Article Index
Banff Springs Hotel, which overlooks the stunning, picturesque beauty of the Bow Valley, was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1888. The story goes that in the early 1900s, when the new wings were being added, the architects made a serious error, leaving space for a room with no doors or windows. They revised the blueprints to disguise their error and instructed the builders and workers to seal off the area and keep quiet about it. When the new wings were burnt in the fire of 1926, the lost room was eventually found.
It was empty, of course, but attention was drawn to its location along one of the corridors which had long been the focus of eerie disturbances. Night watchmen complained that a shadowy figure flitted down this hall. There were rumours of service being supplied by an elderly bellhop, when all the bellhops in the employ of the hotel were young.
The hotel's Rob Roy Lounge is said to have numerous ghostly guests. Besides the apparition of a bride who fell down a stairway and broke her neck, guests and staff have reported a headless bagpiper, disembodied carollers in the men's room, and a deceased barkeeper who informs imbibers when they have had enough to drink.
Some of these details appear in Linda Curtis's article in the Calgary Herald, 28 April 1983.
Have you had an encounter with the ghosts of the Banff Springs Hotel? Can you add further information? If so we would like to hear from you. Your privacy will be protected. Confidentiality is assured. Please contact us at admin@psican.org or through our ghost reporting form.
Originally entitled Banff/ The Lost Room, Mysterious Canada (c) 1998 John Robert Colombo Reprinted here with the kind permission of our friend J. R . Columbo For information on ordering Mysterious Canada or other John Robert Colombo books, and publications please see his website.
http://www.colombo.ca/
Photo Credit: Banff Springs Hotel Circa 1929 Public Domain
We received the following report in August 2009. It details what may have been some sort of time slip involving the hotel.
"My husband and I were at the Banff Springs Hotel a few years ago and he wanted to show me this really strange hallway he and a friend found about 7 years ago (before he and I met). We searched for this hallway for hours and even asked about it and were told that there was nothing like it. He said it was very narrow with lower ceilings than the rest of the hallways and the doors were shorter and looked a lot older that the rest of the hotel. The handles on the doors were older he said. Later on another visit, he found the door that led him to this hallway, but the hallway was normal just like the rest of the hotel. We think he may have walked through what would have been the old hotel hallways before the 1926 fire. I haven't heard of this experience before as I looked all over to see if something similar was documented. But both he and his friend both claim to have experienced it together. I'm sharing this story more than anything to find out if there has been any other documentations of this sort of experience at the Banff Springs Hotel."
Our thanks to the writer for sharing her husband's experience with us. We very much appreciate it.
The above sounds very similar to reports of time slips. One of the best-known, and earliest, examples of a time slip was reported by two English women, Charlotte Anne Moberly (16 September 1846 - 7 May 1937) and Eleanor Jourdain (1863–1924), the principal and vice-principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford, who believed they slipped back in time in the gardens of the Petit Trianon at Versailles from the summer of 1901 to the period of the French Revolution. Click here to read more on that fascinating case, and others.
Have you experienced something that you think might be paranormal at the hotel or elsewhere in Alberta? Can you add any further information to this report? Do you think you may have also experienced a time slip? If so please do contact us at admin@psican.org Your privacy will be protected, and confidentiality is assured.
We received the following report in June 2014
"Two friends and myself and were hiking the bush near the hotel and decided to stop for a beer after our hike. As we entered the hotel I removed a pack I had for the hike. Immediately the bellhop at the door, an elderly man with bushy hair took control of my pack and placed it on a big brass baggage trolley. I told him we were only going to the lounge for a beer. He said, "I'll keep your bag nearby sir,” with a Scottish accent. And that was pretty much it. We had a couple of suds and then left. I picked up the pack at the lounge entrance. It was much later when I read the ghost story of this helpful man and his devotion to the hotel. It was then when I thought about the man’s age and dress with a bell cap and all. And an antique looking red jacket with trim. He was quite old I thought for a bellhop as all the other ones were quite young. Pretty odd for modern standards. And it all came together after reading about the ghosts of Banff Springs that I quite possibly met Samuel McCauley.
Samuel McCauley was a long time devoted bellhop as I learned much after this incident happened has a tendency to haunt the place and help guests.
"Probably the most popular real ghost story revolves around the hotel's former bellhop, Sam McCauley. McCauley was a Scottish immigrant that worked at the hotel over the years. McCauley loved the hotel itself. He even told a few people that he intended to return to it even after he died. The story goes that the owners pushed McCauley into retirement in 1978. He went home and died before he had a chance to get his last paycheck. His story didn't end there though! Two years after Sam's death, two women became locked out of their room. They called down to the front desk for assistance. By the time someone arrived to provide aid, the women were already in their room. According to them, an elderly bellhop with white hair had come and opened the door for them. A real ghost?? There were no elderly employees of that description on the payroll. The ghost stories of Sam had only just begun. Reports still come pouring in of an elderly bellhop letting people into their rooms. He helps them with their luggage and some even report turning back to tip the gentleman, to find that he has completely vanished! One of many haunted places within the Banff Springs Hotel."
Our thanks goes out to the experient for sharing his experience with us. Have you experienced something that you think might be paranormal at the hotel or elsewhere in Alberta? Can you add any further information to this report? Do you think you may have also experienced a time slip? If so please do contact us at admin@psican.org Your privacy will be protected, and confidentiality is assured.
