The Nelson Paranormal League is a group of enthusiasts interested in studying paranormal phenomena. The NPL are not scientists, but simply a group of researchers interested in studying local sites that have unusual histories or stories surrounding them.
Nelson, BC has a rich history and houses many buildings that were built in the late 1800s to early 1900s. A surprising number of these buildings have “haunted” histories and are reported to be inhabited by spirits, both benevolent and malevolent.
The NPL’s mission is to investigate these histories and attempt to explain the strange phenomena that seems to surround them.
The NPL’s story began in the late spring of 2004, husband and wife team Chris Holland and Serene Stewart of Juggernaut Marketing and Communications wanted to start a ghost tour of Nelson for the Hallowe’en season, as many other cities have (interesting side note: Holland and Stewart were married on Hallowe’en night, 2003). It would be a haunted tram ride, but unlike other cities, they insisted it not rely on cheesy scare tactics or plastic skeletons, but on local ghost stories, true to Nelson. They invited friend and graphic designer Kevin Macintyre to join in the endeavour, and so began months of intensive research and interviews with locals.
As the trio delved into the history of the Queen City, it became apparent that Nelson, a city rich with catalogued history, also had a great number of tales that went largely unknown by the public. Nelson’s history includes an opium den, whorehouses, and secret tunnels that ran beneath the streets - as well as a number of stories of spirits, apparitions, and other unexplainable phenomenon.
The team was fascinated, and re-doubled their research efforts. The more stories they uncovered, the more questions arose. And with the strong desire to answer those questions, the Nelson Paranormal League was born.
Fuelled by spooky stories of local history that chilled and delighted the public, the 2004 Haunted Heritage Tour was a huge success, with all seats selling out on all four shows in under 24 hours and with over 120 people on a waiting list.
And more stories rolled in. It seemed that almost every person that walked off the Haunted Heritage tram had a spooky tale of their own, and many of these stories would ultimately lead the League to uncover a little more of Nelson’s haunted history.
The success of the Haunted Heritage Tour lead the League to their next project: an intensive paranormal study of one of Nelson’s most reputedly haunted sites, the Hume Hotel. In October of 2005, the NPL entered the Hume along with noted Tarot Card reader, psychic, and listener Thea Trussler, as well as a three-man camera crew led by Blue Dog Media’s Jacy Schindel. The NPL first interviewed a few key members of the Hume’s regular night staff as well as the general manager Ryan Martin, and then began their dusk til dawn vigil, eight hours of filmed investigation through the heart and bowels of Nelson’s most infamous paranormal hotspot.
On October 2006, and after a year of study and scrutiny, the NPL revealed their findings to the public in “Haunt at the Hume”, a 45 minute documentary chronicling the events of that evening and the mysterious evidence gathered.
For more info contact the NPL at 250-505-5016 or nelsonparanormal@shaw.ca
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- Nelson Paranormal League
- Nelson, British Columbia, Canada
- The Nelson Paranormal League are a group of researchers interested in studying sites that have unusual histories or stories surrounding them. Nelson, BC has a rich history and possesses many buildings that were built in the late 1800s to early 1900s. A surprising number of these buildings have “haunted” histories and are reported to be inhabited by spirits, both benevolent and malevolent. The NPL’s mission is to investigate these histories and attempt to explain the strange phenomena that seems to surround them.