5 Bow Valley Places With Strange Histories and Ghostly Reputations

Halloween is approaching. Beyond the Bow Valley’s busy trails and postcard views lies a darker side of its history: a sunken ghost town, an abandoned Cold War-era bunker and a grand hotel with ghosts on the guest list.

Here are five places and the histories behind them. Some were abandoned. Others are still places of remembrance and hospitality, where the stories have grown with retelling.

Minnewanka Landing: the ghost town beneath the lake

Minnewanka Landing began taking shape in the late 1800s. By 1912, the summer village had four avenues, three streets, hotels, restaurants and wharves. Visitors could take sailing excursions aboard boats named Lady of the Lake and Daughter of the Peaks.

Hydroelectric development changed the shoreline. A dam built in 1912 partially submerged the settlement. In 1941, a larger dam flooded it completely, following federal approval to expand power generation for southern Alberta and Canada’s war effort, according to Parks Canada’s history of the lake.

Foundations, sidewalks and other traces remain beneath the lake. Parks Canada documents house foundations, sections of sidewalk, cellars, stoves and wharf structures. What was once a bustling summer village now lies hidden beneath the lake's cold waters.

The lake’s name is older than the village. Parks Canada translates the Stoney Nakoda name “Minn-waki” as “Lake of the Spirits.”

Visiting: The shoreline offers the setting, not a view of the submerged settlement. Exploring the underwater remains involves cold-water, high-altitude scuba diving.

Parks Canada requires diving-gear self-certification to prevent aquatic invasive species, and the underwater remains are protected cultural resources. Leave artifacts and structures untouched.

Heart Creek Bunker: a vault that never opened for business

In 1969, provincial permits were issued for a private venture to dig a vault into Mount McGillivray, according to a historical account that accompanies a survey by Ben Gadd, Pete Foster and Nate Foster. The excavation now carries an imposing name: the Heart Creek Bunker.

The plan was to protect paper, not people. Brothers Stan and Joe Rokosh intended Rocky Mountain Vaults and Archives to safeguard documents underground. A contemporary newspaper account reproduced by Canmore Cave Tours described plans for a 24-hour guard, alarms and a reinforced concrete door 150 feet inside the tunnel. Behind those defences, records were supposed to survive fire, theft and even bombs.

The August 2012 survey measured five bays and 161 metres of combined tunnels and bays cut into limestone.

The vault was never finished. A heritage inventory commissioned by the Municipal District of Bighorn points to financing problems and moisture as possible reasons.

Friends of Kananaskis Country describes what’s inside now: darkness past the entrance, dripping water, a rocky floor, vandalism and litter. Today, the unfinished tunnels are all that remain of a plan to create a secure underground vault.

Visiting: Park in the designated Heart Creek lot. Parking in the Highway 1 ditch is prohibited. Alberta Parks has listed the Heart Creek Bunker Trail under a bear warning because black bears, including a sow and cubs, have been seen nearby.

Canmore Cave Tours recommends strong lights, warm layers and sturdy footwear for the dark, cool interior and wet surfaces. Check current advisories, respect any barrier or closure and leave the excavation undisturbed.

The Hermit of Inglismaldie Cabin: the man behind the rumour

Billy Carver spent decades in a cabin near Johnson Lake. A ghost story now follows him, but the surviving accounts offer a more human history.

In December 1937, two local boys skiing above the old Anthracite townsite knocked on the cabin door, hoping for a cup of tea. Carver was too weak to open the frozen door.

The boys, Edison Steele and Ted Keith, built a fire before leaving and reported his condition to police, according to a December 10, 1937 issue of the Crag and Canyon. Park wardens and two constables took Carver to hospital the next morning. The paper noted that the cabin was well supplied with food.

The newspaper called him the “Hermit of Anthracite” and said he had spent winters in the cabin for about 25 years, usually working in coal mines farther north during the summer. A historical plaque at the site dates the Englishman’s cabin to 1910 and describes 27 years of secluded life there.

The plaque names Gee Moy, owner of the Market Garden at Anthracite, as his only acquaintance. An Alberta heritage account, which gives the name as Moy Gee, says he bought Carver’s provisions so Carver would not have to go into town.

The plaque says Carver was later taken to a home for older people, where he died. The accounts leave his reasons for choosing isolation unexplained.

The haunting came later. In a 2016 Calgary Guardian article, writer Tyler Dixon described reports that the cabin is haunted, with a ghostly figure believed to be Carver allegedly spotted nearby. The article names no witnesses and gives no dates for the reported sightings.

Visiting: This cabin is separate from Bankhead and the submerged Minnewanka settlement.

Johnson Lake has a public walking loop, but Parks Canada had not answered questions about cabin-specific access at the time of writing. Detailed directions to the cabin are left out.

Old Banff Cemetery: the stories among the stones

Mourners from the former mining town of Bankhead once walked nearly nine kilometres to bury their dead in Old Banff Cemetery, often led by the Bankhead Mine Band, according to the Town of Banff’s heritage account.

The Bankhead Miners Memorial in the cemetery honours the 15 miners killed during the town’s mining history.

Baby Adelia Woodworth was among the first Banffites buried there, in 1890, according to the Town. More than 2,000 people now rest here.

The monuments reflect the people beneath them, the Town says. The Brett Mausoleum, built in 1914, stands 12 feet high, with a locally sourced Rundlestone roof and a polished marble interior. Elsewhere, tombstones depict golfers, horses and cross-country ski tracks.

Mary Schaffer Warren, who lived across the street, was sceptical of the site at first, the Town says. She came to describe it as a “place of rest and kindly neighbours.”

Visiting: The cemetery is part of the Town’s heritage walkway and remains a place of remembrance. Under the cemetery bylaw, public access is closed from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., subject to changes directed by the Town Manager.

Visit during open hours, give mourners privacy and leave graves and memorials undisturbed.

Banff Springs: a hotel that explains its own ghosts

The Fairmont Banff Springs has a storied past, with a few ghost stories to go with it. Fairmont has published its own explanations for three of them: a ghostly bride, a vanishing room and a bellman who never checked out.

Rumour has it a bride fell to her death on the grand staircase in the late 1920s, before she reached her groom. Fairmont says no written record confirms that a bride died or was even injured there around that time.

The “vanishing room” has a plainer explanation. According to Fairmont, a mid-century redesign combined two small guest rooms into one larger suite. A doorway disappeared, but a hallway light stayed where it had been.

Sam the Bellman is a friendlier presence in hotel folklore, said to help guests and then vanish. Fairmont ties the character to a real bellman. A 2017 Avenue Calgary account names him Sam McCauley and says he died in 1975. The supernatural help remains a story.

The hotel also leans into the legends with Halloween ghost tours running Oct. 14 to 31, according to its website.

Unlike some of the other places on this list, the Banff Springs hasn’t been abandoned to history. It’s an operating hotel where renovations and retelling have built a different kind of ghostly reputation.

Visiting: Follow staff directions and respect guest privacy and restricted areas. Fairmont says people have knocked on the wall where the extra door used to be, disturbing guests sleeping on the other side.

The family-friendly tours leave at 5, 6:30 and 8 p.m. They’re open only to registered hotel guests and require advance registration. The hotel’s Halloween at the Castle party on Oct. 31 is open to non-guests 18 and older, but the hotel lists it as sold out.

The history is strange enough

None of these places needs a ghost to be unsettling. A village sits under a lake. A vault was dug into a mountain and never finished. Whatever you make of the ghost stories, the documented histories are strange enough on their own. If you visit, follow the posted rules and leave everything as you found it.

A note on visiting: Some locations featured in this article contain hazardous terrain, abandoned structures, or protected historical resources. Readers should check current access restrictions and safety advisories before visiting. Not all sites are open or suitable for public exploration.