Sue Darroch and Matthew Didier's Paranormal Blog

Each Friday we will have a look at the stories and experiences that have been related to us over the years that are amongst our personal favourites. These will include Crypto, Ghosts, UFO's and other strange events that may be considered Fortean from in around the Toronto, Canada area .... and since they are from our own personal files will likely not be found elsewhere on the web .... enjoy!

Cemetery Creature - Backus Mill Conservation Area

We received the following report in early 2005, the actual incident occurred in the late summer months of 2004. We normally will not publish cemetery reports as we do not wish to encourage vandalism or would-be ghost hunters hanging around with Ouija boards. However, this report bears striking resemblance to one that we received in 2006. Please see the report entitled, Cemetery Creature - Parry Sound Area Ontario. Both cases involve more than one witness and are what we would term as highly strange. The report is included for your information only and is unpublished or documented elsewhere.

Late one evening I took a phone call from one of the upper brass of a historical military reenactment group here in Southern Ontario. This person is well known to me, an adult, and well respected within his community. He told me he had a story to tell me of an incident that had occurred the previous summer during a historical reenactment, which even he was having trouble believing. Of course he did believe it though, as it had occurred not only to himself, but another female witness who is also of sound character.

He certainly had my attention!

The witness had gone on a late evening stroll after a day of reenacting historical battle scenes. He had left the camp in search of a female companion who had also taken a walk. The conservation area is quite large, with several historical buildings. It is also reputed to be haunted in certain spots, but this had never bothered our witness before as he did not consider himself to be a superstitious person.

He came upon his companion who was seated near the old private family cemetery that is part of the extensive grounds. As he got closer in proximity to her he noticed something very odd. Sitting (perched) atop one of the grave markers appeared to be a small gargoyle. Very dark, with dark eyes that appeared to be watching the other witness.

All of a sudden and at his approach the "thing" leaped from the tombstone onto the ground and right behind his companion. He yelled out, as did his equally shocked friend, at which point the gargoyle-like creature ran towards the nearby woods. Both witnesses were in shock, immediately to be filled with a strong feeling of dread and outright fear. Rather then attempt to follow the "thing" which they described as somewhere between 2-3 ft tall, they both beat a hasty retreat back to the encampment where they stayed awake through to dawn discussing what they had both just witnessed.

I was assured over and over again that neither witness were drunk, temporarily insane or otherwise. Neither had experienced anything like it before and stated that as highly experienced campers (who both got a good look at the creature) did not believe they had mistaken an animal for this thing. However, both agree that this was a solid, "being" and do not think it is related in anyway to the Backhouse family or other ghost stories that are associated with this location. Both admit to not being superstitious or holding any strong belief in paranormal subjects prior to this encounter.

Please note that the photos included were taken in 2006 by Pararesearchers and contain no anomalies. They are added for the reader to see where exactly the above report occurred.

We strongly urge all visitors to this location to remember it is a site of historic significance to this province, to obey all local, provincial, and federal laws as well as the rules clearly stated by the conservation authorities. Above all please use your better judgement and common sense, if you think you are going to do something that might be viewed at best as disrespectful or at worst illegal than you probably are.

Our thanks to the witness for sharing this report with us.

Do you have a real life ghost story, an encounter with a UFO, or other paranormal experience/s you'd like to share? If so, we'd love to hear from you! Post your own experiences in our comments section or send us an email. Please post only true life experiences ... we love good fiction, but there are other fantastic blogs out there to post fictional accounts to.