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Printed from Niagara Falls Review
TV show tracks ghosts at historic Bertie Hall
JOHN LAW
Wednesday, August 23, 2006 – 02:00
Local News – If there’s a bump in the night, Joe MacLeod is on the case.
As host of YTV’s Ghost Trackers, the Vancouver actor roams the country sniffing out spooks in some of Canada’s creepiest places. Tuesday night, the search came to Bertie Hall.
As spotlights and cameras lit up the night near the familiar Niagara Parkway landmark, MacLeod settled in for another long shift. Inside the official Ghost Trackers van, he watched two teenagers brave a night alone inside the stately home, which – like many historic homes – is said to be haunted.
“I’m an actor, but I’m never acting in this,” said MacLeod, who signed autographs for some giddy Fort Erie fans before getting to work. “I’m reacting to what (the Ghost Trackers) do and there have been moments where I’ve looked to the directors going: ‘What’s going on? What was that?’
“We don’t plan anything. Some of the stuff that happens we don’t expect.”
Now in its second season, Ghost Trackers is like a paranormal game show – two youths per show wander around a haunted hot spot with a small camera attached to them, allowing MacLeod to see what they see.
Some nights, he can’t explain what he sees.
During a recent episode filmed on a battleship, one of the radios suddenly crackled to life, and a hammock started swinging.
The ghost trackers will see apparitions, smell strange odours and hear things moving in the dark.
At Bertie Hall, they were on the lookout for the famed spirit of a boy who drowned in the basement about 150 years ago, when the Forsyth family owned the home. According to legend, the basement had access to one of the tunnels used by U.S. slaves to cross the Niagara River to freedom. After the boy drowned, the tunnel was sealed and the opening has yet to be found.
The home is now occupied by the Mildred M. Mahoney Dolls’ House Gallery, and staff swears strange things are afoot. Heavy doll houses are found on the other side of the room, filing cabinets are pounded with no one around and every so often there’s a pungent smell of lilacs.
Curator June Spear said a team of psychics claim there are about 100 spirits in the home, but she isn’t rattled.
“I think it’s all good,” she said. “It doesn’t bother me a bit.”
Ghost Trackers co-creator Jim Corston loves the location – and Niagara, for that matter. The show filmed at Fort George in Niagara-on-the-Lake last season.
“There’s no shortage of ghost stories here.”
MacLeod realizes there are skeptics, but every episode, so far, has been a success. Even if nothing supernatural happens, spending the night in a scary old house is an endurance test.
“We’ve had some kids starting the thing out not believing,” said MacLeod. “But no matter how confident the kid is before they get in there, it usually changes by the time they come out.”
The second season of Ghost Trackers begins the first week of October.
ID- 163374
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Niagara Falls Review acticles reprinted with permission by the authority of Joe Wallace, City Editor of the Niagara Falls Review
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