Location: Aroland (First Nation Community), Ontario, Canada
The following report was sent into our website by Nimkee on March 23, 2014:
“This story is still a mystery to me. It happened in the Fall of 2006, almost 8 years ago. All involved was a very big group of us, almost 12-15 people including me. In our reserve which is very small, not secluded but it has a very long history of being there. It started out as a logging camp in the ’50s, even settlements earlier than that time. And before we had our houses and infrastructure that we currently have now, residents lived closer to the river where our event took place.
You see, this river was, and still is, a lifeline to this community. Residents settled near this river in what we now call ‘the old village’. So old there is little evidence of people living there with houses and such, but near the river is different. There are very old remnants of the past still there, like cars rusting into the ground older than our parents, and cement walls still standing, also what’s left of the logging structure. As kids we used to have harvest festivals there and we often still do. There’s also a graveyard along this river.
So our story takes place in the harvest grounds. We all filled up the van and drove to the river. It takes 5 minutes or so to get there. It was already late and we used to always drive around at night like this. We would plan to make a fire and have fun out there, but we did everything but that. When we arrived we left the van and started gathering out in the pitch dark near the back of the van. We all decided to go for a walk to that cement wall, so we did that without flashlights or any light source — just darkness.
We ended up arriving at the spot we wanted to be, and I just remember being really creeped out at sounds coming from the north of us. I remember being uneasy about that sound because I knew that nobody with us would be in that direction since the van where we walked from was south of where we were standing. A few minutes pass and by that time the group had split up. I could hear everyone by their voices. We would yell just to let everybody know where they are. All around us is trees and dense bushes, no lights. In the distance — nothing.
An hour passes by and some of the guys get startled. I thought it would be someone playing a trick scaring each other, but it didn’t seem like that. When we gathered all together we all did a name count. There was so many of us, we were sure to account for all of us. But one of us was missing. We started calling out his name, listening for a while. Then we heard branches snap in two directions. Everyone gets startled because one of the sounds was so loud. They all crammed into the van. We wanted to leave but not without our friend.
We went to look for him. It took us a very long time. We called for him and he wasn’t making any sounds. But eventually we did find him. He was huddled under a tree with branches on top of himself, he was hiding. We thought he was playing a joke, but he didn’t answer any of our questions. And when we touched him he was trembling. He seemed to be in shock, holding his face. And this was a guy who was a loud and outgoing person. Right away we knew something was wrong with him. So we lifted him up, carried him a few feet, and then that’s when it happened.
Something behind us grabbed him and pulled him back. He was a big boy too, over 200 lbs. It was like he was being dragged by nothing. It was so dark, the three of us couldn’t see a thing, no dark figure, nothing. It would be so obvious if it was too, so we picked him up again and made him run while we were running.
I looked behind and I could see brushes and tall grass shaking violently, it was terrifying. So we put him in the van and quickly drove off to bring him home. Our friend had to be hospitalized a few days later. He had no sleep and nothing to eat.
He never spoke of what he saw until a few years ago. He said that all he felt was hands. He thought it was one of us in the dark with him, so he turned and looked at a dark figure with what he thinks looked like loose long hair. It grabbed him and threw him down, and all he did was stay down and hide. He apparently was so terrified he blacked out.
It took him years to overcome that ordeal. It was scary for all of us.
There are stories of ghosts at that river. An elder told some of us a story in the late ’50s. A logging owner lived there with his family, a wife and child. He apparently murdered them and he burned their house down, and the spirits of the two still can be heard in a crying or laughing baby.
But this spirit we all witnessed baffles me to this day…”
Michelle McKay Paranormal 