Spooky challenge for a good cause at Sir John Johnson Manor house

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By Nick Seebruch
Spooky challenge for a good cause at Sir John Johnson Manor house
An "empty" hall at the Sir John Johnson Manor house. Submitted photo.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Ontario – Phantoms of Yore are holding a spooky challenge at the Sir John Johnson Manor house this weekend July 30 to Aug. 1.

For the event, the Phantoms of Yore are challenging members of the public to be paranormal investigators. For $70 per investigator, they will provide paranormal detection equipment and give them 90 minutes, alone, in the dark, in the house to find evidence of ghosts or other paranormal activity. Money raised by the event will be used to help renovate the Sir John Johnson Manor house.

The Phantoms of Yore are a team of paranormal investigators who first formed in 2018. They previously investigated the Sir John Johnson Manor house in 2019 and according to team member Eliott Luijkenaar the question as to whether the house was inhabited by something otherworldly was soon answered with a resounding yes.

Luijkenaar said that in 2019 his team setup a radio frequency scanner in the house to detect any ghost that might have been attempting to communicate with white noise. They also setup a balloon and noticed it bobbing back and forth. Luijkenaar said that he asked if there was a ghost there playing peek-a-boo and that the scanner detected a distinct response in a young female voice . . . “peek-a-boo.”

“I have been doing this for many years and this was the first time I experienced anything like that,” Luijkenaar said.

There have been multiple reports of paranormal activity at the Sir John Johnson Manor house over the years, including the Girl in the Blue Dress, who Luijkenaar believes was the peek-a-boo ghost, and “The Rider,” a ghostly man seen on the grounds wearing a riding outfit.

Brent Lasave, a board member of the Sir John Johnson Manor house said that the spirits that inhabit the building and grounds tend to like to introduce themselves to summer students, and he recalls a few past students who have had paranormal experiences.

Lasave himself has been running for the past few years the Williamstown History and Ghost Walk which covers the paranormal at the Manor house as well as some of the history of the town of Willaimstown, which is named after the father of Sir John Johnson who built the house and founded the town.

“If you don’t think the paranormal is real, attend one of these events and it will change your mind,” Lasave said.

For more information on the event or to take part, visit the event page at the Cornwall Tourism website.

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