Hunting for the ghosts of the past in Minnekhada Lodge

Usually, the legends are a road map, guiding them to ghost stories and, they hope, ghosts.

Sisters Gina Armstrong and Victoria Vancek have been finding and telling stories of the supernatural since the early days of the pandemic.

“Everybody has a ghost story for you,” Armstrong says.

They followed ghost stories to Port Moody, where they experienced, “probably one of the most haunted experiences that we’ve had,” at Port Moody Station Museum, Armstrong says.

More stories took them to Coquitlam, where they walked the grounds of səmiq̓wəʔelə (suh-Mee-kwuh El-uh), formerly Riverview.

Given the generations buried on the grounds, it seemed like a hotspot for cold gusts and footsteps without feet.

And Port Coquitlam? Well, nothing’s happened in Port Coquitlam yet.

But last summer, a whim brought them to bank of the Pitt River where they surveyed Minnekhada Lodge.

They didn’t ask for ghost stories, but they found some.

The kindly caretaker offered an overview of the lodge’s history before mentioning unexplained sounds and one relative who spotted a shadowy figure atop the stairs when the house was empty.

“It scared her because she thought somebody got into the house,” Vancek says. “Makes you kind of wonder.”

“We thought, ‘Well, we must come back and investigate,’” Armstrong says. “So we did.”

Down on the farm

For decades, the 46-hectare farm was home to beef cattle, and sheep, also serving as a dairy and vegetable farm, according to a history of the farm published in 2000 by the Greater Vancouver Regional District (now Metro Vancouver).

But when owner Harry Jenkins fell into ill health and financial decline, the farm reverted to Coquitlam.

The land was sold and re-sold for years until a 1929 fire spread across the grounds, razing the barns and resulting in the death of many animals.

In the early 1920s a speculator paid $30,000 for the land. But in 1932, timber baron and future B.C. Lieutenant Governor Eric Hamber picked up the property for $8,700.

The fertile land was set to be used for playing polo and breeding horses.

However, animal lover Aldyen Hamber prevailed on her husband to turn Minnekhada into a real farm with diversified crops.

A team of workers toiled ten hours a day and 29 or 30 days a month to build and maintain the farm.

There’s a rumour that Hamber paid for the $50,000 lodge entirely with the proceeds of a stock tip, according to the GVRD history.

The lodge hosted guests ranging from Lord Tweedsmuir to British actress Gracie Fields and, if the rumours are true, King George VI and the future Queen Elizabeth once stayed there.

Up at the lodge

If you’re going to look for ghosts in Minnekhada Lodge, go in the evening.

“You’re in the middle of the woods. You have this long driveway,” Armstrong says. “As you’re approaching the building you kind of feel you’re in some BBC mystery show or something.”

At a recent visit to the lodge, the sisters were joined by a medium and 18 spectre speculators, many of whom were likely curious after watching ghost hunting shows.

“It’s always on TV,” Vancek. “People see the reality shows. They want to see exactly how it is done.”

They were not disappointed.

“As we sat there . . . we heard like a woman humming a few bars,” Vancek says, noting that their devices were also triggered.

There are times when the sisters visit a spot with a spooky reputation only to find a complete lack of spirit, Armstrong acknowledges.

But as much as the sisters enjoy the search, there’s also a historical aspect to what they do.

“The ghost stories are part of the culture,” Armstrong says. “It’s kind of a cultural asset.”

While the ghosts may be elusive, the stories are waiting to be archived.

“If there is a ghost story then we want to preserve it,” Armstrong says.