Delving into haunted hotspots with a New West paranormal investigator

As folks in New Westminster look towards Halloween, you might be wondering if there is any lore out there about haunted spots in the city (spoiler: there is).

New West resident and paranormal investigator Amanda Quill has been working to answer those questions for years and is sharing some of her stories through tours put together by her group, Coldspotters Paranormal Investigations and Events. The tours are running over multiple days from now until Nov. 5.

"I've been obsessed with ghost stories since I was tiny," she tells New West Anchor. "I grew up in Scotland, so my grandfather used to take me on little walks [to] graveyards ... his whole philosophy is, if a home has no ghosts, it has no spirits." The fascination carried on into her adult life, with Quill spending time reading relevant stories and doing research at local Metro Vancouver libraries. She also explored the New Westminster Museum and Archives to see what's been tracked. 

When asked about her first personal encounter with the afterlife, Quill shared two experiences: the first—which she found to be relatively late in her young life—involved paranormal activity at the age of 14. This was at a home in east Vancouver. 

"[There were] books flying off the shelves, bowls coming out of cupboards, cupboards slamming, open doors, lights would go on and off without being plugged in." It was at the age of 24 when she had her first encounter with a ghost.

"It was another house that I lived in ... [a man] walked out of the back door in the basement, and I was up on the patio in the kitchen." Quill says the man was in his 30s and appeared to be making the motions of lighting a cigarette.

Shortly after, he looked up and made eye contact with her. That's when Quill says the man disappeared. 

"He just took a step and vanished."

New West 'so unique' for paranormal activity, ghost stories 

Quill says there are many points in New West that are thought to be haunted, or home to paranormal activity, but this year her tour will focus mostly on Columbia Street. 

"We have everything, of course from the old Keg [at 800 Columbia St.], we have the old BC Electric Railroad Station ... and we have a story about the ghost ... [that] it's actually down in Gastown, but [there is a] picture of the ghost taken in New Westminster," she explains. "The picture I have... you see him actually walking onto the trolley, but at this point the trolley was being decommissioned, and [so] he no longer was with us."

The Coldspotters' tour will also make stops near the Paramount, and will look at some of the activity that spurred from some of the major fires in New Westminster—in particular, the Great Fire of 1898. 

Are there other areas Quill believes might have paranormal activity?

"Of course, Irving House ... we have Poplar Island, which has a lot of energy there. Pretty much all of 12th Street is reported haunted, especially the Thirsty Duck. We investigated there last year ... we've investigated The Terminal Pub twice, which is kind of neat." Quill says if you go the other way, you also have the old BC Penitentiary in the Sapperton area, Glenbrook Ravine, and Boot Hill Cemetery. 

"Queen's Park is totally haunted ... we actually have an ongoing case up in that area," explains Quill, who notes that she can't provide any specifics due to privacy. "It is a really neat [case] that has a lot of ties to New West history." 

In the meantime, if you'd like to get your step count up and learn more about the city's haunts, be sure to register for a tour online. Tickets start at $20, and walks go for about 1.5 hours. Those who are 16 and older are welcome to attend.