Welcome to the one hundred and twenty-first installment of the Haunted Montreal Blog!
With over 600 documented ghost stories, Montreal is easily the most haunted city in Canada, if not all of North America. Haunted Montreal dedicates itself to researching these paranormal tales, and the Haunted Montreal Blog unveils a newly researched Montreal ghost story on the 13th of every month!
This service is free and you can sign up to our mailing list (top, right-hand corner for desktops and at the bottom for mobile devices) if you wish to receive it every month on the 13th! The blog is published in both English and French!
We are pleased to announce a new tour as part of our upcoming Hidden Histories series! The Colonial Secrets of Old Montreal Walking Tour is in its final testing phase! $5 tickets are available on weekends in September and October in both English and French.
These tours will be under the umbrella of Hidden Montreal, our new division of day time walking tours.
Haunted Montreal’s season of public outdoor ghost tours is now in full swing and tickets are on sale! These include Haunted Old Montreal, Haunted Mountain, Haunted Downtown and Haunted Griffintown. Paranormal Investigations include Old Sainte-Antoine Cemetery and Colonial Old Montreal.
Haunted Montreal is also running our Haunted Pub Crawl every Sunday at 3 pm in English. Tours in French happen on the last Sunday of every month at 2 pm.
To learn more, see the schedule at the bottom of our home page and see more details in the Company News section below!
Private tours for all of our experiences can be booked at any time based on the availability of our actors. Clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours start at $235 for small groups of up to 7 people.
Email info@hauntedmontreal.com to book a private tour!
This month we provide an update on Montreal’s Mysterious River Monsters and their latest antics.
Haunted Research
In May 2020, Haunted Montreal published a blog about Montreal’s Mysterious River Monsters. Since then, the waters surrounding the city have witnessed more bizarre sightings and situations involving unknown and dangerous marine creatures.
The most notable case occurred in June 2024, when an eight-year-old boy was attacked by something predatory in the enclosed waters of Jean Doré Beach.
He sustained several deep gashes in his leg that required stitches.
Ironically, he was bitten while playing in the water at an inflatable structure called Aquazilla. The 30-by-35 meter aquatic playground is comprised of “obstacles, slides and platforms for jumping into the water.”
Some scientists speculated that the predator was a muskie, a large fish with sharp teeth. Others felt it was more likely a river monster that had somehow entered the waters of the enclosed beach in search of its next meal.
Whatever the case, the question remains as to how an aquatic creature could enter an enclosed beach with no direct access to the St. Lawrence River. The answer may be found in a Mohawk legend.
Brant McGregor recounted a story dating July 1995 when he and his grandfather decided to go fishing off the shores of Kahnawà:ke, a Mohawk First Nations territory across the river from Montreal.
They set anchor near the mouth of the Chateauguay River near an area known as “Big Fence” and cast their lines. After about 15 minutes a snake-like creature surfaced nearby.
McGregor described its head and neck as being as thick as a telephone pole and rising 8-10 feet out of the water. The creature was the colour of a rotting log, had huge black eyes and horns protruding from its head.
It also had sharp teeth and a 5-foot-long purple forked tongue. MacGregor estimated that it was 50-65 feet long.
The creature began swimming towards them as they pulled up anchor to escape. MacGregor believed the monster could swallow him whole in one gulp, which prompted them to speed their boat to the safety of the shore.
The story is recounted in “Monster in the St. Lawrence River? | NEW 2025 Cryptozoology Documentary”. Haunted Montreal has verified that this is a true story.
The same episode features “The Kahnawake Mohawk Legend” about the infamous river monsters. According to Mohawk lore, the river monsters can slither great distances across land. They lay their eggs in forests and swampy areas and travel at night to avoid suspicion. The newly-hatched creatures are said to be metallic blue in colour.
The river monsters can also create powerful storms and turbulent waters when upset.
They also have been known to appear in the dreams of people who have encountered them.
Brant McGregor was haunted in his dreams by the river monster he had encountered, so he asked a medicine man for assistance. He was told that it appeared in his dreams because the monster wanted him to enter its watery domain.
It is worth recalling that these snake-like monsters can slither across the land. As such, it is entirely possible that one of these creatures slinked over the enclosure protecting Jean Doré Beach before attacking the boy.
Whatever the case, if ever swimming in the waters swirling around the Island of Montreal, do so at your own risk!
Company News
We are pleased to announce a new tour as part of our upcoming Hidden Histories series! The Colonial Secrets of Old Montreal Walking Tour is in its final testing phase and $5 tickets are available on weekends in September and October in both English and French.
These tours will all be under the umbrella of Hidden Montreal, our new division of day time walking tours.
Our season of public outdoor ghost tours is now in full swing and tickets are on sale! These include Haunted Old Montreal, Haunted Mountain, Haunted Downtown and Haunted Griffintown. Paranormal Investigations include Old Sainte-Antoine Cemetery and Colonial Old Montreal.
We are also running our Haunted Pub Crawl every Sunday at 3 pm in English. For tours in French, these happen on the last Sunday of every month at 2 pm.
Private tours for any of our experiences (including outdoor tours) can be booked at any time based on the availability of our actors.
Clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours are based on the availability of our actors and start at $235 for small groups of up to 8 people.
Email info@hauntedmontreal.com to book a private tour!
You can also bring the Haunted Montreal experience to your office party, house, school or event by booking one of our Travelling Ghost Storytellers today.
Hear some of the spookiest tales from our tours and our blog told by a professional actor and storyteller. You provide the venue, we provide the stories and storyteller. Find out more and then contact info@hauntedmontreal.com
Our team also releases videos every second Saturday, in both languages, of ghost stories from the Haunted Montreal Blog.
Hosted by Holly Rhiannon (in English) and Dr. Mab (in French), this initiative is sure to please ghost story fans!
Please like, subscribe and hit the bell!
In other news, if you want to send someone a haunted experience as a gift, you certainly can!
We are offering Haunted Montreal Gift Certificates through our website and redeemable via Eventbrite for any of our in-person or virtual events (no expiration date).
Lastly, we have decided to close our online store due to low sales and high maintenance costs. It will only be open from October to December in the future.
Haunted Montreal also has temporarily altered its blog experience due to a commitment on a big writing project! The book is titled Haunted McGill, and is authored by yours truly, Donovan King! Our publisher is The Stygian Society.
Until publication in 2026, new stories at the Haunted Montreal Blog will be offered every two months, whereas every other month will feature an update to an old story. As always, these stories and updates will be released on the 13th of every month!
Haunted Montreal would like to thank all our clients who attended a ghost walk, haunted pub crawl, paranormal investigation or virtual event!
If you enjoyed the experience, we encourage you to write a review on our Tripadvisor page and/or on Google Reviews – something that really helps Haunted Montreal to market its tours.
Lastly, if you would like to receive the Haunted Montreal Blog on the 13th of every month, please sign up to our mailing list.
Coming up on October 13: Haunted Issues in the Montreal Election
Montrealers are heading to the polls on November 2 to elect a new mayor. While the citizens have the democratic privilege of voting, the Dead certainly do not. As such, Haunted Montreal will be representing them and making demands to the mayoral candidates on their behalf. Most importantly, we will ask that a commemorative statue be installed on the corner of William and Murray streets in Griffintown – before Headless Mary returns on June 27, 2026!
Author:
Donovan King is a postcolonial historian, teacher, tour guide and professional actor. As the founder of Haunted Montreal, he combines his skills to create the best possible Montreal ghost stories, in both writing and theatrical performance. King holds a DEC (Professional Theatre Acting, John Abbott College), BFA (Drama-in-Education, Concordia), B.Ed (History and English Teaching, McGill), MFA (Theatre Studies, University of Calgary) and ACS (Montreal Tourist Guide, Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec). He is also a certified Montreal Destination Specialist.
Translator (into French):
Claude Chevalot holds a master’s degree in applied linguistics from McGill University. She is a writer, editor and translator. For more than 15 years, she has devoted herself almost exclusively to literary translation and to the translation of texts on current and contemporary art.
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