linger within Ashworth Hall, standing silent vigil over the former Loyal Prange Hall. Some have speculated he may be the original owner, Stanley Ashworth. The Spence Hotel dates to 1878 when it offered welcome comfort to exhausted travelers. Some tired souls, it seems, have never checked out, reluctant to leave the warm hospitality and continue their journey into the afterlife.
All were good choices, but I ended up deciding to write about Hill House.
The Hauntings of Hill House
The charming, green-trimmed home is the one-time residence of Reverend Norton Hill, a postmaster (he named Hillside for himself), farmer, and government representative whose responsibilities would have included judging land disputes and the inspection of properties to confirm their compliance with the Free Grants and Homestead Act.
Although Reverend Hill had his hands full, he couldn’t turn his back on God and his duties as a minister. Tending to the spiritual needs of northern Muskoka required that Hill endure lengthy and exhausting journeys by foot, horseback, and boat. Tired from his missionary work and the labors of homesteading, Hill breathed his last in 1895, aged 70.
Hill House defies the iconic image of the haunted house. And yet, the house is most definitely haunted. Footsteps can be heard when there is nobody else in the building, the beds look as though someone has been sitting on them, people feel as if they are being watched, and doors swing open of their own accord, and once two witnesses were chased from the home after an antique hairbrush was thrown across the room by unseen hands. On rare occasions, an elderly woman can be glimpsed tentatively looking out at an unfamiliar world from a second-floor window. This staff is certain, is Mrs. Hill herself, a strong-willed woman in life who just might have been stubborn enough to defy death. Reverend Norton has made appearances, even showing up in a photo of a Hill family reunion at the village.
Staff members are not shy about sharing their experiences. One example I recount in Muskoka’s Most Haunted:
“On another summer day, a costumed staff member working in the Hill House heard the front door creak open and then close shut. Heavy footsteps made their way toward the drawing room. The footfalls were slow and loud as if made by a large man who was either old or tired. When the footsteps reached the drawing room, they suddenly stopped. The staff member, in the kitchen at the time, poked her head into the drawing room, prepared to greet a guest. She was surprised to find no one in sight. The Hill House was empty. A shiver ran down the woman’s spine as realization sank in that the footsteps had been spectral in nature.”
Read more about Hill House’s haunted happenings in Muskoka’s Most Haunted. Just make sure to keep the lights on.
Muskoka’s Most Haunted can be purchased at Artisans of Muskoka and Muskoka Heritage Place in Huntsville, Birchbark in Bala, the Rosseau General Store, Magnetawan Bait and Tackle in Magnetawan, and from Amazon.
