By Greg Higgins

Workers claim eerie things happen at the Western Development Museum

May 13, 2016 | 5:00 PM

Some people go as far as calling in sick on Friday the 13th, while others embrace the day to seek thrills like visiting haunted houses. But here in the Battlefords, people don’t have to go far to find one.

The French House at the Western Development Museum is well known by the workers as an unsettling place.

“When I was cleaning in there last summer I heard footsteps coming from the attic which is locked up,” Kaitlyn Puffalt a former exhibit assistant, said. ”Workers are told not to go up there because it could be dangerous. That was a pretty terrifying day. I ran right out of there and refused to go back in for weeks.”

Puffalt says for workers there, it’s a ritual to say good morning and good night to the house when opening or locking up.

“The managers all swear that if you don’t the building gets aggressive and angry,” she said.

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Puffalt says those who haven’t announced good morning when opening the house feel watched in a negative way and feel a very negative presence.

Another story Puffalt has heard was about people seeing a face in one of the windows upstairs.

There is no documentation explaining why the house might be haunted. It was once owned by Dr. Joseph Jules Hamelin from Quebec. All the documentation the museum has on him says that he was a really nice man whose patients loved him.

Dr. Hamelin visited relatives in North Battleford in 1911 and liked the friendly people of the town so much he decided to stay. The French House is his former home which used to reside at 1202 99th Street before it was donated to the Western Development Museum.

As for why the place could be haunted, Puffalt only has one theory to go on.

“Maybe it’s a deep dark secret,” she said.

ghiggins@jpbg.ca

@realgreghiggins