Thursday, April 9, 2009








PICTURE OF A GHOST?
This is a photograph of a ghost? It was taken at the former McGibbon House, on Manitoba Street, in Bracebridge, Ontario. (It was torn down a number of years ago). You can read more about the ghost(s) of McGibbon House by referencing back in this collection of blog entries. The black and white image above was one frame of dozens taken with a motor-wind on my news-issue 35mm camera back in the early 1980's. But it was the only frame showing the arc of mist just above and overlapping the door frame itself. It was taken of a doorway into a small hall, where every night at about the same time my cat "Animal" would jump off the small sofa, and stare up at the kitchen wall.
After many months of this happening, and not being able to figure out what was attracting the cat’s attention, I set myself up this particular evening, with a camera, flash and some patience. Within only minutes of my setting up, Animal jumped down and wandered toward the open door, sitting beside the old rocking chair, and on cue looking up. If you see the cat, follow its glance upwards and you will see the misty and curved vapor on the door frame itself. If you draw a line from the cat’s nose to the vapor it’s not far fetched at all to believe this was the object of its curiosity.
I remember shooting about a full roll of 24 frames on this occasion but when my photo technician processed the film the next day, there was only one frame that contained this peculiar half ring of mist. It was determined not to be a light flare or lens flaw as all the other photographs taken with that same camera and lens were perfect......even the ones shot at the same time from the same position.
The event only ever lasted a few moments and just as I was scrambling in my camera bag for another roll of film, Animal had turned and trotted back to the couch to resume his cat-nap. The same thing happened many more nights that year and Animal reacted the same each time. What is curious, if you cross reference stories about the McGibbon homestead, is that my first major paranormal encounter in the house, was experienced on the back stairs several years earlier, just a few feet from where this photograph was taken. I went through the back door into a dark stairway one night, after working at my typewriter in the attic office, and was preparing to head down one more flight of stairs to a lower apartment,.....when without any warning, I walked into a literal wall of damp, chilled, blinding white vapor......contrasted so starkly from the blackness on this second floor landing. It was quite an experience and is detailed in the larger story about the McGibbon House. I suppose this vapor could have been a repeat performance in a very haunted back section of an historic Bracebridge house. Only Animal knew for sure.