Katie Swift is crossing the country to gather tales of downtowns. Submitted photo.
A pair of Maritime gals doing podcasts of stories of towns they visit have uncovered the ghostly side of North Bay.
Katie Swift and Annie McEwen are touring the north in a small trailer/recording studio as part of a project called The Tale of a Town, a national oral history project collecting stories about main streets and how they've changed. The effort is leading up to Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017!
They had interviewed about 20 residents and business owners by early afternoon and come up with "amazing" stories.
"We talked with Annette at Allision the Bookman (on Main East), Swift told BayToday.
"She thinks some of the shelves in the bookstore are haunted, because they've had a few incidents of serving customers and books flying off the shelves. One actually happened in the paranormal activity section and so she thinks that it's because of all of the blood, sweat and tears that went into building that place by her grandmother and grandfather.
"She thinks that there may still be a little bit of the spirit of him around in the store and that he might pop up once in a while even in the afterlife. So that's an incredible story, and my favourite in North Bay so far."
The goal by 2017 is to have a national story map, which is a map where you can click on any town and hear a story about it.
You can hear the podcasts on their website www.thetaleofatown.com
Check out their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thetaleofatown?fref=ts
The pair are at downtown North Bay until 4 p.m. and will travel to West Nipissing tomorrow.
"Across Canada, countless communities, along with the stories they hold, are in the midst of disappearance as old gives way to new, local gives way to global, diversity gives way to uniformity, and life gives way to death. One main street at a time, The Tale of a Town will save the almost lost stories that reveal our past and inspire our future," says a news release by the group.
