Over the years, the Fort Langley National Historic Site has received an abundance of feedback on the little boy in the Big House.
Some praise the Fort for their creativity in having a young boy dressed in period clothing to greet guests at the building.
Others have written scathing emails scolding them for allowing an unsupervised child to play with the visiting children.
It’s an issue staff continue to struggle with. Mostly, because this little boy doesn’t exist — the Fort has never hired a costumed interpretor that young.
Is he a ghost?
Aman Johal, a costumed interpreter at the Fort, seems to think so.
Johal calls himself the “biggest skeptic” when it comes to ghost stories. Yet, he still can’t explain who the little boy was that he saw cowering in the corner of the Big House one morning when he was unlocking it for the day. Or, how the boy vanished from the room as soon as he looked away.
Johal’s personal encounter is just one of many ghost stories he tells during Grave Tales, a walking tour throughout Fort Langley that highlights some of the town’s supernatural secrets.
Held in October, the event sells out every year and leaves thrill seekers asking for more.
This year, the Fort created an extra adults-only walk to help fill the demand.
When they started the tour nine years ago, organizers weren’t sure how the community would respond.
Johal said they canvased the town looking for ghost stories, hoping to get two or three that could be turned into a Halloween walk.
They ended up with over 2,000.
Fort Langley, it seems, is very haunted.
Overwhelmed with stories, the walk was built using the tales submitted at least four times or more.
The tour takes people through the Fort Langley Cemetery to visit century-old graves, over to some of the town’s oldest buildings, and into the 1850s Fort itself.
The costumed interpreter guides provide a ghostly education and a detailed history of Fort Langley, once a prominent trading post for the Hudson’s Bay Company.
This year the walks are being held Oct.16 and 23-30 at 6 p.m.
The adult-only walks (ages 17 and up) are Oct. 15-18 and 21-30 at 7 p.m., 8 p.m. or 9 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased here.
School groups tours are also available in the afternoons.
Mystery behind St. George’s cross
Those with detailed eyes may wonder why St. George’s Anglican Church (pictured left) in Fort Langley has a Catholic cross suspended above the front door.
Made of steel, this cross long predates the church, said Aman Johal of the Fort Langley National Historic Site.
It belongs to Peoh-Peoh, a Hawaiian worker at the Hudson’s Bay Company in the early 1800s, and was found years after his death by one of pioneer Alexander Mavis’ hogs.
As it turns out, the courtyard of the Anglican Church is an old cemetery, used by the Fort between 1843 and 1886.
To this day, experts are still unsure which gravesite the hog dug up the cross from. It’s estimated there are at least 30 people buried here.
The marker remains hanging on the church until Peoh-Peoh’s original resting place is found.
The large cross is visible to all who wander past the church at 9160 Church St.
More details on its history are unveiled on the Grave Tales ghost story walk.