Haunted Saskatchewan Moose Head Inn

Poltergeist Activity in Popular Canadian Restaurant and Night Spot!

Apr 11, 2009

Moose Head Inn Mascot?, http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/43569

Doors opened and closed by themselves. Lights turned off and on. Objects disappeared, then mysteriously reappeared. Suddenly, the phenomena stopped. Who was the haunter?

In the early 1900s, the what's now Saskatchewan's Moose Head Inn was called Bekavar Hall; it served as a gathering place for the Hungarian community. Archebald and Ethel Grandison bought it in 1966.

Then, known as Grandison Hall, it was one of the most popular nightclubs in Saskatchewan. Reg Dlouhy and others bought it in 1979. It was Reg who remodeled it and named it the Moose Head Inn. Dale Orsted bought the property in 1990. There was a restaurant on the first floor, cabaret on the second and apartment with an office on the third. What he didn’t know was that there would be paranormal phenomena.

Moose Head Inn Haunter Makes itself Known

When Orsted began to renovate the cabaret after he moved in, strange things began to happen. Small items went missing. Some, like the cash register’s tape, mysteriously reappeared where they belonged. He, initially, thought the missing items were stolen by former employees who were sneaking into the cabaret after hours. He had all of the locks changed, but this didn’t stop the incidents.

Loud banging noises followed. Orsted called the police who found no one. The officers could only suggest that the sounds came from outside. He and his manager or co-owner, depending on the source, Jeff Stephen, installed a security camera above the bar and, when the tape was replayed, the banging could be heard, but there were no images that revealed who the culprit was.

Moose Head Inn’s 1992 Paranormal Activity

Orsted, his girlfriend, and Stephen learned to live with the strange activities. When they began other renovations in 1992, more strange things happened.

Noises emanating from the cabaret increased in volume. Orsted and his friends experimented to try to recreate them by lifting a heavy steel desk. The only conclusion was that the desk was being levitated and dropped.
The dishwasher in the bar started and turned off by itself.
Stall doors in the womens' washroom swung back and forth by themselves.
Mop pails flew across the dance floor with no apparent source of impetus.
Lights in the building went on and off mysteriously.
Heavy, double security doors at the side and rear of the bar opened and closed.
Eerily, the heavy door to a walk-in cooler door did the same - opened and closed with no apparent cause.
Doors locked, then unlocked of their own volition.
Noises that sounded like a man moaning were heard in the apartment’s hallway

Moose Head Inn Ghosts and a Séance

In the summer of 1997, Orsted and two female employees who had also experienced the ghostly phenomena held a séance with a psychic to try to find out who was responsible for the eerie events. She said there were three ghosts: a cleaning lady, a young man who had drowned and an old man.

During the séance, they were able to convince two of the three entities to move on. The old man wanted to stay. According to the psychic, he was Archebald Grandison and wanted Orsted to look after Ethel, who lived next door to the nightclub. She was getting old, then died in the spring of 1999. Since then, there's been no more paranormal incidents.

Who Haunted Moose Head Inn?

The phenomena were typical poltergeist activity. Psychokinesis, PK, is the ability of the mind to affect matter. There are human and entity agents. The former has a psychological profile and experiences unpleasant emotions. The activity only happens in the human agent’s presence. It’s most likely, according to parapsychological theory, the entity agent was Archebald. Once Ethel died, he had no reason to remain.