90-minute tour kicks off this weekend
Posted By BY STEPHEN PETRICK, THE INTELLIGENCER
Updated 1 day ago
John Boyd says he can communicate with dead people.
But he doesn't call them ghosts -- the word has too much of a negative vibe.
"They like to be called spirits," he said, adding they are just normal people who have died, but haven't found their way to the afterlife. "They appreciate that, because there is no negative connotation with the word spirit, like there is with ghosts or ghouls."
And Boyd believes none of the "local spirits" will have any qualms with Belleville residents and tourists dropping by their homes and hangout places when he launches the Downtown Spirit Walk this weekend.
The 90-minute walking tour will take place at 7 p. m. and 9 p. m. every Friday and Saturday night from June 6 until the end of the year.
"I'm not going into their houses or breaking down their doors, so I think they are OK with it," said Boyd, shrugging his shoulders and chuckling a bit. "I guess it is bragging rights for them. They are living on through me."
In fact, Boyd, a 38-year-old Belleville native, has no fears about launching the program as part of his new age business, Shadowicc Metaphysical Boutique.
He said the business community and city council has been supportive of the idea, as its true intention is to bring tourists into the Village, show them a revitalized downtown, and teach them about Belleville's colourful past.
"Now that we're restoring downtown to give it a historic look, let's tell people about the history," he said.
For the past five years, Boyd was a tour guide with Haunted Hamilton, a company that did ghost walks in Hamilton, Ancaster and Niagara on the Lake.
But his intention all along, was to come back to Belleville and launch a similar program in his hometown.
The tour, he said, will feature 17 stops over a roughly three-kilometre route. All of the stories, he will tell along the way are the result of heavy, local research conducted over the past four years.
And while researching for the walk, Boyd found there was no shortage of material.
"We have a very violent past," Boyd said.
The tour will detail Belleville's role in the rum running trade, during the prohibition era in the United States. The laneway that stretches from Myers Pier to the Welland Canal is like Canada's Bermuda Triangle, Boyd said, as dozens of ships in the area were shot down by U. S. law enforcers or mysteriously disappeared.
The tour will also visit the site of the Belleville's original court house, an "extremely haunted place," Boyd said, considering the hangings that took place there up until 1929.
A good portion of the tour will also centre around the house that once belonged to Suzanna Moodie, the famous author who was excommunicated from her church because she turned to spiritualism.
Moodie, who lived near the St. Thomas Anglican Church cemetery, believed water in her neighbourhood was contaminated due to dead bodies in the area. No one believed her in her day, but a construction project in the 1980s finally revealed that several hundred bodies were buried under the church.
"A lot of people don't want to talk about the bad history here," Boyd said, adding not all people he talked to while preparing the program fully supported him. "But it is part of what makes Belleville, Belleville."
Although some of the stories Boyd will tell are graphic -- he says it is not suitable for children under 10 -- he believes scary stories can sometimes spark people to become interested in their past.
"It starts conversations about things people wouldn't normally talk about," he said. "Plus people will become prouder of their community if they know more about it."
Although Boyd realizes some may mock him for his devoted belief in spirits, he points out that all the stories he will tell are based on facts and real people, whose lives are documented in Hastings Historical Society archives.
Anyone with an appreciation for history should enjoy the tour, he said.
If you are a skeptic, however, he believes you will enjoy the tour even more.
"I love skeptics," Boyd said. "When you get them into a haunted house and they see things they cannot understand, they are the first to go running out the door. Bring them on."
The tour starts and finishes at The Sweet Escape, a caf? at 194 Fronts St.
Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for children aged 10 to 14 and $8 for seniors.
They can be purchased at the start of the tour or in advance by visiting www.shadowicc.com.
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